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E-Myth – “Why most small businesses don’t work & what to do about it”

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Edmonton Small Business Accountant | Upgrading Accounting Offices


If entrepreneurs do not understand how important technological advances are even to Edmonton small business accountant offices, they may choose to hire accountants who are behind the times technology-wise. Staying on top of technology is important, and as Jim Collins who is the author of six business books has said, ìtechnology is important. You cannot remain a laggard and hope to be great.î There are many ways that accounting offices can update not only their computers to be more efficient, but update the way they work as well, so that they are providing the best service they can for their clients.

The team at Spurrell and Associates have put in world-class workstations in their accounting firm, which helps them service their clients even better. What makes these workstations so special, is not just that the technology is great, but also the fact that the workstations allow for collaborative work to happen, so that the client can get the best possible service. In this Edmonton small business accountant office, the workstations allow for three accountants to work at a time, and every client is assigned a team of two. This means that every time a client comes in to see the accountants here, they have two people who are familiar with their files, which means no matter if an accountant goes on vacation or calls in sick, the clients never miss a beat.

Because they’re able to work so much more efficiently, rather than billing their clients on an hourly basis, the Edmonton small business accountant team at Sperling Associates build their clients a flat monthly fee. It does not make sense for accounting offices to bill hourly, because that means the slower they work on a file, is the more money they get paid. Instead of being rewarded for working slowly, and clients receiving bills that they have no idea how much they are going to be until they get them, Sperling Associates have decided that it is much more beneficial for clients to be able to anticipate exactly what their monthly bill will be. Therefore, they are motivated to get things done quickly, so that they can get the client what they need to operate their business, and then moved to the next client.

The way that Sperling Associates can keep their costs low, is by hiring accounting students. They have already completed their CPA degree, but have not yet earned their designation. They need three years of articles, so by hiring these students in their office, they can keep their costs down, while continuing to deliver world-class service. This also gives accounting students a great opportunity to train in order to achieve their designation.

Changing the way accountants typically work, this Edmonton small business accountant is leading the way in ensuring that they stay on the leading edge of technology and ensuring their clients are the ones that end up with the best possible product for the price is that they pay.

One may not think of Advanced Technology when they think of the Edmonton small business accountant firms, but technology is extremely important and those who cannot upgrade tend to be left behind. A great example of this, are the accountants at Spurrell and Associates who have realize that I am grading of their technology is a great way to ensure that they are continuing to deliver a great product to their clients. There are several ways that they upgraded all of the technology in their office, and it allows them to get their jobs done quicker which benefit their clients.

Studies have been done to see how productivity could be improved by increasing the number of monitors office workers use. The studies showed that the productivity level between one monitor to two was astronomical. They also did studies to see if two monitors to three increased productivity even more. For almost all offices, the productivity level did not improved by adding 1/3 monitor, with the exception of accounting offices. The productivity level from two monitors to three jumped by the same amount from one monitor to two. They discovered that the reason why having three monitors was so beneficial for accounting firms, is because accountants need to utilize three very important components during every act that they do. Accountants need to have a report on one screen, a journal entry that they are making changes to on another screen, and on the third screen are the supporting documents to show why they are making the journal entry. Because of this, it is extremely important that accountants have three monitors. At this Edmonton small business accountant office, they ensure that every single one of their accounting workstations had three monitors.

It is not just important that they had three monitors however they needed to be large monitors so that they could be seen, and a high enough resolution that they could have the detail of small text on the screens that could be read easily. Therefore, the accountant sets Burrell and Associates ensured that there monitors for 42 inches and 4K and resolution. This way, they could have a phenomenal amount of information that very readable. However it is not just important that they have three monitors, they need to be situated in such a way to lend themselves to collaborative work. Therefore, the monitors were mounted on a rig directly in front of the computers stacked one on top of each other so that every accountant that works at the collaborative workstation can read all of the monitors, so that everyone knows what the other accountant is doing, and they can collaborate whenever necessary.

By increasing the technology at this Edmonton small business accountant office, they discovered that not only could they be far more efficient and productive, they could allow collaboration to have been easily, which benefits the client ultimately. Technology is extremely important, even in accounting offices where many people do not believe it is necessary.