As a highly regulated industry, it’s critical for accounting firms to have complete visibility of their data and be as productive as possible. However, all too often, their employees waste huge amounts of time searching for information that’s buried within an ocean of emails. Worse still, this poor organisation may result in accounting firms losing vital data they are legally bound to retain for a certain period of time.
Email remains the number one form of communication across all industries. That means it’s only becoming more essential to help accounting firms maintain strong relationships with customers, partners and suppliers. However, the medium is also the riskiest form of communication, as everyone has their own unique approach to managing sent and received messages.
As a result, this unstructured approach to email results in project managers and business leaders struggling to find the information they need. It also results in employees spending hours failing to tame their overflowing inboxes.
As email volumes spiral out of control, accounting firms need to look to solutions that help them store data securely while making it easy for employees to find the information they need, when they need it.
The Accounting email predicament
The nature of their work means accounting firms typically hold sensitive information, such as financial records and customer records, in their email systems. However, they often lack the processes and tools to gain complete insight and visibility into their email-based data.
Accounting firms that don’t have tools to manage their documents and emails lack control over where critical project information is stored. For example, individual employees may store data in different locations and folders, and others might never file emails or move business-critical data into folders on their desktops. This runs the risk of data becoming inaccessible to anyone else on their project and, in the event that an individual leaves the organisation, critical data is lost forever.
Poor management of email makes it extremely difficult for users to find information. For example, Mail Manager research found that one in three employees spends more than one hour per day trying to manage their email inbox and 70% of people believe it’s a significant productivity drain on the workforce. This becomes a considerable problem when firms need to be able to cross-reference what advice or information a client has previously received.
Not having clear visibility on email correspondence and client history opens up the risk of clients being issued with conflicting or duplicate advice in the future. In addition, a client may ask to see historical data or request a contractual agreement to be re-shared with them. If a firm cannot produce this in an organised and timely manner, it makes the business look unprofessional and may have a negative impact on the company's reputation.
It's time to prioritise email management
Email and document management enables accounting firms to bring structure to how and where employees store critical data. It helps them ensure employees file all emails to the most appropriate location, while also making that information easily available to everyone who requires access.
As a result, accounting firms gain visibility of their data, which helps them effortlessly manage client relationships and improve the quality of the service provided. By automating email management, accounting firms can waste less time on admin and improve productivity. This means firms free up time to focus on billing more hours and earning higher profits from their clients.
Mail Manager helps accounting firms to bring structure to their email management processes. It uses artificial intelligence to ensure employees automatically file sent and received emails to the most appropriate location and helps them find the information they need in seconds. That means employees no longer have to spend hours combing through their inboxes for a single email and removes the frustrations of trying to manage overflowing inboxes.
Discover how Mail Manager can help your accounting firm immediately take control of email management with a free trial, or download our eBook, "Why accounting firms must prioritise email management"!
