Turns out that QuickBooks® Online Accountant and my grandfather’s workshop have a lot in common. My Paw Paw always liked to have each tool in its proper place. He was an electrical engineer who knew there was a right tool for every job – and the tool better be ready to go when the job calls for it. After finishing a project, he would lean back, look at his wall of tools, have a smile of satisfaction across his face, turn out the light and head upstairs for supper.
That’s what QBOA does for me – my clients all in a column – with reminders and status updates. I can survey my client landscape from a wider perspective than I could a year ago. By making the commitment to convert my firm to “all-in QuickBooks Online (QBO)," we are stronger and more profitable.
My daily work cycle used to be splintered by on-site client visits using desktop-based accounting systems. The quality of my work was severely limited by intermittent access to the client’s company file and a task management flow I tried to manage on Workflowy, Evernote and emails to myself.
Over the past year, the MoneyFit Team (Stephanie and I) moved all of our clients to QBO. I can attest that the firm has been truly transformed. QBOA has significantly improved our efficiency and the quality of our services. The QBOA interface offers a global perspective of the business and a more granular look at each client. We can plan the weeks ahead and are reminded of tasks left undone. Best yet, we have reclaimed an enormous amount of time.
The reclaimed time means we connect more deeply with our clients and their financials. By working remotely, we can spend the travel time differently – there is time to LISTEN to the changes happening in the profit and loss statements. Yes, I mean listen, because the company is talking if you take the time to hear it. By spending less time chasing from one data entry and reconciliation appointment to another, we can breathe, take a moment and consider what those numbers really mean.
That is where bookkeepers go from good to great. Sometimes it’s more like being a foreign language translator than a financial consultant. We connect the business owner with the message of his or her company’s statements. We have the chance to create UNDERSTANDING between an owner and the business. Bookkeeping is not about grinding numbers into a format usable in a tax return. Bookkeeping is about facilitating the communication between owner and company.
Going from good to great through QBOA has also generated financial benefits for my company. By using the integrated client interface, we have been able to accommodate more clients and charge more for the improved services. The ProAdvisor dashboard connects us with training and support resources we use daily. We apply the training to our daily processes and immediately improve product quality and efficiency. Using the workflow management tool, we can collaborate on files in the QBOA application. We are looking forward to watching the development of this recent addition to the QBOA platform and seeing what it brings!
Last, apps integration is vital for us. All of our clients employ workflows that require seamless and uninterrupted connections between QBO and partner applications. The added connection for QBO and app onboarding has significantly improved onboarding and maintenance of these connections.
As a business owner, I understand my grandfather more profoundly than before. Using QBO and a consistent workflow process, I feel a deeper satisfaction for my work. As Stephanie and I end our day, we bear our own smiles of satisfaction, lean back and survey the orderliness of our tools before we turn out the lights and head home.
Editor’s note: Be sure to check out the other articles in our One Place series:
- All Your Work, All in One Place: Work Tab in QuickBooks Online Accountant
- All Your Work, All in One Place: Communication & Collaboration with QuickBooks Online Accountant
- All Your Work, All in One Place: Organization in QuickBooks Online Accountant
- All Your Work, All in One Place: Trial Balance in QuickBooks Online Accountant
