5 Tips For Managing Your Remote Accounting Team
Publié le 8 May 2023
Keep your colleagues happy and your company on budget with 5 tips for managing your remote accounting team.
Although many accounting teams went remote out of necessity during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, they may now wish to continue utilizing remote working arrangements for additional benefits, such as convenience and cost savings.
Employees may enjoy working remotely, creating a work-life benefit that other companies may not offer. Remote and hybrid working arrangements are very popular with employees. In fact, one survey found that as many as 81% of employees said that a company offering remote work would play a big role in their decision to work there long-term. Ignoring this desire and forcing a return to the office can have negative consequences for an organization.
You can keep your company budget under control while meeting the needs of your workforce with a few simple tips for managing your remote accounting team.
What is virtual accounting?
Before discussing how to work more efficiently from remote locations, let’s first define virtual accounting, also called remote accounting or cloud accounting.
Virtual accounting allows accountants to work from almost any location, as long as they have a strong internet connection.
The accountants do not have to be on site to perform their work, including at either the main office or the client’s location. Through the internet, remote accountants can access the financial documents and accounting software they need from anywhere.
Some companies use the term virtual accounting to refer to freelancers they hire to perform accounting tasks for them. That’s why we’ll stick with the term remote accounting for the rest of these tips.
5 tips for managing remote accounting teams
You probably figured out quite a while ago that having successful results with an accounting team working remotely involves more than using Zoom daily.
You must manage your remote team successfully, helping your accountants work just as efficiently from a remote location as they would in the office. Here are five tips for managing your remote accountants.
1. Provide the right tools
As a manager, you need to find software tools and apps to help your remote accountants work efficiently. Research some of the best tools and determine which fit your team’s needs. Be sure to consult with your team members, and see which type of workflow process they think would best meet their needs.
Most accounting teams need cloud accounting software, communications software, and project management software. They need hardware and secure internet connections to work from anywhere.
You don’t want individual accountants to use separate programs, as this would make real-time collaboration much more difficult. Instead, you want all your remote team members to use the same tools to consistently and provide confidence in your online security.
2. Encourage collaboration
Setting the expectations for your remote accountants can be challenging. It’s easy for your team members to feel isolated when working remotely. As a manager, make communication a priority.
Setting up regular Zoom meetings, delivering real-time messages in Slack, or setting up one-on-one phone time with individual employees are all important.
Regular communication helps maintain the company culture, even when employees aren’t experiencing it firsthand by being in the office. This will help them feel support and a continued part of the team.
You certainly don’t want to overdo it, or employees will feel like they are losing the benefits of working remotely because of constant meetings.
You may even find that you cannot use the same level of communication with each team member. Some may need phone calls a few times per week, while others may only need to talk every couple weeks.
3. Trust your remote accountants (Until they give you a reason not to)
Trusting remote employees is a significant challenge for managers, especially when you can’t interact regularly face to face. You may feel the need to check in on them constantly, becoming more of a nuisance than a help. This micro-management will only interfere with the work process, and could even result in employees looking for other work opportunities.
Ultimately, as long as your remote teams follow the procedures you want, complete their tasks on time and at a quality level that satisfies everyone, they’ve earned your trust.
Unless your remote team members give you a reason not to trust them, such as by missing deadlines or doing shoddy work, you don’t need to micro-manage them.
4. Standardize the work steps
One way to make things run smoother with a remote accounting team is by standardizing the steps that your team members should follow. Having simple instructions for tasks helps everyone on the team — both remote and in-office team members — stay on top of their workload.
As mentioned earlier, project management software can play a big role in helping team members understand the processes you want them to follow. Everything runs smoother when you list each step and specify exactly which team member is responsible for its completion.
Even when looking at your chart of accounts (COA), for example, specifying each person’s role in managing the accounts should make things run smoother. When every person fully understands what they need to do, the steps they should follow, and the deadline they have to meet, it shouldn’t matter if your accountants are working remotely or in the office.
5. Deploy AR automation
Using AR (accounts receivable) automation can simplify the process for your remote accounting team. Dealing with accounts receivables involves multiple repetitive tasks. Deploying automation removes some of the manual steps, enhancing efficiency and reducing boredom and frustration.
A Versapay report showed that finance executives believe using AR automation provides several benefits for remote teams. Some of the top benefits include:
● Reducing error-prone processes
● Creating time for taking on other work
● Increasing the ability to keep accounting talent
● Creating an ability to accept digital payments
The accounts receivable team can streamline invoice creation using AR automation. You can even create rules that apply to individual customers as part of the automation process.
These rules ensure each customer receives invoices in a way that matches their requirements. This saves time and reduces errors.
Should you allow remote accounting?
Whether you want to give your accountants the ability to work remotely is a decision you must make as a company.
Allowing remote accounting can save you money, as you don’t need as much office space for your accountants.
Remote and hybrid working arrangements can also make your employees happier, keep them from job hunting and make them feel more valued.
When your accounting team members are working remotely regularly, it’s vital to manage the security of the financial information your remote accountants are accessing via the internet. This is highly sensitive data, and one mistake can destroy the reputation of your accounting team or worse.
Accountants working remotely can have success and do their jobs well. As long as the managers for the accounting teams embrace the idea of remote accounting and support their employees. By utilizing 5 tips for managing your remote accounting team, you’ll increase your chances of a successful outcome for your team and the company.
