Accounting Project Management Could Be the Necessary Next Step for Your Firm

Keeping track of all the projects your firm handles can be hard. From tracking profits and losses to creating invoices, there's a lot to manage. You became a professional in your industry to do what you love. But in order to do what you love, you must also excel at accounting project management.

Imagine if you had one software that encompassed all of your business needs is together in one universal and easy-to-understand platform. When you consolidate data, you gain valuable insights you might have otherwise overlooked when jumping from program to program. Plus, customizable dashboards with upcoming projects and KPIs can help you stay on track for success (Related: The Ugly Truth About Project Management KPIs).

The good news is, software can help you with accounting project management, streamline your day to day tasks and increase efficiency. And integrating accounting project management software could be far easier than you expect.

Accounting project management & your day-to-day

Accounting project management will aid in your regular accounting duties by helping you track:

• Profits and losses

• Balance sheets

• Cash and accrual reporting with comparison data

Tracking these items will give you clear insights on how they're functioning within your firm and show you any weak spots to improve. Some software, like BQE CORE, will automatically download bank feeds and reconcile accounts quickly and allow you to manage purchase orders, checks, vendor bills, and your G/L, A/R, A/P from the same platform.

Time & expense tracking

You can get your projects done faster by using time and expense tracking. If one of your project KPIs is resource capacity, time and expense tracking will be a helpful tool. Tracking this metric can help you with accurate job costing and let you keep track of how long you spend on each portion of a project with timecards, so you can accurately bill your clients.

BQE CORE lets you set up multiple rates or create special rates using fee schedules, depending on the type of project you're taking on. You can also record expenses in multiple currencies and attach receipts to your expenses so that they're easily viewable (Related: Time and Billing Software Fundamentals for Professional Service Firms).

Engagement management

Software that helps with accounting project management can also help with engagement management. Accounting project management software helps you accurately track audit, tax, bookkeeping and other engagements. Additionally, it gives you access to a multi-level submittal and approval process for time and expenses, budgets, vendor bills, estimates and invoices. You can also use smart tools to manage resource scheduling, allocation and utilization for people in your firm.

Client relations as an accounting project management goal

Going out to lunches and meeting with your clients in person are great ways to build your relationship. But building rapport is just one part of the equation, your work must also be top-notch.

Late billing, incorrect invoices or failing to respond to e-mails may reflect poorly on you and your firm. Accounting project management software can automate these processes so nothing falls through the cracks.

Director of Sales and Customer Service Management Programs for Executive Education Jerry Fritz echoes the importance of strong customer service in any industry. In an interview, he said: "You'll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can't be copied."

Automatic billing

Some programs, like BQE CORE, allow you to set up automatic billing, so you can schedule expected billings for a project multiple times throughout its life or at the start or end of the project.

You can establish these standards at the same time as when you set up your project KPIs. This can be helpful for projects that use milestone billing, where project managers call the shots instead of the billing manager, or projects that call for standard billing processes (Related: How to Set Up a Billing Schedule in BQE CORE).

Customizable invoices

CORE also lets you choose from dozens of professional looking and fully customizable invoice templates that you can use for accounting project management.

You can choose from percent complete, retainer, recurring, hourly, phased, fixed, joint and more invoice types. This all depends on your firms' needs. They can change to be precisely how you want them, making it easy for them to be incorporated by any member of your team. You can reuse and share the templates with other accountants in your firm. This will help you establish a clear invoicing system that will show your clients that your firm has consistency and that your internal operations are strongly intact (Related: Online Invoicing and Payment Software: Good for Cash Flow, Great for Customers).

Communicate on the go

You can also communicate with clients from anywhere and they will be available on any device you integrate into your software. Choose a software that allows you to engage in accounting project management from mobile devices as well as desktop computers, so you won't have to worry about missing client messages when you're on the go or working away from your desk.

CORE: Your accounting project management tool

Alexis from Henderson Architectural Group, Inc. left a five-star review of CORE, illustrating how she used special invoicing for specific clients.

"In the 9 years that I have been working with BillQuick, I have established an outstanding relationship with them ... The software has many capabilities, along with Crystal Reports, that allows you to design or edit existing reports/invoices to your needs. I have created special invoices for specific clients, and I am able to tie these invoices to specific projects without having to worry about them printing on the wrong template. The capabilities to tie expenses, activities, employees, etc. to specific projects is endless."

From tracking time and preparing invoices to managing projects and allocating resources, CORE is the single platform that does everything your firm needs. Click below to try it free today.