We’re talking about how to stay organized, even during tax season. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a very busy life. I have three kids, a husband, a dog, a CPA firm, and it’s tax season. So, how do you stay organized? People often ask me how I keep track of all these things. Because sometimes it’s hard just to keep track of your own stuff, let alone four, five people in your family and then all of your clients. So I will let you know that even though I might seem like a wonder woman, I actually have a lot of help.
One of the best things that I ever did in the name of organizing was to invest in what we call practice management software. Now, this might not exactly apply to you in your business, depending on what industry you’re in, but just about anyone can use some product out there. For example, I know a lot of people use Trello or Asana to keep track and organize all their projects that they need to do. So I have an industry-specific one for accountants. It’s called Karbon, with a K, and what’s really great is that it keeps all of my client’s work in there. It keeps all my deadlines, it gives me checklists, it lets clients upload documents, it lets us communicate, and really that is the one thing that keeps me organized. If that went away, I don’t know what I would do. I’d be in a lot of trouble, I’d be back to post-it notes all over my desk.
But I love technology, I will use an app for anything I can find an app for, and this was really fantastic organizing thing to find. Now, you can really amp it up if you want to integrate that with other things. For example, I have a whole process where if you want to work with me, you need to sign an engagement letter and do all these kind of legalistic things, and I have it now so that once those engagement letters are signed, it automatically creates the projects in the practice management software. So it’s like a full end-to-end integration, which is really fantastic because now I don’t have to go back and look and say, “Oh, did that person sign their engagement letter? Did they not?” I don’t do all the work and then find out they’d never signed it. It really keeps everything organized perfectly.
So I highly, highly suggest, if you’re somebody who’s prone to chaos like I am, with too many things going on and too much stuff that cannot fit in your brain, that you invest in some organizing technology. Or even try out those free ones. I don’t personally love Trello, but I know a lot of people really, really like it. Asana is kind of cool, monday.com. There is a lot of organizing tools out there. There’s a lot of free stuff out there, you don’t have to pay for something. But sometimes they have really cool features that you end up having to pay for, and it’s always worth it. If it’s going to save you time, if it’s going to keep you on track and organized, if it’s going to help you focus, if it’s going to keep you from wasting time looking through email and, “Oh, what was I supposed to do?” It’s worth it, just pay for it. It’s worth it. And if it’s for your business, it’s a business expense. So yay, deductions. So that’s my business quickie for today, and we’ll see you next time.
