You’ve grown your business and are now juggling several clients. Putting workflows into place is a critical part of making sure you can scale your bookkeeping firm while keeping your clients and employees happy. 

We’ve compiled a list of our best tips to manage your bookkeeping workflows to ensure nothing falls through the cracks, and your client satisfaction levels remain high.

1. Remember to Account for the Client’s Experience in the Workflow

David Cristello, founder and CEO of Jetpack Workflow, has interviewed hundreds of bookkeeping and accounting firm owners and verified that the #1 tip when it comes to bookkeeping workflows is to account for the client experience.

As a small business owner, it’s easy to focus on your team’s experience of each bookkeeping engagement. However, understanding the client’s side of the engagement is key. 

This means that you should work with your client so they understand what is needed from them and (equally important) timelines when the information is needed. Clients should understand how you will communicate questions and who will be copied on written communication (including email). In the event of an urgent inquiry or request, the client should know who they need to contact to get assistance. By setting the client’s expectations, the client won’t be left guessing what to do next. 

As part of workflow design, the team should have a unified answer and be able to design an experience whereby the client thoroughly understands all of these things. You want them to have a consistent experience with your team and build trust equally with all team members. This allows you to service your clients even when one of your team members is out of the office without missing a beat or deadline.

Once you’ve established your procedures, you should continue to monitor your client’s satisfaction and refine the process. You should ensure that any future changes to policies or procedures are communicated to your clients in advance.

2. Verify You Have Collected All Materials Before Diving Into the Work

It can be incredibly frustrating to start a project only to realize that you’re missing key materials. One of the biggest efficiency killers in bookkeeping is picking up a file several times without being able to complete the work because it’s missing critical financial information. 

Bookkeeping requires compiling several sources of information into a cohesive financial statement. Some information will be collected directly from the source, while other items will be received from the client. 

Having a standard checklist of items to collect each month and ensuring you have them before you start means that you will be able to complete the project at one time. Before you begin any project, it’s important to take a moment to double-check that you have everything you need. This will save you (and your team) time and frustration in the long run. 

Of course, it’s not always possible to know exactly what you need in advance. When missing items are identified, a complete list of missing items should be sent to the client. By minimizing the back and forth emails, you can improve your efficiency.

Once you’ve collected all your items, that’s when the work should begin. Next time you’re about to start a project, take a moment to verify that you have everything you need. It might just save you the headache later on.

3. Get a Project Management System Going to Manage All Your Checklists/Workflows

As anyone who’s ever tried to organize a construction project knows, there are a million different things that need to get done, and it can be tough to keep track of them all. That’s where a project management system comes in handy. 

By setting up a plan with all the task lists and workflow templates you need, you can manage your projects more effectively and ensure that nothing is missed. A good project management system can do a lot of heavy lifting for you and your staff. 

There are several different ways to set up a project management system. Take some time to figure out what will work best for you and your team. Most bookkeeping practices start by tracking lists on paper, and as their team grows, they expand to shared to-do lists or spreadsheets.  

However, as your team continues to expand, these basic organizational systems can become unwieldy. Once your team is more than even 2-3 people, you should consider implementing a complete workflow management system. 

Jetpack Workflow was built from the ground up with bookkeepers and accountants in mind. The system has numerous predefined workflows for bookkeeping tasks and allows your team to customize the templates based on your needs. You can also see what everyone within your team is working on and even better your capacity with our capacity planning feature.

If you’re considering implementing a workflow management system but aren’t sure yet, Jetpack Workflow offers a free 14-day trial for you to see the improvement in your team’s efficiency firsthand.

4. Understand the Client’s Preferred Communication Channels to Resolve Issues

When dealing with customer service issues, it’s important to understand the client’s preferred communication channels. Some people prefer to talk on the phone, while others would rather use email or text. 

For example, if they prefer to email, you can give them a specific staff member’s email address to use. By understanding and respecting the client’s preferred communication channels, you can build a stronger relationship and provide better customer service.

5. Create a Mind Map Before Bringing Tasks Into Your Workflow System

In an interview on the Growing Your Firm podcast, Workflow Queen Alyssa Lang told us you should start by asking yourself what your least favorite task is. Next, figure out how you can take that task off your plate or at least use automation to reduce the amount of time you spend doing it.

“One of the number ons processes that most people want me to help them with is literally onboarding.” –Alyssa Lang

For example, with a standardized onboarding process, you can ensure that you have all the necessary access to the clients’ data, communication preferences set, and team members assigned. This will minimize errors from the outset of the client engagement.

By creating a mindmap, you can envision the steps involved in the processes and think through all the processes that can be setup with workflows. You can also determine the best method for your team to track their workflow and assign tasks.

Once you’ve finished mind mapping, you can mold your mind map into standardized processes. However, you should revisit the exercise on a regular basis to ensure that the process is still working for your team.

Running a successful bookkeeping business means juggling several competing priorities at any given moment. 

Being organized is key to ensuring that nothing is being missed and you are handling your clients’ accounting efficiently. That’s where a good bookkeeping checklist comes in handy. 

Below is a list of 15 items that should be done each week to help you avoid overlooking any key activities.

15 Key Weekly Bookkeeping Tasks to Include in Your Checklist

By performing each of these tasks regularly (ideally, weekly), you’ll stay on top of your clients’ bookkeeping and have readily available answers to their accounting questions. Though not every task will apply to each of your clients, the list below covers the regular bookkeeping tasks you should complete.

1. Enter Transactions

By far the most basic bookkeeping function, it’s crucial that your clients’ activity is pulled into their accounting system regularly. Entering transactions weekly allows you to raise questions promptly before your client has forgotten the purpose of a transaction. 

You can also provide feedback to your clients quickly if there is a check or payment that doesn’t process correctly.

2. Categorize Transactions

Along with entering transactions, you can organize them each week to avoid having large batches of transactions to allocate at the end of a month. Categorizing transactions soon after they are made means the purchase is fresh in your clients’ minds. 

If there are unusual transactions from unfamiliar vendors, you can bring them to your client’s attention. 

3. Make Deposits

Though some clients make regular bank deposits on their own, you’ll need to make deposits at least weekly for clients in cases where you are responsible for posting deposits to accounts receivable and depositing the funds. 

If your clients collect payment electronically, you can match up deposits with the deposits received by the bank to ensure accuracy. 

4. Bank Reconciliation

Accounts are usually reconciled monthly once bank and credit card statements have been received. With online access to accounts, bank and credit card accounts can be reconciled regularly to quickly catch any missing transactions. 

The reconciliation task can be completed quickly, if you import transactions directly from the clients’ accounts. 

5. Accounts Payable

You should collect and enter bills each week to ensure nothing is missed. This is true whether the clients receive bills electronically or by paper. You should monitor bills on autopay to verify payments are being made by the due date and that the clients’ payment method has not expired. 

Being vigilant can help your clients avoid interest and late fees on missed bills from suppliers.

6. Account Receivable

Accounts receivable should be monitored weekly. This includes sending out any new bills to customers and posting payments against the customers’ accounts. If there are outstanding invoices or past due balances, you should contact the customers as a reminder and request payment. 

Excessively delinquent accounts should be brought to your clients’ attention so you can take action, such as contacting a collection agency. 

7. Review Inventory

Depending on the size and complexity of your clients’ inventory, you should regularly review inventory counts to ensure accuracy and completeness. A full inventory reconciliation should be completed once a year prior to closing the books at the end of the year. 

Weekly inventory checks may include verifying a single product or adjusting inventory levels for price changes.

8. Review Timesheets

Most hourly employees turn in their timesheets each week. By reviewing the timesheets weekly, you can follow up with the employees to verify hours soon after the end of the period but before it becomes more difficult to recreate timesheets or correct errors. 

Asking managers for weekly timesheet approval can avoid a scramble when it’s time to process payroll. 

9. Process Payroll

Though most employees are not paid weekly, you should check the payroll schedule each week to ensure you are processing payroll promptly. Though the rules differ by state, most states have hefty fines for late payroll payments. 

You should also check weekly to ensure that all outstanding payroll tax payments have been made.

10. Review Financial Statements

Though most clients want monthly financial statements, you should review your clients’ financial statements each week to check for anomalies and correct them before you need to provide financial reports. 

These weekly checks will include verifying that account balances make sense and expenses are properly classified.

11. Check Cash Available

Once all the transactions are recorded, you can look at the clients’ available cash and upcoming payments in accounts payable. By comparing the two balances, you can help your clients ensure they have cash available for upcoming payment responsibilities.

12. File Documentation

Handling paperwork each week as you complete bookkeeping will avoid a large backlog at the end of the month. You do not need to keep paper copies of receipts and other documentation. The paperwork can be scanned and properly filed on a server. 

13. Backup Data

After completing the week’s work, you should back up your clients’data. Backups can be cloud-based or kept on local servers. You also need to make sure you know how to restore the backup in case the original data is lost.

14. Client Billing

After you’ve handled all of your clients’ work, you should ensure that the billing for your bookkeeping firm is up-to-date. If you bill clients on an hourly basis, you should make sure your own timesheet is up to date and all invoices have been sent out.

15. Plan the Next Week

At the end of every week, you should take a moment to plan out your work for the coming week. This review should include a calendar check for meetings and planning enough time to complete your work. 

Make sure to build buffer time for unexpected client questions and requests.

Free Template – Bookkeeping Checklists

You can avoid having items falling through the cracks by standardizing your workflow. 

You can track your activities and tasks on paper, using spreadsheets, or within a workflow management tool like Jetpack Workflow. Jetpack Workflow is used by over 6,000 accounting and bookkeeping professionals to stay organized and avoid missing any critical deadlines. You can start with a free 14-day trial anytime.

If you’re not ready to transition to a full online workflow system, Jetpack Workflow has also created a set of 32 free workflow templates and checklists to help you get started (which includes a template of a weekly bookkeeping checklist). 

If you’re looking for a way to be more efficient every day, take your bookkeeping process to the next level by ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. To do so, you should have a bookkeeping workflow in place. Having standard steps for every project ensures you are doing your best quality work while spending the least time wondering what you should work on next. 

In this article, Jetpack Workflow has created a daily bookkeeping workflow to help you monitor your projects and ensure that your team isn’t skipping any steps.

What Your Bookkeeping Daily Workflow Chart Should Include

You should make sure that your daily workflow includes the following steps.

1. Plan The Day

Each day should start by planning for the rest of the day. If you don’t have a daily plan, your growing list of deadlines will fly by. Here’s what this might entail: 

Review Emails and Phone Calls

Your first tasks should be checking your emails and voicemails for any urgent client messages. Anything that is not urgent can be prioritized based on deadlines. If all of your clients’ books are up-to-date, then an urgent request for a financial statement can often be resolved with a quick email.

Respond to Inquiries and Acknowledge All Client Communications

One of the biggest complaints against people in the service industry is a lack of communication with clients. A simple email acknowledging a client’s email or call can often stop you from receiving additional follow-up communication from them. If you send an acknowledgment email without resolving the issue, you should give the client a timeline for when they can expect a complete response. This should go without saying, but responding to potential new clients quickly is essential!

Plan Out Your Time, Including Time for Meetings and Work

You should plan your day using the best method for you, whether this is a prioritized to-do list or time blocking. Remember to leave time for meetings (and transit time if you meet your clients in person). Make sure you have time free from distractions to get the work done.

2. Get to Work (on Accounting)

Once you’ve handled the administrative tasks of responding to emails and planning your day, it’s time to get to the actual work of accounting: 

Gather New Information

After determining which project you are starting with, gather the new data that has come in since you last updated your client’s books. This data can include statements, bank fees, bills, invoices, and payroll information. Ideally, you have access to these resources without having to ask the client for information through view access to their accounts. Otherwise, you will need to wait for clients to send you information (and hope they’ve sent it all).

Enter Transactions

You should enter all the transactions and activity included in the new documentation you received. All transactions should be recorded in the client’s books or imported through direct connections from the client’s accounts into their accounting system. The transactions should be reviewed for completeness, if you use automatic bank feeds.

File Documentation

The documentation should be filed away for future reference, whether you keep your records on paper or electronically. Ensuring that the source documents have been properly filed means you can access them in the future if need be. Filing immediately will save you from headaches (and a mess to sort through) later.

3. Request/Gather Missing Information

If you have holes in the information, reach out to the client. This lets them know that you are working on their project, even if it is incomplete. Waiting for clients to get back to you with the missing information is often the slowest part of the bookkeeping process. 

When requesting information from clients, be as specific as possible to ensure they get you the information you need.

4. Finish Accounting

Once you’ve got your hands on the missing information, you can finish up the bookkeeping by taking the following actions:

Update Books

You should incorporate the additional information you received from your client, if any was missing. At this point, you should also record any necessary journal entries to reclassify transactions or record non-cash transactions such as depreciation or amortization.

Reconcile Accounts

All the transactions should be entered at this point, and you can reconcile the balance sheet accounts. 

Create Updated Financials

With all the transactions entered and the accounts reconciled, creating updated financial reports and statements for your clients is a simple process. If your client has any customized reporting, you should create that as well.

5. Delivery

After finishing all the accounting, you should do a final review before sending the books to your clients. Once you’re satisfied that they are accurate, you can send them off to your client and get to work on your next project.

Free Daily Workflow Chart Template for Bookkeepers

To help you better organize your daily workflow, Jetpack Workflow has created a free daily workflow chart that you can access here. Make a copy if you need to edit this template.

An Easier Way to Manage Your Workflows

You can manage your workflow in several ways. You can use pen and paper to maintain an ever-growing to-do list, or you can use spreadsheets accessible by everyone on your team. Each method will become unwieldy as your practice (and client list) grows. 

You need robust solutions for monitoring client projects, ensuring that you do not skip steps, miss due dates (or miss projects entirely), and that your staffing is adequate for your workload. Jetpack Workflow was built with bookkeepers and accountants in mind and contains predefined templates to help you avoid these issues. The comprehensive workflow management system allows you to monitor project progress and saves time managing your team.

The Jetpack Workflow platform includes templates for various bookkeeping engagements, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll processing, and financial statement preparation. Jetpack Workflow allows you to customize your workflows so that they’re a perfect fit for your firm.

BONUS: 32 Other Templates for Bookkeepers

If you’re not ready for a workflow practice management system like Jetpack Workflow, we’ve created a set of 32 free workflow templates that cover all types of accounting engagements. You can download your free templates here and start standardizing your workflows today.