3 CDM Workflows That Changed My Business
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Presentation "The 3 CDM Workflows that changed my business" at the Accounting Business Expo
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3 CDM Workflows That Changed My Business
- 1. Click to edit Master title style The 3 CDM Workflows that changed my business with Jacquie Strudwick
- 2. Click to edit Master title style Firms Reception
- 3. Click to edit Master title stylePortal
- 4. Click to edit Master title style Workflow 1: Sending and Receiving a signed Engagement Letter
- 5. Document created by the author or Client Services Document printed or emailed for review/approval Packaged and posted to the client Recorded in outgoing mail in PM or a Mail Book Wait for the Client to return information Time Factor: days to weeks Existing Workflow
- 6. Document created by the author via a system template Template includes review/approval process and auto reminder email Document sent via system to Client who accesses via private portal System records email / document sent (date / time) Time factor: minutes / hours Cloud Workflow
- 7. Click to edit Master title style Workflow 2: Sending and Receiving a Checklist for Compliance Work
- 8. Checklist Document created by the author or Client Services Document printed or emailed for review/approval Packaged and posted to the client Recorded in outgoing mail in PM or a Mail Book Wait for the Client to return information Time Factor: days to weeks Existing Workflow
- 9. Email with web based checklist created by the author via a system template. Template includes review/approval process and auto reminder email. Email Job sent via system to Client who accesses via private portal. System records email sent (date / time), when client accessed email, web based checklist, and when submitted. Client completes form online, attaching relevant documents and submits form. Business notified of completed form. Staff allocated task to finalise work. System tracks the status of actions required by Client and sends auto-reminder emails if not actioned by the Client Time Factor: minutes / hours Cloud Workflow
- 10. Click to edit Master title style Workflow 3: Sending outgoing Financials with internal approval process
- 11. Document package created by the author or Client Services Documents printed or emailed for review/approval Packaged and posted to the client Client may be requested to sign and return Recorded in outgoing mail in PM or a Mail Book Wait for the Client to return information Time Factor: weeks to months Existing Workflow
- 12. Crafted Email created by the author via a system template Template includes review/approval process and auto reminder email Email Job sent via system to Client who accesses via private portal System records email sent (date / time), when client accessed email, web based checklist, and when submitted Client signs documents via secure portal and business is directly notified System tracks the status of actions required by Client and sends auto-reminder emails if not actioned by the Client Time Factor: hours to days Cloud Workflow
- 13. Click to edit Master title styleThe End Result!
- 14. Administration burden - put down / pick up Lack of visibility over client process Reliance on team member to have their own system that relies on them alone to followup client More email spaghetti Effect on Business - Without Cloud
- 15. Workflow steps are embodied in templates The system tracks the job through to completion, without human intervention Centralised common control over workflow System supports remote staff members included in the document workflow Automated set and forget collection of data from clients Common Document (both Staff and Client can access and update) Automated email notifications to team and clients notifying them of their call to action Effect on Business – With Cloud
- 16. Savings: both Staff and time $ Real time access for Clients resulting in faster turn around Common Document Full system tracking Know when a client has viewed/signed/actioned a document Tracking all emails out (not email spaghetti) Benefits – With Cloud
- 17. What to look for in a Cloud Document Management system?
- 21. PDF Conversion and Digital Signatures
- 22. PDF manipulation
- 23. User Defined Document Meta Data Multiple ways of finding stuff!
- 25. Staff / Team document workflow
- 26. Full text keyword analysis and search
- 27. Staff / Team based folder security
- 28. Document Store + Auto Archiving Current Archive Fully versioned file system, with Automatic document versioning Unlimited storage Permanent Archive with managed Auto-archiving Automatic
- 29. Practice Management DB Integration
- 30. Save staff time and $ Paperless engagement and approval process Manage documents with remote or offshore team members Automate data collection from clients To wrap this up…
- 31. Question Time Thank you for your attendance Or pop by our stand #360 Or get in touch 1800 NIMBUS jacquie@nimbusportals.com
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to the Accounting and Business Expo, I trust you are being educated and collecting ideas to take back to your businesses to create conversation and perhaps even a revolution of the peaceful enlightened kind or maybe not. My name is Jacquie Strudwick the Network Development Manager at Nimbus Portal Solutions. We are an Australian software developer with over 30 years specific focus on the Accounting Vertical, we have spent our entire careers working with, listening to, observing and developing for Accounting Firms. Automation of business processes is what began the Nimbus Portal journey some 10 years ago, taking a point of pain and from that creating a level of automation that was end user accounting firm client friendly, whilst condensing a long and time consuming process into something that is slick, smooth and easy. The end result being a win for both Accounting firm clients and the firm alike. Today my presentation is looking at the 3 Cloud Document Management processes that changed my Accounting Firm. I’m going to start by painting a picture, one that many of you in Accounting Firms will be very familiar with, what life is like without a Cloud Portal and Cloud Document Management and I like to call this period in the business process time line BC before cloud.
- This all looks simple enough, Accounting firms have team members, accountants, client services and a firm has many clients often covering a broad range of industry verticals Your team call your clients, your clients call your team Your team collaborates on client matters and create, store and retrieve files that relate to your clients specific matters Your clients communicate and collaborate with, in many instances more than one of your team This creates what we like to call email spaghetti. Email spaghetti is not very palatable, I've tried it and even with tonnes of great parmesan and extra hot chilli jam it is missing something and it is not possible to eat a whole bowl. The spaghetti makes it impossible to see where communication is at, emails are sent to one of the team and possibly also cc’d to others, that team member is out of the office this morning at a Seminar, email sits in box until team member, files, forwards, actions and as part of that process it may end up in the firms DM system where it can be viewed by other team members. There is no clear picture real time, correspondence that goes out from a Partner for example, may not need to be returned to the Partner, the type of signed document with the highest volume is an ELD, ELD’s don’t necessarily need to go back to a Partner or Manager it is the domain of a Client Services Team Member to complete the lodgement with the ATO. Files and documents get over handled, technology implemented correctly enables your quality control to be in place and uncompromised and in my experience substantially increased.
- Lets look at document workflows WC with Cloud Portal technology Information is collected from clients electronically, and stored in a centralised location visible to all (subject to individual users security), when a client completes a call to action, the firm team member who needs to take the next step is advised, so they can then complete their call to action. Documents are delivered to a client in such away that they can easily differentiate between what they need to review, what they need to sign and the system without any intervention from them, sends back the signed documents automatically no send to firm button required ,it gets better, imagine only being notified when it is you that needs to take the next step, no more reading every bit of email correspondence and then forwarding on the another team member to complete the call to action. This technology exists not only to automate repetitive tasks that are time sensitive and deadline driven, also to provide a secure, encrypted way to communicate between an Accounting Firm it ‘s clients and related service providers such as banks, solicitors and financial planners. Mail fraud is still the highest dollar value fraud in Australia, email is not secure and neither are appropriate to transmit financial sensitive information in 2017.
- Lets look at our first workflow Engagement letters are a requirement in both accounting and financial planning ,offering professional services of any type without an agreement signed by both parties is never a great idea.
- BC – Before Cloud your process may include some of the steps listed and in reality probably more steps that are not listed here, this is just to paint the general picture and illustrate that there are many steps and many team members that handle these documents which are important and time consuming creating requiring BC methodology that tracks and traces where they are at in the process. Lots of human intervention to check and follow up along the way.
- What does this look like WC The firm makes a decision on a template or library of templates for engagement letters, this process is in place in many firms already and has been for decades, bear with me Not only does the template automate the creation of the engagement letters by pre-filling the fields you would expect in 2017 from your PM database, contact fields, address fields, salutation, standard stuff, it also enables at template level for an approval process, a follow-up reminder and further reminders at pre-defined intervals without human intervention, set once at template level and a consistent automated process takes care of the task through to completion. Approvals are also attached at template level, so a Partner would be able to review anywhere, anytime after receiving an email notification their call to action. Once approved the engagement letter is delivered securely via encrypted Portal, client is notified simultaneously via email notification and optional SMS. Transparency over the entire process by any team member. (subject to user permissions) Reporting on all transactions to look at for example, show me all tax returns sent for signature, for Partner Sarah, that are still outstanding. WC, document workflow is attached to the template, create document from template, routed automatically for approval and/or signature by partner and off to the client with pre-defined follow-up fully automated, no human intervention.
- How do you currently collect data from your clients
- BC – Before Cloud There will be a survey conducted by another service provider this year to ascertain the percentage of firms that use checklists automated or otherwise to collect data from clients, I feel from the firms that I have spoken to it is no more than 35% of firms that have a documented checklist process to collect data from clients prior to commencing their job. One of our clients Gilligan Sheppherd in Auckland NZ have used Checklists for more than 10 years, starting out with paper checklists that were manually collated and posted to their clients for completion and return, moving to automated electronic Checklists. They were unable to tell me what the efficiencies of using checklists were v’s not as they could not remember life before Checklists, however the time saving moving from paper to electronic was 6 weeks each and every year. You get the picture even if you don’t use any form of checklists and if not that is another conversation entirely.
- Significant time savings, consistent product for data collection, no human intervention required.
- Brief introduction Welcome to ATSA everyone. I hope the next 2 days is full of information for you. 7th ATSA Rebranded – Nimbus Portal Solutions Introducing new Nimbus Website Announced CDM last ATSA - delighted with the take up This is also the focus of this presentation and I’ll hand you over to Jacquie to take you on the CDM journey
- Collaboration workspace to share information with your Clients Share files / conversations Allow Clients to digitally sign documents Allow Clients to book appoints Work on Word and Excel spreadsheets in the Cloud
- Allow your Clients and Staff to digitally sign PDF documents Different options for signature on document Signature embeds into PDF document and can be verified
- Online “smart” checklists Nimbus provides a series of templates Fully customisable / create your own checklists Send to Groups or Individual Clients to collect data & files
- Bulk email to all your Clients eg: Newsletters Individual emails with links to secure documents Smart “crafted” emails with your branding Track status of email and setup with auto reminders
- Make a video and have a link from the slide Setup a workflow so that we start with the email asking for approval. Open Client folder, select template, save to PDF, Sign, PIN and click to publish to Client Include a magnifying glass to show that the page on the right is what we are looking at
- NEW FUNCTIONALITY Re-ordering of pages and appending PDF documents, and you can delete pages Append documents Reorder pages Apply stamps For example: Date stamp Your own custom stamps Personal stamps Business wide stamps Save – saves the document and closes it Apply – saves and takes you back to view mode where you can sign the document Once signed; document is no longer editable, except for further signatures
- Picture of Document Properties with sensible meta data and then a view of the Documents grid using these fields – filtered If your document management system doesn't’t let you easily define and manipulate meta data Department / Job ID / Matter – Audit / Tax / SMSF ****** Custom Fields *********** Graphic of adding an attribute to a page and then being able to easily find….. Allows you to embed your own custom information about a document and then use this to find your own data tags This means that you can easily retrieve information based on meta data informaiton
- Fully versioned file-system with automatic document versioning Unlimited storage, permanent Archive with managed auto-Archiving Document creation from standard and user defined templates Online Editing and Viewing for key document types (inc .xlsx .docx) MS Office add-ins allow open and save directly to Nimbus CDM Smart saving to Nimbus CDM for Outlook emails in/out User defined document metadata PDF file conversion for key document types with Digital Document Signing (DDS) Flexible user interface, custom Views & various display modes (thumbnails) One-click document publishing to Clients Document lock, checkout / check-in facility Staff / Team document workflow facilities with email notifications Full text keyword analysis and search function Staff / Team based folder access security Seamless integration with Nimbus Business Portal and Client Workspace
- Staff / Team document workflow facilities with email notifications Picture – Setup workflow for staff member – with screen of teams also Picture 2 – document properties and setting document status Picture 3 – file conversation bubble with updated workflow status – and email that is generated ************ think about picture of workflow through the office ******************* desk, document draft, final, and approved document, approval, processes – using icons and arrows ******************* Workflow happens automatically simply by setting the document workflow status Comparison to normal email, email comes in, it is actioned then forwarded etc
- Full text keyword analysis and search function All text searchable documents are indexed as they are uploaded / saved Picture – searching across full document store – for a document with a phrase and then show the result set achieved Ease of use in locating documents – eg: search icon in a whole drawer full of papers,
- Staff / Team based folder access security Picture 1 – show internal folder that cannot be published Picture 2 – show Audit team that can only see certain clients Picture 3 – show a Private folder for a Partner Staff heads and folders – use new icons who can see what
- Flashing lights on this slide Fully versioned file-system with automatic document versioning Unlimited storage, permanent Archive with managed auto-Archiving Picture 1 – tree/grid view and drop down the versions of docs Picture 2 – Archive list with filter – i.e., searching for something and then Restore 2 pictures of 2 databases and one on left is green – current, one the right is blue archive - big arrow going from current to archive that says AUTO Current fully versioned - client collaboration, - fully version, -single click publishing, archiving Archiving database – set of bullets: Permanent online file store Fully searchable One click restore
- Flexible user interface, custom Views & various display modes (thumbnails) – 3 way screen view of the different modes DECK SLIDE ONLY