Fast track your practice in 2014 - technology tips from Bob Torella MBA

The end of another year is approaching rapidly and tax season is in the near horizon.  Here is my short list of technology resources you should consider to get 2014 off to a great start. Reading the list does little good - please find an item or two and move forward.

1. Update your website. Prospects, clients, and search engines like fresh content. Your website has 3 main purposes: 1) brand your firm, 2) attract new clients, and 3) service your existing clients better.  If your website is not working for you - take action. You can get a great new website online before tax season. Call me for a special offer.
2. Use Google Analytics to track who is visiting your website and how they found you. And Use Google Alerts to track what others are saying about you and your firm on the net. Two free must use tools.
3. Enhance your brand on the net.  Visit my website for a free web business listing scan. Caution - you may not like the results!
4. Claim your business listings on Google+ and post updates regularly to keep it active. You may not care - but Google does!
5. Take a step toward the cloud. Host your QuickBooks Desktop clients in the cloud. That means you and your clients will continue to use the full featured QB Desktop application while getting the benefits of the cloud: real-time collaboration, no file transfers, no versions or updates to manage. Easy conversion.
6. Activate a client portal. Can we please make this the year you share documents with your clients online 24*7, just like every financial institution out there! I call it Documents Ondemand.
7. Get more engaged with social media. The big 3, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are all now public companies with huge business valuations. Their capabilities are only getting started. You have to be where your clients are to win.
8. Blog. This allows you to share your expertise with prospects and clients.  Social sharing is big.  Blogs are ranked high in search engines. Keep your clients educated about events that can affect their personal lives or business.
9. Move toward business advisory services.  Compliance services are a commodity and will become less profitable. Business advisory services are highly needed to help small business grow, desired by small business owners, high revenue engagements and highly profitable. Plus it is more aligned with the reason you became an accountant in the first place. You will need to be cloud and social media friendly to provide real time advisory services - read the first 10 items again!
10. Automate your AR and AP processes to slash your time processing payables and get paid faster. Take a look at www.Bill.com. Good for you and great for your clients too.

Keep this list handy, add it to your calendar, move as fast as you can or pick one item a month. If you are not moving forward you are losing ground. Of course, if you need help in any of these areas I am here to fast track you forward.

Best wishes for your greatest year ever.

Bob Torella MBA

BAT Consulting Group Inc.
If you haven’t done so already, connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter to stay on top of emerging technologies that can advance your practice.

A great solution to easily transition your accounting engagements to the cloud.

I have been touting the benefits of the cloud many times over. Briefly, the cloud delivers:

• Access the applications anytime anywhere for real time collaboration,
• Eliminates dealing with multiple versions of the software,
• Eliminates transmitting those large pesky QB files,
• Minimizes most of the travel to the customer site improving productivity,
• Allows you to expand your services without worrying about internal infrastructure,
• You can keep better tabs on your client.
• Plus you are keeping your practice current and building your practice valuation.

All of the aforementioned benefits allow you to provide more efficient and more profitable services to your client. Feel free to visit my website for more information on the benefits of the cloud.

You may be asking, “But Bob, I have tried QB Online (QBO) and it doesn’t have the same feature set of QB Desktop (QBD). And Bob, I do not want to learn a whole other application, nor does my staff or my clients!”  Well, what if I can deliver ALL the benefits of QB Desktop AND the ALL the benefits of cloud solutions with no learning curve?  Have I piqued your interest? I hope YES! It is termed hosted cloud solutions.

The way to accomplish this is to host the QB Desktop solution, the same application you love, in the cloud! That means QBD is installed on a server in the cloud and not on your local machine (nor your client’s PC). Now you, your staff, and your client access the application from a common portal via the internet. All data updates are real time. You use the same QBD application that you know very well and you eliminate the core hassles of desktop solutions while getting all the other benefits of cloud services I mentioned previously.

This transition will also help softly step your practice into cloud services while building your practice valuation. With that said, keep in mind the QB Desktop application will not be available forever, but you can buy a few years staying in your comfort zone while easing into the cloud.  Hopefully in a few years, the QBO solution (or other cloud-based accounting applications) will have a richer feature set - and then moving to a pure cloud solution will make more sense.

How do you get started? Contact BAT Consulting and we’ll help set you up with a service that hosts QB 2013 (free upgrade) in a secure server right here in Long Island. The service also includes Microsoft Office 365 so you get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Lync (a Skype-esque conferencing tool) for you to access anywhere. You get both core products you love for just $99/month per client (no additional staff fees). Considering that you are eliminating travel, eliminating file transfers, eliminating worries about back ups, and working real time with your client from anywhere AND you do NOT have to spend any time learning a new program that doesn’t even have all the features you want - it makes great sense.  Plus your practice is uplifting their technology capabilities which is great for your business valuation and staff moral. It is the classic win-win situation.

The transition and implementation is easy and painless. Simply give me a call and we can take your practice to the next level. I am confident that you, your staff, and your clients, will appreciate this enriched service. We can get you started before tax season.

For further reading and insights, I recommend an article from CPA Practice Advisor titled, “How Cloud Services Can Differentiate Your Firm”.

Best wishes for your greatest year ever.

Bob Torella MBA