Practice Development News
Because every business needs to keep score. 		October 2006
In this issue

 


 
Be Your Clients' Most Valuable Player
 
The accounting professional has always been seen as a business advisor - a trusted partner that understands the conditions that impact business performance. This advisor not only reports on the business performance, but may make recommendations or judgments on certain situations or processes that are key to the business model. Leveraging your direct participation in your clients' financial systems can be a very successful component of practice building - mining out other opportunities that may exist in current client engagements.

In some cases, your clients will want to process their own bookkeeping in-house. Rather than taking a hands- off approach to these clients, engage them by providing training or consulting services to support their in-house bookkeeping.

If your firm provides real-time guidance and reviews, the quality of the financial information is far better and requires less work to adjust and report. Ultimately, saving your client time and money will reward your practice with more opportunity to engage the client in other efforts.



 
Coaching Opportunities
 
Your business clients may require business loans. In many cases, you can help your client get that loan, but possibly on more favorable terms with your direct involvement.

Consider the additional strength that you bring to your client business through your direct access to their accounting and financial data. With you in control, the bank can be better assured as to the quality of the financial data, and may be further assured that certain loan covenants would be protected through your controllership.



  See You in Vegas!
 

 
Keeping Score in the Business
There are only a few fundamentals when it comes to business applications. Every business needs to communicate, so messaging solutions (like email, fax technology, voice services) are critical to the business. And every business produces information, so productivity applications (such as word processing, spreadsheets and presentation graphics) are important. And every business needs to keep score. A business fundamental, accounting and finance software becomes a core requirement for any and every business, regardless of size or complexity. If you don't keep an accurate score, how are you going to know when you win? Or, more importantly, how do you know if you're losing?
Closing for the Win

 

Calling the Right Play
The trend for small business accounting is outsourcing - sending the work to a professional who has the time and the knowledge to properly account for the business activities. The only problem with this approach is that the business owner frequently loses touch with this key business information while it is in the hands of the accountant or bookkeeper. Anyone who has delivered the monthly work to their professional, only to receive it back some time during the following month, understands what it means to be out of touch with the business numbers.

 
The better way is collaboration in real-time. Through the use of Internet technologies and online applications, the professional and the business owner are able to work together on the numbers, ensuring that the data is accurate, complete, and recorded in a timely manner. With online access to QuickBooks Pro, for example, the accountant and the small business owner can work closer in "keeping score" on the business. The close working relationship afforded with the online application service allows the professional to increase efficiency and effectiveness in processing the client information. And more efficiency often means more time - time to review the information, consult with the owner, and help keep the business on target and moving towards their goal.
Score for the business with hosted QuickBooks

 

Avoiding Penalties
Any business that uses computers and technology resources has a requirement (and a responsibility) to properly manage those resources. Many small business owners do not completely understand the critical nature of their business technology because it has never experienced a severe failure. If they haven't lost their data because of a bad backup tape, then they may not understand the impact the loss would have to their business.

 
Your position and relationship with your client allows you to discuss such potential impacts to the business, and how they might be mitigated. Implementing anti- virus protections, or automatic backup services can be key business continuity and recovery solutions for you to offer your client. Consider how valuable your advice would be if your client did have a network crash, yet all their data was safe and sound in a secure site? How about using j2 services to provide failover for the telephone services? The office is still operating if it can receive faxes and voicemails. And the e-Accounting online system provides access to all your messages - any time, anywhere.
Be An Advisor to Your Client

 

Touchdown for Small Business: Google Apps and Microsoft Live
There is quite a buzz in the industry about the new, free application services for business that are being offered by Microsoft and Google. From Microsoft, it's the "Live" line of services, and from Google it's "Google Apps for My Domain". While the Google moniker may be a bit cumbersome to say, the service being offered is quite good when you consider that it's free.

 
Recognizing that messaging and communication are business fundamentals, Google has created a nifty new line of applicaiton services that offer this resource in way that truly benefits small business. The Google service isn't just about email, it's also about bringing individuals together to work and collaborate. The service can even be branded for your company, so your business logo displays on the screen instead of Google's.

 
With the Google system, as well as with the Microsoft "Live" system, a company can create email accounts and a website easily and quickly for use in the business. Both services allow for domain naming (in fact, both services are oriented towards the use of YOUR domain name, not Microsoft, MSN, or Google). And both systems offer a feature previously not easily obtained with "generic" email services: real-time calendar sharing.

 
Calendar sharing was once the domain of enterprise email systems, such as Microsoft Exchange and Novell Groupwise. Now the options have increased, and the price points have dropped dramatically (like, to nothing). If you're looking for simple business email, shared calendars, and an easy way to manage your website and web presence, you should check out these two new services. And remember - the e-Accounting virtual desktop includes an Internet browser, so your web-basesd applications and services can be run from the virtual as well as your local PC, giving you the seamless, anytime anywhere business model you've been looking for. Affordably.
Contact e-Accounting to get more information

 

Tailgate Party in Las Vegas!
InsynQ e-Accounting will be an exhibitor at The Sleeter Group’s annual QuickBooks Consultant’s Conference November 7-10, 2006 in Las Vegas, NV. The event will be held at the Tuscany Suites Hotel and Casino.

 
The conference will bring together QuickBooks experts, Intuit representatives, QuickBooks software developers and QuickBooks Consultants from across the nation. Attending the conference will empower you to strengthen your networking relationships, help you make smarter and more strategic investments in technology, and help you best leverage the industry’s most advanced QuickBooks and accounting software and services. Jim Torpey will be in the e-Accounting booth to answer your questions and provide demonstrations of our solutions and services.
Come Visit Jim in Vegas (and bring coffee!)

 
practice development news | 2006