Looking at healthy routines in our work life
1. Why Long Walks Will Change Your Life
By Harry J. Stead
February is upon us, and it means lots of work, whether you are an accountant working on taxes, a small business owner preparing for the spring or a stay at home parent raising future leaders. Everyone has their moments when all they need is a moment of silence and quiet. Our team members have started an initiative to walk 100k steps a week in order to gather our thoughts and be our truest and best selves, and this beautiful piece by Harry J. Stead inspires us to just keep on walkin’.
In nature, you leave yourself behind. You are nobody in the woods. When faced with a particularly difficult problem, I find it’s always healthier to just get out of the house and go for a walk rather than trying to force the answer.
2. Mistakes to avoid when setting up cloud accounting systems
by Xero
Automation is the name of the game for 2020. Cloud-based automation even more so. We applaud you if you have chosen to start using a cloud accounting system. You rock! There are some things to keep in mind as you begin your journey. Among them:
- not moving to the cloud is the #1 reason UK businesses leave their accountants;
- importance of having an advisory plan;
- what are the “wrong” apps for the beginning and what to focus on instead?
When choosing apps, tackle the core accounting functions first
The types of apps that can help you quickly see efficiency gains include those that automate data extraction, expense claims, payables management, payroll, and compliance workflows. There are also great apps for reporting, financial analysis and forecasting.
Save this article for your clients if you are an accountant already using the cloud, share it with your friends and tell us your story in the comments below! How does having your accounting cloud-based change the game for you?
3. Squeeze play: Preparers’ most time-consuming early-season tasks
Many rough edges need to be polished off during the peak weeks of the tax season. Among them are obviously closing the books, and preparing tax returns, but things don’t end there. Prepares also spend time updating and ensuring that their software works, doing the payroll, working with budgets and engagement letters and more. All of this requires “a tremendous amount of mission-critical, non-billable effort by administrative and professional staff”.
Take a look at the list of the most time-consuming early-season tasks for inspiration on how to deal with the workload during this period.
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