4th February, 2021
How free digital document management could solve COVID issues for accounting businesses.To say that the COVID-crisis has caused disruption is an understatement.
While closed borders and social distancing hit industries like tourism and hospitality fast and hard, the effects are now rippling out into other businesses – like accounting firms – sometimes in ways that might not have been predicted at first.
The logistics of managing clients through lockdowns and social distancing orders, plus tightening margins in a struggling economy, mean that digitisation of accounting business has never been more necessary – or urgent.
Client Portal, a collaboration tool from MYOB, can solve one big piece of that puzzle. It lets you work more closely with your clients – wherever they are – from within your MYOB practice product. It’s tested, it’s ready to go and it’s free.
Here’s how it could be the best thing your firm ever did.
Meeting in person simply isn’t viable in this COVID-restricted environment. Even places where restrictions allow for meetings, people are now more familiar with dealing remotely and less willing to drive.
Emails are fraught with security issues, but Client Portal offers a secure alternative to in-person signing of documents from within your MYOB practice product.
When things are tight, every second of billable time can make all the difference. Emailing documents back and forth, chasing up documents, arranging times to meet and travel can cut into your workday – and these hours aren’t billable.
With Client Portal, clients can sign and finalise their paperwork in one place and all electronically. After using Client Portal, Brendan Drummond, partner at SHB Business & Wealth Advisers, saw an immediate shift in the time he spent on gathering necessary information.
“The biggest benefit is the turnaround time. We’re saving a lot of time, and the information coming back is getting done promptly – we’re not chasing,” he says.
As COVID-19 has normalised remote working, business people have taken the opportunity to tweak their lifestyles – moving permanently to their beach homes or shifting cities to be closer to family or where housing budgets will go further.
In the past, a major move would mean accountants could say goodbye to those clients – the logistics would be too difficult.
Again, Client Portal solves that issue – your clients can seamlessly work with you from anywhere. Brendan found that even when a client moved out of state, their relationship continued.
“I had one example of someone who’d moved to Darwin, who possibly wouldn’t have stayed with me, had the Client Portal not been available.”
Keeping customers happy is always important, but it’s especially important in a struggling economy.
MYOB Client Portal has the flexibility to help you meet your clients’ business needs. They can review and sign documents from any mobile device and they can make decisions on the run at a time that suits them. That flexibility is particularly welcome if a document needs multiple signatures – no need to coordinate everyone or to manage emails and document versions.
Brendan says one client can now do all his documentation while he’s out on the farm.
“A farming client I had told me, ‘I just digitally signed the paperwork as I was bringing the cows in for milking.’ That was as good a testimonial as we could get.”
As leaner times approach, the more efficient you can be, the better. With Client Portal, you’ll find your business becomes simplified and streamlined – no more desks full of paper, time spent filing, photocopying, searching for documents or errors.
If your accounting business has been hard hit by the COVID crisis, and meeting clients face-to-face seems like a thing of the past, let Client Portal help.
Free with your MYOB practice product, Client Portal can replace those face-to-face meetings with a secure and efficient alternative for signing documents.
Save unbillable hours, avoid errors, get prompt replies and keep your clients on your books, even if you move to your beach house. Customers will appreciate the flexibility too, and you’ll escape that desk-full of paper and all the photocopying you used to do.
Client Portal is now available to integrate with your MYOB Practice solution, whether you’re using MYOB Accountants Office or MYOB Accountants Enterprise. Contact a sales specialist via this online form, or on the phone at 1300 555 666 to discuss how this product can best work for you.