This firm of accountants were running their business off spreadsheets. It was a CRM system that they had created themselves. They were constantly thwarted by it’s limitations. Rewriting it as a relational database meant that they could finally…
- Allow everyone in the office (and remotely) to access the info at the same time
- Have one source for all that information
- Have customised reminder and to do lists for each member of staff
- Have automated reminders sent to clients
It basically listed…
- All their clients (companies; limited, sole traders partnerships etc)
- All individuals (both for personal tax and which companies they were involved in, and in what capacity – director, shareholder etc)
- Each business had a check list of required services: book-keeping, company accounts, HMRC returns, VAT, payroll, regd office…
- Each individual had a check list of services: annual returns, investments…
- From these ‘services’ a list of tasks for each service was automatically created: critical path, reminders, due dates, confirmation etc
These tasks were allocated to members of staff who then had a list presented to them every morning on sign in, sorted by priority, of things they needed to do and by when.
They could reset reminders etc
All client contact was recorded against these tasks.
All the above info could be viewed from various starting points and reported on in various ways.
A very basic CRM but custom made to suit their mode of working. No functions missing. No functions they didn’t want or need complicating things. And every interface tuned to what they wanted to see and how they wanted to work.
