Three Steps to Take Towards a Bright New Way of Working

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Three Steps to Take Towards a Bright New Way of
Working
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• At iKeep, making the decision to shift our entire
  bookkeeping services and client base to cloud
  based accounting was monumental for many reasons.
• We knew it was going to make a hugely positive
  impact on our productivity, operational costs and
  the way we worked as a company. Best of all? The
  cloud approach meant we were servicing our
  clients faster, better, stronger. Relationships
  strengthened as our clients and us became
  streamlined in our processes and practices.

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• It was a win win. Eventually.
• But it did take work to convince ourselves and
  then our clients that this was the way of the
  future. If youre still weighing up your options
  around leaving desktop accounting behind for the
  efficiency of cloud accounting, here are three
  steps you can take to get you started on your own
  cloud based accounting journey.

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• 1. Research
• As a company, we are always looking to stay
  up-to-date on what is changing in the market. For
  the industry we are in, that change is cloud
  accounting. So we put our research hats on and
  asked ourselves these questions

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• How can cloud accounting benefit iKeep?
• How can it benefit our clients and the way we do
  business with them?
• Who are the key providers in the market?
• What features does the offering provide? Should I
  choose one provider or is there a couple of
  offerings in the market that would suit iKeep
• Who is offering a pure and real cloud solution?
  Can I really sit on my iPad at the airport and
  access current data in real time?

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• We discovered the answers to these questions from
  speaking with our customers, other companies that
  had already made the switch and a number of
  providers. We spoke to one of the cloud
  accounting experts, Intuit QuickBooks, to make
  sure this was the right move for us then decided
  to take the next step.

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• 2. Dip your toe in
• Cloud accounting programs offer varying degrees
  of service levels. You can start with the basics
  and as your employees and clients get more used
  to doing business out there, add
  functionalities right up to full financial
  management.

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• Or you can do what we did. iKeep made the
  decision to move our practice to the cloud before
  we moved our clients across. This gave us
  valuable firsthand experience. We adjusted
  internal processes as required and by the time we
  introduced it to our clients, we were living and
  breathing this new way of working. Yes, we dipped
  our toe in but the toe we dipped in was
  definitely on the front foot.

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• This decision allowed us to be proactive with the
  education of our clients and the way we managed
  change with them.
• Most importantly it allowed is to ensure a high
  level and continuity of service.

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• 3. Leap right in
• Yes, we did our research and discovered that
  Intuit QuickBooks was one of the key platforms
  for us. Then we dipped our toes in and went on
  our own discovery journey of this new way of
  working. After that, we leapt right in.

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• We knew our clients were looking to us to be
  their thought leaders and knowledge bank around
  cloud based accounting. The only way we could do
  this was to commit to the change, live it,
  breathe it and own it.
• We took advantage of the ongoing support,
  training and development Intuit QuickBooks
  provide and as a result, client uptake was quick
  and relatively painless.

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• We then made a clear delineation around what we
  do. iKeep use the latest cloud accounting
  software and add-ons to streamline clients
  bookkeeping.
• I love the saying Do what you do best and
  delegate the rest. We focus on cloud accounting
  so we can provide a better offering. Cloud
  accounting was the logical step forward in terms
  of internal and external processes to keep our
  clients happy.

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• The shift from desktop accounting to cloud based
  accounting required change around process but
  also around mindset. As soon as the team made
  that psychological shift, the productivity shift
  followed closely behind.
• And THAT is when client satisfaction and internal
  efficiency propelled itself into a whole new
  stratosphere.