How Silverfin gives accountants, partners, and their clients a comprehensive overview of all financial data, status updates, and communications.
It’s not easy being an accountant in today’s rapidly changing world. Technology is constantly evolving and customer expectations are at an all-time high. Our recent blog reveals the weight of the pressure:
- 83% of accountants say their clients demand more today than five years ago
- 67% feel the profession is more competitive than ever
Succeeding in this new environment requires firms to find ways to not only deliver standard compliance or reporting services more efficiently, but to also increase their scope of work and assume the role of trusted advisor.
Visibility of data is crucial here – but limited access to it remains a fundamental issue. Our research shows that just 13% of accountants strongly agree that they have access to data and insights that enable them to deliver advisory services for their clients.
This is a major problem, but automated data management promises a solution. This gives accountants all of the information required to understand every aspect of their clients’ businesses – and gives partners the same level of understanding about what’s going on within their own firm. This enables them to improve productivity and accuracy, compete more effectively, and become far more useful in the eyes of their clients.
Silverfin delivers this critical visibility in five ways:
1. Access everything at all times
With Silverfin, client data is imported, consolidated, and standardised into a single data hub from over 50 sources, going much further than just handling bookkeeping data. This means that customer or supplier information, business data, and financial numbers are no longer spread across disparate apps or cloud services when it’s reporting time or you want to analyse business performance.
Having a reliable and secure store of all current and historical client data ensures nothing can be missed or go out of date. It can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and on any device. So, whether you’re in your client’s building, your own offices, or working remotely, all the data you need is at your fingertips.
2. Ability to deep dive into a client
With all current and historical financial data for each client in one place, accountants can compare information month-on-month or year-on-year according to requirements. Gone are the days when hundreds of spreadsheet tabs needed to be kept open to achieve comparative reconciliation.
With all data in a common format compliance and other accounting workflows can now be automated, improving the speed and accuracy of routine tasks – and enabling branded reports to be created, published, and filed directly with the authorities in just a few clicks.
The speed of automation gives accountants more time to focus on higher value work, while the powerful analytics and reporting tools deliver the insights that make advisory work possible.
3. Accountants can see their whole client portfolio
Silverfin also enables an accountant to see the status of all their clients and activities. This makes it much easier to see which clients’ year ends are approaching and to prioritise work accordingly. Timely reports can be generated exactly when each client needs them, raising client satisfaction rates in the process.
Benchmarking also becomes a much simpler task. Accountants can analyse their entire portfolio to see trends, identify risks, and uncover new opportunities for growth.
4. Partners get a whole firm view
With Silverfin, partners can also see the status of their entire client base in one place. Progress charts show updated status, so there’s no need to rely on staff reports or pull accountants off their work to find out where they’re up to or how long they’ve got left on each task.
Real visibility is achieved at a micro and macro level – breaking down internal barriers and facilitating continuous improvement. This means the best possible service is delivered to all clients, and the accountancy firm is more profitable as a result.
5. Communication
Since your team, and their clients, work together directly in their file on Silverfin, there’s full visibility of internal and external communications. Now in complete control, partners can see who is working on what, prioritise workflows, and see any inefficiencies.
Queries can be raised on any cell, alerts can be sent, and invoices can be attached. This leaves a full audit trail and ensures that collaboration is in context.
With everyone following the same processes and reporting methods, visibility is improved and best practice is consistent. There’s no chance of missed messages and no need for endless emails or the additional collaboration tools you’ve been using and paying extra for.
The path to Fullsight
Achieving visibility of your business and your clients in these five ways will give you Fullsight – the foundation of connected accounting. This is the term we use to describe the digitisation, consolidation, and standardisation of all client financial data, whatever the source, in one central data hub.
Ultimately, Fullsight is about having full visibility of all your client data, up-to-date and available to you at all times. It’s the basis on which all work – compliance or advisory – can begin. It is the foundation of success in connected accounting.