Using Teamwork Projects in Accounting Firms

This month, accounting and bookkeeping are in our Industry of the Month spotlight for June and, today, we are sharing what our accounting clients do to make Teamwork Projects work for them. In our previous post, we introduced you to Orla Linehan of Fidelia Chartered Accountants, Cork, Ireland. Now we’ll talk more about how Teamwork Projects helps accountants, like Orla and her team, serve their clients better. Welcome to the Accountant’s Guide to Teamwork Projects. Learn how to solve puzzles, deal with deadlines, create recurring tasks, add tags and much more!

How would you describe your approach to accounting?

Orla: “I look at the work like it is a puzzle and I’m solving it for a person. There is always a person behind it. This isn’t just a VAT return but a VAT return for my client. It is why I’m doing this and solving this puzzle. “I solve things from experience. It makes the job more interesting, and it’s great when your numbers match, or you get a tax refund and can ring up someone and tell them you have great news.”

How do you manage your workload and deadlines?

Orla: “What can happen in accounting is, there are constant deadlines. You have one lot done and then the next one is right there. It can make you feel like you’re on a treadmill. “We use the Due Dates and Estimates to plan our clients’ projects as tasks and task lists in Teamwork Projects. The workload report is the best thing ever. It shows how much time it will take to complete given the estimated time, and then we know if it is possible and how to organize our schedules to get the work done most efficiently without undue stress.”

How do you and your team use Teamwork Projects?

Orla: “Teamwork is set up as a hierarchy of Projects > Task Lists > Tasks. This fits perfectly into our model of Client > Type of Work > Task, for example: ABC Limited > Payroll > Process weekly payroll. For simplification, we sometimes group similar clients together, for example: Income Tax Returns > John Murphy > Prepare income tax return. We keep track of our administration and business development tasks too, using separate projects for Administration, HR and Marketing.”

What feature is your favorite in Teamwork Projects?

Orla: “We love the Recurring Tasks feature. Accountants generally have recurring deadlines and tasks rather than once off tasks. Payrolls can be done every week or month. Income Tax returns are due every year. Having a recurring tasks feature means we only have to input each task once. When a task is marked completed, it generates a new task for next week, month or year. This was one of the main reasons for choosing Teamwork. “We are delighted with the new Tags option. Now we can tag our similar tasks which assists with scheduling our work.”

What low-tech approach to tasks do you love?

Orla: “We have a whiteboard where we tick off things we’ve done. We walk over to the board and mark it complete then at the end of the day we feel accomplished. Even a small victory feels good and the team sees it the whole day. Completing it is satisfying. “Teamwork Projects gives us the tools for organizing and completing tasks on a far more efficient system than a whiteboard and like, I said, being able to tick and complete tasks is very satisfying”.

What approach helps you achieve work-life balance?

Orla: “It’s very important to separate your work life from your home life. I do my best to accomplish this by having a personal phone for friends and family, and a dedicated work phone that clients can reach me on. This allows me to make a smooth switch when the work day is done from on-hands accountant to wife and super mommy.” Here at Teamwork, we love our customers and admire all the industries and professions that have chosen Teamwork Projects to be part of their work. We have one more post up our sleeves for the end of the month to highlight tips for bookkeepers using Teamwork Projects. Are you an accountant using Teamwork Projects? Have you got any tricks you’d like to share with the rest of your industry? Just post a comment underneath! Industry of the Month is a campaign we’re going to continue with on our blog. If you or your company would like to be part of our research then don’t hesitate to get in contact with us! Just comment below. If you want to give Teamwork Projects a try to see how it can help you manage your projects and tasks, check out our free 30-day trial here.