You may be removed from some areas, so ask team members to take the lead on this if they’ve been delegated a certain process. They should be involved in answering these subsequent questions too.

How much time does each step take?

Now you’re looking at the individual steps of a process, you can look at each in isolation, making it simpler to assess the details. Identify an approximate time unit for each step so you know how long every individual aspect takes to put together.

Which are the most problematic steps?

Identify the steps that cause the most issues, the most often. Find where roadblocks or bottlenecks commonly occur, and where progress slows. These are the first areas you’ll need to find solutions for.

Which are the most time-consuming steps?

A step that takes a lot of time doesn’t automatically mean that it’s a step that can be improved, but you should still pay extra attention to these ones. If you can cut down even a fraction of the time these steps take, it will add up to much bigger savings.

Which business functions or team members are involved?

Consider every individual and team involved in this process—who manages it, who performs the work, who approves it. Any changes will impact them, and they’ll also be aware of issues or quirks you may not have considered, so involve them in the redesign process and encourage them to take ownership and responsibility.

How much impact does each step have on the total cost and quality of the process?

You’ll likely find that certain steps contribute more than others towards the quality of your output. Any refinements you make to these cannot sacrifice quality. Some other steps might require significantly more resources and therefore cost your firm more.

Finding potential improvements

What technology is available to help this run smoother?

Explore any technology that will let you do more with less. The accounting software ecosystem includes a wealth of options for workflow management, compliance, reporting and client engagement—the list is endless.

Research what solutions will help your particular process run smoother. This might require an investment, so you need to assess whether the savings in time and money will be worth that in the long term.

Which steps could be automated?

Often the tedious or repetitive jobs are the biggest cause of issues and eat into your team’s time most, so wherever possible look for areas to automate. There are a wealth of software, apps and tools available to make these processes easier.

What other changes can be made to improve this process?

Some issues you’ve identified will need you to think outside the box to find a solution. The biggest problems can be solved by looking at your flow of information, so consider redefining roles and responsibilities of your staff, looking at your firm’s structure, and changing the way you communicate with clients. Involve your team and ask them to brainstorm ideas as well.

What impact will these changes have on those who do the work?

Before implementing any changes, consider how they’ll affect your team—they’re the ones who will be working in the trenches on these processes each day. Conceptualize the change and talk it through with managers. Your goal is to make sure each aspect of every operation is well-planned and performing as well as it could, but this could do more harm than good if your staff are unhappy.

Using your findings

Effective process management requires you to find answers to each of these questions. If you can do this, you’ll be able to rework the way your firm operates with methods based on the accounting and management tools that are at your disposal today.

Improving the steps in each process will mean your team can achieve much more with less. And as technology grows even smarter, this is a trend that will only increase.