(The following is an extract from my new book “The Highly Profitable Accountant”. It’s currently selling on Amazon for £14.99 and receiving incredible 5* reviews from Managing Partners just like you! As part of a special promotion I have 500 copies to give away for free. Get your free copy here while I still have some left!)
Accountants, Stop Wasting Time Doing Admin Tasks!
It is well known that accountants (and partners) spend an inordinate amount of very expensive time on all kinds of low-level admin tasks.
That is like saying, ‘Andy Murray, please come and help because we need someone to put up the net on the tennis court. Usain Bolt, help because we need someone to paint a white line on the running track. Richard Branson, please help serve some drinks in the plane’s cabin.’
With all due respect, I am absolutely certain that if any of those individuals were actually asked to do any of those tasks, they’d be more than happy to oblige.
But that isn’t the point.
The point is that we all have strengths. And weaknesses. And when we play to our strengths — that is when it all works beautifully.
When a £500 per hour partner (or £100 quite frankly), spends time filling in admin forms, or moves around a box of paper, or makes a photocopy, or calls up a client to chase them for X, Y or Z, which could as easily have been done by a £15 per hour person, that is just plain wrong thinking…
It is a vital step towards profitability to list everything that is done by expensive people (who could earn money by doing expensive things) that could just as easily be done by lesser expensive people, even with only a bit of training or some checklists.
It is estimated that an average of two hours per day per accountant is wasted on admin tasks that could as easily have been done by a less expensive admin person.
Sit down and write down all of the admin tasks you’re currently doing, which could easily be done by an admin person.
These might include:
- Returning records to clients
- Filing
- Dealing with client correspondence
Once you’ve written them all down, figure out just how much the time spent on them is worth in £ terms.
You might be surprised by what you find…
(The extract above is from my new book “The Highly Profitable Accountant”, a 223 page step-by-step action guide complete with tools, systems and case studies. It’s currently selling on Amazon for £14.99 but as part of a special promotion I have 500 copies to give away for free. Get your free copy now while I still have some left!)
