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Practice management

Art of Accounting: 10 ways to better manage your time

ByEdward Mendlowitz
August 29, 2022 12:47 PM
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At some point everyone has some time pressure, some much more than others, but time pressure is a reality. Some cause it for themselves more than others and some are realistic in setting due dates and doing it in a way that reduces unnecessary pressure. The following are 10 best practices to better manage your time:

Reduce errors by staff

Erase-error
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Most errors are through carelessness and rushing, not from mistakes in misapplying technical issues. Make error reduction part of your culture.

Supervise your staff better

This means better instructions and frequent oversight. You can complain all you want about the extra time this might take, but it will be much less than the time to correct error laden work and then rereviewing it and much less annoying. Some of the errors are because the wrong things were done, or the scope has been greatly exceeded. Better supervision will catch this.

Shift the workload

As much as possible, use lower-level staff, paraprofessionals and administrative assistants.

Queue questions and collaboration time

Don't be a Mr. or Ms. Immediate Answer Person. Set aside time each day to respond to questions and make people aware of this.

On-the-job training

Train to do, not to teach. Or teach to grow and not to do. But do not do both simultaneously. These are two different methods for two different purposes. Balance these training situations.

Use more IT

Technology has become ubiquitous in business and accountancy. Get yourself out of the dark hole you've created for yourself.

Commoditize repetitive tasks and functions

Use checklists and standardize processes and procedures as much as possible.

Call clients more often and frequently to reduce their calls to you

Many client calls create on-demand pressures. Orderly client calls will reduce your overall time, produce more satisfied clients and keep you on top of what is going on with them. A suggestion is to schedule a staff person to "touch" each business client at least once a month and make clients aware of this "free" upgrade. This should reduce your overall time while creating happier clients and more empowered staff.

Emails

Do not respond with answers in writing. You can reply to give a range of time when you will respond but nothing else in the email. Then respond with a short call. Have a staff person find the answer and then review it, and then they — or you — could call the client, depending on the seriousness of the issue. Call with the response. Do not write out an email. Besides, no tax or accounting opinions of any sort should be in emails. They take too long to write and must be correct and thorough.

Keep a notebook

I've gotten into the habit of keeping all my notes of calls in what I call a notebook. Everything is in date order and I use one page per call (or sometimes more if necessary). I put all my notes and comments on that page. I also keep a table of contents by date with the person I spoke to listed. This way I could find previous calls. The book I use has 96 coil pages (so it lies flat) and I am in my fifth book. This reduces the time I need to spend to find notes from previous calls and is great for refreshing my mind. I don't do this for ongoing client matters, but instead I keep my notes in a file for that client. Sometimes that file is scanned on my computer and other times it is a clunk of papers clipped together, depending on the client and frequency of interactions. This works very well for me. After trying many different ways to be organized, this seems to be working well. If a caller emails me with a question, I usually print it and paste it in the notebook page before I call them, so I have everything in front of me. This method also makes me feel organized and in control.

The above are some suggestions of best practices that I have developed for myself, and they all work well for me. Try adopting one or two and see how it goes.

Do not hesitate to contact me at emendlowitz@withum.com with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.
Edward Mendlowitz
Partner, Withum
Practice management Client strategies Ed Mendlowitz Client relations Training
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