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Great article, Bobby.
We have a Trello-type system too. Putting it on a screen where everyone can see it (rather than checking it on your own PC) is a great idea. We have an old monitor which could do the job!
thanks Cardigan, thats great to hear. I've even seen people re-purpose the customary white board with hand drawn columns and it works well.
The science around the team huddled around the board together is to promote team work and the sense of 'we're all in this together'. It also forces people to share what they're doing and what they need support with.
I've also used apps such as Appear.in and Zoom if you're working with an outsourced/remote team where you can share your screen and switch on the laptop camera, it's the next best thing to being there in person. Enjoy and let me know how you get on. Bobby.
Very interesting observation, Bobby. Are there simple ways to integrate a generic "kanban" style system (like Trello) into existing practice management solutions (and does this Paddington firm use other PM tools) or would you recommend using a PM solution that is itself based on kanban principles?
Fantastic post Bobby.
Although we use PM software, we use it mainly for CRM billing and timesheets. We dont really use the deadlines module as its not very versatile, and the workflow module is harder to use than doing the job itself.
So I'd like to start a shared spreadsheet for deadlines.
Would a deadlines spreadsheet be separate from a Trello chart or could it be integrated?
Thanks Yaakovgrant, Its a very good question re:Google sheets/shared spreadsheet for deadline mgt and I've come across this many times with firms. Whilst it solves the pain of job awareness and management within a firm its not as effective to use as something like Trello. Here is a list of some differences I've observed when faced with Shared spreadsheet vs Trello question-
* you can quickly lose control with spreadsheets. your team WILL end up adding additional 'phases' which will make life difficult when managing the workflow. Phases such as 'Called client but didn't pick up the phone' is one such example.
* Collaboration in Trello is very good. You can literally add specific people to specific jobs so they understand what they personally have to do which helps immensely. The chat functional and alerts too are fantastic in trello.
* Mobile app for Trello is great. you get alerts on your phone/email when there is movement on a job or when you have added a comment.
* Its made for project management. So a job may have multiple smaller aspects to it, trello allows you to create sub tasks within a job card whilst looking neat and not too overwhelming.
I'm sure there are others but I hope this helps. P.s Trello is free to use, just sign up and play with a demo 'board' and see if it works for you.
Cheers, Bobby
ok, points (2) - (4) have won me over! As my firm says to me about Xero "are you on commission for Trello?" :)
Looking forward to seeing the pics, as sign up and play usually convinces just me, as you need some foresight to visualise the fully populated/ functioning version.
Is the free to use version fully functional?
hahaha I wish I was on commission from them. It's just a great tool to use. It's free and its fully functional for the needs I've encountered.
I've made the example board public and visible to all - https://trello.com/b/qyiMOSrG
You can make a copy of this rough and ready board I created and start populating your own info. Enjoy and let me know how you get on. Cheers, Bobby
hey Charlie, this particular firm uses Iris with the tax / stat / open docs modules and they pull the job list from Iris and then enter it in to Trello. I have yet to come across a good practice mgt solution which allows the flexibility of Trello with all the modules of tax / stats etc built in.
I've also seen firms who simply use Trello or similar kanban style software whilst using Taxfiler/VT for their tax and stat accounts. You can simply add a card with a due date in trello (which in effect is the job you want to call in at X date). You can then allocate your colleagues to the job (job mgt) and then seek updates and collaboration around the progress of the job (workflow mgt).
For you, I recommend using Trello or QBOA (which recently started to look more like Trello) but doesnt yet have the flexibility of Trello. If you get the time, check out the trello integrations too.
Cheers, Bobby
Thanks, Bobby. Great advice. I was discussing the new QBOA kanban workflow option with my staff today.
I am an aging accountant with one employee, my wife, who does the admin. For many years we have used a simple 24 x 68 T-card system on the wall of her office - each slot is one client with four coloured T cards.
The T-cards display just the name on each:
white, nothing from client yet; yellow, books-in; orange, work in progress; green, all done. We only have around 70 clients now.
Dead simple, no electronic complexity, no upgrades, on-going costs nil. We can stand together in front of the display, the whole client base on view, and chat through who or what's next best to do. It gives an instant WIP picture and visual sense of where you are as the whites turn to yellow then to orange then to green. And therefore often an instant prompt to contact a client.
Frequently we'll call a client there and then as we're looking at the board; perhaps they've promised something, or we need just a simple bit of info to turn an orange into green. I wouldn't change it for an e-system of any kind.
Hi accountsman, what you describe is fantastic. I've seen some firms draw columns on their whiteboards too and use coloured magnets from Amazon to indicate exactly what youe coloured cards do. It doesn't haven't to be hi-tech but just understanding the WIP with in your case colour indicators is also a great way to manage jobs and workflow. Thanks for sharing,
Bobby
Thanks Bobby, very interesting article.
Shame I can't see the detail of the trello boards you have included as examples
Hi there, yup Richard from AccWeb has just asked me for a high quality version of the images. I'll update the pics shortly. Thanks for your comment, Bobby
I'm not in practice but this is a great article and the advice can be adapted for other areas too.