Although it doesn’t seem like it at a glance (due to the uncluttered interface) there’s a lot going on in AccountancyManager. Automated emails and texts to your clients, tasks being completed by different people and information and documents flowing in and out of your practice daily.
“The amount of client information that you can enter – including details of any communication that has occured – is extremely useful.”
– Jennifer W, AccountancyManager review on Capterra
The overview pages for clients, tasks, time tracking and profitability give you high-level oversight, but what about tracking and recording your interactions with specific clients over time? That’s where the Client Timeline comes in. A much-appreciated feature as far as our existing users are concerned.
Record every interaction, change, document shared – and time spent
Client emails, texts and calls
The Client Timeline keeps a time-stamped record of every email and text your practice sends to your clients – and any reply emails and texts. Crucially, AccountancyManager will also record whether your client has opened your email.
Whenever you have a meeting or impromptu call, you can also capture a summary of items covered by entering it into your client’s timeline. This keeps everyone in your practice on the same page.
Changes to client details
All updates to the client’s details – whether made by a member of your team, your client or an integration – are tracked on the timeline. The entry will detail who made the change and whether the change was made by an integration like Companies House, Xero or FreeAgent. Your client can also change their details in their portal.
Documents and signatures
An automatic entry will also be created when you or your client uploads documents to their portal or adds their e-signature. You can just click on the entry to see or download the document – such as a client’s signed letter of engagement or registration terms.
Updates to tasks and logged time
Whenever a member of your team works on a client-related task and logs their time, this will be listed on the client timeline. Useful if you ever need to justify costs to your client.
Add what you like. Find what you need.
You can log any additional notes against your client, either for other staff to see or to keep more comprehensive records. These will again be listed and time-stamped on the Client Timeline. There’s no need to endlessly scroll to find what you’re looking for either, just use the search and filter functions.
Protecting your liability
In a recent chat with one of our customers, they highlighted the benefit of knowing whether a customer had received and opened their emails. If a disagreement arises between you and a client – for missed or incorrect tax payments for example – you can guarantee that your practice has followed all the correct procedures and prove where the responsibility lies
“For the month end on 31st of March, you’ll say: ‘This is how much to pay, please pay by the 7th.’ Then the client comes to us on the 15th or 16th of May saying ‘I’ve had this letter and the VAT return hasn’t been paid or submitted.’ Then you look on the system and the client’s read it five or six times!”
– Matt McConnell, Certax – Durham
Anti money-laundering and risk assessments
You’ve done your AML check, credit check and initial risk assessment, so you’re all good, right? We recently interrogated a former chief HMRC tax inspector for 3 hours and in short: no.
In brief, if the tax man comes knocking, you want to have as much information on your client’s accounting activities as they do. And that’s likely to be a lot.
Having every interaction with your client recorded on the timeline – with links to documents and notes regarding your clients’ activities – gives you an ideal audit trail if you ever get ‘the knock’. We’ll be looking into AML and risk assessments in more detail an upcoming article.
It’s more exciting than it sounds, promise.
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