Effortless Accounting: Why Digital Transformation Is Crucial from Dext

We partnered with App Advisory Plus for a two-part series on optimising accounting automation. Dext team members Katie Hawking, Global Head of Practice Solutions and Sales Enablement, and Paul Lodder, VP of Accounting and Product Strategy, joined Will Farnell, Co-Founder and Director of App Advisory Plus, to share tips and tricks to help your firm reach its full potential confidently and securely. 

Whether you’re an automation expert or are just getting started with the digital transformation process, we’ll provide information on how to face roadblocks, set up a successful system and gain benefits from digital accounting. 

Why Are Digital Workflows Necessary?

You may look around at competing businesses that excel in your space and wonder, “What are they doing that you’re not?”. One of the main answers could be utilising automation technology. 

Many firms stick to the same manual processes without considering more effective options, which could cost them business. Your partners want the best possible solution for their company, and they may choose to work with another business that’s providing modernised services. Making sure your processes are up to date can help defend against this problem by positioning your firm as the most strategic choice. 

Offering technology advisory and other unique services also makes you a more competitive business. It appeals to potential clients and helps you win new work by enabling your team to deliver more productive and efficient services. 

You may be tired of manually entering data, which is time-consuming and leaves room for human error. When you integrate a system to take over data extraction, your team can save countless hours and improve accuracy across the board. On top of better resourcing and time management, digital workflows can provide better job satisfaction for you and your team. Rather than sit and complete tedious tasks all day, you can free up energy to be spent on more important, meaningful jobs. 

Ultimately, you should be asking yourself how you can give your clients access to data to help them make more informed decisions. 

App Advisory Plus was an early adopter of Dext Prepare and Xero, enabling its team to receive data from their clients as they spend money without having to manually input it into their system. 

The Implementation Process

You may feel it’s too late for you to make this important switch into accounting automation, but that’s not the case. It isn’t a one time job to nail a fully digital cloud-based firm as there’s always room for improvement. This is because technologies continue to evolve and change as time goes on. 

To implement digital transformation within your bookkeeping and accounting processes, follow these steps to get started with Dext Prepare:

1. Get Buy In

At the end of the day, you need everyone in your firm or practice to be on the same page and bought into the same journey. This ensures every person can talk through the system’s benefits with potential clients and passionately share relevant information.

Having everyone buy into the same process allows you to empower your team. Rather than feeling isolated within their roles, your employees can take part in something bigger than themselves, creating engagement and involving more people. You run one business, so functioning under one product and a single process pushes everyone in the same direction. 

This doesn’t mean you have to take every single person’s opinions into account, but you should share your thought process with your team, disclosing the benefits of the particular system, how it will impact them daily and why you chose it over the competitors. 

2.  Talk to Your Clients

As an accountant, it’s your role to manage your client’s financial information and advise them on best practices. Don’t make assumptions or leave them out of conversations you think they’re not interested in. It’s valuable to recommend systems you think will serve your partners the best, including automation software. 

For example: you wouldn’t allow the mechanic to ask you what the best oil is for your car. It’s their job to know and tell you – which is the same role you’re meant to play for your clients.

3. Setting Manageable Goals and Objectives

Creating smart, manageable and trackable targets will help you identify successes and monitor performance. This also creates open and visible communication between you, your clients and team members about what’s working and what needs to be improved. 

Starting from small wins to bigger, more time-consuming projects enables you to quickly and effectively meet goals, improve profits and boost productivity. 

This step also focuses on accountability. While there may be many people on a particular team, there should be one person focused on each project as well as an individual involved in championing digitisation and understanding the different products available. Doing this ensures your client’s work is accounted for and ensures there’s a point person for each objective without putting too much pressure and work on a single person.

How Dext Prepare Improves Digitisation

While your client demands are consistently increasing, your team’s time and energy are not. Dext Prepare can help free up time and create more capacity for your business. Our solution collects and extracts your paperwork and automatically processes it to your accountancy software. This not only reduces errors but also gives time back to your employees to proactively add value for clients. 

Interested in hearing more from our conversation with Will Farnell and learning what to expect in the future of automation in the accounting landscape? Watch the full webinar for free. 
Ready to make a move? Modernise your accounting with Dext Prepare today.