July 2, 2014 at 11:48How we created a massive accounting service. The experience of the company "Finguru"
In this post we will talk about how to automate business processes in a company that provides accounting services. The experience that we want to share can be adapted to any service company that wants to improve and accelerate its business processes. We have put this experience into a set of simple rules that work well for us and we are sure to be useful to you too.
Finguru is the daughter of such whales as CJSC RC Practician and SKB Kontur. Our accounting service is a complete replacement for a professional accountant on staff. This is a company that will quickly help with accounting, prepare for you all the necessary documents and report to all regulatory authorities. No businessman likes paperwork - he loves to do his own thing, so we pursued 2 goals in our work. The first goal is social: to make it easier for businesses in Russia to free their time from “digging” in payments, invoices, receipts and expenditures, and more. And the second is actually commercial: to create a mass service that can work with tens of thousands of customers of various levels of business. As a result, we got such an accounting McDonald's, where for relatively little money you can get a service quickly and standardly of good quality. And now, in fact,
Any “product” consists of the production part itself (how we do it) and the marketing part (to whom we sell it, how and why). We will begin the description with this last block, since understanding the needs of our audience is the main aspect of the business.
Narrated by: Alexei Ermolov, Finguru CEO:
“With the understanding of what the client wants, our service begins. Everything is quite simple with us: the client wants to pay more attention to his business and not have problems with tax, pension and insurance funds. But when he turns to an accounting firm, often he has to work directly with an accountant who communicates with him in his “bird language”. There are frequent cases when a client is offended because he “feels like a fool”, not understanding what they are saying, although in reality the consultation can be provided by a super-auditor and super-professional. ”
In order to prevent such situations from happening to us, client managers work in Finguru, who act as original translators who understand both of them. This is very important and it saves time.
It turned out to be wrong. It turned out that we had contact with the client at the very beginning of cooperation and closer to the reporting period, and the middle “failed”: we tried to free up the client’s time, and in his eyes it looked as if they had forgotten about him. We were able to automate the work in this “middle” as follows: from the beginning of cooperation, the client receives a call from the manager for the purpose of acquaintance. Then, throughout the course of further work, reports and reminders are received from the manager. For example: “You recently billed a counterparty. Now we are waiting for an act from you under a certain number. Thanks". So the client understands that they have not forgotten about him, and the manager sets him up to the "rules of the game."
Suppose you can filter a specific class of customers for unpaid taxes and remind them of the need and timing for their payment. You can inform about this via SMS, e-mail and, of course, through your personal account “Finguru”. True, it is important to observe the line, to have an understanding of which information is best suited for automatic sending via SMS, and which - for e-mail. After all, telephone communication (SMS) is a very personal thing.
The most important thing is to catch the balance when the client is not bombarded with messages, but they do not forget about the importance of being “in touch”.
In “Finguru” it is implemented like this: a script is installed on the site that generates a number that appears in the upper right corner of the site. At the end of a conversation with a new client, the manager asks the client to name this number: this or that code corresponds to a call from a search, content or media network and so on. This gives us very useful information for analysis. It is strange that few accounting firms, even fairly large ones, are doing something similar.
Applications that are left on the site immediately receive such a code and get into Microsoft CRM Online, which not only sellers and client managers work with, but all accountants too.
In “Finguru”, various services are used for this, for example Yammer : according to the keywords of the request, suitable answers are instantly selected. Among other things, the site provides video tutorials: for those who are important not only to find the answer to the question, but to see step by step, "how to do it." It is planned to go further, to give customers the opportunity to get an answer right away on the site from questions and answers that already exist in the knowledge base (for example, Copiny ).
Now about how to make the product itself convenient and what business processes can be optimized here.
In fact, the entire Finguru service is a combination of cloud products that are tightly integrated and tuned to existing business processes. Microsoft CRM is
used to work with clients and manage the company ; SharePoint Online from Office 365 provides document storage . Mail, Yammer's corporate social network, and Lync messaging and conferencing — also from the cloud-based office suite. Electronic legally significant document flow with our clients is provided by Diadok from SKB Kontur (we do not receive paper documents from clients, and we do not send them from ourselves to the client). The main “production" system is Cloud Accounting Contour
in which customer records are kept and reporting is transmitted. Back in 2013, Kontur-External was used for reporting, but now BC is actively developing and the main flow of reports comes from there.
All documents are sent to the authorities in electronic form. In fact, we only meet with our client only once - only when we sign an agreement with him to provide our services, we give him an electronic signature and in the future we will only conduct electronic document management with him, his counterparties, and government bodies.
Our gradation is presented as follows: junior accountants are involved in the processing of primary documents, while older ones monitor, prepare and submit reports, as well as provide advice. From this division of labor, a larger number of junior specialists and the release of seniors from the "routine", and accordingly the difference in the remuneration of these specialists, the profitability of the business is formed. The client, as a result, receives a quality service provided by a highly qualified specialist, and pays at a weighted average price.
The main task of any business is continuous improvement. You can never stop there, as soon as it seems to you that everything is already perfect, you need to watch what can be done even faster, better and better. We already have a whole bank of ideas that we collect at Yammer, discuss and launch it.
We actively share our processes with our partners - they receive the same technologies and processes as the main company. As a result, there are unique opportunities to attract accountants to work in Finguru on a remote location with piece-rate pay, as well as build a franchise network of accounting companies that work under the “umbrella” of Finguru, using processes and technologies that have proven to be effective.
To begin with, in a nutshell about the "Finguru."
Finguru is the daughter of such whales as CJSC RC Practician and SKB Kontur. Our accounting service is a complete replacement for a professional accountant on staff. This is a company that will quickly help with accounting, prepare for you all the necessary documents and report to all regulatory authorities. No businessman likes paperwork - he loves to do his own thing, so we pursued 2 goals in our work. The first goal is social: to make it easier for businesses in Russia to free their time from “digging” in payments, invoices, receipts and expenditures, and more. And the second is actually commercial: to create a mass service that can work with tens of thousands of customers of various levels of business. As a result, we got such an accounting McDonald's, where for relatively little money you can get a service quickly and standardly of good quality. And now, in fact,Marketing rules
Any “product” consists of the production part itself (how we do it) and the marketing part (to whom we sell it, how and why). We will begin the description with this last block, since understanding the needs of our audience is the main aspect of the business. Narrated by: Alexei Ermolov, Finguru CEO:
Rule # 1. Thinking from a customer or “Don't call me a fool”
“With the understanding of what the client wants, our service begins. Everything is quite simple with us: the client wants to pay more attention to his business and not have problems with tax, pension and insurance funds. But when he turns to an accounting firm, often he has to work directly with an accountant who communicates with him in his “bird language”. There are frequent cases when a client is offended because he “feels like a fool”, not understanding what they are saying, although in reality the consultation can be provided by a super-auditor and super-professional. ”
In order to prevent such situations from happening to us, client managers work in Finguru, who act as original translators who understand both of them. This is very important and it saves time.
Rule # 2. Do not let the customer feel abandoned.
“At first, we just got down to work and did our job: we received documents from the client and processed them. They didn’t bother him at all, and only at the end of the month they billed him. ”
It turned out to be wrong. It turned out that we had contact with the client at the very beginning of cooperation and closer to the reporting period, and the middle “failed”: we tried to free up the client’s time, and in his eyes it looked as if they had forgotten about him. We were able to automate the work in this “middle” as follows: from the beginning of cooperation, the client receives a call from the manager for the purpose of acquaintance. Then, throughout the course of further work, reports and reminders are received from the manager. For example: “You recently billed a counterparty. Now we are waiting for an act from you under a certain number. Thanks". So the client understands that they have not forgotten about him, and the manager sets him up to the "rules of the game."
Rule # 3. Tell the customer only what matters to him.
“Reminders are important, but they should be really helpful. Therefore, in our database we have provided a filter of potential messages by several criteria of importance. "
Suppose you can filter a specific class of customers for unpaid taxes and remind them of the need and timing for their payment. You can inform about this via SMS, e-mail and, of course, through your personal account “Finguru”. True, it is important to observe the line, to have an understanding of which information is best suited for automatic sending via SMS, and which - for e-mail. After all, telephone communication (SMS) is a very personal thing.
The most important thing is to catch the balance when the client is not bombarded with messages, but they do not forget about the importance of being “in touch”.
Rule # 4. Ask the client how he found out about you
“Explore the sources of your traffic to invest in more leads and reduce the cost of ineffective ad media.”
In “Finguru” it is implemented like this: a script is installed on the site that generates a number that appears in the upper right corner of the site. At the end of a conversation with a new client, the manager asks the client to name this number: this or that code corresponds to a call from a search, content or media network and so on. This gives us very useful information for analysis. It is strange that few accounting firms, even fairly large ones, are doing something similar. Applications that are left on the site immediately receive such a code and get into Microsoft CRM Online, which not only sellers and client managers work with, but all accountants too.
Rule # 5. Do not waste time on customer questions - prepare answers in advance.
“Most customers have the same questions. Personal consultation is good, but if you provide it to everyone, it will take a tremendous amount of time for the manager. Communication with the client on frequent issues also needs to be automated. ”
In “Finguru”, various services are used for this, for example Yammer : according to the keywords of the request, suitable answers are instantly selected. Among other things, the site provides video tutorials: for those who are important not only to find the answer to the question, but to see step by step, "how to do it." It is planned to go further, to give customers the opportunity to get an answer right away on the site from questions and answers that already exist in the knowledge base (for example, Copiny ).
Product Optimization Rules
Now about how to make the product itself convenient and what business processes can be optimized here.
Rule # 1. Do not reinvent the wheel - use what you came up with
“There are many ready-made solutions. The only question is their correct combination and fine-tuning for themselves. ”
In fact, the entire Finguru service is a combination of cloud products that are tightly integrated and tuned to existing business processes. Microsoft CRM is
used to work with clients and manage the company ; SharePoint Online from Office 365 provides document storage . Mail, Yammer's corporate social network, and Lync messaging and conferencing — also from the cloud-based office suite. Electronic legally significant document flow with our clients is provided by Diadok from SKB Kontur (we do not receive paper documents from clients, and we do not send them from ourselves to the client). The main “production" system is Cloud Accounting Contour
in which customer records are kept and reporting is transmitted. Back in 2013, Kontur-External was used for reporting, but now BC is actively developing and the main flow of reports comes from there. All documents are sent to the authorities in electronic form. In fact, we only meet with our client only once - only when we sign an agreement with him to provide our services, we give him an electronic signature and in the future we will only conduct electronic document management with him, his counterparties, and government bodies.
Rule # 2. Leverage rule
“Any large consulting business follows the so-called leverage rule: most of the processes must be carried out by junior specialists, and the guru must control the process and make the last blow with a sledgehammer."
Our gradation is presented as follows: junior accountants are involved in the processing of primary documents, while older ones monitor, prepare and submit reports, as well as provide advice. From this division of labor, a larger number of junior specialists and the release of seniors from the "routine", and accordingly the difference in the remuneration of these specialists, the profitability of the business is formed. The client, as a result, receives a quality service provided by a highly qualified specialist, and pays at a weighted average price.
Rule # 3. Continue to improve your business processes.
The main task of any business is continuous improvement. You can never stop there, as soon as it seems to you that everything is already perfect, you need to watch what can be done even faster, better and better. We already have a whole bank of ideas that we collect at Yammer, discuss and launch it.
We actively share our processes with our partners - they receive the same technologies and processes as the main company. As a result, there are unique opportunities to attract accountants to work in Finguru on a remote location with piece-rate pay, as well as build a franchise network of accounting companies that work under the “umbrella” of Finguru, using processes and technologies that have proven to be effective.