“But I don’t have enough time…” It’s the age-old excuse.
I don’t have time to go to the dentist… I don’t have time to work out… I don’t have enough time….
No one has enough time, so how can some accounting firms offer value added service and others “don’t have enough time”?
But how do we find the time? The truth is, we don’t find the time. We make the time.
We recently ran a webinar on how we prepare a set of accounts in under two hours using Xero. You can catch the replay here.
In short though we have a nine-step process:
It starts by getting your offer right. We use Xero Practice Manager to send out beautiful fee proposals that look great and are easy to create. Here’s the kicker, these are fixed price agreements (FPA’s) but we ask for 50 per cent up front (not a monthly charge), and have great success.
Then we outsource to Xero Cashbook. In July we set up a Xero Cashbook at $10 per month (or $19/month if you need GST) and set up Bank feeds. Then leave it for 12 months.
Cost to us = $120 / $228.
Step three, use junior accountants in-house to quick code. It takes 30 minutes to code the years’ worth of imported data (based on 5–10 transactions per month).
Then we import that data into Xero Workpapers so we can compare against the previous financial year.
Next we use Xero Ledger to prepare accounts which takes about an hour and we use Xero Tax to prepare tax returns in about an hour.
Optional step – we use BOX as a cloud document manager to upload source documents to the client folder using the native app within Xero Practice Manager for easy access anywhere, anytime from any device.
Value-add step – hold a mini AGM face to face or on Skype to identify opportunities, spending leaks, business and tax strategies.
Value-add step – be a life accountant. Replace the four hours of created capacity with freedom planning – the most meaningful work you’ll ever do as an accountant.
If you’re more of a visual person we’ve turned this in to an infographic.
ChangeGPS are Xero certified implementation partners which is why we’re pioneering the cloud accounting space. We absolutely love the efficiencies that we’re gaining from Xero and Xero Practice Manager and it’s allowing us to get back to loving what we do.
Tim is director and founder of both ChangeGPS and Change Accountants & Advisors. Tim is passionate about bringing positive change to clients of both Change Accountants and ChangeGPS. Our purpose at Change Accountants is to help our clients with “better advice for a beautiful future”
