Accountancy practice management software has come a long way. Today, features like automated billing and reconciliations are easily integrated into the day-to-day practice workflow of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK customers.

Our employees work side by side with our customers to create and manage these solutions – driven by a deep understanding of their needs and addressing the rapid changes in their environment.

However, it’s often hard to look beyond improving performance in day-to-day operations. Amid Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptions, accountancy practices and their clients are dealing with an unpredictable economic landscape. Future business planning can appear daunting.

However, technology can support accountancy practices (and their clients) in making informed business decisions, and planning for the future. In the first part of our Accountancy Practice Management for Future-Fit Growth series, we’ll explore how they can use technology to define and easily track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Doing so gives practices closer control of performance tracking, and deeper insights that will inform strategic growth plans.
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Saving Time

For several decades, business technology platforms have enabled practices to track performance metrics that they have customised. This highlights areas that qualify for improvement and underpins strategic planning.

Contemporary technology, such as CCH KPI Monitoring, makes setting up KPIs faster and easier for accountancy practices than ever before. This is vital today. The current business landscape demands that firms assess and amend KPIs more frequently, based on fresh market variables. KPIs such as client retention rate and business time-to-recovery have become increasingly prominent performance indicators in the past year. If clunky technology makes KPI management difficult, practices have less time and insight to plan future growth.

Reducing Risk
CCH KPI Monitoring makes it far easier to track KPIs and report on them. This is fundamental in minimising risk. For example, if a KPI is set to track and escalate debt filtered by overdue dates, the ability to easily set alerts and automatically generate reports is critical to practice performance management.

Some practices are manually running monthly reports to measure KPIs. Others are running real-time reporting engines, a key feature of CCH KPI Monitoring. This latter solution allows practices to review essential data at any time – covering both performance management and compliance requirements. They can do so remotely or on-premise.

This means that firms can assess issues before they become problems, and thus act proactively. Real-time reporting is a true asset in building a future-fit practice.

The Proof is in the Practice
A number of Wolters Kluwer customers have been using CCH KPI Monitoring for several years now. Our customers look to us when they need to be right. Ryecroft Glenton has successfully integrated CCH KPI Monitoring with its own system. This consolidates information from several sources, including CCH Central and CCH Practice Management.

“We can use the year end date to trigger a sequence of reminders. Have we asked for the books? Have they been received? If a request to a client has been outstanding for a certain period, the partner will receive an alert via email. For limited companies, we can monitor the corporation tax and Companies House filing deadlines – as well as the different deadlines for pension schemes”

– Ian Smith, partner at Ryecroft Glenton

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Achieving optimal resource management is a fundamental challenge for accountancy firms. Many have realised the value of centralising and strategically investing in this key business function. The aim is to unify people, processes, and software across service lines and/or locations to drive efficiency and maximise overall firm performance. However, there are some common myths and misconceptions around centralised resource management which could be holding others back.

In this article, Christine Robinson, Strategic Advisor to Dayshape and former Managing Director and Head of Resource Management at Baker Tilly US, unpicks these common misconceptions. Drawing on years of resource management expertise, she also shares how firms can reap the benefits of a centralised approach.

Centralised resource management means:

Myth 1: Loss of control over resourcing decisions
“We will have no say on which jobs our people are allocated to.”

False! Resource managers design their processes around the strategic priorities of the organisation and its leadership team. This typically involves connection points between the resource managers and trusted representatives from each part of the organisation, to ensure feedback from multiple angles is considered. A centralised model pulls all resource data into one system to provide a single source of truth. This provides greater insight for resource managers to make (and evidence) data-based decisions in line with the strategic objectives of the firm.

Myth 2: Individual skills and preferences won’t be accounted for
‍“Team members will be forced to work on things they don’t want to do.”

False! Solid resource management hinges on understanding the career aspirations of team members. That means resource managers make it their priority to know work preferences and ensure this information is considered when making staffing alignments. Resource managers have access to certifications, experience, skills, and preference data in one central system. This enables skills-based scheduling across the firm and allows resource managers to connect people with career-focused opportunities.

Myth 3: Maximising utilisation at all costs
“A singular focus on utilisation means staff burnout will be through the roof.”

False! Centralised resource management can improve workforce utilisation, however, that is just one of many data points considered when making staffing decisions. It is never the intention of resource managers to overburden their people. An optimal resource management strategy strives to improve staff engagement and retention by putting people at the heart of resourcing decisions. Ensuring utilisation is managed appropriately so that burnout doesn’t occur is a key part of this. Centralised resource management provides firm-wide visibility of overall resource utilisation, allowing resource managers to visualise capacity, prevent burnout, and improve the employee experience.

‍Myth 4: Automation will replace resource managers
“Resource managers will become obsolete.”

False! A centralised resource management strategy requires the right technology to succeed. However, this technology is designed to elevate the role of resource managers, not replace or devalue their expertise. By embracing automation, processes can be unified and streamlined across the firm. This means replacing hours of manual scheduling with more efficient and strategic planning. Used in the right way, automation has the power to enhance invaluable resource management capabilities.

‍Myth 5: Existing client knowledge and relationships will be lost
“Clients won’t have access to the experience and skills they need.”

False! A centralised strategy is designed to ensure clients have access to the right skills and experience at the right time. A centralised skills database is integral to matching the most suitable skills, qualifications, and experience to deliver the highest quality of work for clients. While proactively matchmaking, resource managers focus on educating themselves on requirements for roles and other client requests, such as continuity. Resource managers also leverage their knowledge of proficiency level to make strong matches and assemble the most qualified team for the project. Instead of ad hoc allocations based on local needs, short-term gains, or a first-come-first-served basis, resource centralisation prioritises projects across your full portfolio to deliver the best client results.

Adopting centralised resource management is a significant project for any firm, but a necessary step towards building a strategic and future-fit resourcing model. Exploring how modern technology can support and unify your processes while empowering your people is also vital to this. To better understand how people, process, and software come together under centralised resource management see Stage 4 in our Resource Management Maturity Model.

To learn more about elevating your resource management join Christine Robinson at Elevate: The Resource Management Conference on 17th September. Hosted by Dayshape, the conference will provide case studies and insights to turn your resource management into a force for growth.

Christine Robinson, Strategic Advisor to Dayshape and former Managing Director and Head of Resource Management at Baker Tilly US

Aug 2024

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