4 Strategies to Avoid Deadline Chaos
If you aren’t early, you are late.
We have all been there with clients pushing us against the wall on deadlines.
Last-minute government filings
“Emergency” calls on financials for loan documents
Banks freezing accounts
Payroll not hitting employee bank accounts
You can all name numerous instances where clients have waited until the 11th hour to supply documents, approve reports or let you know trouble & required information deadlines are brewing.
It’s a no-win for our clients, our team and ourselves when we get into a cycle of last-minute rushing to complete our work. The internet can go down, any one of us can fall sick, our technology could encounter an outage - the things that can go wrong are countless and often beyond our control.
Meeting deadlines is crucial to maintaining positive relationships, retaining government, lending & banking compliance, and ensuring the success of our clients’ financials. Clients pushing you against the wall on deadlines leads to chaos and compromised quality of work.
So how do we manage what often is a default way of doing business with our clients?
One
Establish Clear Expectations.
The first step in helping clients meet their deadlines is establishing clear expectations.
Aka; tell them what your deadlines are!
Communicate your preferred and drop-dead timelines, milestones, and service offerings.
By letting them know your expectations, everyone will understand the scope and timeline of the service you are working on together.
But how do you set the expectations?
Craft a Client Guide to establish clear expectations along with communication and sharing practices
Use a project management system (I use Financial Cents) that auto-reminds clients to get documentation, information and approvals to you
Keep communications consistent so everyone knows what you are asking of them
Two
Make sure the expectations are realistic.
My expectations are clearly stated; clients need to get information and documentation to us on or about the 5th of every month for us to close their books between the 10th - 15th of the month.
The timeframe is realistic; bank statements are ready for clients/you to download (or sitting in the QBO reconciliation module), and we have a week or so to close the books. This works because we use cloud technology to collaborate on financials, and the bank feeds keep the books current. There is no crush of work at any given time.
We then have more than enough time for the clients to review their reports, approve them, or make any changes for any deadlines that may be looming.
Three
Let them know the consequences of missed deadlines.
If it is a sales tax filing period, we tell clients they must have replied to our reporting on or about the 20th of the month.
This is our statement.
If we can’t file with the CRA by the 25th, we will not guarantee your filing will be on time.
Anything can go wrong in those last few days of the month; internet outages, technology failures, illness - it is our goal to keep you compliant and out of the crosshairs of the CRA. Late filing is a flag for them!
Tell them the “why” of your deadlines. Create engagement in your deadlines. Make it all about how you are looking after them, not about how you are bossing them around :-}
Four
Make it easy so it gets done.
We have created a series of custom reports they can review seamlessly. We have spent time with them in the onboarding process to show them what the reports mean and how to access them. We shoot them a note that the books are ready for review and they can simply reply back that they are approved or need changes.
For Year End reports, we pop the reports into our signature app, PandaDoc. It sends them an access link that takes them directly to the reports and they can review and sign in a few clicks.
Getting caught up in the late-to-the-gate habit is rotten for relationships. It stinks for compliance. It makes us look bad to our team, our clients and our clients’ lenders. Setting realistic expectations with clear consequences, you start to tame the chaos. Engaging clients in your “why” and making it easy for them to collaborate with you, you’ll truly set yourself up for success in managing deadlines.
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Clients are more engaged and compliant if expectations of their responsibilities are clear, workflows are pre-set for them, Tax Agency best practices are established, and they understand the basics of bulletproof bookkeeping.
If you don't take the time to provide this information, clients are not confident in collaborating with you. They don't know how to communicate with you, or supply information, and they don't know due dates. They lack confidence in the tech and they are unsure how to reach out for support...
A Client Guidebook creates clarity and empowers your clients so that they feel confident about what's getting done and their role in the process. It also positions your firm as the expert in this field.
It can be a lot of work to put together a comprehensive Client Guidebook from scratch.
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What You Get:
• Long version (has a glossary, cloud accounting explanation and sample client workflow) Guidebook template. Short version is more succinct. Supplied as in horizontal and vertical layouts, in PowerPoint (PPT) and Google Slides (GSlide) versions.
• Folder with instructions, app partner logos and app flowchart images.
Here is what the branded, short version for my bookkeeping business looks like
Join Your Peers Here
- Dext & Financial Cents Webbie - How to Automate Client Data Collection
Thursday, May 25, 2023
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
I am pleased to co-host a session with Dext and Financial Cents on automating your client data collection! Learn how Dext and Financial Cents can streamline this process for you.
Collecting information from clients can be messy. Everyone has their own process. But how do you ensure the process works for you and your business? We will discuss how solutions like Dext and Financial Cents can work together to automate and streamline this process. Whether collecting bank statements and source documents with Dext, managing and tracking lengthy projects or one-off requests with Financial Cents, let technology do the heavy lifting so you can spend more time adding value to your clients.
Sociable
- said in your head in a loud sing-songy voice
There are a few terrific Facebook Groups, and The Workflow Wateringhole is one of them!
It is a shared space of nearly 5,000 engaged acctg pros and app partners - collaborating on best practices, processes, systems, and workflows, hand in hand with the technology that powers them.
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
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I sell bookkeeping templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
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