Tag Archives: accounting

ALWAYS SERVE THE CUSTOMER

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When we think of the customer, we often only consider the external customer. But everyone you interact with in your organization can be considered your customer. Everyone should receive the same level of high quality service from you. This post is about the external customer, the buyer of your company’s product or service.

Being in accounting, we are somewhat removed from the external customer, with the exception of Accounts Receivable. We get caught up in our routines and processes. If contacted by an outside customer, we take it as an interruption to our day. In our minds, we think, well, I’ll have to try and work this into my day, but it isn’t a priority. This is not excellent customer service.

You wouldn’t have a job without that external customer buying your company’s products or services. If a customer calls me I return the call the same day, in no case make the customer wait longer than 24 hours.

They may have what I think is a ridiculous demand or a complaint about something that has nothing to do with accounting. The last thing I want to do is tell them I can’t help them. Even worse is to tell them to call back and ask for someone else, or transfer them to another department never knowing if they got what they needed. I am their connection to the solution.  A customer will remember clearly that when they called your company, the first person that answered the phone took care of them. It reflects well on everyone.

I listen to them, find out what they want, then take the initiative to contact whoever I need to contact within our organization to handle the request. If I can take care of it, I do it right away.

No matter how much extra work it is to take care of a customer request, it should be a high priority. It should be done quickly, and if takes several days or weeks to complete, keep the customer updated on its progress either by email or phone. It is important to assure the customer that you are taking care of the issue.

I specialize in sales taxes and I know that customers are very sensitive about their invoices being correct. If errors are found in a customer’s receivable account, be pro-active and correct them. For example, there can be errors on sales tax charged on customer invoices. They are usually discovered when filing the monthly sales tax returns. If a customer is owed a credit, make sure it gets on their account.  Even for small amounts, have Accounts Receivable issue the credits and advise the customer. This keeps the level of trust the customer has for your company very high. The customer knows you are always looking out for their best interest.

You never know when you may need help from your customer. Establishing this trusting relationship will be valuable and can serve you well in your ongoing interactions with external customers.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTING NOTES AND REFERENCES

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Accounting departments will always experience some level of attrition. Of course we would like everyone we hire to stay on forever, but that’s not realistic. While there are many ways to ease the transition, one of the most effective is to train all members of your team to keep their work well-documented.

There’s nothing worse than when somebody leaves a company abruptly and there are no notes or backup for any of their regular projects. This situation highlights the value of spending the extra time on notes that clarify your work. It is always easier to document your work when it’s fresh in your mind.

The accounting department will have frequent interactions with various outside entities, and most of those will be by phone. It’s amazing how much easier it is to remember conversations by taking notes not only about the issue at hand, but also about any emotions felt during the interaction. If the person on the other end of the line was frustrating, or perhaps they were more helpful than expected, make note of it.  Sometimes hold music can be unusual enough to write about. Don’t worry that it may seem strange to others, if it helps your memory, write it.

For financial work papers, notes regarding unusual entries made during the month along with explanations, and references to additional backup are critical. They will be useful at year end, particularly if your financial statements are audited.

Take notes and reference assuming you will not be around to explain your work at a later time. Your work should be able to stand on its own.  It shouldn’t take a committee to explain what is going on with your work papers.

It can be tempting to take shortcuts with the referencing, especially if it’s something that is prepared frequently. Never assume what you do is obvious. Think in terms of making your eventual successor’s job easier. Set a high standard they will want to uphold.

TIPS ON TRAINING NEWLY HIRED ACCOUNTANTS

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Congratulations! The business is growing and you need to hire more people. I will assume you’re past the screening process and have hired your ideal candidate. The problem is they have little to no experience. Either they are just out of school, or perhaps have experience in areas other than accounting. Here are some ideas on setting them up to succeed.

Unless you have other experienced staff, most of the training responsibility will fall on you. One of the best ways to start is to give them a relatively straightforward task. An easy way to do this that won’t require a lot of your time, is to have them prepare reconciliations or work papers that have already been done. For example your prior month sales tax returns, or financial statement work papers. They can compare their work to the prior month. If they have questions, have them prepare a list and you can schedule a time to go over it. This allows them to go at their own pace and learn by doing.

Another good way to get new hires started is cross-training with other departments. A staff accountant can pair up with an AR or AP clerk for a day. I like this because it gives your current staff a chance to learn effective training skills, and the new person will become familiar with your systems and other aspects of the company. It is also beneficial to have as many people as possible trained in data entry. There are always times when the volume increases, and there are not enough staff. The ability to have the extra work done internally is more cost effective than hiring temporary staff.

I want the people that work for me to understand that every task in accounting is potentially theirs.  Yes, they may get promoted and have additional responsibility, but if something needs to be done, they may “get the call”.  People need to understand that to work efficiently, sometimes you have to do things that aren’t as fun, or not as sophisticated. I like to look at it in terms of helping someone else; if AP needs help with their filing, I’ll do the filing, even if I’m the Accounting Manager. That’s the kind of attitude you want to instill in your employees, and the best way to do that is to lead by example.

After about a month on the job, ask your new employee to start documenting what they do every day. Once you have a week’s worth of documentation, review it, and then ask them to draft a procedures write up of their job. This assists with documenting internal processes and gets them thinking about other tasks they might enjoy doing.

Some people are happy to be told what to do; others are more aggressive and will seek out new opportunities. Find out what type of person you’re dealing with as soon as you can. One is not necessarily better than the other, but you can assign tasks based on skill level and attitude. For example, someone that is more of a follower will be suitable for repetitious work, like data entry, filing, or collections. Someone more aggressive will learn those things, get better and faster at those tasks, and end up with a lot more free time in the day. You want to be ready to fill that time with productive activities. You might consider having them start on one of those special projects that are sitting on your desk!

The common theme of these techniques is building teamwork. They should understand no task is too big or small. Let them know they will be recognized for making the department more efficient. Find out their strengths and use them to your advantage. Discover their weaknesses, and find ways to help them be stronger. In helping them build skills, you build yours as well.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS

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While accountants always like it when things balance to the penny, we also consider materiality. For example, if your bank reconciliation is off by $20, and the account balance is $600k with millions flowing through it every month, it makes more sense to write off the $20 and move on with your life. I do it all the time. It allows me to focus on more pressing issues.

There are times though, when I see what appears to be an immaterial amount, but something about it bothers me.  Between sales, property, and income taxes, I file over 1,000 returns each year.  If I chased down every penny nothing would ever get done. However, when reconciling sales tax accounts, it really makes no sense for the general ledger not to tie within pennies of the subsidiary. In most cases the subsidiary is another software program that calculates the taxes on your invoices. In a perfect world, these systems communicate with each other seamlessly.  Since our world isn’t perfect, things happen.

Last month my general ledger and subsidiary were off by $17. The tax owed was $80k. But I was bothered. There was no reason for it to be off. I put my detective skills to work, it took about an hour, but I figured out that the software system was incorrectly posting a credit memo; the credit went to a different state than the original debit. Without getting into all the fun details, suffice it to say that this hour spent resulted in a reprogramming of the sales tax program to correct a systematic error that would have continued to occur. If I didn’t investigate $17, the next one could have been thousands, or over time it could have added up to even more than that.

Today I received an email requesting a resale certificate for a 3rd party shipment. The wording of the email was confusing; I read it quickly and thought I knew the answer, was about to hit send, then I felt again like something was wrong. I read the email a few more times, and determined there was a misunderstanding of sales tax law. As part of my investigating, I uncovered another problem.  I determined that a sale had been sourced to an incorrect state, no tax had been collected, and it was a material amount. The error I found was only thinly related to the email, but being bothered, I spent the time.

Never feel bad about spending extra time to investigate the details on something that just ‘feels wrong.’ You could uncover larger problems and solve them before they cost your company a lot of money. In communicating these issues internally, you show expertise and leadership. It also showcases your problem-solving and decision-making abilities.

Spending this extra time develops what I like to refer to as ‘the gut instinct.’ It will get faster and easier to glance at something and know that it doesn’t seem right and needs further analysis. Being able to react quickly with gut instincts is a valuable business skill. Never waste an opportunity to practice it – that $17 could change your life!