2005 Sleeter Group Conference

Innovative Ways to Leverage Your Business

Working close with your clients using e-Accounting online solutions can help you increase efficiency and profitability of your client engagements. But the benefits are not exclusively for the accountant in being able to access the client applications and data without the travel time typically associated with client bookkeeping. The benefits can translate directly to the client business and, in many cases, solve problems for which there is no other cost-effective solution available.

e-Accounting Solutions provide a new level of freedom for the business owner through greater flexibility in accessing the financial records at any time and from any location. Just as e-Accounting solutions allow you to access your client applications and data when you need to, so it is for the business owner as well. Rather than reviewing the books at the office at night, the owner can now review and analyze their financial data whenever they need to from any location. From home, while on vacation... the owner is not tied to the local network or to a single location in order to access the accounting data.

The holidays are here! As you get ready for winter and all of its festivities, consider what you could do to simplify your business processes. This is the perfect time of year to experience always-on technology and remote access so you can spend less time in the office and more time with your family.

e-Accounting was pleased to have been a sponsor at this year's Sleeter QuickBook's Consultants Conference in Las Vegas. We met many of our peers and were able to participate in roundtable discussions about online accounting technologies. The main attendees of the show were QuickBooks consultants, but we found the content of the conference to be beneficial for all accounting professionals.

Being a certified QuickBooks consultant allows accounting professionals to better serve their clients and also introduces new lines of revenue. It is a way to increase the value of your services, as well as put you in a position to grow your business.

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.  

Banking- 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.

Bookkeeper Training- 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