Why you need online accounting

Peace of mind

I don’t want to scare you, but all it takes is one office disaster and your files are compromised. A dodgy employee, fire, flood or break-in and you’ve got a problem. Hard copies of old accounts are often irreplaceable, and a lot of the time businesses don’t fully recover from disasters for this reason.
Using online accounting gives your business access to the latest software and data security that’s safer than the lock on your front door. Simple as that.

Incredible convenience

Having the books in the cloud means our accountant can log in to her work without coming into the office. We can keep a finger on the pulse with staff raising invoices and expenses as they need to. It also lets everyone run project numbers when they’re on the road.
Being able to check accounts and invoices from anywhere is invaluable for businesses that aren’t office based like tradies and others on the road all the time. It’s like having an office in the palm of your hand.
In my small business, Xero automatically imports information from our bank accounts. This means there’s no need to manually reconcile accounts aor for hard copy statements. The latest transactions are categorised, bills are scheduled, and time sheets, inventory and customer relationship management are easily tracked. It’s made a world of difference to our systems.
And it works the other way too. We can easily pay bills online and store any receipts in the cloud.
I used to get an outstanding debtors list printed for me at the end of each week, but now I can log in and check up on client accounts whenever I want.

Time and cost savings

Online accounting obviously means saving on paper, printing expenses and storage costs. There’s also the time saving of not having to sift through reams of paper.
Unlike the old days of expensive software packages, there’s no big capital outlay required for this convenience.
This more streamlined, accessible system means the dreaded two-hour sit down on a Sunday night to tackle the accounts no longer exists. This is a huge change from the world of accounting when I started in business.
Creating new quotes, copying previous quotes, and turning them into invoices has all been streamlined. This means the process is fast and crystal clear from the beginning, something all businesses will be happy to hear.

Work-life balance

Despite the belief that being able to work from anywhere means it’s harder to switch off, I find it allows me to be more productive in those previously unworkable pockets of time. Even five or ten minutes sitting in a taxi or waiting for a meeting can be used productively.

8 Things You Must Do If Considering a Move to a New Firm

Here are 8 tips that can make this process more productive and less stressful.

1. Talk to your current firm. This is #1 and #1A to me. If you're good, your firm is going to want to keep you. Your role will not be in jeopardy if you raise the question of what your future there holds. Talk to your firm's leadership and get your concerns out on the table. Maybe your issues are resolvable. The bottom line is, don't invest all your time and energy in a job search only to find out that your current firm will do a lot to keep you. I would even go so far as to suggest you say that you aren't 100% sure your future is there without these changes. It is all too common these days for firms to offer a lot more money and/or promises to make things better if you go in to resign. Because of that event, what happens afterward is really not a true indication of their intent. 95+% of the time, things really don't change.

2. Discuss it with your spouse. It is most important that you both agree with the idea of you making a change. If your spouse doesn't buy into the idea fully, then you really shouldn't be doing it. What I hear frequently when I meet partners considering a change is "my spouse is behind me in whatever I decide regarding my career. "  My point is that a major decision like this warrants a serious discussion. 

3. Read your partnership agreement. You need to know what your contractual rights and obligations are. Interestingly, I find that partners often don't have a copy of their contract, can't find their copy, or have to get a copy from their firm, which, as you can imagine, is pretty awkward. At any rate, get your hands on your partnership agreement and read the restrictive covenants very carefully. Some are stricter than others, but that's a topic for a different conversation. And.... see #5 below. 

4. Get a sense of market conditions. Talk to industry colleagues that you can trust to be discreet and get their input. Read relevant articles from trade publications such as Accounting Today, Inside Public Accounting, and The CPA Journal. Talk to recruiters and other experts in the field who know the CPA world very well and who work primarily with partners.  

5. Talk to an attorney. Ideally this should be an attorney who specializes in partnership agreements. Meet them in-person, show them your partnership agreement, and have them clearly explain what you can and cannot do. If you don't know such attorneys, I would be happy to recommend a few.

6. Update your resume. You may have a firm bio with a photo and some brief background information and that's enough to start. At some point though, you will need a traditional, chronological resume with your job history, education, license information, professional and community organizations, etc. This is something I help partners with quite often and will gladly provide assistance.  

7. Assemble a client list or create a marketing plan. Nothing fancy, just a simple excel spreadsheet that includes client A,B,C etc, industry or individual, length of time they've been a client, services, recurring fee revenue, and the probability from 0% to 100% of their coming with you. If you don't have a potential book of business, I recommend creating a marketing plan. (It's a rare partner opportunity where business development isn't a prime topic) The marketing plan will be a short document outlining how you will attract new business by tapping into your relationships with bankers, attorneys, wealth advisors, insurance agents, etc., whom you've met over the years as well as how you will be involved with industry, trade associations, and other specialized groups for business development purposes. 

8. Engage a professional recruiter.This is a strong suggestion for the reasons that follow. Professional representation has value in terms of discretion, confidentiality, and awareness of below-the-radar screen opportunities such as boutique firms or confidential situations. And, you definitely want to work with a recruiter who knows the public accounting market, has relationships with the managing partners, and works regularly with partners.