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How to create effective systems.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Open and clear communication is essential when you provide back office support (BOS) services. You cannot take on this type of work and not stay on top of it. Previous examples have shown what happens when you do it right. Here’s what happens when you don’t.

MORE: How to Craft a Service Level Agreement | Three Examples: Pricing Your BOS Value Add | Use Timesheets for Productivity, Not Billing | Revisit Your Back Office Support Procedures | Federated Search: What It Is, Why It Matters | Accounting Tech Tools to Minimize Your Pain | Do Your Apps Play Well with Others? | It’s OK to Have Favorite Clients | Ten Questions for Teamwork | Yes, You Can Be an Outsourcer
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Case Study: When You Don’t Keep Up Your Side of the Agreement

A CPA wanting to provide BOS services to his clients contacted us to help with the first setup. The software of choice by the business owner was QuickBooks.
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BONUS: A sample checklist.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Anytime there is a business relationship between entities, expect to see a contract or some form of written agreement. In outsourcing, as in many other relationships, this is called a service level agreement (SLA). This agreement is used to establish the scope of the engagement. It clearly states who is responsible for what, when, where and how. It provides a quid pro quo that you can verify with the business owner(s), so that both parties are fully aware of their obligations.

MORE: Three Examples: Pricing Your BOS Value Add | How to Assess Needs for a Client Proposal | Best Practices for Source Doc Permissions and Handling | Every Back Office Support Client Needs a Playbook | Strengthen Client Ties with Workflow Tools | Understand Your Online Marketing Options | Narrow Your Prospects by Choosing a Vertical | Build Your Team, Then Choose Your Clients | How Back Office Support Adds Value
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The important thing is to go through each function and each area with the business owners(s), have them read it with you together and check off each item so that they are clear on what you expect from them, and so you are clear on what deliverables you are promising.
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How to take that big first step.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

The big part of pricing is the value added. How do we go from fixed to value-added pricing where the firm actually can really make a difference and move from just back-office support to client advisory services? The steps to get there mean providing the base of BOS so that you have the needed knowledge to perform client advisory services.

MORE: How to Assess Needs for a Client Proposal | How to Maximize On-Site Client Meetings | Sixteen Guidelines for Naming Conventions | You Have to Manage Three Kinds of Procedures | Tech Tips for Back Office Support | Decoding Accounting Tech (and All Those Acronyms) | Digital Marketing Strategies Level the Playing Field | Eight Tasks to Delegate Today
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that about 20 percent of small businesses will fail in their first year and by the end of the fifth year 50 percent will fail.
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