Ever get stuck waiting on missing receipts or scrambling to reconcile uncategorized transactions at month’s end? Most accounting professionals have been there, juggling multiple apps, and sending clients endless follow-up emails. But what if a single, integrated tool could streamline every stage of your monthly close—from task management to real-time collaboration with clients?

In a recent Earmark Expo, Andy from Keeper demonstrated how one cloud-based practice management platform can tackle the monthly close in a streamlined, client-friendly way.

1. Streamlined Task and Project Management

A smooth month-end close starts with effective planning. Instead of juggling spreadsheets or generic project tools, Keeper lets you create recurring monthly tasks alongside ad-hoc projects (e.g., onboarding, payroll processing, sales tax). You can:

• Set Custom Frequencies: Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly tasks with specific due dates.
• Create Checklists & SOPs: Store all the instructions, links, and passwords your team needs.
• View Firm-Wide Progress: A central dashboard shows each client’s close status, from pre-close tasks to account reconciliations.

From an owner’s perspective, this holistic view helps ensure junior staff follow standardized procedures. No more scattered checklists; everything is tracked and auditable in one place.

2. Intelligent Review: Direct Ledger Integration

Keeper integrates with QuickBooks Online or Xero, analyzing the general ledger for anomalies and inconsistencies. It flags potential issues, such as:

• Vendors with Inconsistent Categories: If a vendor was previously coded to “Software " but ended up in “Advertising " this month, the system notifies you.
• Missing Payees or Transactions: Instantly spot missing or incomplete vendor info.
• Auto-Added Bank Rules: Verify that automated rules are accurate, reducing errors.

Changes can be made from Keeper itself—no toggling between platforms. When you recode a transaction or add a vendor, it updates QuickBooks or Xero in real-time. This ensures everyone from the bookkeeper to the reviewer is working with up-to-date financials.

3. Consolidated Client Communication

If you dread sending 40 emails to a single client each month, modern platforms offer a better way. Keeper consolidates client questions—uncategorized expenses, missing statements, etc.—into a single, branded portal. When you’re ready, you notify the client.

“Rather than sending the client 40 messages throughout the month, we wait until all our questions are ready and then let them know they have new items,” explained Andy from Keeper.

Clients click a magic link—no password needed—and land in a portal with your firm’s branding. There, they see only the transactions or questions that need attention. They can respond by typing an explanation or uploading documents. Communication remains organized with a clear audit trail, so your team can finalize the books faster.

4. Proactive W-9 Collection & 1099 Prep

The year-end 1099 season can be a scramble when you haven’t collected W-9s in advance. Keeper automates the process by:

• Tracking Thresholds: Once a vendor exceeds $600 of reportable spend, the system flags them.
• Sending Branded W-9 Requests: Vendors get a link to fill out or upload their W-9 electronically.
• Syncing Data: Submitted forms are attached to the vendor record in QuickBooks Online (or Xero).

By converting 1099 tracking into a recurring monthly task, you can avoid the January rush of incomplete or missing vendor details. Firms can even export data directly to a 1099-filing solution, turning W-9 collection into a year-round routine.

5. Receipt Management on Your Client's Terms

Receipts are one of the most common pain points in bookkeeping. Keeper’s receipt capture tools offer multiple ways for clients to submit documents:

• Dedicated Phone Number for Texting: Clients can snap a picture and text it directly.
• Magic Link Portal: They drag and drop files from a desktop or mobile device.
• Email Upload: Optionally forward digital receipts to a dedicated inbox.

Once in the system, OCR technology extracts key data and either creates new transactions or matches receipts to existing ones. This eliminates redundant steps like re-keying or reconciling bank feed entries separately.

6. Additional Features: Time Tracking, KPIs, and More

Beyond communication and transaction reviews, Keeper offers tools to centralize your entire CAS practice:

• Time Tracking & Budgeting: Set budgets per client or project. Track time with built-in timers.
• Advanced Reporting & KPIs: Customize monthly financial reports with real-time variance analysis, graphs, and even non-financial metrics (e.g., headcount).
• Inter-Company Transfers: For multi-entity clients, Keeper can sync due-to/due-from accounts across different QuickBooks or Xero files.

The result is a single source of truth for all monthly close tasks, collaboration, and data oversight.

A New Era of Month-End Efficiency

Platforms like Keeper reimagine not just client communication but the entire month-end process—reducing the back-and-forth between email threads, spreadsheets, and accounting files. From automated anomaly detection to text-based receipt collection, these solutions let accountants focus on higher-value advisory work.

Ready to streamline your month-end and client collaboration? Watch the complete Earmark Expo session featuring Keeper. You can also earn continuing professional education (CPE) credit for learning how integrated software simplifies your workflow—giving you time back to serve your clients at a higher level.

The post Earmark Expo - Keeper: Transforming Client Communication in Accounting appeared first on Keeper.

• Context switching is the habit of quickly shifting attention between different tasks before they’re done, leaving you feeling unproductive and stressed.
• Context switching is a necessary part of modern accounting, but when it runs rampant you pay in lost productivity, creativity, collaboration, and employee retention.
• The best way to rein in context switching is to streamline bookkeeping workflows using a bookkeeping practice management solution.

Beware the Costs of Unchecked Context Switching

• Dipping productivity. 
• Lacking creativity. 
• Uninformed decision-making.
• High turnover. 

No, these aren’t just “part of the job” in accounting firms.

These issues are what happens when context switching goes too far.

That’s right, we’re hinting at a truth that’s a bit unpopular to admit: Some context switching is a requirement for knowledge workers today. It’s just not plausible for a single tool to handle every single thing that accountants need to do. 

The problems come when it runs rampant. 

When context switching isn’t addressed, it has implications for the health of businesses and workers.

Understanding Context Switching in Accounting

Context switching — or multitasking, task toggling, etc. — occurs when you interrupt working on one task to perform another task.

In the workplace, context switching is often the result of needing to move between different applications to find the information you need to complete your original task. You may also switch contexts in the middle of a task to answer a chat, read an email, or attend a meeting. 

Think about sending a month-end report to a client and catching a transaction that seems inconsistent. Is it a coding error? Something your client needs to clarify? Gotta hop out of the report and shoot off an email. While you’re there, you might as well answer the messages that have piled up. Half-way through a reply — ping! — you got an email back from the client. Time to check that really quickly. Finally, you can make a little progress on that report. But first, have to log into QuickBooks or Xero and make that correction…

If that all seems quite exhausting, that’s because it is. And if it sounds all too familiar, that’s not surprising at all. 

Context switching is more prevalent than ever because of the way technology has become part of our lives and our workplaces. 

On average, workers today find themselves spending more time using email, more time participating in video calls, and more time multitasking. And, the pressure is on to respond immediately to notifications. 

As business reliance on tech continues to grow, the need to switch between tons of tools and tasks may become even more intense. Employees and businesses that don’t have any tactics for minimizing switching and its impact are going to feel the pain. 

4 Ways Your Business is Paying for Unchecked Context Switching

Yes, in the bookkeeping space you’re likely going to need to swap between at least a few different platforms in a day to get your job done. 

But, completely unfettered context switching happens way too often. In fact, close to half (43%) of workers report dedicating too much time to switching between company tools and apps. 

If that’s just as true at your firm as it is at many, here’s the “tax” you may be paying if unhindered context switching continues. 

Deep Work Gets Deprioritized

Deep work, characterized by immersing ourselves in meaningful work challenges, is where we truly hone our skills and create valuable output.

Unfortunately, having to move between different tools to get anything done introduces interruptions that don’t allow for work to go deep. 

An observation of one consumer goods company found that workers used 22 different applications, and switched between them 350 times, to complete a single transaction.

When that’s the state of your workplace, there’s no space left for the deep work and concentration that leads to creativity and groundbreaking ideas.

Loss of Critical Business Knowledge

Considering that 56% of workers report difficulty keeping track of business data across different apps and that they actually have to ask more than one person for help finding information — there’s no way business knowledge is being used to its full potential when it comes to client communications and making decisions that impact the future of your business.

Fatigue + Stress = Burnout

It’s really no surprise that 43% of workers report it’s tiring to have to move back and forth between apps, screens, and conversations at a fast pace all the time. 

But context switching isn’t just physically taxing, it’s also mentally taxing. Science tells us that switching between tasks takes a toll on our cognitive abilities. And, it can even cause the brain to produce the stress hormone cortisol.

Fatigue and stress in the workplace is a perfect recipe for burnout. That’s a big deal because burnout is one of the top reasons why employees leave jobs.

Collaboration and Connection Flounder 

The best solutions arise when diverse teams full of varying perspectives are able to collaborate.

However, heavy tech reliance and context switching stress makes people feel less and less connected. Close to two-thirds (62%) of workers miss being able to collaborate with their colleagues. When tooling becomes so distracting it’s actually hurting workplace culture, is it actually serving you?

Cut Down on Context Switching with One App for Bookkeeping

If you’re ready to cut out some of the email back-and-forth and adopt one app to streamline your workflows, it’s time to try bookkeeping practice management software like Keeper.

Keeper helps automate and streamline bookkeeping and accounting workflows, unite data, and make collaboration simpler both internally and with clients. 

Using Keeper’s branded Client Portal gives you a single channel to manage all client comms and get responses faster without having to switch between emails, phone calls, and texts. Smart file review tools quickly catch coding errors and integrate your workflows directly with QuickBooks and Xero, so you only need to correct files in one location for a cleaner and faster close.

And, when you are done with the review, Keeper makes it easy to craft useful reports clients actually like reading. Stay on top of all these moving parts with Keeper’s task management functionality, where you can create flows and make sure you and your team are performing at peak productivity.

At Keeper, we make it easy to actually work in your workflow software, minimizing the number of apps you need to pivot between over the course of a productive day. 

Sign up for a free Keeper trial today and experience the delight of running a bookkeeping business from a powerful platform.

The post The Context Switching Tax: What Accountants Should Know appeared first on Keeper.

• Outsourcing, offshoring, and automation will help your firm grow capacity, cut costs, and still meet client demand with high-value outcomes. 
• Use an AIOO approach to determine how to offload common accounting tasks.
• Learn how to get started with offshoring, including using practice management software.

Between… 

The well-documented accountant shortage. 

Downward price pressure. 

The need for rapid upskilling as new laws make compliance more complex — and more important. 

And of course, the existential fear that’s squeezing every industry: How is artificial intelligence going to disrupt my practice? 

…there’s a lot weighing on accountants and bookkeepers today. 

While none of us can create more time, we can increase how much we get done in the same amount of time by layering on additional resources. 

However, we usually don’t need the same amount of resources every season — and who could afford to hire all the support they actually need, anyway?! 

In 2024 (and beyond), it’s time to take an outside-the-box, yet proven, approach to overcoming capacity constraints. 

Understanding Outsourcing, Offshoring, and Automation

Outsourcing is something most people are familiar with, even if they don’t use that particular name for it. It’s simply the practice of delegating — or handing over certain tasks to another firm or individual who has more capacity, specialized expertise, or both. Plenty of service providers keep a roster of “partners” to whom they outsource jobs on the backend so that they can give clients a holistic-feeling experience on the frontend.

Offshoring just expands on this idea by contracting an overseas firm to help your team. It’s a great way to grow capacity during busy seasons and increase your range of services without burning out your core team.

Nearshoring is a form of offshoring where the outside provider is a little closer to home — such as in a neighboring country. This can help you work together more closely as you’ll be more likely to share a time zone and maybe even a common language.

And there’s one more, though not quite as popular: Onshoring. This is the practice of outsourcing tasks to a third-party in the same country you’re in. However, it may be in another state and is often in a smaller city, where you’re able to find firms with higher availability and lower rates. 

Finally, there’s accounting Automation, which is the practice of applying technology instead of additional people to help you get more done in less time.

Accounting automation tools and AI are helping firms handle the manual elements of the job, such as data entry, reconciliation, document and receipt management, elements of tax preparation, and even the simpler, repetitive customer questions you may get!  

All of these options may leave you wondering: Where can I automate, when should I engage an offshore or outsourced partner, and what would be best to keep in-house? 

The AIOO Approach to Offloading Accounting Tasks

Take a look at the workflow we chatted about with Taxplow founder and author of the Accountants In Front of AI newsletter, Marc Howard.

Called the “AIOO approach,” it’s a simple guide to help bookkeepers and accountants determine how to best handle the growing list of tasks clients come to them with:

• Automate tasks that are repetitive and require consistent execution, without much variation. For example, coding transactions.
• In-house tasks are high-value and require specialized expertise, or have high-to-medium complexity. Financial analysis and forecasting fits into this bucket in most cases.
• Outsource high-value tasks that aren't core to your business, especially if they would be better executed by specialized external entities — such as financial audits.
• Offshore those more routine and standardized tasks that don't require specialized expertise and can be executed at a lower cost in different locations. Think AP and AR management.  

AIOO In Action: A Real-Life Breakdown

While this is not an exhaustive list, we broke down many of the tasks that your firm is most likely touching, most weeks. Hopefully, this will help you start thinking through your own specific service offering, where you can niche down to provide the most impactful outcomes for clients, and what you should consider automating, offshoring, or outsourcing to protect your time and sanity. 

Bookkeeping and Accounting Tasks

• Coding transactions: automate/offshore
• Bank and transaction reconciliation: automate/offshore
• Document management (receipt management): automate
• Account payable and account receivable management: automate/offshore
• Paying invoices for clients: offshore
• 1099 management: automate
• Month-end close and financial statement prep (income statements, balance sheets): in-house
• Financial analysis and forecasting: in-house
• Customer support (triage and simple tasks): automate/offshore 
• Cleaning up books: offshore/outsource 
• Financial audits: in-house/outsource 

Tax Planning and Preparation Tasks

• Sales tax: automate/offshore
• State and income tax: automate/offshore
• Tax prep: automate/offshore
• Estate planning: in-house/outsource
• Nonprofit and foundation tax planning: in-house/outsource
• Advanced tax planning: in-house
• Entity structure review: in-house
  

Payroll Tasks

• Federal, state, local payroll tax submission: automate
• Payroll tracking: automate
• Direct deposit services: automate
• Payroll reporting: automate/offshore

Client Advisory Services

Lots of firms dream of shifting to a focus on high-value client advisory services, which they would of course want to keep in-house. Yet, less than 30% of firms are actually able to do it. 

Why? Lack of resources.

Accountants and bookkeepers don’t want to drop all the other tasks, many of which are listed above, that keep the lights on while they transition into an advisory role. This highlights the critical nature of employing outsourcing, offshoring, and automation to free up as many as 1,250 hours yearly for you to spend on much higher-impact and higher-value advisory work.

How to Start Offshoring and Outsourcing

Offshoring and outsourcing can bring numerous benefits: cost savings, access to global talent, increased productivity, and more free time so that you can focus on the services that really solve your client’s biggest pain points. 

But getting started successfully requires careful planning and consideration. Here are some essential tips to help accounting and bookkeeping firms navigate the process effectively. 

Get All Your Client Information Organized Ahead of Time

Before diving into offloading tasks onto other firms, it's crucial to ensure that all client information — data, contact details, paperwork, etc. — is well-organized and readily-accessible. 

Keeper’s bookkeeping practice management software can help facilitate a smooth transition and foster a productive relationship with your outsourcing partner.

That’s because Keeper features a branded Client Portal where you can host all client communications as well as internal collaboration. Keeper can also track your practice’s tasks, files, templates, and client information via a built-in CRM. Our automated 1099 management and receipt processing features also streamlined these resource-intensive workflows to make the load lighter on your outside partner of choice. 

Determine Where You Need Help

You also want to assess your staff's workload and capabilities as well as use the AIOO method to identify which tasks you’re already doing that are suitable for outsourcing and offshoring.

Focus on areas where an external team can provide the most significant impact, such as time-consuming but simpler tasks, to allow your in-house team to focus on high-value activities and client advisory services.

Find Your Reliable Offshore/Outsourcing Partner

Choosing the right partner is of course paramount to the success of your offloading initiatives. How do you determine a good fit? Here are the key factors to consider:

• Time in the industry
• Technological capabilities — they’ll need some tooling and technical prowess to be able to work with you remotely
• Expertise in various accounting services, especially those you are considering offloading
• Their ability to scale their own team as your needs grow — and how much it will cost you to level up
• A communication style and schedule that aligns with your onshore team
• Client reviews and testimonials (like this one for our friends at TeamUp — wow!) 

Learn how to future-proof your firm, deliver on client demands, and more: Watch our webinar with Isaac Smith, founder of the offshoring accounting firm TeamUp.

Set Up Account Managers, On Both Sides

A responsible, reliable point of contact within both firms is crucial for maintaining a successful relationship. 

Account managers will be in change of things like:

• Overseeing hiring, onboarding, and training 
• Managing any IT setup that needs to happen
• Assisting with capacity planning
• Arranging regular communication
• Translating and solving questions and feedback 
• Dispatching progress reports 
• Providing deliverables

Ensure Data Safety

Data security and confidentiality should be top priorities when selecting an accounting outsourcing partner. 

Take some serious time to inquire about a potential partner’s data protection measures, encryption protocols, and compliance with industry regulations. Additionally, discuss legal agreements and confidentiality clauses that safeguard your firm and clients in case of any data breaches or mishaps.

Develop Service Level Agreements

Establishing service level agreements (SLAs) with your new third-party provider is essential to set expectations regarding the quality of work, response times, communication channels, and performance metrics.

A well-defined SLA ensures accountability and transparency throughout the offshoring engagement, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship.

Let’s Break the Constraints Together

As you embark on your journey to leverage offshoring, outsourcing, and even automation effectively, remember that strategic planning to choose and work with the right tools and partners is key to unlocking the full potential of these solutions.

Implement the AIOO approach and adopt pro bookkeeping software to prepare yourself for engaging third-party providers to elevate your firm's capabilities, increase productivity, and focus on delivering exceptional value to your clients. 

The post How to Squash Capacity Constraints appeared first on Keeper.

Discover how to de-risk your accounting firm in 2024 and beyond with approachable strategies including managing capacity constraints with offshoring, growing into an advisory role, learning how to market to the right audience, and much more.

As the famous line goes: The times, they are a-changin’.

Hackers are getting smarter, the talent pool is growing smaller, technology is introducing new ways to work, and the powers that be never stop tweaking the rules we all have to comply with to stay on the right side of the law. 

What can accounting and bookkeeping firm leadership do to establish an enduring, resilient, and thriving practice that’s ready to withstand dynamic shifts within the industry?

To grossly paraphrase another famous song: Give us three ten steps — and we’ll show you exactly how.

10 Tactics for Modern Accounting Firms

We’ll waste no time. Here’s what every decision-maker needs to know to de-risk their firm as they move and grow through 2024 and beyond.

1. Manage Capacity Constraints with Offshoring

The process of managing capacity is work in itself. If you never take the time to go through the process of understanding your capacity and planning for it, you and your team will always feel overworked — which is not a good way to retain clients or employees. 

There are two main ways to manage capacity within your firm — do less work, or hire more folks to get the work done. 

But what about managing your capacity outside of your firm? 

Offshoring is the practice of outsourcing accounting tasks to an outside, overseas firm or individual who has the time and the experience to handle it for you. Diversifying fulfillment in this way is a lifesaver for scaling capacity quickly, increasing your range of services while still carving out time for strategic offerings (more on advisory services later), and preserving precious sanity when it comes to your in-house team.

And offshoring isn’t just for the menial day-to-day tasks. With quality-focused partners like TeamUp and Cloud Accountant Staffing, you can unlock highly-skilled and uniquely-specialized global talent.

Learn more about the future-proofing power of offshoring and how to get started when you watch our webinar with Isaac Smith, founder of offshore accounting firm TeamUp. 

2. Find Your Niche 

“Niche” is just another word for specialty. Accountants can choose to specialize in certain industries, such as tech, non-profits, real estate, specific trades, etc. They can also focus on a niche based on company size, such as owner/operator-run businesses, startups, etc. Or, you can even specialize when it comes to your services — focusing solely on offering high-value services like month-end closes, tax prep, estate planning, and more. 

Here’s why finding your best-fitting niche can help bookkeepers stay afloat and relevant in 2024 and beyond:

• Establish yourself as a thought leader: Focusing on a niche helps you become an expert, setting you apart and making you the go-to professional for clients in that niche.
  
• Demand higher rates: Specialized knowledge allows you to demand higher fees, as clients value expertise and are willing to pay for it.
  
• Optimize sales and marketing efforts: Tailoring marketing efforts to your niche ensures your messages resonate with their needs, maximizing the impact of your sales and marketing spend.
  
• Reduce competition: Narrowing your focus reduces competition, making it easier to attract clients seeking specialized services and stand out among a smaller pool of providers.

But what if you have legacy clients you want to hold onto or another reason you can’t fully focus on a specific niche? That’s the beauty of also investing in the previous strategy — offshoring. By offloading some of those tasks and services you still want to provide but don’t actually want to execute yourself, offshoring is a great way to connect with affordable specialists so you can keep your firm well rounded. 

See niching in action when you watch this special episode of our Catch up with Keeper webinar, featuring Melissa Honan — CEO of Bookkeeping for Painters, a niche firm doing $1.5 million in annual recurring revenue. 

3. Embrace AI and Automation

The past few years have seen a transformation in how most businesses operate thanks to modern technology. To keep up with client expectations as well as what competitors offer, you need to know how to adopt and embrace artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. 

Accountants, bookkeepers, and tax professionals can apply AI as an assistant of sorts, not to replace human expertise but rather to enhance it. With AI, firm owners can save time by automating simpler tasks, save costs on staffing and training, improve the speed and clarity of client communications, and provide more advanced and accurate advisory services.

Using AI to its full capacity at your firm comes down to experimenting with tools like ChatGPT, Bard, and so on to learn how to provide the clear, specific instructions it needs to  produce results. 

Once you’ve learned how to best apply AI at your accounting firm, you can start using it to: 

• Analyze balance sheets, cash flow, and income statements
• Summarize and proofread complex reports
• Extract and classify data efficiently
• Explain financial concepts to clients clearly 
• Create budgeting and forecasting templates
• Automate routine accounting tasks
• Craft compelling newsletters, emails, and website content
• Systematize operations and free yourself from repetitive tasks
• Review bookkeeping entries and code transactions
• Automate reporting (leveraging Zapier)
• Create SOPs for bookkeeping, tax, and compliance work
• Write code, Excel macros, and browser plugins
• Respond to routine client emails
• Analyze workload and recommend the best tasks to delegate

4. Prioritize Digital Security

Small businesses are frequently targeted by cybercriminals due to their often limited security measures, which makes them vulnerable to attack. Doubly so for accounting firms, as they deal in financial data that can be especially desirable to nefarious actors. 

In fact, in the first quarter of 2023 alone there were over a million victims of cyberattacks in financial services.  

Introducing a large digital aspect to your business — as many future-proofing tips will have you do — will require accountants and bookkeepers to take extra steps to ensure their digital security. 

Here are some strategies for protecting your firm’s operations and sensitive client data:

• Invest in cybersecurity insurance: Learn how to protect your business against cyber threats by listening to this podcast from AICPA & CIMA on obtaining cybersecurity insurance.
• Only use secure tools: Outside tooling can be a weak link in your security measures. Make sure any bookkeeping platforms you use prioritize security.
• Focus on password security: Use a password manager to save and share passwords, enforce complex passwords, and implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for added protection in case passwords are compromised.
• Regularly scan for threats: Deploy malware scanners and antivirus software on all computers and devices used for client work. 
• Ensure proper employee offboarding: Thorough employee offboarding will remove terminated employees from all your systems, preventing sabotage as well as unmonitored accounts that are easier to hack.
• Provide security training: Educate your team on security threats upon onboarding and  regularly thereafter. You can keep it simple — share articles and videos that warn of the most common hacks to look for and how to avoid them.
  
• Encrypt your hard drive: Protect sensitive files in case of device loss or theft, using a tool like Bitlocker on Windows or FileVault on Mac. 
• Consider outsourcing: If you don’t feel comfortable securing your firm, employ a specialized third-party firm to handle your security needs. 

You can check out more strategies in our webinar with Chris Burns from Techie Gurus.

5. Market to a Lucrative, Aligned Audience

Many accounting firms don’t actually need more clients. 

What they need is better clients. 

Your role as a firm leader is to fill the limited capacity you have with the best-fitting, most-profitable clients possible. 

What makes for suitable, lucrative clients? According to Jason Staats, they have to acutely experience the problems you solve, and solve well.

So, how do you connect with these clients? Sorry to say it, but it all comes down to marketing. 

Here are three approachable but key strategies Jason shares for putting your firm out there in a way that makes you magnetic to your ideal audience: 

• Build an easy marketing channel to share your expertise: Your current clients know how awesome you are, but what are you doing to make sure potential clients do as well? This is critical to helping people make the jump from kicking the tires to signing the contract. An easy way to generate, warm, and convert leads is to build a regular email marketing campaign that speaks to your ideal audience’s needs. Replace those “hire us now” website buttons with a link to sign up to your newsletter and build your roster of potential clients. 
• Share hyper-specific content: We mentioned niching down in your focus as a firm. Well, that niche should be just as apparent in the content you craft for that email marketing campaign you just built above. Remember, it’s all about relieving a very strong, very specific pain point. Are you an expert on tax preparation for freelance poodle groomers in the state of Colorado? Let it be known, and watch the right audience gravitate toward you like dog hair toward your couch. 
• Take your time: If getting better, more aligned, more lucrative clients is your ultimate goal as a firm owner — doing one-on-one work can no longer be your main priority. You need to spend more time engaging in marketing that actively attracts your ideal clientele. So take your time with the new marketing channel and high-value content you’re creating to build your dream roster.

Together, what this marketing strategy does is transcend the traditional marketing funnel. It inspires trust and helps potential clients build a relationship with you via the value-adding content you’ve given them. So when they’re ready to finally make the jump over to your firm, it’s more of a trust fall and less of a terrifying leap.  

Need help maintaining and furthering those relationships you’ve built once you’ve signed your dream clients? Keeper's Branded Client Portal stands out in this regard. Move away from trying to handle client relationships via messy Excel or Google Sheets documents and into our smooth practice management solution that streamlines and organizes client communication, details, and documents. 

6. Expand Into Advisory Services 

In the increasingly-intricate business landscape, the demand for accounting client advisory services (CAS) is on the rise. They need to future-proof their businesses just as much as you do.

Clients want tailored analytics, reporting, and advice and accountants — with access to deep financial and operational documentation — are well-positioned to answer this call and expand their offerings. 

The benefits of positioning yourself and your firm as a data-driven advisor are big: you can diversify your services to stand out against competing firms, there’s an opportunity for major revenue growth through this lucrative income stream, and clients simply want it! The majority of firms agree that client expectations are changing, and that advisory expertise is now in high demand.

What areas can you provide advisory services on? Opportunities include:

• Business planning
• Process improvement 
• Change management
• Sustainability reporting
• Advanced tax planning
• Entity structuring 
• Estate planning 
• Financial analysis and forecasting

By leveraging both mother technology and offshore resources to handle transactional and compliance tasks, accountants can free up time and resources to focus on more strategic advisory work. This shift not only adds value to clients but also positions accounting firms for long-term success in a dynamic and evolving industry.

7. Become a Regulation and Compliance Go-To

Ask anyone outside of the field — or within it, for that matter — what an accountant does and you’ll find out how dynamic the landscape is. 

With that complexity comes a whole host of regulations, changes to which seem to be happening at an ever-increasing frequency. In fact, keeping up is now a major challenge for modern accountants.

Staying in “the know” when it comes to compliance will keep you in good standing, boost operational efficiency, and make your firm a consistent go-to for clients. 

Here are some tactics for becoming the knowledgeable champion and expert clients crave:

• Make sure to attend the large annual conferences and other events that address accounting in general as well as your niche.
  
• Engage in local meetups, webinars, associations, and other groups that have a focus on regulatory compliance in bookkeeping as well as in your area(s) of speciality.
  
• Build a professional network made up of other accountants in your field who can help you stay abreast of changes, both offline and online through platforms like LinkedIn.
  
• Once you’re well-versed in the latest on compliance, audit your firm to proactively identify issues and gaps and maintain compliance. 
• Make sure the accounting software and services you’re using automatically adjust to regulatory changes. This should not be your main source of news when it comes to compliance, but it’s helpful when it’s readily updated to help keep you above board.

8. Focus on Internal Retention 

In the world of accounting, client retention often takes the spotlight. However, the current accounting talent crisis brings to the forefront the importance of internal retention — aka, holding onto the precious employees who make your firm tick. 

Some reasons for this shortage? A perception of looong work weeks, lower compensation in relation to workload and education requirements, and lacking diversity across many firms. 

To build, nurture, and retain a talented team, consider these factors:

• Competitive compensation: Offer attractive compensation packages including competitive salaries, bonuses, and benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. Consider features like profit-sharing and ongoing education to set yourself apart from other hiring firms.
  
• Work-life balance: Promote work-life balance with flexible hours, remote work options, and generous vacation policies.
  
• Career progression: Provide clear career paths, regular performance reviews, and opportunities for professional growth.
  
• Inclusive company culture: Foster an inclusive, supportive, and positive environment to increase job satisfaction and loyalty among employees.
  

Prioritizing these aspects of internal retention can future-proof accounting teams and ensure success in the evolving industry landscape.

9. Pursue Value-Based Pricing

Understanding how to price your services is critical to your survival in accounting. As such, it’s time to move away from the antiquated structure of pricing based on hours worked and move to pricing that accounts for value provided. 

To do so, it’s important to realize that value doesn’t equate to hours worked, it’s measured in outcomes. The more value you’re able to create for clients — no matter how long it takes — the more you should charge for a successful outcome. 

Determining the cost of the tiers or packages for your value-based pricing strategy will likely require some trial and error. You can survey existing clients to see what they’d be willing to pay. You could also take a look at how competitors price similar offerings and set yours accordingly. 

We recommend setting yourself up for success when it comes to making any pricing changes by establishing a track record of clear and regular communication with clients, including price adjustment clauses in all contracts, and depicting the “why” behind pricing changes using real data. 

With value-based pricing, you may be able to enhance client loyalty, better prioritize your time on client tasks, and set a precedent for price increases as outcomes improve over time. However, don’t forget that it requires you to be able to really sell your value up front, and can be complex to implement if you already have a firm full of clients on a different pricing plan. This is good to keep in mind as you expand your bookkeeping services list.

10. Watch Out for What’s Next in Accounting

Staying ahead in the accounting industry requires a forward-thinking approach that anticipates and prepares for upcoming trends. First-movers, who consistently outpace competitors, prioritize keeping abreast of what's next.

Here are some tips to develop the “super power” of predicting what’s coming in accounting and de-risking your decisions as you move into the future:

• Study industry leaders: Pay attention to what big firms and leaders in your niche are doing. Their strategies and innovations often set the tone for upcoming trends in the industry.
  
• Stay connected: Maintain a strong network and get active at industry events. Networking and staying informed about industry discussions can offer valuable insights into emerging trends and developments.
  
• Monitor competitors: Keep a close watch on your competitors' offerings, marketing campaigns, etc. Understanding their moves can help you anticipate shifts in the market and adjust your strategies accordingly.
  
• Analyze internal data: Look closely at data within your own firm to see what’s next on a local scale versus a global one. Identify which services clients are most interested in, which industries they belong to, which marketing strategies are yielding the best results, and which features of your bookkeeping technology are most utilized. This data can reveal patterns and trends that indicate what your target audience wants and where the industry is headed.
  

Ready to Future-Proof Your Firm?

There are a few commonalities that many of the above strategies share — active participation in the industry to stay on top of developments, a supply of reliable data for informed decision-making, and modern technology with the power to streamline operations so you have more time to pursue future-proofing. 

In fact, more than 75% of accountants already say that tech has helped them save time.

But of course, those savings only kick in once you’ve founded and transitioned to your tooling of choice — which can be an overwhelming task that keeps many time-strapped firms from completing their future-proofing mission. 

However, that’s not the case when you choose Keeper as your practice management solution of record.

At Keeper, we personally help new clients onboard onto our platform, so they can enjoy AI-powered 1099 management and receipt processing features; flawless client communication; and optimized internal collaboration capabilities that include tasks, files, and even client information management via a built-in CRM. 

Get started today to see how Keeper can help you de-risk your growth strategy and thrive in a shifting landscape.

The post 10 trends your firm should adopt today appeared first on Keeper.

• Receipt management is crucial for businesses, as well as for bookkeepers who want to build deep, advisory partnerships with clients. However, it’s wasteful when done manually.
• Learn how receipt management software, like what’s built into Keeper, can actually boost efficiency, revenue, and retention.

Receipt management is a real drag for almost everyone, bookkeepers and their clients included.

However, it’s pretty important for both parties. You must keep an organized, complete record of receipts across your roster of clients to keep them compliant. 

And, receipt management is core to helping you develop an informed understanding of client businesses so that you can move into a valued, trusted, and lasting advisor role.

If you’re like the majority of firms looking to build consultative client relationships that yield more revenue for less busy work — more on this trend later — it’s time to dive into how receipt management can help you get there.

Why Receipt Management is Crucial for Accounting Firms?

Receipt management is of course critical to keeping track of client expenses for basic compliance and tax purposes.

However, have you ever thought about how important it also becomes when you want to move into an advisory role with your clients? Understanding business spending and income is core to how accountants help their clients with a variety of high-value services.

• Accurate financial record creation: Receipts provide concrete evidence of financial transactions, ensuring that records are precise and compliant with accounting standards.
• Risk identification and solutions: By analyzing receipts, accountants can spot potential risks, such as irregular spending patterns or unauthorized expenses, and develop solutions to mitigate these risks.
• Budget building and monitoring: Receipts play a key role in monitoring balance sheets and budgets. They provide insights into actual spending compared to budgeted amounts, allowing for adjustments and better financial planning.
• Profitability and cash flow forecasting: Today, many businesses are open to outsourcing forecasting. Receipt data can help accountants forecast profitability and future cash flow by tracking revenue and expenses over time. This information is invaluable for making informed business decisions.
• Tax compliance and optimization: Receipts are essential for ensuring taxes are paid accurately and for maximizing deductions. They provide evidence of deductible expenses and help optimize tax strategies.
• Strategic planning and coaching: Understanding patterns via receipts enables accountants to offer virtual CFO and advisor services to guide clients strategically on cost-saving opportunities; improvements in financial management; profitable opportunities; and  environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.
  

That last point is a huge one. 

It may be more accurate to say that advisory services aren’t the future of accounting — they’re nearly the status quo. 

A survey of small to mid-sized global firms in 2023 found that an impressive 65% offer either only advisory services or a mix of advisory and compliance work. And 57% are aiming to provide even more consultative services. 

What’s the point? 

Exposure to new (and often bigger) clients, increased fees for more deep work, and overall revenue growth. 

However, you may not be able to dive as deep as you need into strategic thinking if you’re still trying to manage receipts manually. 

Here’s why.

What Makes Receipt Management Such a Pain in the @$$?

Receipt management can be a headache for both clients and accountants. 

As we all know, physical receipts are prone to getting lost — especially if they’re not filed away immediately. And even when they are accounted for, they can degrade over time and become illegible by the time they’re needed. 

For clients, keeping track of the different types of receipts that come with running a business can be daunting. And it can be difficult for accountants and bookkeepers to know exactly what to ask clients for to make sure they have everything. Ideally, you would have a receipt for every sale as well as expenses. These could include: 

• Inventory (vendors, raw materials, merchandise) 
• Property (including maintenance)
• Office supplies
• Business software 
• Travel and meals 
• Vehicles (and mileage) 
• Gifts to workers and clients 
• Marketing spend and supplies (ads, business cards, etc.) 

Misplaced receipts don’t just make for difficult inventory management, an inaccurate balance sheet, financial discrepancies that are hard to justify in the case of an audit, and less-informed decision-making for clients. Poor records also mean an overwhelming tax season for you and for clients who have a disorganized (or no) receipt management strategy.

Complete and organized receipt records makes filing taxes faster and easier and may even help with tax savings, because they serve as a reminder of deductible expenses and any tax credits clients may be eligible to claim. Receipts are a good idea everywhere, but especially in Canada where the Canada Revenue Agency is especially tough on people who try to deduct business expenses without a receipt proving the purchase. 

So, what’s a firm to do to spend less time wrangling receipts and more time offering big-budget, strategic accounting advice?

That’s next.

Enter: Receipt Management Software

There is a solution for effectively tracking and managing receipts so that you have all the data you need to serve as a valuable accounting and advisory partner for your clients. 

Modern receipt management software makes it easy to track, save, and organize client receipts digitally. This prevents lost receipts for clients and for you — so you have the resources necessary to keep good books, help clients remain tax compliant, and even become a trustworth advisory partner in risk management, budgeting, forecasting, and deeper planning and coaching.

Key Receipt Tracker Features to Shop For

New to receipt management? Once you’re ready to invest, put these key capabilities on your shopping list to make sure the software you choose is up to snuff:  

Simple receipt upload: Critically, clients of course need to be able to send you receipts. Most modern software will let them digitize receipts by scanning them or snapping a photo. It’s paramount that this process has as few steps as possible, or clients will avoid it and receipts will pile up and get lost.

Keeper’s practice management software features uncomplicated receipt management (in beta). Clients can use it to upload files into your branded Client Portal or simply email or text them to your firm, which will cause them to automatically populate in your Keeper client uploads inbox.

Fast scanning: Receipt management software has to read uploaded receipts so that it can understand the data and help you categorize each transaction. When you have even a handful of clients, you want this process to be as quick as possible. With Keeper, it takes just a matter of seconds.

Automated, smart processing and posting: Attaching the right vendors, dates, categories, locations, and other details to each transaction can be a full time job. So can lining up your client ledger with the transactions you just added, making it important to look for software that helps with this. Keeper uses AI, transaction history, and rules that you yourself create to help you process, match, and post accurate yet fast transactions.

Integration with your other accounting tools: OK, now you get to go enter all that same information into QuickBooks! Well, unless you’re using Keeper. Once a transaction is posted, you’ll see a button appear that you can use to open it right inside of QuickBooks. No need to duplicate work or get slowed down switching between workplace apps constantly. (Support for Xero coming soon!)

Open communication: Questions often arise during this process. You could start a new email thread, send a text with little context, or embark upon a never-ending phone call with that one chatty client. Or, you could just use Keeper and post a question inside the accounting portal you and your client are already using to ensure you get a timely, relevant answer.

Ease of use: You don’t want to take the time to teach clients — or your employees — yet another system (nor do you want to pay for it). In fact, 88% of top-performing client advisory services (CAS) firms use just three or fewer general ledger (G/L) software programs. They know it’s more efficient, more affordable, and better for your service offerings to stick to just a few platforms that deliver on all of your needs.

This may keep you away from adopting a simple receipt tracking tool. However, Keeper receipt management is integrated right into the Client Portal where you’re already working and communicating every day, so your clients and team already know how to use it and won’t even have to leave the bookkeeping app to access it.

Security: Data security is of course key in a receipt manager that’s going to have access to all kinds of client data. Since Keeper is already an established accounting platform and not a free-standing receipt tracking app, we take security seriously and have various systems in place to keep data protected and private.

Streamline Expense Management with Modern Receipt Organization

Sure, receipt management is a bit of necessary evil in accounting — but it can also be used to your strategic advantage.

By embracing receipt organization strategies as well as smart receipt management tooling that’s already integrated into modern bookkeeping software, you can save time on receipt wrestling and spend more of it building the advisory relationship today’s clients have come to crave. 

Schedule a demo soon and get access to Keeper’s AI-powered receipt management at a discounted price. 

The post Drowning in Client Receipts? How to Choose a Receipt Manager appeared first on Keeper.