It is what you do (and the way that you do it) Process mapping for success
You know how your practice works - but what about everyone else? James Kilford of Senta Practice Management shares some of the benefits accountants will gain from mapping practice processes - and how to get started.
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Above: Steve Case, CEO, Finance Box
teve Case is the CEO of Finance Box, self-styled ‘Bean-counting superheroes’. I was interested to talk with him after the support team were raving about how he was using all the data generated by Senta to improve productivity. What I actually uncovered was a process mapping mastermind,
who has detailed the way his practice works and used that info to build processes which make the practice run better. It’s made a massive difference to the effectiveness of his team. And their clients are happy too - because they know exactly what’s expected of them and when.
@sentaHQ
James Kilford, Founder, Senta James is one of the founders at Senta and drives the company vision and product design. He is a techie by trade, not an accountant, but knows just how valuable a good accountant can be. James is chief advocate for Senta clients - he is always talking to practitioners, finding out where they are going, what they need and how Senta can do things better.
What do we mean by process mapping? It’s not so alien - nor is it difficult. Steve compares it to a spreadsheet. “As accountants we program client inputs, create a machine of formulas and then study the output. If it’s wrong, we check the machine and edit how it works. The same applies to process mapping: we look at the info we need and how we complete a task. Then we keep tweaking this to make our processes better over time.” Post-it note by post-it note Steve has gone on to build each post-it note step into Senta. For those of you who don’t use Senta, we’ve set it up so it’s completely customisable for the needs of your practice. You can create workflows and automate emails that help you manage client work as it moves through your practice. By automating the small admin jobs, your time is freed up so you can concentrate on keeping your clients happy, your team motivated and your coffee cup completely full. Priorities everyone, priorities.
78 / Issue 27
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