Systems, Processes & Losing Control!
Updated: Mar 27
Whilst reading my weekly chapter of Shane Lukas' Putting Excellence into practice, the following connected with me on a deep level:
"If Each member of your team produces accounts, conducts meetings, prices for work and even answers the phone in different ways, from a client's perspective it'll be lucky dip as to whether or not their experience is good and it makes them feel special."
This resonated with me in 2 ways:
Thinking about how I want my practice to perform for my clients
Thinking back to my experience of teaching.
The main aim for C A Dyer Accounts & Bookkeeping is to provide bespoke and expert solutions for small and local businesses to help them achieve their goals. In order to do that successfully every time it was simpler when it was myself. However, now having a small team everything cannot be in my head, and needs to be down in procedures to ensure consistency of delivery.
Sometimes, giving up control of something you have worked on and nurtured is a challenging and daunting prospect. Ego and Pride can get in the way of the correct outcome to the detriment of several aspects of the business, from working relationships with clients to trust between team members. Fortunately this is something that we have actively looked to overcome with our strategic approach to systems that takes the onus away from individuals and focuses on process and systems to support our clients.
We have spent time working alongside a selection of our clients over the past month ensuring that every bookkeeping task we do is explained in a procedural document. We have produced a series of video along side our documentation that exactly showcases the procedure to make sure that excellence is delivered with every task. This has led to a far more efficient working relationship with stronger outcomes for our clients. Using the Monthly Review feature in Quickbooks has tightened these procedures further as it ensures nothing gets missed at the month end.
For example, we have developed (in conjunction with a client) a new month end set of procedures that ensure more real-time and accurate information for them to make correct decision that will affect their business positively. These procedures include the month end bookkeeping updates, cloud based documentation sharing, analysis of sales data, month end meetings and more. We have found that the client in question (watch this space for a future full case study) has seen improved efficiencies with regards to cash flow and project analysis, leading to a more reliable measure of performance and growth.
Looking back over my teaching career this exact situation had bothered me. I always felt in some circumstances it was very much the luck of the draw as to the quality of education that a child receives. For example with a department of 8 teachers, you cannot guarantee excellent outcomes for all students without a systematic approach to planning and delivery of learning. When teachers are left to their own devices and in isolation, it is difficult to assess the quality of teaching on a daily basis without a centralised system. Reflecting on this I was adamant that I did not want to have these types of issues within C A Dyer Accounts & Bookkeeping.
We ensure these procedures will be in place with any new client that works with us, and will provide an excellent service as well and consistency of outcomes regardless of which team member works directly with them. We can help with solutions to your bookkeeping problems, such as automating processes, cloud based bookkeeping, in person and dedicated priority bookkeeping, Tax returns preperation and more. This is something we are very excited to to deliver and would look forward to any new clients wishing to get in touch.
Our next blog will be about how we can support teachers in reducing their tax liability and exploring what can and cannot be claimed as expenses.
