Survey Results: Accountants Find Power and Freedom in Mobile Tech

How accountants work best when out of the office.
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By CPA Trendlines

Accountants have come to rely on their iPhones and tablets as essential tools of the trade, with more than 90% terming the devices “important” or “very important,” according to a new CPA Trendlines survey. Join the survey; get the updates.

With the allure of the summer slow-down, accountants say it takes a mix of discipline and technology to stay in touch and work out of the office. But the vast preponderance of accountants say new mobile technologies are helping to solve the pernicious work/life balance issues that have long plagued the profession.

To be sure, about 10% of accountants insist they use neither smartphones nor tablets for work. But they are a distinct and shrinking minority.

Otherwise the new technologies are increasing accountants’ personal productivity, improving client service and satisfaction, boosting billable hours, and streamlining coordination with clients and colleagues.

No wonder then that half of all accountants are work at least 11 hours per week out of the office, including 17% who are booking 20 to 40 hours per week away from their desks.

In choosing their mobile devices, the primary consideration is the ability to connect with office applications. But, oh, they love their iPhones. Accountants prefer Apple over Android devices by margins of two to one.

And looking into the future beyond phone, voicemail, email and web surfing, a significant number of accountants are planning to add time & billing systems and client relationship management databases to their handhelds.

In off-the-cuff comments, CPA Trendlines respondents gave a bevy of tips and strategies to make the best of working office-less. They go beyond the basics (stay out of the kitchen, go as electronic as possible, and keep to-do lists organized by where work can be done) to give us their hard-won lessons on staying on task, whether it’s at home, on the road or even at the beach.

“Have your phone forwarded to your cell to avoid the necessity of returning calls at a later time and playing phone tag,” says solo practitioner Michael Edson.

“Take a break every couple hours to check smart phone for emails from clients that can be dealt with quickly,” says Cynthia C. Reid, a CPA in Peoria, Ariz. “Helps to come back to work a little fresher and lessens email tasks to handle when back in the office.”

Howard B. Shatz, CPA, of McGuckin, Shatz & White, LLC, in Little Silver, N.J., disagrees. “Don’t answer the phone – return calls later. It will be much more efficient.”

Technology setups often were cited.

“Having mirrored setups at home and office with info in the cloud to access data anywhere” helps Carl McGookey of Payne Nickles & Company CPAs & Business Advisors in Sandusky, Ohio.

“I have a VPN connection to the office network that I can’t live without,” says Sheri Kagan, CPA, of Kagan & Associates, Ltd., in Rolling Meadows, Ill. “Since we scan everything, I can access almost anything I want from home. This setup allows me to work when I want, and to avoid driving to the office in 8″ of snow!!!”

 

 

Michael Paul Murray in Shreveport, La., called ATOM – Automated Tax Office Manager – “THE MUST-HAVE technology for managing your business at home or out of the office.”  The software handles employee and appointment scheduling, workflow and document management, customer portals for your customers; appointment scheduling, bulk emails, accounts receivable and other functions, he notes. “It completely changed the way I do business as I am now able to see valuable metrics real-time across all office locations.”

Earline La Buy, Antioch, Calif.,  tried using a program that allowed her to use her office computer from home, “but it was too slow and cumbersome,” she says. “When I work at home I am more relaxed and seem to get more done. I transfer my clients’ files to a flash drive, take it and their paperwork home, transfer it to my home computer, do the work and reverse the process to get the info on my office computer.”

Paula Allgood, a partner with Beaird Harris & Co., PC, in Dallas, Texas, says it is tough to find time for her compliance responsibilities, which are final global review before returns go out the door. Keeping one day a week free of meetings helps, but so does working at home: “Take one day a week out of the office (usually Wednesday) to catch up on email.  Also, seeing sunlight, catching up on home laundry and working in shorts is a huge morale boost.”

Posted on May 22, 2014