Building your workflow and your tech stack can be an exciting and challenging process. It really depends on how tech-savvy you are and how interested you are in trying to eliminate manual work. I say this a lot, but the robots are coming for our jobs one way or another, so might as well get ahead of the game and add them into your process now.
Step 1 –
The first step in cementing your workflow is to identify what the key components of your business are. In accounting, it is usually your accounting software, for me that would be Quickbooks Online. Everything I work with needs to somehow connect to or be built around that key software platform. Quickbooks is the heart of our business, and therefore the most important piece.
Step 2 –
The next step in the process is your project management tool. This is the brain of your business. It will keep all your tasks in order and ensure you do not drop any balls. This should be the second most important software that your company has (first for some). I, personally, need this software to connect to my email, my calendar, and Slack, and also have a usable mobile app for my phone. Anything else I add to my workflow from here forward will 100% sync or at least have a Zap (Zapier) connecting it to my project management tool.
Step 3 –
Step 3 is your communication platforms. This is always a matter of preference. I use several forms of communication since every client is different and I want to be able to communicate easily while still maintaining a sense of structure internally. I am a huge fan of Slack. They have an average of 18 MILLION users. There is a good chance that if you work for a private company, that company uses Slack. There is a free version and upgraded/paid versions, depending on your needs. Slack integrates with just about every platform that has an open API (Application Programming Interface). An API, for those who don’t know, is a set of definitions and protocols for building and integrating application software.
Step 4 –
From here you would add in all of your ancillary software. Since I am speaking in terms of my own business, I will use an accounting firm as an example. We automate EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Whenever I am working on a task, I think to myself “Can this be automated”. I likely spend more time searching for automation and implementing it, than I do working on tasks at hand. My thought process behind this is – that I only have to do the research and implementation once. Once it is set up, then it does it for me and I can move on to other tasks.
The one piece of advice I would give to you is to make sure you know what you are looking for in the tech you are adding. Really identify the problems you are solving for and make sure that the software actually solves for them before implementation. Test it out, play with it, give people on your team access, ask to see their roadmap, join a community that was built for that software, and see what issues current users are having and how responsive the software is to their users.
Implementing software without doing your due diligence can be very costly and time-consuming. You may end up losing out on start-up fees, being stuck in long contracts, and then monopolizing team and client time with the switch, just to realize that it won’t work for what you need.
