As M&A activity persists in propelling the accounting industry more deeply into an environment of consolidation, and competition continues to increase pressure on firms to find new and innovative ways of distinguishing themselves from the rest of the pack, leaders are looking towards digital transformation solutions as their secret weapon.  Particularly in uncertain times, clients are seeking more comprehensive services from their professional service providers that include consultative input designed to inform and support the client’s strategic planning and business growth goals. In short, clients want accuracy and enhanced efficiencies with price points they have been accustomed to paying.  Digital transformation solutions bridge the gap to deliver this exact combination.

Simplifying Billing and Closing Periods

Billing and periodic closings are the banes of any accountant’s existence.

Ironically, slogging through stacks of billing detracts from the one activity accountants should be focused on the most– billing more time.  A digital transformation system, like PracticePro 365, greatly streamlines the billing process by generating actionable real-time work in progress (WIP), warehousing templates, having easy access to a client’s billing history, pulling the necessary information together with a few simple clicks, and automating the workflow to push billing out the door with expediency.

Billing is a core business function that we spent months refining to maximize data accessibility and quality while minimizing the time taken to create a bill. Giving billers the flexibility to be as specific as they choose. PracticePro 365 offers billing at the client account or engagement levels. From quick billing, which pulls all available WIP and bills it at a defined total amount – adjusting it for you, to selecting and adjusting WIP to the individual time or expense entry all on one screen, our billing tool offers you the flexibility you need.

Closing the books on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis can prove a cumbersome process.  Centralizing the function in a digital transformation system helps to simplify that process, affording it greater reliability and accuracy. By leveraging a unified approach to your data, all reports needed to close a period effectively and efficiently are easily accessible, dynamic, and interactive.

Less time spent on the accountant’s part looking for the correct information in a pile of papers or across multiple Excel spreadsheets allows them to devote the time they have saved to create more billable work.

Expense Analysis, Made Easier

Digital transformation systems are also highly effective at automatically analyzing various expenses and assisting with the compilation of expense management reporting.  In a relatively short amount of time, these systems can analyze current expenses, add them to work-in-progress, compare them to prior expenses, and report on expense trends.  The bonus is that this can all be accomplished minus errors and in record time.  Errors that may otherwise have gotten missed – such as missed billable expenses– are easily flagged in the system and can be quickly resolved.

Ensuring Compliance

In today’s ever-vigilant, regulatory landscape, your firm must ensure that it remains in compliance on all fronts.  Digital transformation systems stay in lockstep with current legislation and regulatory rules so that you don’t miss anything critical.  The system helps you feel confident that your firm’s books and records are in excellent working order, that errors your professionals could potentially miss flagging are addressed, that your reporting is pristine, and that you remain in regulatory compliance to avoid potential fines.

Not only can digital transformation software ensure compliance with the legal landscape, but you can also easily enforce business rules with ease based on individuals or expense parameters (departments, service lines, etc). PracticePro 365 integrates these expenses right into billing and project performance screens and metrics, meaning no more journal entries to add an expense to a bill.

An Essential Tool for Smaller Firms

Although firms of all sizes can benefit from utilizing digital transformation platforms, small firms can’t afford to sit on the sidelines as the world goes digital.  With lean staff numbers, smaller firms don’t have the luxury of administrative burden to establish and draw from multiple systems to handle various processes.  Finding the right digital transformation system gives these firms the ability to pull a variety of firm processes into a single, centralized automation-driven platform.  These platforms reduce human error, increase accuracy in the work product, accelerate workflow, and thereby either minimize or eliminate the need for firm owners to hire additional staff to handle routine tasks that these systems are adept at automatically resolving in a fraction of the time it would take an employee to do so.  The initial investment in the system, plus the associated set-up and training costs, is a savvy investment in a small firm’s future.  For these firms which need to keep pace with the turnaround times and error-free work product, larger competitor firms with more staff can offer, digital transformation is a no-brainer.

For questions on how a digital transformation platform can help you increase the accuracy of your internal processes and maximize the overall value, you offer to your clients, request a demo of   PracticePro 365.