Time is money, especially when you’re a CPA. The profession is demanding and you may feel pulled in many directions at once, whether you’re crunching numbers through tax season or helping a client close a deal. Increasing productivity while decreasing unnecessary stress is not always easy, but it is attainable if you plan ahead and stay organized.
This doesn’t just mean using a computer, but maximizing what the digital world can do for you. Think in terms of enhanced software like secure standalone scanner, NeatDesk, which helps digitize paper records and Intuit’s Quickbooks that automates payroll and invoicing.
Streamlining your regular accounting processes with apps or taking courses like CPA Canada’s Excel certificate program can teach you techniques that will eliminate frustration while performing daily tasks and free up time for you to concentrate on additional responsibilities.
Sure, it may seem obvious, but being organized goes beyond just maintaining a tidy desk. Keeping your digital files located in one secure folder for quick and safe access, with programs such as SmartVault, eliminates scrambling to locate a file at the last minute.
Staying on top of and prioritizing tasks with lists also ensures you don’t miss a deadline. Set up reminders in synchronized calendars like Google or Outlook, which help you stay organized across devices.
Despite how stellar of a multi-tasker you are, research shows that multi-tasking can increase the time it takes to focus (and refocus) on a project when you switch between them. The kind of “multi” you do want to engage in, however, is multi-screens.
With so many tabs open at any given time, having multiple screens allows you to spread out your open documents, which helps decrease the time spent clicking between tabs to locate various items.
Emailed documents can often show up on a client’s screen in a format different from how you originally created it. Saving documents as PDFs helps to reduce formatting errors and protects the file from unnecessary changes—whether accidental or not.
Ensuring a file is delivered in the same format it was created in also reduces confusion and back-and-forth discussion between you and the client.
Implementing too many changes at once may create confusion, which hinders productivity. Instead, choose one or two ways to better organize your day and slowly introduce more productivity techniques to your schedule as you feel comfortable.
From limiting technology to effective scheduling, boost productivity at work and easily stay on top of tasks. Also, stay clear of these biggest productivity killers.
Michelle is a Toronto-based writer and digital content creator who began her career in local news reporting more than a decade ago. Michelle has been with CPA Canada since 2013.