One thing I learned early on as an accounting freelancer is that being organized prevents unnecessary stress and confusion. You are the face of your business and being unorganized can cause your reputation to drop in the eyes of your client.
Serving multiple clients instead of being a senior accountant for one company takes time getting used to. You now have multiple CEOs, multiple books, and multiple everything to deal with. You have to stay organized and be able to separate everyone’s business. It would not be good to call CEOs by the wrong names or attach wrong documents to e-mails!
Being organized can also mean literallyincreasing your profits by 5-20%! When you are working for yourself, finishing all your work early means you can fully move on to other work or be off early!
Below are my best tips on how to keep your business organized and spend less time working and digging through emails and documents, and more time on what you want!
Here are my organization tips:
Set up your e-mail with folders. You need to have a folder per client and a folder for your own business. You want to ensure that every answered e-mail gets filed in the client’s folder for record keeping and that anything unanswered stays in the main inbox so you know you need to answer it. Having control of your inbox is key to managing multiple clients.
Organize passwords. You will be given many passwords to the client’s banks, payment processors, payroll, and so on when you are providing full accounting services. I suggest using the same group of passwords for everything. However, do not think you will be able to remember everything. Getting locked out and asking your client to reset you every couple of months looks unprofessional. You need to keep the passwords in a secured Google doc or a Word doc on your desktop or a secured online folder.
Plan not to take vacations during the first 10 days of the month. Closing all books by the 15th of the month is always best. Not only does that make your clients happy, but it also leaves you with 15 days during the month to network, look for clients, do one-time jobs, do tax returns, and so on.
Buy a calendarwhere you can write down deadlines, projects, and meetings. Being able to see the full month in front of you and cross things off is satisfying. Click HERE to see the calendar I use.
Create client folders in Box.com or Google Drive so that you can save important client info and transfer documents when needed. Nothing is more annoying than looking for those tax return workpapers from three years ago in an e-mail or somewhere on your desktop. Also scan and upload to the client folder any physical mail you get for the client.
Have a cheat sheet with tax, audit, and state filing deadlines for all your clients where you can monthly check the list. Notify the client if anything is needed a month in advance.
If running an accounting firm or freelancing sounds like something you would be interested in but you don’t know where to start, go ahead and download my FREE Firm Quick Start Guide below.
In this course I teach the exact steps I took to start my own accounting business, all the best technology and sales techniques out there, and much much more! You will be able to go out and start signing clients comfortably after going through my course.
If you prefer one on one consulting, we offer that as well! Click here to schedule a strategy session.
Do you have any other questions on what it is like to be a freelance accountant? Leave a comment below and I will get back to you!
company takes time getting used to. You now have multiple CEOs, multiple books, and multiple everything to deal with. You have to stay organized and be able to separate everyone’s business. It would not be good to call CEOs by the wrong names or attach wrong documents to e-mails!
