How You Can Avoid the Same Mistakes as the IRS

Technology and client work - the two go hand-in-hand. As an accountant you understand just how important technology and your practice management software plays into successfully running your business and handling your client work in an efficient and timely manner.

Working within an outdated system just isn't going to cut it anymore. Remember Tax Day 2018? The IRS website suffered a partial outage, due to a hardware problem, and taxpayers who relied on the website to make a payment were not able to, and as a result, were granted an extension.

With some of the IRS' software dating back to the 1960s, it's no wonder that such a malfunction occurred. The good news is that there are so many solid technology options for your business to choose from that you can move away from your inefficient legacy software and manual-driven efforts, toward cloud-based products that'll help streamline the major facets of your business:

1. Slack: We know, we know, email is not going anywhere, but internally improve the way in which you communicate with your team members in real-time. With Slack, message your collaborators instantly, easily share attachments, tackle projects and assignments in dedicated channels, and connect with anyone you need in the company, no matter where they are, with just a search of their name. No longer do you have to wait with uncertainty, wondering when that teammate you need an answer from is going to hop online. Instead, instantly find out their status with a glance and ping them when you're both online.

2. Dropbox: Securely view, manage and share your large, extensive team files and folders all from the cloud. For your company you can choose from multiple business-specific plans, starting at 3 TB worth of space. Have ample space to store all your documents and share and collaborate with ease.

3. Accelo: Efficiently run your business and manage your team's workflows. By implementing a cloud-based work management platform oversee all of your client work in one place by automatically syncing your email, calendar, and contacts. With automated tools easily track your time and create detailed, dynamic invoices - decreasing the amount of manual on your end. Effectively automate tasks on a scheduled-basis, track the schedules of everyone at the company, and leverage a utilization dashboard to see if your client, project, and team are profitable.

4. Office 365 and G Suite: As we touched on earlier, we recognize that email is indispensable when communicating with your clients, but in terms of equipping yourself for success in this day and age you need a very strong email platform and a shared calendar. Office 365 and G Suite offers the ability to sync with your smartphone (so that you can work on-the-go no matter what or start the conversation from there until you're able to get back to your laptop). Also, manage your calendar invites and replies in real-time from your phone. There's less likelihood when it comes to dropping the ball on important correspondence and deadlines.

Want to get started implementing your cloud-based practice management platform to handle all your client work in one place, sync your pivotal functions like your email, calendar and contacts and reduce the administrative strain on your day-to-day? Start your free trial of Accelo to see how we can help your business prosper.