Art of Accounting: Invest time to save time

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Sometimes spending a little more time on something will save a lot more time later on or reduce the stress level for those involved with that project. I look at many of these opportunities as investments. Here are some ways to spend more time now to save time later, reduce pressure and even make some more money.

Train on the go: As soon as you catch an error, have it corrected by the staff person, and then have them go over everything similar they already worked on that has not yet been reviewed and have them fix it. This takes time, but it will improve the quality of all of their future work while reducing errors, review time, and excessive handling and touches. You can invest the time training now or incur the cost to perpetually fix substandard work later.

Train before you go: All new procedures, systems, software or equipment needs training. The training could be done in a short session before you start using it or in bits and pieces, under pressure, trying to fix an error to get something completed. Taking the time before you start will be the least time you will spend and a good investment.

Train the basics: A tip is to set up a short training session for new staff on the basic software we all take for granted — Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, Adobe Acrobat, web browsers and whatever nontechnical software your staff is expected to use regularly. Invest in creating a one-hour training program and have someone give it to all new staff. For those who do not think this is necessary, here are three questions for you to see if you know how to do it: 1) Do you know to never put a total on a column without having a blank row before you add a total? 2) Do you know how to add a window on your computer screen that exactly duplicates and is fully interactive with a Word file you are working on? 3) Do you know how to edit and add comments to an Adobe file? If you do not know how to do these three tasks, then what about this and everything else your staff does for you?

Supervise what you assign: Your goal should be to make sure your staff are doing the right thing the right way and getting it done at the right time. This takes time to check in, review the in-progress work, and make sure the work is on target. The level and type of supervision should be geared to each staff person, and you should establish techniques that give you a handle on what each is doing. You can spend the time in small time clusters, with easy reviews while moving the work forward or with much more time fixing the work that was not done the way you wanted it to be done with much less forward motion.

Get with the “new”: Digitization processes are rapidly overtaking routine (and not so routine) services staff perform. If you are not adopting these systems, you are seriously falling behind, and the danger is you are likely completely unaware of this. When you finally realize this, it will be too late. Just four examples are the pervasive browser ads and popups, GPS alerts about traffic patterns with detours, transcribed and summarized meeting notes and phone messages, and the chatbots when you ask for help on your computer. Get with the “new.”

Look for trends and changes in patterns: Really look around and see the changes in “everything.” Spend a little extra time walking around a bookstore and the magazine section (I noticed a decided shift in the magazine topics and cover stories). Stroll through a mall, observe the employees in a retail store and see if they are trying to be helpful. Are they annoyed when you ask them a question while they are chatting with the other employees? Look at the adequacy of the inventory; or the long lines of customers waiting to pay for their self-service purchases. Then compare that to the online experience of buying the same items. I recently tried to buy a $200 pair of sneakers and got no help in three stores. I ended up buying it online with next-day delivery included for no extra charge.

Mayflower Coffee Shops: There used to be a small chain of coffee shops in Manhattan that had a sign that read: “As you wander on through life, brother, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the donut and not upon the hole.” Do you wander and look up and around, or wander and look down at your next step? Look around. Spend some extra time; it will be amazing what you’ll see. If you never wander, then start!

Make the investment in time and awareness!

Comment: My Memoirs as a CPA book has been published and is available in Kindle and print editions at Amazon.com. Buy it, read it and enjoy it!

Do not hesitate to contact me at emendlowitz@withum.com with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.