3 Highly Effective Marketing Strategies for Your Firm
By jetpack workflow |
Updated on Dec 21, 2023 |
6 minutes
Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk is president of BBR Marketing and author of “Take Your Marketing Online: Proven Ways to Grow Your Firm in the Digital Age” (published by the AICPA). She’s here to help firm owners start using free marketing strategies.
We’re all afraid of not making back the cost of our marketing efforts. Well, Bonnie is taking away the excuse to do nothing with her strategies today.
In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast by Jetpack Workflow Software, David Cristello and Bonnie Buol discussed:
The critical elements of an effective website
How “old school” free marketing strategies can be used to win new clients
How to create a compelling newsletter (and how often you should mail it)
And much more!
Click below to listen to the interview, or you can access it directly from iTunes here
Have a Marketing Question? Leave it in the comments below!
Your First Step to An Effective Marketing Battleplan
Bonnie Buol, the founder of BBR Marketing, has been named a “Top 100 influential person” in the accounting niche. It’s all thanks to her marketing prowess. And today she’ll share some of her top free marketing strategies and more.
To start right off, Bonnie sees many firms fall into the same trap. They get the ‘goose-neck’ syndrome down pat. Meaning, their marketing battleplan is “what are other firms doing?” Then, they go ahead and do that.
Obviously, you can see what happens. Each firm starts marketing themselves the same, the branding runs stale, and marketing efforts are wasted. What’s missing is the thought on the BIG PICTURE. Marketing your firm shouldn’t be cookie-cutter.
Your first step to an effective battleplan is identifying what makes your firm different. Do you have expertise in a niche? Do you deliver your services in a particular way? Every firm on the planet markets themselves as “we do great work with top results.” That’s not a way to position yourself as different.
The Absolute Power of Your Website:
The perfect place to start positioning yourself differently is on your website. As Bonnie says, firms will spend tens of thousands of dollars on the front desk area when people walk into the office but spend very little on their website homepage. Fact is, many more will hit your website than your doorstep…why aren’t you trying to capture and impress them there?
Many firms make a massive mistake by not having a website with a responsive design. As a side note, Google gives preferential treatment in search results to websites with responsive designs.
If you don’t have a website, at least start outlining one this week. You can hire a web designer, or fire up a simple site on WordPress. It doesn’t cost as much as you think.
Obviously, that part (i.e. hosting) isn’t free…
But, there are plenty of free marketing strategies to lean on once your site is up and running.
Start with a short blog post 2-3x per month. Firms are seeing the benefits of having an updated blog because they begin standing out as a thought leader in their niche. Remember, when you know what you’re good at, you’re then able to target content around that proficiency. Suddenly, you’re swimming by yourself and you attract clients who need that.
You aren’t marketing like all the other firms around you. That’s huge.
A major tip for great content is this: don’t write about yourself or your firm. Write about what the client would be interested in. You might think it cool to jabber on about your history and credentials, but most likely your ideal prospects won’t care. They have problems they want to be solved. Write about that.
The last mention on websites: make sure you have Google Analytics set up properly. Many unfortunately don’t realize Google Analytics exist, but you can track which pages do well, which are most visited, least visited, which might convert prospects and which need help. It’s not hard to set-up, but houses tons of important data.
A Variety of Free Marketing Strategies (and cheap ideas)
On the topic of content creation, don’t just post blog posts and walk away. Pitch local publications and trade magazines your articles. See if you can grab the spotlight for a bit with your work. Typically, publications who update daily are starved for content. You’re doing them a favor submitting work they just have to hit ‘publish’ for.
Next, think about where potential clients might hang out. Is it worth joining a local networking group or small business association? You get bonus points if you’re able to snag a local speaking spot. Those provide credibility and easy exposure.
Does your ideal client hang out on Linkedin? Maybe Twitter? Go where your future clients are. For smaller projects, you might even snag some work on Angie’s List or Yelp. You never know.
You just need to be consistent. The winners in marketing SHOW UP again and again even if no one reads sometimes. Keep plugging away. If you have team members, spread the content creation around.
Consistent.
Consistent.
Consistent.
It used to be 3 exposures to a company was all it took before someone knew who you were. Today, it’s around 7-10 times. It may take years before a prospect finally calls you up. But, when you stay top of mind, you’re their first phone call.
One way to stay consistent is with a monthly newsletter. In this newsletter, you aren’t trumpeting your firm or just hard-core selling. You want to send out regular content that they would find valuable. More people will read it then you think even if they don’t reply to your messages.
More innovative ideas to capture attention is to get creative. At a tradeshow, Bonnie put together scratch-and-sniff cards with apple smells. It garnered a lot of chatter and people stopping at their booths. It wasn’t free, but it was cheap and got people talking. You just want to start the conversation.
DAVID’S TIP:We used to send out lumpy mail to potential clients. It’s called 3D mailings. Direct mail is little used now. The open rates are high. Put in a lumpy toy in an envelope, it’s almost guaranteed to be open!
There are lots of free opportunities to market yourself and your firm. Yes, it takes time and effort. But, most firms aren’t willing to put in the work still. That means you have a chance to pass them quickly. Will you?
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Podcast Summary On this episode of Growing Your Firm, host David Cristello interviews Daniel Hood, the editor-in-chief of Accounting Today....
See Jetpack Worflow In Action
Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.
Building a 7 Figure Firm: The Darren Root Interview
By jetpack workflow |
Updated on Dec 21, 2023 |
13 minutes
This week, we’re excited to release our latest interview with Darren Root, CEO of RootWorks, President of Root & Associates, and author of the popular titles “E-Myth for Accountants”,
“Intentional Accountant”, and “Youtility for Accountants”.
Roughly 50-60% of CPA firm owners spend their days working on to-do list items that are urgent, yet not important. Things like answering emails, jumping on calls, diving into details about which engagement letter was sent to what client. A vast majority of their time is spent doing the wrong things.
Does this sound familiar to you?
In today’s podcast, we jump into the ongoing discussion of how accounting firm owners can stop doing work they hate, and finally start building their business around the life they want to live. This is Darren Root’s mission for building a Next Generation Accounting Firm and the topic we dive deep into to provide a valuable insight on how to help you build and grow your firm.
Let’s Start At The Beginning…Darren Root’s Background
Darren Root spent a majority of his childhood watching, learning and working alongside his father as a practicing accountant. It was during this time, Darren began to develop his understanding of how CPA firms should be run, the old fashioned way.
After graduating college at Indiana University, Darren went to work for Deloitte in the tax department focused on US-based tax returns. In a few short years at Deloitte, Darren’s entrepreneurial spirit was reignited and he left Deloitte to open up his own accounting firm.
Launch Of Root & Associates
During the first year, of opening shop in Indiana, Darren described the process as a bit slow. He had to put all of the pieces together, one by one, and begin announcing himself as a professional tax partner.
“Here is my recommendation for businesses that first start out: Give yourself at least a year before things really start kicking in.” – Darren Root
Just like he recommended, after roughly 1 year of opening his doors in Bloomingdale, Darren started growing his book of business, very quickly. At the time, it was just him and one other staff member but as the firm grew, he hired additional help.
Within 3-5 years of opening his business, Root & Associates grew from $0 in Revenue to roughly $1M of revenue, and Darren Root had yet to turn 30 years old!
Darren contributes his growth of $1M in book of business in just 3-5 years to 3 different key factors:
1. Location was great
Darren was opening his shop in the town he went to college in. This is the same town that hosted 50,000 students and provided opportunities for people to open up small businesses and be successful.
2. He Knew The Movers & Shakers In The Town
During college, Darren worked at men’s clothing store where he became acquainted with all of the “Movers & Shakers” of the town. This simple one on one interaction allowed Darren the opportunity to build a network of potential clients, fairly quickly.
3. He Gravitated Towards Technology
Darren opened up his firm, roughly 30 years ago, and at the time, technology was just starting to show it’s face among the accounting industry. Though he always worked in an old-fashioned accounting firm (watching his father), Darren knew technology was going to play a big role in his firm. So he welcomed the changes of technology in his new business.
So building a 7 figure firm in just under 5 years sounds like pure bliss…right?
Not exactly…
Struggling To Stay Afloat
As previously stated, Darren did know how to run an accounting practice. The old way – by watching his father crank out 80-hour workweeks and be smothered with client deadlines.
Within 5 years of launching his firm, he saw himself repeating his father’s past. Darren was working himself to death. Plus he had a wife and three young children at home so the responsibilities were tacked on to the client work and office drama.
“I thought to myself: Wow, I’ve grown this firm, but my life sucks” – Darren Root
The Path To A New Life
It took a long time for Darren to realize change needed to happen. He struggled to maintain his large book of business and continued on the struggle train for 5-6 more years. The pain continued to grow, and grow, and grow until he finally decided something needed to change.
Around this same time, Darren walked into a bookstore (remember this was pre-audiobooks) and ran across the first book that would change his life: E-Myth by Michael Gerber
At the time, Darren called himself a technician. He was a technican at Deloitte, turning out tax returns. Then he grew his own accounting firm, still recognizing himself as just a technician, not a business owner.
“After reading The E-Myth, I began to realize all I had done was create a technical job for myself and I’m not actually running a company. What I really wanted to do was to be an entrepreneur and run a company. And that was not happening.” – Darren Root
Right around the same time Darren was having his first epiphany, he revisited his bookshelf and reread a book he thought was geared towards running a business:
After Darren reread Covey’s book, he began to realize that the book had nothing to do with business, but everything to do with being empowered to take control of your life, the way you want to live it.
Darren quickly started to see how he could implement various practices into his life, that was trickle down into how he ran his firm. If he put important things first, it could turn him from being in a reactive position to a more proactive, less stressed business owner.
10 years into his life of running Root & Associates, Darren decided to make a change. And a big one at that….
Leaving The Practice He Built To Start Over
Darren knew that in order to create the life he wanted to live, he needed to start over with a blank slate. This time, taking all of his previous knowledge, skills and expertise, coupled with this new found idea of creating a different kind of business, he left his firm to start over.
“I woke up one morning, after having these ideas from the books rolling around in my head, and thought to myself, I need to go create a business that will support the life that I want to live.” – Darren Root
Darren decided to give 80% of his client base to another partner and cherry picked the clients he actually wanted to work with. Roughly $350,000 worth of business.
Root & Associates: The First ‘Next Generation Accounting Firm’
So there he was, at 40 years old, creating a brand new accounting firm again. But this time, Darren took his best clients with him on his new venture and told them he was going to do things differently.
The Goal: Build A Business To Support The Life He Wanted
With this new goal in mind, Darren set out to apply the ‘E Myth’ & ‘7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’ concepts to the mission of Root & Associates. He wanted to create the beginning of his business, with the end goals in mind.
In order to implement his goals, Darren Root knew he needed to create a company that could be leveraged by other people.
“What I wanted was a business that did not depend solely on me. I wanted to create a company that could be leveraged by other people.‘ ‘So I had to do the kind of services that allowed me to leverage them as a team. Instead of building a set of services geared around my skillset which is what most practitioners do.” – Darren Root
Shrink The Services Offerings = An Increase In Profits
Originally, Darren’s old firm offered roughly 40-50 different services. Any time a client asked for something, the firm said: “Sure, we can do that.”
This mindset had to go. Darren had a skillset in US tax, so he wanted to limit the amount of services to offer and train his staff to be experts in those core areas.
From 40-50 services, Darren knocked down their offerings to just 4-5 services. A few of them included:
Bookkeeping for service based businesses
Payroll
Client accounting for service based businesses (not manufacturing, etc)
US-based residence Tax Work
Darren believes the key is to understand the product that you are going to deliver. Then, create a system around the product being offered and train your people to learn how to implement and deliver this product. The outcome provides a great consistency throughout the firm, and less and less stress (as he is no longer trying to offer auditing services as a tax professional).
Success At Root & Associates
Darren thought that if he knew how to do excellent service for one particular client, he could go out and find similar clients that fit his niche expertise. This would lead to staff not having to learn different services all the time and finally allow Darren to create a company that he could manage.
“Let’s create a company that does not depend on you, that you can create a product and be really good at delivering, and then find people to do just that.” – Darren Root
Darren goes on to mention that accounting firms run into this problem, all the time. They want to create a business around what’s comfortable & natural for the owners. They have a skillset, go out and create a bunch of clients around their particular skillset. Then have to be the one doing all the work and wake up to realize they are extremely stressed and unhappy.
This is where RootWorks.com come into play.
The Beginning Of RootWorks
After Darren made the transition, he went from $1-2M with 19 people at his old firm to Root & Associates now which has $2M in Book of Business with just 10 people. Darren has no direct client responsibilities and gets to manage his business the way he wants.
Darren began helping software vendors in the accounting space try and grow their company. He started teaching the CEOs of these software companies to stop trying to sell to accountants. Instead, educate accounting professionals how to make their lives better with this software and this will in turn make the partners want to buy the software.
These same software companies decided to fund Darren to create a new platform to tell his story and found it was incredibly successful.
“During this process, I found that firms were starved for this kind of information. There were so many firms in his old position, looking for a better life. I saw that there was company here and created RootWorks.”
Within 3 months of starting Root Works, Darren was asked to be the executive editor of CPA Practice Advisor. He realized the impact of marketing by having his picture on the first page of the magazine being sent to 40,000 CPA firm owners.
All of a sudden, RootWorks hit the perfect storm.
“We started this new company and got the chance to showcase the company through CPA Practice Advisor and quickly became a household name.” – Darren Root
What is RootWorks?
Essentially, RootWorks offers entrepreneurial strategy, coaching and products to help you transform your practice into a Next Generation Accounting Firm®.
So of course, your next question is:
What is a Next Generation Accounting Firm?
Inside Rootworks.com, Darren and his team outlines the vision of a NGAF:
“At the very pinnacle of the model is the definition of a Next Generation Accounting Firm: ‘A business built on focused intention, with unmitigated entrepreneurial spirit that enables you to have the life you want.’ ‘It runs on a business model that supports an environment where you can be present in all aspects of your personal and professional lives to have the greatest impact on family, staff, clients, and community.’ ‘A business that operates independent of you; creates a better working culture for your firm; offers security through recurring revenue; fosters creative thinking; evokes excitement with each new stage of evolution; inspires the next generation of professionals; and is built for transition to support your legacy.” – Rootworks.com
At RootWorks, Darren and his team preaches the stance of defining the future that CPA and accounting firm owners actually want. They hone in on 3 different questions to ask yourself:
Who do you want to serve?
What do you want to service?
How do you want to deliver this service?
To learn more about how to model your firm after a Next Generation Accounting Firm, check out RootWorks’ Firm Model here.
Podcast Summary On this episode of Growing Your Firm, host David Cristello interviews Daniel Hood, the editor-in-chief of Accounting Today....
See Jetpack Worflow In Action
Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.
By jetpack workflow |
Updated on Dec 21, 2023 |
3 minutes
Last week I was looking for a new onboarding and survey tool for Jetpack Workflow. I decided to review all the “typical” applications, namely google forms and survey monkey.
In the past, these have been our “go to” forms, but their lack of functionality and design also made me wonder if there was something better…
That’s when I stumbled upon TypeForm, which has the potentially to really “WOW” your new clients!
Now, a caveat: If you’re requested sensitive information, I still highly recommend a client portal.
But for basic information, client survey, or a referral form, TypeForm is excellent!
Let’s dive into how this can be used for your firm.
Client Survey:
We highly recommend surveying your client base at least yearly, so you can determine if firm alignment, client alignment, and firm management are on track. Plus, you can weave in testimonials, market research questions, and even use the information to schedule upcoming meetings around specific questions or service options. Client and customer surveys are a great way to stay connect and continually improve your client relationships and service offerings.
Referral Forms:
This can be a very basic form, but have successfully delivery a high value consultation or engagement, why not ask for a referral? Using typeform, this can take a few minutes to set up, and can have a huge impact on your firm!
Basic Client On boarding:
Need to basic client information (note: I don’t recommend asking for sensitive information using typeform unless you have your own SSL certificate attached to it!)
BUT, if you need basic, client information, this could be a great system for retrieving it and have it on file.
Team Feedback:
This might be one of the most overlooked areas in a firm… formal team feedback on the owner/partner, as well as formal reviews. Typeform also provides template employee feedback forms, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel (of course, if you want to start from scratch, you can). Just like we recommend have client/customer feedback sent at least yearly, having a 360 review as an owner/partner, or a formal employee review process is a great way to continue to improve your internal effectiveness and efficiency.
And the best part is, Typeform has many of these forms pre-built within their application… so you typically don’t have to start from scratch!
I have no affiliation with TypeForm, just think it’s a good tool to test out!
Here’s their link to learn more: http://www.typeform.com/
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Accounting workflow management software is not a new technology to the industry. Yet, there are hundreds of firms who have...
See Jetpack Worflow In Action
Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.
By jetpack workflow |
Updated on Dec 21, 2023 |
3 minutes
Looking for a CCH iFirm Software alternative? In this article, we’ll cover the features and potential alternatives for firms and accountants looking
Features
When looking for a CCH iFirm alternative for your accounting firm or practice, it’s important to list your “must have” features .
For example, do you need to set up custom recurrences? Have a master client list? Track and manage team capacity? Add templates, one-off jobs, as well as recurring client work?
In order to find the best application for your firm, it’s critical to list out the “core” features you need to regain control and transparency over your client work.
Design
Next is what we call the overall “design” of the application, also known as “usability”. This is critical because not only do you have to set up and use the application, but you’ll probably be adding team members, which in turn will have to learn how to use the software! Therefore, it’s critically important to think through the adoption and adoption rate at which your team can get up and running. This can also feed into “team support and training”, but if the product is not user-friendly, no amount of training will convince employees to use the software if they find it cumbersome. If they will use it in the short run, only to abandon it within week or months of implementation.
Setup
With any workflow application, whether it’s CCH iFirm’s or others, it’s good to get an understanding of how long the setup process will take. Do they provide setup services? Setup training? Client and job importing services? Are they free? If not, what is the price? Is it a one time fee or recurring? It’s important to understand the setup required before launching a new software application.
Support
Finally, what does their ongoing support services look like? How can you connect with the company for questions or feedback. Bare in mind that support also increases team adoption, so you want to work with a company that is a good fit for your firm and team.
Whether you move forward with CCH iFirm, or a CCH iFirm alternative, it’s important to test out the product and connect with their team to understand implementation.
Ongoing improvements
Like many applications and software companies, there should be an ongoing list of feature improvements that the company has in mind. When discussing the product and the application, it’s critical to learn more about the product roadmap, and make sure their product aligns with the need of your firm. Some companies are advanced user groups to contribute feedback, and others pull from their entire customer base. Either way, it’s important to learn more about the product, vision, and company roadmap.
Accounting workflow management software is not a new technology to the industry. Yet, there are hundreds of firms who have...
See Jetpack Worflow In Action
Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.
By jetpack workflow |
Updated on Dec 21, 2023 |
7 minutes
Managing an accounting practice or firm (as you already know) can be challenging. Which is why I wanted to outline the top applications we use to help us manage our team, process, and product at Jetpack Workflow.
What is it? Followup.cc is a simple “reminder” system to help you follow-up with contacts. Simply place the timeframe in which you want to follow-up (example 3days@followup.cc) in the BCC of the email, and in the timeframe (example, 3 days), the email will shoot to the top of your inbox. How do we use it? We commonly use followup.cc to track follow ups that occur within the day. Meaning, if I need to bump something to “3pm”, I’ll type “3pm@followup.cc” into the BCC. Then at 3pm, it shoots straight to the top of my inbox. You can also batch together emails towards the end of the day. Anything you need to answer before you leave the office, be sure to put “5pm@followup.cc” and you’ll have a list of “must read” emails at the end of the day.
What is it? Unbounce is a landing page software that makes it quick and easy to set up a specific page without any coding experience. If you’re spending money on marketing (online or offline), it would be a great idea to drive them to a specific page on your website, such as yourfirm.com/taxseasonspecial How do we use it? We use Unbounce for onboarding screens, design sketches (their design widget is amazing), as well as customized landing pages.
What is it? LeadPages is also a landing page software… at which point, you might ask: Why are you using two of the same type of software? Well, LeadPages is great to create quick, professional looking landing pages, as well as their innovative features around “leadboxes” and “leadlinks”. How do we use it? This is my “go to” landing page software when we’re looking to create a page. If we need something specific, I’ll typically have to switch over to Unbounce, but if I’m ok with template designs (LeadPages is nowhere near as flexible as Unbounce, which can be a good and bad thing depending on your design skills 🙂 I would estimate 80% of our landing pages are LeadPages, the other 20% are either WordPress pages or Unbounce pages.
What is it? Nothing too glamorous here … We use Google Apps for our calendars and email. I prefer Google Apps because the interface feels clean, and Google Apps integrate with more applications (like our scheduling software). How do we use it? For emails, calendars, and a lot of folders, spreadsheets, and google docs .
What is it? Scheduling software. Schedule Once makes it easy to share a calendar with prospects and clients so they can book a time to connect. How do we use it? Our scheduling software, used to book demos, free trial 1-1s, and ongoing support.
What is it? Screen capture and screen recording software. How do we use it? Aside from google apps, this might be the #1 application I use. Snagit can be used for support answers, knowledge base videos, helping users with a new feature, as well as product sketches, product support, and marketing material. Snagit is my “go to” tool throughout the day!
What is it? The free version of Snagit. How do we use it? For short (less than 2 minutes) videos, as well as screen captures where we don’t need to edit the image significantly. Jing is a free tool, and instead of uploading the files into an email or videos into a Youtube account, you can upload the content straight to Jing’s database and receive a sharable link. The only downside is that there’s a storage limit.
What is it? Record phone calls (mainly used for our Growing Your Firm Podcast Interviews). How do we use it? For Growing Your Firm Podcast interviews, as well as case study calls.
What is it? Hosting for audio files How do we use it? This is our go to hosting platform for our podcast. Much like a website, a podcast needs a hosting environment. Libsyn is the industry standard, so we went with it!
What is it? WordPress is a “CMS” (Content management system) that can be used to build websites. WP Engine is a hosting company that keeps the website live. How do we use it? WordPress powers roughly 20% of All the Websites in the World. So there’s a huge ecosystem of designers and developers (and templates!). But because WordPress is so open and available, it’s been criticized for not being as secure as other website management systems. Which is where WPEngine steps in… they manage all the additional security aspects of hosting that “low-end” providers simply cannot do. Whereas many hosting companies charge $5.00/mo, WPEnging charges $29/mo, but they manage the security and scaling of your website. If you never want to worry about your website being down, or vulnerable to attacks, WPEngine is a great fit.
What is it? Premium video hosting How do we use it? We use Wistia when we need a higher end video quality and don’t want to use Youtube videos (which then link out to other videos). Wistia is a beautiful, self-contained video management platform. We typically use Wistia for on boarding videos, as well as sales videos.
What is it? Free icons, designs, and images How do we use it? We LOVE flat designs for proposals, PDFs, and powerpoint/slidedeck creation. Instantly make your powerpoint or proposal more professional with a few, well-placed icons!
What is it? Webinar software How do we use it? To run our webinars. We’ve tried other providers, mostly cheaper ones, but stuck with GoToWebinar because it’s simple, is consistent, and is user-friendly.
What is it? Screen sharing software How do we use it? Join.me is our “go to” software for demos and free trial reviews and account setups. We love how they create a custom link for your account, and doesn’t require the recipient to download anything.
What is it? Simple, visual CRM How do we use it? We use it to track prospects and free trials. Each person becomes a contact, where we can keep notes, as well as define the next action we need to do. We were originally using Jetpack Workflow, but found that we were juggling so many demo accounts it would be best to have a separate CRM (plus, CRM’s are built for sales and prospect management, Jetpack is focused on recurring client management). Regardless, we love Pipedrive (which means a zapier integration may or may not be in the roadmap now 🙂
What is it? Mailchimp and active campaign provide email management software. How do we use it? Our current email/newsletter management software is Mailchimp, however, it becomes very limited when you want to start segmenting lists. Active Campaign is a very robust platform (even includes a CRM that we’ll test out), and provides more automation and segment. Mailchimp is a great software for a single newsletter you need to manage, but quickly falls apart if you have multiple lists, each having multiple sources of how people opt into them. Because of this, we’re in the process of converting how list over to active campaign (the cost ends up being the same!). If I were starting from scratch, I would just start with an active campaign. It’s the same price, and you get more flexibility as you grow.
What is it? Team chat application How do we use it? We have team members are over the world, so we frequently have a Hipchat room open so that team members can access each other quickly.
*Affiliate links
What applications do you think we should test out? Comment below and let us know!
Know a colleague that might enjoy this list? Feel free to share it!
Share this article
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Though tax time is accounting’s busy season, that doesn’t mean you have to forgo any semblance of sanity until the...
See Jetpack Worflow In Action
Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.
By jetpack workflow |
Updated on Dec 21, 2023 |
3 minutes
Finding a robust but simple WIP (Work in Progress) Software can be a challenging search, which is why we wanted to walk through some of the core questions and “steps” to consider when choosing the right WIP software.
When evaluating a WIP (Work in Progress) Software, here are the steps and questions we recommend walking through.
Step 1: What is the Final Goal or Outcome?
Before testing out a WIP Software program, it’s important to determine your target goal or outcome? Is it to become more profitable? Never miss a due date? Integrate workflow software to build a better process and increase productivity?
Determining the “end goal” will help you determine the right type of application for your business or firm, and you can even communicate this goal to the company as you’re testing out their application.
Step 2: How will your team react the new software?
Each stakeholder and team member will adopt technology differently, so it’s important to think through the “roll out” strategy of any technology or tool that you adopt. Being proactive in thinking through their reaction will help increase the rate of adoption as well as build team cohesiveness. As with most items, it’s really important to understand WHY team members react the way they do, not just HOW they respond to the news, tool, or technology.
Step 3: What is your timeframe and budget?
As with any decision, it’s critical to determine the best timeframe and budget for adopting the tool. The timeframe should be during a time when you train the team on a new application. In terms of budget, it’s important to think through both the cost and the investment/ROI of the tool. This is why step number 1 is so critical. If you determine the goal or ROI of the application, it should instruct your budget for the investment. As with most software, especially WIP software, it’s important to decide what the major benefit you’ll receive when/if you adopt the right tool. Is it never missing a due date? Increase in productivity (ie save 3 hours of admin time per week)? Or increase in profitability (hours saved increased profitability of the job).
Step 4: What are your goals during the free trial?
Now the fun part! Let’s dive into a WIP Software free trial process. During this time, it’s critical to work with the company to determine if the application is a good fit. This is also a great time to “test” the company to see if they are supportive and responsive to you and your team. Do they provide training? How is their knowledge/video training center? Do they provide 1-1’s or additional services? The goal of the free trial is to really make sure the application is both a good fit for your business or firm, as well as determine if you enjoy working the software provider!
Step 5: How does the company support you and your team?
Finally, if you do find the right WIP (Work in Progress) software, you also have to consider how the company will support you and your team moving forward. Do they provide ongoing support and training? If so, what is the price? What happens when you have a question… what is the number, contact person, or portal? It’s important to test these critical items before signing up so ensure a successful launch and adoption of the new WIP software in your business or firm.
Accounting workflow management software is not a new technology to the industry. Yet, there are hundreds of firms who have...
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