Monday, January 21st, 2013
In the January issue of Xcentric’s Partner Brief, Roman Kepczyk has an informative and helpful article on how to encourage your clients to take advantage of the “client log-in” or portal on your website. The article is titled Promoting Portal Adoption. I was also pleased to have an article featured in the Xcentric January Issue, Employee Engagement Inside An Accounting Firm.
Roman provides – 7 Portal Talking Points Everyone in the Firm Should be Able to Share with Clients:
- Almost everyone is already familiar with using a portal for services such as online banking or payroll, so putting one to work for accounting needs is the next natural step.
- Portals are among the most secure ways of transferring information both to and from clients. Most CPA vendor-hosted portals are housed in enterprise-class data centers and run by teams of IT/security personnel who continuously monitor activity, a luxury that few firms can afford themselves.
- Portals offer 24/7 accessibility via Internet-enabled devices to upload or access files, which is just not possible with paper files available only in one place at one time.
- Portals notify the recipient whenever a file is uploaded or accessed, which means more timely access to the files at the convenience of the recipient.
- Portals are bi-directional in that they can be used by both the firm and clients or trusted third parties to transfer information digitally. Most portals today make it possible to limit who can see which specific files or who can have access in “read only” format.
- Portals allow for larger file size transfers, such as huge PDFs or QuickBooks files, which are often too big for email systems.
- Portals promote a more eco-friendly environment, using digital files sent electronically rather than paper files moved by people.
He also elaborates on educating firm users, selecting a portal and encouraging client use. Be sure to follow the link to read his entire article.
Picture: Roman Kepczyk, is that you with Rita?
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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
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Edwar Abbey
Friday, August 10th, 2012
Inside your CPA firm, do you have a partner who is always on top of the accounts receivable for the clients they are assigned? Do you have partners who seem to have an unusual amount of slow-payers on their client assignment list? In my experience, most firms have partners who fill both of these roles.
If you are honest, open, upfront with clients as they begin the relationship with you and clearly explain the firm’s expectations, past-due accounts receivable and many other problems remain absent. I like to see firms use a Commitment Statement at the beginning of any client engagement stating what the firm will do and the expectations the firm has for the client (what the client will do).
Seth Godin had a good blog post recently on this topic titled, Train Your Customer. He noted that we (by our actions) can train them to do good things and some not-so-good things.Here’s a few of the things he suggested you can train clients to do:
- Be respectful
- Be patient
- Spread the word
or:
- Expect pampering
- Demand free
- Be cheap
Why not include a statement of client commitments along with the welcome letter you send every new client outlining your collection policy. One of the biggest challenges I hear from firm administrators is the fact that partners will not actually talk to the clients about paying late, submitting their tax information at the last minute and so on. I believe that clients actually wonder what they are suppose to do and are waiting on someone to tell them.
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Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
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Albert Einstein
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
The May issue of my newsletter went out yesterday morning.
If you have ever thought of getting rid of things (or people) in your firm, you might want to read the first article:
- Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division
Have you ever struggled with the decision to keep the same staff members assigned to a client engagement year after year as opposed to moving a newer team member into the role? Maybe this article will help:
- Same People On The Same Engagements Year After Year
You can receive the newsletter directly if you sign-up on my website. To read this month’s issue click here.
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Action is the foundational key to all success.
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Pablo Picasso
