Accountants! Are you wasting time with inefficient onboarding?

Time is a precious resource. In fact, it is one of those things that there never seems to be enough of, especially if you are running a busy business or accounting practice.

Throughout history, there has been a number of inventions and innovations that have been designed to help us save time.

Everything from cars to planes, calculators and computers, they have all been designed to help speed things up and give us more time to do more things.

Despite this constant search for time-saving technology and processes, many practices within accountancy firms still seem rooted in the past.

Whether it is the double entry of files or the manual processing of records across various platforms, the legacy of older systems is preventing practices from becoming more efficient.

It is understandable that some firms are unwilling to invest in new ideas constantly, especially as they are often already dealing with the cost of the latest new thing in another area of their practice.

However, a failure to spend in areas that improve efficiency and free up the time of departments is really holding many firms back, especially as they already deal with a shortage of skilled professionals.

The advances in automation in the last decade have been incredible. What can technology achieve now would have seemed like science fiction to previous generations of professionals?

While it often isn’t feasible to invest in every new technology at once or implement them all in one go, practices should not ignore solutions that make their lives easier.

Particularly where they are highly integrated and can eliminate the duplication of tasks and data and reduce the need for manual input.

One area that many firms recognise they could improve is their onboarding. In fact, in a recent webinar, we co-hosted we spoke with almost 20 firms from across the UK, of which only 12 per cent said that they had an onboarding process linked automatically to their practice management system.

Many of those who attended said that their onboarding processes and systems weren’t meeting their needs and that they faced a lengthy and complex procedure to welcome a new client.

Rather than wait for things to improve, firms need to take action now and implement systems that save time, rather than waste time.