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Drowning by numbers

5th Dec 2014
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Not the film – me!

My practice has been pretty busy from very early on, initially consultancy formed the bulk of my income while I built up the compliance based work. This gradually reduced as I took on more and more accounts and tax work.

It got to the point (about 2 years ago) that the consultancy work stopped altogether.

Fee income has remained relatively constant – most clients pay monthly, so often I’ve been paid in full before I have prepared annual accounts and CT returns.

And therein lies the problem – clients I took on 6-12 months ago now need annual accounts doing (by me) which I didn’t have to do last year. So each month there’s 1-2 extra sets of accounts and tax returns needed. On top of an already full workload this is at times is a bit much.

This started to creep up on me in September and since October has started to feel like an issue. No complaints from clients but I haven’t been comfortable with the amount of work which isn’t getting done as quickly as I would like.

This is then compounded (yes even further!) by having to act as purchasing manager for the building work going on at Chez KA which usually involves daily visits/phone calls to builders merchants and tradesmen.  

So I’ve got an increasing workload and decreasing productivity. Aaarrrggghhh!!

My solution (I think?!)

1.    Make more use of Mrs KA and her sister (both have bookkeeping qualifications) to do bookkeeping and accounts prep work for the more straight forward clients. Should also be able to pass more challenging work to them after a while.

2.    Sack PITA clients.

3.    Start quoting higher fees for new prospects (don’t know why really? – maybe to discourage clients I otherwise wouldn’t say no too and perhaps allow me to pass more lower level/less profitable work to Mrs KA and sis).

4.    Make better use of my time.

5.    Anything else I can think of which sounds workable.

I won’t outsource work – I’ve tried that to a couple of other bookkeepers and wasn’t happy with the quality of the work.

I don’t want to grow the practice to something which involves having to employ ‘proper’ staff. I’ve worked in businesses where I’ve had to manage up to 20+ staff and I don’t want to go there again, not even a little bit.

Yes I know from now until 1 February would be pretty hectic without the above (and yes I will take a week off at Christmas) but I need to get a better structure in place to stop this happening again.

So it will be a combination of the above points and any ideas others can share with me.

Glennzy, this one is for you ;) – you gave a kick up the ‘arris so I thought I’d post

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Replies (31)

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By petersaxton
05th Dec 2014 17:45

Cloud accounting?

Can you get more clients onto cloud accounting like Clear Books?

If you "make better use of your time" - wouldn't we all like to do that? - and work longer hours for a few months you may be in a position to switch more clients over to cloud accounting.

Using family members seems like a good idea.

I've promised myself that from April I will get all work done within a couple of days of receiving it even if it involves ridiculously long hours. This should reduce stress IF I can achieve it.

What software do you use?

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
05th Dec 2014 18:15

Cloud

Hi Peter, I do use cloud accounting where appropriate. I prefer Xero, I find it easier to use and more user friendly for clients.

Quite a few others are on VT.

A few still use Sage (unfortunately).

Others use spreadsheets and I have one (whose records are excellent) who keeps manual hand written cash books.

Family - yes good solution for me, I can trust them, I know the work quality will be good and if they don't understand something they'll ask. Just starting to increase the amount of work they do and it seems to be working well.

It may just be that I need to cap the number of clients if I want to keep my business in the form I want.

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By petersaxton
05th Dec 2014 18:28

Software for year end accounts and tax

What software do you use for year end accounts and company and personal tax?

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
05th Dec 2014 18:30

Ah

VT for accounts

BTC for Tax

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By ShirleyM
05th Dec 2014 18:39

Great. :)

Two of my favourites back on the same day.

Keep up the blogging, KA. 

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By petersaxton
05th Dec 2014 18:40

Software

If you are happy with them that's fine.

I used to use Excel and Word to produce accounts and tax. In 2004 I changed to Digita and saved a massive amount of time. The time and fees is fantastic at working out profitability effortlessly. You need to work out profitability per client as fees is only part of what is important.

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By petersaxton
05th Dec 2014 18:53

One more for a hat trick

We just need FT now!

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By chatman
05th Dec 2014 19:03

Does the bookkeeping involve any inputting?

Does the bookkeeping involve inputting receipts and invoices? If so, have you considered Receipt-Bank?

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By Moonbeam
05th Dec 2014 20:02

Advice I get from my marketing guru(s) -

Put up your fees A LOT. This will sadly put off some very nice clients who are no trouble, but if your goal is to earn a reasonable amount of money and still have a life it is the best option. I can see you are starting to think along these lines anyway.

If you know someone you could recommend to those clients who wouldn't be able to pay the new fees, that's a way to make it easier to smooth their passage.

You will keep the clients who need much more of your experience and brainpower - assuming their businesses are growing. That will enable you to use your consultancy skills without overstretching yourself. You will have more time to spend with them, and that's when you will generate even more work from them. 

You are very much an entrepreneur yourself, so you know it makes sense. It is easier to say than do, however.

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Replying to DJKL:
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By MissAccounting
08th Dec 2014 13:00

Mumbo jumbo

Moonbeam wrote:

Put up your fees A LOT. This will sadly put off some very nice clients who are no trouble, but if your goal is to earn a reasonable amount of money and still have a life it is the best option. I can see you are starting to think along these lines anyway.

If you know someone you could recommend to those clients who wouldn't be able to pay the new fees, that's a way to make it easier to smooth their passage.

You will keep the clients who need much more of your experience and brainpower - assuming their businesses are growing. That will enable you to use your consultancy skills without overstretching yourself. You will have more time to spend with them, and that's when you will generate even more work from them. 

You are very much an entrepreneur yourself, so you know it makes sense. It is easier to say than do, however.

 

I personally take all of these "gurus" with a pinch of salt!  If they were that good at telling people what to do then surely they would be multi millionaires by now?  

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
By petersaxton
08th Dec 2014 13:09

As usual

MissAccounting wrote:

Moonbeam wrote:

Put up your fees A LOT. This will sadly put off some very nice clients who are no trouble, but if your goal is to earn a reasonable amount of money and still have a life it is the best option. I can see you are starting to think along these lines anyway.

If you know someone you could recommend to those clients who wouldn't be able to pay the new fees, that's a way to make it easier to smooth their passage.

You will keep the clients who need much more of your experience and brainpower - assuming their businesses are growing. That will enable you to use your consultancy skills without overstretching yourself. You will have more time to spend with them, and that's when you will generate even more work from them. 

You are very much an entrepreneur yourself, so you know it makes sense. It is easier to say than do, however.

I personally take all of these "gurus" with a pinch of salt!  If they were that good at telling people what to do then surely they would be multi millionaires by now?  

As usual, very sensible opinions from Miss Accounting.

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
08th Dec 2014 15:21

Guru's

MissAccounting wrote:

Moonbeam wrote:

Put up your fees A LOT. This will sadly put off some very nice clients who are no trouble, but if your goal is to earn a reasonable amount of money and still have a life it is the best option. I can see you are starting to think along these lines anyway.

If you know someone you could recommend to those clients who wouldn't be able to pay the new fees, that's a way to make it easier to smooth their passage.

You will keep the clients who need much more of your experience and brainpower - assuming their businesses are growing. That will enable you to use your consultancy skills without overstretching yourself. You will have more time to spend with them, and that's when you will generate even more work from them. 

You are very much an entrepreneur yourself, so you know it makes sense. It is easier to say than do, however.

 

I personally take all of these "gurus" with a pinch of salt!  If they were that good at telling people what to do then surely they would be multi millionaires by now?  

Exactly

my personal opinion is to work smarter and more efficiently, though good systems  ie do the same job but in less time which improves

your hourly rate without the need to stick it up you client, as why should they pay unduly for your inefficient practices.

If these Guru's have indeed cracked it they would just say nowt and make all the cash themselves instead of touting it around as the new gospel.

 

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Kieran Phelan
By KPEM online
05th Dec 2014 20:58

client profiling
Sack the PITA "D" clients as soon as practical. Look at how to improve "C" clients and talk to them about what they need to do to fit your firm. Systematise the compliance work and allow bookkeepers to work the system to do more of the compliance work for you. Finally prioritise your "A" clients for higher value services and fees.

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
05th Dec 2014 20:59

Food for thought

@Peter - I use a simple spreadsheet to record time spent and use that to work out my recovery rate for each client. I've found this to be a very valuable tool, its made me realise:

 - that I don't work as many hours as I thought

 - that I have too much admin time

 - that my recovery rate per client is around 50% higher than I originally thought.

Recording time takes me around 5 minutes a day.

@ShirleyM :)

@Chatman - I have very few clients requiring bookkeeping data input. All of these bar 2 use Xero and everything there is accounted for via the bank feed - doesn't take too much time and I don't think receiptbank would save much if any time here.

@Moonbeam - thanks, yes putting fees up is happening. I don't think I'm cheap and I earn more now than I thought I would when I started, basically just working from home. Earning more isn't a big target, would be nice yes, but I think the main thing now is to take stock of where I am and decide how to go forward without putting too much pressure on myself.

Having Mrs KA and her sister capable of doing more would be great, perhaps this time next year they may be able to do all of the bookkeeping work I have and maybe the payroll - that's one thing I really don't like doing.

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Replying to Jennifer Adams:
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By chatman
06th Dec 2014 10:31

What is the bookkeeping work made up of KA?

Kent accountant wrote:
I have very few clients requiring bookkeeping data input.

So what is the bookkeeping work made up of?

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By jefflcbba
06th Dec 2014 01:23

Simple time management

1 Do what is important and urgent now!

2 Do what is important but not urgent as soon as possible!

3 Do what is urgent but not important if you really want to!

4 Ignore what is not urgent and not important!

 

Save 25% of your time.

:-)

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Replying to tladirect:
Routemaster image
By tom123
06th Dec 2014 13:24

To which I would add

jefflcbba wrote:

1 Do what is important and urgent now!

2 Do what is important but not urgent as soon as possible!

3 Do what is urgent but not important if you really want to!

4 Ignore what is not urgent and not important!

 

Save 25% of your time.

:-)

To this I would add - do your most hated task first, rather than let it hang over you. Reality will not be as hard as all the time spent stressing over it. In my case (albeit from and industry perspective) is dealing with the monthly credit card statement, and getting all the receipts off the staff. I turned it on it's head by posting the entries from a download, and getting the receipts in in dribs and drabs later. It used to be the one task that held up my month end close, now it is the first I get out of the way - together with a sense of (small) achievement.

Having just the 3 SA clients on top, I don't really have the same deadline pressure - but I still seem to end up doing the work this time of the year rather than much earlier. I recall reading from another regular poster that you should specify a deadline to your clients of (for example) November 30th, rather than just accepting the 31st Jan deadline decreed by HMRC.

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By petersaxton
06th Dec 2014 13:50

Time and fees

I agree that it doesn't take too long to work out profitability for all your clients using a spreadsheet but it's easier with Digita. You have an Outlook-type calendar screen and you select periods for jobs for each worker. This makes it less easy to miss time off. You raise invoices and they are allocated to jobs. Everything is easy to enter from drop down list. You then only need to run a report for a period and see the fees/costs/hours/profits for each job.

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By petersaxton
06th Dec 2014 17:46

Yes

What do you suggest? I just give up!?

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By User deleted
06th Dec 2014 18:32

No ...

... not at all, I am the same, every February I say right, this year ...

It is not the work, it is the admin and other non-productive time that wrecks the week.

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By petersaxton
06th Dec 2014 18:48

Exactly

Today I met a new client and had a three hour meeting going through everything and what was needed.

Then I watched football and I'm due to go out for a meal.

The days gone!!!

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
06th Dec 2014 19:05

a good problem to have.

think about all those accountants who will be going hungry this xmas.

Good to see your blog again.

look at the positives,

Your building work wont always be ongoing so that's time you will get back once its done.

you also have the support of your wife and family - what could be better.

Have you thought about an integrated solution for your practice management software.

I started off with full integrated suite for a only 10 or  clients which was more than I needed and more costly than I needed but knew It would handle growth without issue.

I prefer being too busy as it irons out the time wasting and inefficient practices that creep in when quieter.

January is the worst month of the year to be busy in as I lack motivation following Xmas holidays

I think its HMRC way of getting back at us.

 

 

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By petersaxton
06th Dec 2014 19:41

Busy?

There's "busy" and "BUSY"!

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
06th Dec 2014 22:06

Nice to see you blogging again KA
I don't think I can add much that I haven't already said.

Getting rid of PITA clients frees up a lot of time. It is said 80% of your hassle (and wasted time) will come from 20% of your clients, which I can quite believe. So get rid of the worst offenders in that 20%.

I've got rid of my 3 biggest time wasters this year - one still hadn't given me his SA records 5 months after the deadline, another wanted me to do some dodgy accounting to encourage shareholders to invest more and the other one I upped the price by 50% and they went.

Definitely increase your prices for the new clients and give big increases to any where you think they may be consuming too much of your valuable time.

So much for our friend Bob saying compliance is dying! It is alive and well and will be around for a few more years yet.

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
06th Dec 2014 23:11

Thanks all

Plenty of great input and lots to think about.

@Peter - I'm definitely BUSY ;)

Probably time for me to restrict the types of clients I work with  - exclude a few types - perhaps type/quality of records as well as business type (I already do this but perhaps not enough).

@Chatman - bookkeeping - most of it involves reconciling the bank account in Xero - posting entries direct from there rather than inputting the invoice and then matching the payment. I will look to pass this all over to Mrs KA and sis. This will probably save me more time than I realise - will just take time for the transition.

@Glennzy/Peter - I did look at an integrated solution a couple of years ago - I was all set to move to Iris, the problem was they never returned my phone calls or emails :( perhaps it was a blessing?

Perhaps I could revisit this in the New Year.

@Locutus - yep compliance is King (perhaps another blog title?) - so many of my decent clients want just that - if I tried to tell them how to run their business they'd show me the door. Fine interpret their accounts for them but to be their 'business growth advisor' - nah.

Not saying some don't want this, just that most don't. 

And yes,  I have been working this evening - anything to avoid the reality sh*te on telly tonight!

 

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By petersaxton
06th Dec 2014 23:42

Digita

"@Glennzy/Peter - I did look at an integrated solution a couple of years ago - I was all set to move to Iris, the problem was they never returned my phone calls or emails :( perhaps it was a blessing?

Perhaps I could revisit this in the New Year."

I'd recommend you try Digita this time.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
07th Dec 2014 13:24

I would also recommend Digita
It's very good and I am hoping to get my desk clear in February and put some time getting the absolute most of it including full paperless setup.

Compliance work will always make up the core of what we do and it's what pays the bills. I have a few "going places clients" that I am putting time with growing the business but the compliance work pays the bills.

There will be plenty of compliance work to see me out (I'm 43 now)

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Replying to Accountant A:
Red Leader
By Red Leader
08th Dec 2014 10:32

ration new client meetings

When contacted by a prospect who wants to meet, ration the meeting slots.

For example, if you're very busy this week, say you can't meet them until next week / early Jan / whatever. This is a slightly better message than "I'm not taking on new clients"

When I was using telemarketing for new clients, I would often find the workload getting too much. I would then tell the TM people not to book any more meetings until the workload was under control again.

Finally, I suspect you are apprehensive about stopping taking on new clients. There is always the worry that it will dry up. That was my fear when I stopped TM 6 years ago. Turned out to be a completely unfounded fear. You have enough contacts to provide sufficient new work when you need it.

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By chatman
08th Dec 2014 10:55

I recommend VT and BTC and TaxCalc

I would NOT recommend Digita. I have used Digita, VT, TaxCalc and BTC and I think you are better off with what you've got - VT and BTC. They have saved mea lot of money and hours of my life.

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Replying to unearned luck:
By petersaxton
08th Dec 2014 15:50

Chatman

chatman wrote:

I would NOT recommend Digita. I have used Digita, VT, TaxCalc and BTC and I think you are better off with what you've got - VT and BTC. They have saved mea lot of money and hours of my life.

I've never understood your reasons for not liking Digita.

You said you couldn't import a trial balance into Digita Accounts Production but I don't know anybody else who has had a problem doing that.

Topics Covered:

How can I import a trial balance from Excel / CSV into Accounts Production?

Description:

Importing a CSV posting document

1. It is essential that the CSV file is in the following format:

            Column A         Column B                  Column C             Column D

Row A Nominal Code    Nominal Description     Debit Entries           Credit Entries

2. In the client in question, click on the Posting tab

3. Go to the Import button and select CSV Balances

4. Choose the saved CSV file

5. Under the Sheet options either choose Import code balances as a single sheet if you want to merge totals for each code or Import as separate sheet if you would like a separate line for each entry in the spreadsheet

 

6. Map VAT codes if prompted

7. Map Nominal codes

8. It is possible to save this mapping of the imported to the Accounts Production codes for any future imports. Simply click on Save Map in the bottom right.

 

9. Click ok twice

10. The document should now have imported into the Posting tab

 

 

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By chatman
08th Dec 2014 16:23

Why Digita is so awful

@Peter- I haven't used Digita for a long time now, but here is a list of things I remember. I appreciate these things were not problems for you, but they were for me and, in the case of the backups, for others too. I appreciate the instructions for importing a TB are simple, but they frequently didn't for me. I remember the fist time I mentioned this, you said that you didn't mind inputting the TB; that is fine for you but many people prefer to save the time by importing.

I must say the amount of times I had to call the Digita help line was enormous, and I have hardly ever had to call the help lines for the other tax and accountancy programmes I have used (except Quick Books). To be fair, the help line stuff were always very good and charming, but you just shouldn't have to call them that much.

I make these comments having used Digita, VT, TaxCalc and BTC, which I think is very important if you are making recommendations. I am not saying Digita doesn't work, simply that the other products of which I have experience are superior (and much cheaper - have they got prices on their web site yet?).

Anyway, here's my list.

General

Help desk much more difficult to get hold of than at beginning, when I first tried out the products.Backups were always more complicated than with any other product. At one point Digita even sent out an email, saying that some clients had failed to back up their data when they thought they had been doing so.The requirement for MSSQL always made installation a lot more long winded and provided another level of technology to go wrong. I remember one time I had a problem with MSSQL that stopped every Digita product working.

Accounts Pro

Windows very small, and cannot maximise, even though very little information fits in the window (eg when posting).  Often there are two accounts which look right, but you cannot see that one of them is in the wrong category.Names of accounts cause problem: for example if you are looking for where to post your Plant & Machinery costs, you will find some of them under Plant & Machinery, and others under P&M; when you find the first of these, it does not occur to you to look in another section of the chart of accounts.No quick and simple way of analysing balances shown in accounts (eg Social security and other taxes in Creditors < 1 yr note)After updates, you are always confronted by messages saying there is an issue with your chart of accounts, necessitating a call to the help desk.Importing a TB never worked first time; it always took several goes. It was a long time ago but I seem to remember there was often a problem with leading zeros, or absence thereof.

CoTax Pro

Unavailability of on-line filing for a brief period, causing me to have to file by post.  I nearly missed a deadline because of this.Deferred Tax costs extra.

Taxability Pro

Dividend feed costs extra, but you are not told that until you buy the product.They sold a personal tax product but withheld functionality that appears to be standard in TaxCalc and BTC for business accounts. They then sold a separate product called Business Tax which had this functionality. Their web site hid this. I raised it on AWeb, you raised it with Digita and they changed it. You interpreted this is being willing to correct their errors; I interpreted it as getting caught out and then hiding the evidence.

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