When working in an accounting firm, you have a lot on your plate. You have clients who expect results and answers quickly. It’s not easy to keep up with everything, especially when you’re under pressure to meet deadlines as often as possible. You also need to manage the firm so it runs efficiently and effectively.
With so many tasks competing for your time and attention, it’s no surprise that many accountants feel overwhelmed and stressed. You need the right software to balance your workload, stay organised, keep your data secure, and meet your deadlines efficiently.
Microsoft 365 can help your firm create a modern workplace by streamlining its work processes and increasing productivity.
Power BI for cloud-based accounting
Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence tool that helps accountants to analyse data, create reports, and share insights. It has a wide range of features, including the ability to create dashboards, interactive reports, and data visualisations.
Using Power BI for accounting can help you gain a better understanding of your company’s financial status, track expenses, and analyse trends. It can help accountants quickly and easily find patterns in their data, see how data is trending over time, and quickly respond to changes. All these benefits will help you make informed decisions faster.
OneDrive and SharePoint for business and document storage
OneDrive is a cloud-based storage service. You can use it to store documents, spreadsheets, and other files. Using OneDrive for business can reduce the risk of losing important documents and data. It also means that you have access to your files from any device. For example, you can access your documents and files from your computer, tablet, or phone, in any location, allowing you to work on demand.
SharePoint is a content management system that will empower your employees to work smarter, not harder. It can be used to store documents and organise them. You can also use SharePoint to create online forums, calendars, and other tools for your business.
If you’re an accountant trying to keep up with ever-growing paperwork, you’ll love the efficiency of SharePoint. It can help you organise your paperwork, which saves time and makes it easier to stay on top of things, as well as share documents with colleagues and clients.
Data analytics with Power BI
Power BI is an online tool that allows you to create interactive visualisations and dashboards. You can create reports that show metrics such as income and expenses over time, as well as create reports that show detailed data about your business’ performance.
The app allows you to create custom views to see data about specific clients or projects. Power BI can add charts, filters, and annotations. These visualisations and dashboards will help you stay organised and allow your business to make better decisions and save time by using data visualisation to provide answers and insights.
Teams for communication and collaboration
As an accountant, you’ll spend plenty of time communicating with clients and colleagues via email, phone, or text. Those channels aren’t always the best for receiving detailed information, but Microsoft Teams helps bridge the gap between asynchronous communication methods by providing secure chat rooms and group video calls.
Teams can be used to create meetings, send instant messages, and collaborate on projects through text, voice, and video chat. The screen-sharing feature allows you to hold meetings and presentations with clients and colleagues easily from any location.
Enhanced data security
Accounting firms are one of the most targeted Australian businesses for cyber threats and cyber-attacks – particularly as tax time approaches. You need constant vigilance when it comes to protecting your sensitive data; fortunately, the Microsoft 365 suite comes with robust security features.
It stores your data in a highly secure cloud environment, making it extremely difficult for hackers to access your information.
Some of Microsoft’s security features include:
Advanced Threat Protection: a cloud-based service that detects and prevents attacks from malicious software, including viruses, spyware, and phishing.
Windows Defender: security software that protects against ransomware, spyware, and other malicious software.
Data loss prevention: software that monitors and restricts the types of files that can be accessed by users on their Windows devices.
Encryption: software that encrypts data using Microsoft’s proprietary algorithm, meaning only users with the right encryption key can read the data.
Multi-factor authentication: a security measure that requires two or more different methods to verify your identity, usually a password and a one-time code sent to your phone.
InTune: provides mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) to keep data protected.
However, some of these features are dependent on the Microsoft 365 plan you use, or must be enabled and managed to work. Partnering with a Microsoft Workplace 365 expert will ensure you receive the best possible subscription and maximum protection for your business.
Discover the right software solutions for your accounting firm
With Microsoft’s tools at your disposal, you can handle your work more efficiently by increasing collaboration between employees and boosting efficiency and productivity throughout your firm.
The Microsoft specialists at Rodin can help you implement the productivity into your firm and guide you on your Microsoft journey for a smarter, more secure workplace.
