“The best defense is a good offense.” We’ve all heard this a time or two, but when it comes to cybersecurity it couldn’t ring more true. A cyber-attack can result in financial loss, business disruption and can be devastating to your firm’s reputation. Your employees are the weakest link against cybercrime – with over 95% […]
Resource Category: Blogs & Articles
Transparency: Effective Communication in the Modern-Day Workplace
As a business professional, you provide service transparency to your clients, but how do you rate yourself on giving this level of visibility to employees in your practice? You will have more success when your team see themselves as partners in the business rather than hired hands. Three ways your business will thrive with more open […]
How the right document management platform delivers data control, access, and security to credit union members
Consumers are increasingly concerned about the security of their sensitive personal information. This is especially true related to financial data—and with good reason, given the prevalence of cybersecurity threats targeting the financial industry. As consumers’ concerns rise in this area, their trust in many institutions to help safeguard this information is on a serious decline. […]
Working in the Age of Disruption
I’m guessing everyone reading this article has heard some variation of the word disruption recently. It’s as buzzy a buzzword as you can find right now. Seemingly every business you read about claims to be “disrupting the paradigm” or see themselves as “disruptors changing the way we live.” Inc. Magazine even publishes a list of […]
You Have Nothing to Fear: 5 Tips on Adding New Technology to Your Business
Change always invites some level of fear. We tend to resist change because of the fear of the unknown. We may wonder, what happens if we implement new technology and it doesn’t work out? But in business, change is inevitable. Just because things are good today, doesn’t mean it will be the same tomorrow. We […]
Strategic Planning: I Never Have Time
Strategic Planning – Why is it So Hard to Find Time? Why is it always so difficult to set time aside to create goals and strategic plans? Even if you do set time, you’re often distracted or don’t know how to start, why is that? Firstly, we naturally tend to avoid proactive analysis of ourselves […]
SmartVault and the Impact of COVID-19
At SmartVault, we have a monthly all-hands meeting where we discuss our business outcomes, what’s working and where we can improve. But last week’s meeting was different – instead of music and a big gathering over Potbelly sandwiches – I was staring at a screen full of thumbnail images of our team, coming to join […]
The Tax Deadline is Officially Extended. . . Now what?
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced today that the federal tax filing deadline has been moved from April 15 to July 15. This move will undoubtedly offer some relief to taxpayers affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to focus their resources on necessities for their families and adjusting to social distancing mandates across […]
Build a More Profitable Practice with Your Client Onboarding System
Like the saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” We all know that in many situations first impressions can make or break a relationship. This is especially true in a competitive service-based business like bookkeeping, where clients often see what we do as a commodity. From year-end through tax […]
Can Accountants Achieve a Work/Life Balance?
BALANCE? You’ve got to be kidding right! Elusive…mysterious…maybe even mythical! As an accountant or bookkeeper at this time of year, you may well believe that WORK/life balance is to be found somewhere just past the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, slightly to the left of the last silver-lined cloud, tied to […]
Improve Your Tax Season by Changing Your Client Communications
As a bookkeeper in practice, I always worked hard (way, way too hard most of the time!), I have a high tolerance for pressure and can sustain long working hours for extended periods. However, every January, without fail, I nearly broke myself. The sheer volume of work, communications, checklists, and correspondence were overwhelming. The pressure […]
How to Improve Your Tax Return Season
It’s that time of year again. That time of year when suddenly you realize that the 31st of January is fast approaching, you somehow need to deal with Christmas, and if you’re lucky, getting some time off to spend with your family and loved one. You realize that, despite the letters you sent out in […]
How to Become More Confident
This article is part of our content series How To Build A Better Bookkeeping Series: The Journey of Continuous Improvement. The final, and possibly most important ingredient, is confidence. You have to have the confidence to put up your prices with your existing clients and charge the right level of fee to new clients. You […]
How to Choose the Right Delivery Methods
This article is part of our content series How To Build A Better Bookkeeping Series: The Journey of Continuous Improvement. Once upon a dim and distant past, the main job of the bookkeeper was to move a pile of paper from the left-hand side of the keyboard to the right-hand side of the keyboard (or, […]
Bookkeeping Automation: Threat or Opportunity?
Like it or not, software automates much of what we do for our clients as accounting professionals. While most of us would love to have most, if not all, of the “grunt work” involved in bookkeeping, automated, how is this changing the way clients view the value of what we do? What’s the current situation? […]
How to Provide the Right Level of Customer Service
What do you think your customers want from you – more than anything else, what is the most important thing you do for them? Is it getting the VAT right? Is it saving them tax? Do they appreciate the accuracy of your data processing above all other things? Is it the way you explain why […]
How To Get Great Results From Your Bookkeeping Business
I see the low hourly or fixed rates that are still too often being charged. I know that many bookkeepers must be working an extraordinary number of hours to make a living – I know I did, before I figured it out. So how do you not only survive, but also thrive and achieve your […]
How To Find The Right Price For Your Services
This article is part of our content series How To Build A Better Bookkeeping Series: The Journey of Continuous Improvement. Just for a moment, I want you to imagine what you want to earn out of your business – personally. What should your income be for the work that you do, to enable you to […]
How SmartVault Users Save Time
What goals did you set for 2020? Grow your business? Spend more time with family and friends? Dedicate more time to a hobby or passion of yours? The common denominator in all of these goals is time – something most of us feel we never have enough of. At SmartVault, we believe in getting your time back […]
7 Ways A Client Portal Saves You Time
In this digital age of new technology and changing industries, the old adage, “time is money”, has never been truer. With the start of another new year, the traditional methods of exchanging files with clients are unnecessary and time-consuming. So then in this day and age, how do businesses streamline their workflow? Enter the client portal. […]