Project Management Tips to Impress Bookkeeping Clients

Everyone knows the feeling of dread that hits when you realize you missed an important deadline or failed to remind your client of something they were supposed to fill out. Your firm’s ability to keep projects on track has a direct impact on what your clients think of you and whether or not they continue to do business with you.  

The easier you make it for them to get you what’s needed and fulfill their part of the client-bookkeeper relationship, the more likely they are to appreciate your services and stick around as a client.

Here are a few of our top tips for improving the way your firm manages its client projects to ensure they continue to run smoothly: 

Use email notifications without overdoing it  

We all get plenty of emails each day. Research indicates that the average office worker receives over 120 emails per day. That’s a lot of correspondence to sift through, especially when you add in time for actual work!  

No one is actively looking to get more email sent to their inbox. However, a well-timed email notification can help remind your clients that a certain project milestone is coming up, or that they need to send you a signed document by a specific date. 

The key here is finding the right balance. You probably don’t want to be sending clients multiple notification emails every day, but you should be able to figure out a good cadence that works for both your firm operations and your clients. Think about when your clients might be most receptive to receiving these kinds of emails—it doesn’t have to be during peak business hours. 

Plan in advance but stay flexible 

While all types of businesses need some type of bookkeeping, most bookkeeping service providers aren't able to handle every single kind of service for every single kind of client. A typical firm specializes in a handful of project types, allowing them to become well acquainted with these projects and their complexities. 

Your firm should be using this experience to your advantage. Before the project even starts, you can explain to your clients what will be involved, and which milestones happen at what point of the engagement. Showing foresight in this way is a great step to get ahead of project management and impress your clients—just don’t let knowing what usually happens make you so rigid that you can’t deal with unexpected occurrences or change requests from the client.  

Even the same kind of project for the same kind of client can have some degree of deviation from the normal bookkeeping firm workflows. Your clients should feel that you are prepared yet still able to make adjustments, if necessary. 

Keep good records to reference 

Many bookkeeping firms handle clients on long-term projects that span several months or years. On a typical project, there’s a lot of correspondence across several channels during this timeframe. While we’d like to think we do a good job of documenting all the most critical elements, the truth is it’s easy to lose important information in the everyday whirlwind of tasks, communications and deadlines. 

Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on human memory and attention to detail to recall this important information.  

Technology has made it much less challenging to keep detailed records of all kinds of meetings, from in-person to virtual. Many communication platforms already have robust features for transcription and even notetaking.  

For example, starting this year premium Microsoft Teams users now have access to AI meeting recaps that can transcribe and summarize Teams meetings. More automation of recordkeeping means you can keep better logs of what happened in the past, which will impress clients and prevent any misunderstandings in the future. 

Implement efficient software tools without overwhelming 

The world of bookkeeping software has exploded over the last decade. There are multiple options on the market for almost any kind of task or project you can imagine. And while many of these platforms do provide benefits to firms and their clients, technology can become a burden if there’s too much of it. 

Your clients are probably already used to using software for other services in their lives, from personal tasks like buying groceries to other professional vendors they work with. Most people are so inundated with apps and software that using a comprehensive platform like a bookkeeping practice management software suite would impress clients with its simplicity and reach. 

The right platform can handle all sorts of important bookkeeping actions, from generating secure forms and invoices to facilitating secure file sharing. Take time to select a software suite that makes sense for both your firm’s operations and your clients and you’ll find that a well-managed digital workflow becomes a powerful contributor to overall client success at your bookkeeping firm. 

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