No matter how exciting your company, industry, product, or service, back-office work isn’t fun. It’s tedious, arduous, exacting, and highly demanding. And that’s exactly how it should be—if your back office is doing it right. By “right,” we mean staying on top of the critical, foundational aspects of running your business operations.
Problem is, many business owners—in the justifiable pursuit of thinking big, driving sales, winning clients, pleasing customers, and cornering markets—aren’t sure how to improve their back-office process for efficiency, effectiveness, and accuracy.
We sat down with Roxanne Dudicz, CPA, Principal of Finance and Accounting Solutions, to learn how business owners can start improving your back-office processes today.
No. 1: Leverage Technology
Loads of technologies are available to improve your back-office processes, reducing the margin for human error, as well as the amount of human effort and time required to complete repetitive tasks. in turn, increasing bandwidth spent on high-yield projects and endeavors that benefit from a human touch, like employee engagement.
Where to begin? Start with an easy effort that yields major payoff: Transition from desktop accounting software to online, or cloud, software. This allows access from anywhere at any time and is easily shareable with internal staff and external clients—a huge benefit for a workforce that is largely moving to remote and hybrid scenarios. (Bonus: Offering employees remote and hybrid work options is an excellent recruiting tool.) Features to look for when moving to cloud-based accounting software. We recommend:
- Integrations. Look for capabilities that allow the software to integrate with bank feeds, credit cards feeds, payroll processing, and, for your sales team, e-commerce platforms. Any integration that reduces or eliminates the need for manual entry greatly limits the chances for human error.
- Document storage. Connect all the paper that supports accounting—invoices, bank statements, receipts, etc.—in one place. All these documents can be populated within the transaction. When the back-office team is asked to produce a statement or reconciliation, it’s one click away.
- Online bill-payment processing. Using online bill payment not only eliminates the time-consuming writing and signing of checks and stamping and addressing of envelopes but also the wait times on payment authorizations because payments no longer need to be initialed or signed in person. You’ll also avoid double entry, creating a clean audit trail.
- Receipt management tools. Rather that back-office staff tracking down credit-card holders to get receipts and matching each to their individual transactions, receipt-management tool integrations can simplify this process, matching receipts to transactions automatically. Many can also send reminders to credit card holders, prompting them to take a photo of each receipt on their mobile device, so they can immediately forward to the accounting team for approval.
No. 2: Invest in Your People
While technology can greatly improve back-office processes and make the job of back-office staff easier, people are still at the heart of your back-office operations. Investing in your people is just as important as investing in technology. Clearly defined expectations and accountability are crucial for back-office staff. Sit down once a year to review and document back-office processes. Ensure that each task is clearly defined, all staff members understand who takes ownership of each task, and the time frame in which each task must be completed.
Review your workflows as well. Can staff go from task A, B, and C quickly and accurately—or are there kinks in the process? If so, work together to identify the problems and solutions to smooth out those kinks. Evaluating your process for internal controls is important too. (For example, you don’t want the same person who is entering the data to reconcile the data.)
Lastly, solicit feedback from back-office staff. These staff members are deep in the weeds every day; they will have great insight into the obstacles plaguing the back-office and, often, ideas of how to improve them.
No. 3: Remember You’re Not Alone
Implementing new technology to support your back-office needs and investing time into your people is a great place to start. However, if doing both yourself feels too overwhelming, consider a partner like Rehmann. Our solutions team is experienced in back-office operations. We can work with you in a consulting capacity, shoulder all of your back-office needs, or tailor our services to perform only specific tasks or support certain roles. Find out what results you can expect when you outsource to Rehmann’s Back-office Solutions services or contact us today for a free no-obligation consult!
