Approaching the challenges around data in accounting is often complex and difficult to tackle head on. In a recent poll, 90% of accountants agreed that their data quality is poor. A lot of accounting firms find they have limitations when it comes to data, and achieving a single source of truth is challenging due to the large volumes, lack of quality, lack of integration, and the shortage of detailed analytics surrounding it.
Rather than keeping it there to collect dust, laying out a process to manage your firm's data will get the wheels in motion. The process may seem perpetual, but with a clear end goal, it’s worth the time and effort. In this blog, we’ll outline some tips to help you manage data in accounting.
The right data
Getting the data right in the first place is crucial. Once you've sorted your data to be meaningful to your practice, you can start organising it in the best way.
Utilising Cloud capabilities
Paper files are outdated in the modern workplace. Having all your data in the cloud will allow for clean data right from the beginning of the journey.
Data in the right place
Having your data in the right place will allow your team to be proactive and consistent with their clients across your practice.
Culture
Instilling good, quality data should be part of the company culture at your practice. Ultimately it comes down to your people and how the leaders demonstrate good practice.
Automation
Accountants share lots of databases internally. Let's take this example: Your accountants have the same names of various directors and their addresses, but store them in different locations. Now one of the directors approaches one of your clients with a change of address. Your accountant changes the information in his database, but without automation, your other accountants now have outdated information on file. Simple automation can resolve these inconsistencies and can change information across all systems when simply entered into one.
Reviews
Having regular reviews will allow you to take a step back and see where you are at with your data. There should be a specific person or team dedicated to reviewing the data regularly.
Management and reporting
Develop a set of reports that show you the gaps so that you know where to go and fix things. Data visualisations like live dashboards and analysis of datasets will allow you to understand your business and customer data, and give valuable insights to help with decision making.
Single source of truth
As we’ve seen with the automation, different people have a different place for the same thing. You need to ensure which data source is the single source of truth for your operations and then put it into practice. If left unaddressed, this can turn into an issue quickly.
Establishing the single source of truth for your data isn’t an infinite problem. Now you know what to do, it’s time to start the journey. Need some help? At T-Tech, we have deep experience in working with accounting firms to better manage their data. Talk to us today or learn more about our data management services.