We love things to be “just so”. It’s our nature that everything is ordered correctly, and we hope our orderliness creates efficiency. One of the things that many folks don’t realize you can control is the view of the accounts in the bank feed screen.

Let’s wade through what are the systems you can implement right now. And to engage your team and clients in the processes, ensure they understand the “why” of your systems.

We are living in an awesome cloud technology era. We no longer have to live in our spreadsheets and docs - we could, but they are awkward and inefficient. Plus, even though they are free, they may cost us more than the fabulous paid apps out there.

If people don’t love using an app, they simply won’t use it to its fullest - or perhaps not at all.

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are essential considerations in deploying and embracing technology.

File reviews are key for assessing prospective clients. These are the common elements to review and discover the status of a file.

Running a successful business means email communication runs rampant. But what if there was another way? A way to run your business so that it doesn’t require your inbox to overflow with to-dos constantly? Would you do it? I would hope so!

My friend ChatGPT listed a few other reasons why we don’t delegate. These aren’t my reasons, but for those of you who are like me and aren’t delegating some of the silly things we should, they may resonate.

• Lack of trust

• Perfectionism

• Lack of delegation skills

• Fear of Repercussions

• Lack of Awareness

• Insecurity

• Perceived Costs

Community is not a place; it's a feeling.

- Unknown

I am lucky to be a part of many communities, personally and professionally. All of them add richness and depth to my life. They make me feel part of worlds larger than me, give me deep meaning to my business and life and add immeasurable joy to my day!

I have been hitting the road pretty hard these last five weeks.

And when I haven’t been away (and the week leading up to August 28th), I’ve been crafting my content for eight - count ‘em, eight - live and virtual sessions that I hosted/am hosting between the end of August and tomorrow. That’s a ton of content, and I still need to manage my wee bookkeeping firm, work with my app partners and keep my templates fresh.

I have written previously that my husband, Jeff, has a few organizational quirks, such as not embracing naming conventions, but he excels at setting expectations and enforcing boundaries.

He has a fly fishing guiding company, Calmwaters Fly Fishing, which is committed to the preservation of fish for generations to come, so they are a catch-and-release guiding company and use barbless hooks on their flies. He gets many inquiries from anglers who would like to keep their fish, and he always says no to these requests. Always…

I have been using RightTool since last Fall, and I am smitten with how it has taken so much of the “ughness” out of QuickBooks Online.

It’s no secret that I love QBO. It’s also no secret that QBO has some irritations, particularly with efficiency and user experience. This is a large part of peeps hesitation to move from QuickBooks Desktop; the smooth, efficient experience that desktop has. RightTool, by and large, solves this.

“RightTool creates the QuickBooks Desktop efficiency we crave in the QuickBooks Online we love.”

Oh, dear!

It may not look like it, but our golf-cart-child-wagon combo is heckishly convenient and fun for small jobs - and for my doggos - they love a golf cart ride. Heck, who doesn’t love a golf cart ride⁉️

But it’s not the most efficient setup for actual yard work. It is simple for small one-off jobs like taking away downed twigs and garden debris. Quick, no fuss, toss a bag of plant material in the back and off we go simple.

If you have read my musings in the past, you will know that my husband and I have two Australian Shepards. I have written that the one on the left, Sharkie, is a gentle beauty, and the one on the right, Tippet, is…well.. enthusiastic.

And anxious.

And unruly.

And doesn’t listen.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again “Letting go of clients is hard”. Really, really hard. I am never going to minimize the hand-wringing of churning out clients. But you should start to identify which clients are Tippet clients.

You don’t need to be all gloaty, but for crying out loud, let your clients know the weight you are taking off them with the services you provide.

The pain you have taken away from your clients may become their everyday expectation.

AI and automation are getting all the glory right now. They are amazing for productivity; there’s no doubt about that.

But our apps' batch (bulk), filter, and sort features rarely get their moment in the sun. Individually or a combination of them is one of the things I look for when choosing new technology.

A cool reverse advertising campaign run by The Cossette Group for The Canadian Dairy Farmers more than 17 years ago, has stuck with me. The tagline was “Stop Cooking With Cheese”, and I use the saying often.

It was based on the premise that parents wanted to get their twenty-something-year-olds out of the house, but they were taking too good of care of them - they were not motivating them to leave. Cooking with cheese is obviously amazing (if you don’t like cheese, you are probably an alien…), so why would anyone leave a house that cooks with it?

We have all been there with clients pushing us against the wall on deadlines.

• Last-minute government filings

• “Emergency” calls on financials for loan documents

• Banks freezing accounts

• Payroll not hitting employee bank accounts

You can all name numerous instances where clients have waited until the 11th hour to supply documents, approve reports or let you know trouble & required information deadlines are brewing.

Gifts aren't meant to be kept by us, but to be shared with everyone.

I am working with an app partner on some resource content for their SMB audience. I have been giving them a few ideas, and one topic that I thought was important to communicate to SMBs did not resonate with them. I had crafted the outline, and now it’s burning a hole in a Google Doc. I don’t blog or email on SMB topics, but I want this content to go out, not go to waste.

In the end, payroll is not just about numbers and calculations. It's about people, their livelihoods, and their families.

As an accountant, you have the power to positively impact your clients' businesses and the lives of their employees.

So keep learning, growing, and striving to be your best payroll professional.

QBO Tech Tip

Review company settings before doing any client work or when setting up a QBO file from scratch.