When many accountants hear the term “workflow software,” they immediately think of the tax preparation process. While workflow is important in tax prep, it is certainly not limited to just this area of practice, or for that matter, only to any one particular application or process. Rather, workflow is both a technique and an overall approach.
“While tax prep workflow is certainly important, the overall objective of any workflow software is to help you get client work done on time,” said David Cristello, CEO of Jetpack Workflow Inc. “I would say key differences, however, would be the complexity of handling and managing non-tax work. Practically speaking, the amount of weekly, biweekly and monthly work is extensive and an important difference. Whereas 500 tax returns equal 500 deadlines for a given year, 500 monthly accounting clients is 6,000 deadlines for a given year.”
Stuart McLeod, CEO and co-founder of Karbon, added, “In reality, an accounting workflow solution must be so much more than simply workflow. The single-serve accountant-client relationship has become a thing of the past, and workflow software should be just as useful for managing internal operations, any service across a full year with a client, or a once-a-year tax return.”
“Workflow software provides the foundation that helps to deliver an exceptional client experience by shifting a firm’s focus from office operations to efficiently and effectively meeting client needs,” said Matthew Groom, senior product marketing manager for AbacusNext (which was recently purchased by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners).
One important component of many workflow software offerings is in their application to business process automation, Val Steed, director of accountants for Zoho Corp., pointed out, “Almost all work done by accounting firms can benefit from business process automation tools. The key benefit to cloud-based workflow is the ability to share and update status across all users. Key performance indicators on all engagements such as budget hours vs. actual hours, expenses, review notes, questions and answers, and problems found become extremely useful benchmarks if the users use them in an honest fashion. In the accounting profession there is a pressure on everyone to underreport hours, which hides unprofitable engagements.”
And Glen Keenan, vice president and segment leader for firm management at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting North America, noted that workflows have to be different, and tied closely to the kinds of work performed by the practice. “While each department can benefit from the general processes put into place by other departments, it’s the details that matter,” he said. “For a workflow solution to be successful firmwide, it needs to be highly configurable. When workflow can be customized and configured to support each department’s needs, it can be implemented firmwide to provide 360-degree visibility for managers and partners and enforce standardized processes based on industry best practices. At the same time, each group can implement practice-specific processes, procedures and terminology to optimize their operations.”
Close as the nearest keyboard
When asked how the pandemic and work-from-anywhere have impacted the implementation of workflow software, most of our respondents replied that it has accelerated the move to the cloud.
“COVID-19 accelerated and amplified existing trends in the industry,” explained Jeff Krzeminski, vice president of product management for the Tax & Accounting Professionals segment of Thomson Reuters. “The ability to interact digitally throughout tax and audit workflows changed sentiment toward cloud solutions in general. Where early adopters had already made the move, the ability to work anywhere, anytime, made native-
cloud solutions a necessity for business continuity.”
Acceleration was a common thread. Karbon’s McLeod emphasized, “Even before the turmoil of the last 12 months, accountancy firms were unrecognizable compared to just a few years ago. But the gradual shift towards distributed teams that we were seeing suddenly accelerated by at least 10 years when the pandemic hit. Overnight, a vast gap appeared between the firms using legacy desktop solutions, and those equipped with cloud-based workflow software that enabled their teams to work from anywhere.”
AbacusNext’s Groom also pointed out the part that workflow plays in anchoring an accounting practice. “Workflow is the centerpiece of a successful practice during a normal — that is, pre-pandemic — business environment. When it comes to a ‘work-from-anywhere’ situation, layered with the complexities of a global pandemic, the need for workflow skyrockets — helping to provide much-needed structure when daily routines and workplace connections are upended.”
The pandemic resulted in a sea change in the way that both the firm’s business, and those of its clients, operate. Workflow software has played a key part in transitioning to a new work reality.
“We know from studies by McKinsey that, in the last six months, cloud computing and the adoption of cloud technology has advanced by two years,” Wolters Kluwer’s Keenan pointed out. “Workflow software is one of those pieces of cloud technology that has seen a boom in adoption. It doesn’t matter if staff are working remotely, on-site, in-house; managers still need to assign work, assess schedules, and maintain accountability. Which is why throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen that workflow is one piece of technology where firms are consistently investing.”
Evolution is inevitable
Our virtual panel had some very definite ideas of what features need to be added to the workflow process to better adapt to the way practices, and the businesses of their clients, are operating today and are likely to operate tomorrow.
“Two major trends are absolutely critical given the state of the pandemic,” said Jetpack Workflow’s Cristello. “Your technology stack is going to increase. You’ll want to make sure whoever you select has strong integrations with ‘middleware’ applications like Zapier, which connects 2,000-plus applications altogether. Oftentimes, you can create an integration whereby all client data is synced between all tools. All-in-one solutions often look great, but leave firms retreating back to getting best-in-breed tools, hence the integration and applications like Zapier to connect software applications becomes critical.”
He added, “Your firm capacity has likely changed significantly due to COVID-19. On one hand, you might have team members with expanded capacity due to the efficiencies of having less meetings or little to no commute. On the other hand, you have team members that have become stay-at-home teachers and their capacity has altered while large parts of society are still closed or virtual. In either case, you want to make sure you have a simple set of tools to ID constraints and easily reassign or defer work as need be.”
While Karbon’s McLeod didn’t offer specific areas where workflow software will change, he did underline the harsh reality of staying up to date with the state-of-the-art in solutions. “Any workflow solution must be able to scale with a firm, enable a team to work effectively remotely or under the same roof, and should be able to integrate with other tools in a tech stack. Unfortunately, many firms are still relying on outdated solutions that won’t be able to do any of this. Such a solution is unable to provide some of the most important benefits that cloud-native applications can, such as security, regular and seamless updates, uninterrupted service, and integrations with other best-of-breed SaaS solutions. These are benefits that will be critical for any business in the new normal.”
And Cristello emphasized the need for the ability to scale up to meet changing needs: “Team management and capacity has reached a new scale of demand. The critical shift is that no longer do firms have the time to manage massive practice management suites to manage their team, and instead focus on the fastest way to get an answer. Whereas in normal times, we seemed to have an excess of time, in pandemic mode, capacity has been diminished for many working parents. How this translates into workflow software is that whatever report or feature you include, especially around team management, must be immediately understandable and actionable.”
Heading for tomorrow
Not only are workflow software solutions going to evolve, but our panel emphasized that workflows themselves are changing, and that both the software, and the practices that embrace these solutions, are going to have to be flexible in the approach they take to business processes such as workflows within the firm. Practices also need to be sensitive to the workflows of their clients, which are also going to change.
“Absolute flexibility within solutions — deadlines, service scope, even who’s working on a job can change instantly. The more gridlocked you are into the tasks or client work you’ve set up, the more time you’re going to waste,” said Cristello. “The major opportunity sits within empowering your team, through software, to manage and update their own work.”
Karbon’s McLeod noted that all the workflows in a practice are likely to evolve: “Workflow on its own is not going to be enough. Workflow software must evolve to incorporate everything from email communication, internal collaboration, client management and collaboration, time, billing, capacity planning and more. Pretty soon this starts to sound more like a practice management solution than a workflow solution!”
Understanding the changing workflows and needs in your practice is vital. AbacusNext’s Groom thinks that advances in AI will help in this area. “Firms need — and should require — the ability to forecast in advance and change course as new challenges arise,” he said. “To do just that, AI and process automation are making workflows continuously smarter. As a system observes facts and repeat activity patterns, workflow software will share insights and make suggestions that optimize firm operations. To capitalize on those workflow suggestions, firms also need robust reporting tools that enable information gathering and analysis from multiple data points across business operations. When paired together, workflow and reports allow firms to make informed decisions on how to manage operations and client needs.”
Finally, Wolters Kluwer’s Keenan cautioned, “While advancing technologies may fuel new tools, these technologies are only as good as the processes they are built upon. Before looking to new technologies, firms should assess their processes to ensure they are utilizing their workflows’ current tools and features to the fullest, and that these processes have been implemented firmwide to ensure the greatest levels of collaboration and communication between departments.”
“As we move forward in the current normal and into whatever the next normal is,” he continued, “workflow solutions will need to support firms as many adopt hybrid work models and consider changing processes to take advantage of advances in automation, RPA and integrated reporting.”
