Enhancing client relationships with XBert and AI practice management

Your client base is one of your most important assets as an accounting or bookkeeping firm. Taking good care of your client relationships is a vital part of nurturing these clients and delivering an effective, professional and valuable service. But, even with the best intentions, there are plenty of practice and admin challenges that can impact on your ability to meet your clients' expectations – and this can be bad news for your hard-won relationships. 

‍So, what can you do to streamline your practice processes, boost efficiency and do everything possible to create and foster the best client relationships?

‍And how does AI practice management software help you achieve these relationship goals?

How poor processes can let your clients down

Clients want you to make their lives easier – that’s why they’ve engaged you to look after their bookkeeping, accounts, tax returns and general financial management. But if your processes and systems aren’t seamless and easy to use, you can actually end up making your clients’ lives harder. That’s a definite downside when it comes to building good relationships.

Over the course of an engagement, you’ll need the client to submit documents, share financial information and review things like BAS returns, payroll runs and end-of-year returns. If your practice processes make these tasks difficult to do, it can begin to cause frustration for the client. It can also mean more chasing up for information and less ability to deliver helpful management information or useful insights to drive the client’s business decisions. 

The root causes of these process breakdowns are often:

• Confusing or badly explained processes – most business clients won’t be accounting specialists. So, your client onboarding needs to be great at explaining which tasks the client needs to carry out, how to complete these tasks and what the deadline for delivery will be. Poor processes can hold this back, slowing down the engagement and causing issues. 

• Poor quality data and missing information – if the financial and non-financial data that clients submit is full of errors and missing information, this can also slow down engagement. Your practice team will need to review and update any incorrect data and also chase clients for the correct data, documents, statements etc.

• Constant ping-ponging of email and phone messages – your business clients are busy running their company. So, having to respond to your chaser emails and phone calls can become an annoyance. They want their accounts and tax returns done right, but they also don’t have time for email chains and distracting phone calls. 

All these factors can impact your seamless delivery of the engagement. And this can then cause potential friction, disruption and the breakdown of a previously solid client relationship.

Why AI and automation are the answer to better client interactions

Slow and over-complicated manual processes can become your Achilles Heel as a practice, adding hurdles for the client when you should be removing their financial headaches. But the good news is that artificial intelligence (AI) is here to lend a helping hand to your firm.

AI tools are transforming the way accounting and bookkeeping firms work in 2023. Smart use of AI can focus on picking up your basic practice tasks, automating your processes and keeping a close eye on the quality of your clients’ financial information. Instead of your practice team spending hours sorting out onboarding, data issues and chasing up information, the AI does the hard work while your team members focus on client work and client interactions.

For example, AI practice management software will:

• Enhance the client’s data quality – AI-driven audit tools use multiple algorithms to analyse your client data, looking for errors, inconsistencies or missing information.

• Keep you in control of workflow – workflow automation is a real game-changer, with AI helping you automate and manage your client-facing and internal tasks.

• Help you pull out key client insights – analytics tools use AI to produce meaningful business intelligence reports and key insights to share with your clients.‍

• Collaborate with clients in the cloud – a smart client portal gives you an online hub to request and share information and communicate directly with clients.

5 ways that XBert improves your client relationships

XBert is leading the way in bringing AI practice management to the accounting and bookkeeping industries. We know the massive benefits of adding smart use of AI, process automation and online practice workflows to a busy practice team. 

The results of embracing AI can be transformational, helping your firm automate your key workflows, brush up your data quality and offer clients a seamless way to request information, deliver advice and insights, and sign off on submissions. 

Don’t rely on legacy practice software that’s failing to keep up with the evolution of technology. Instead, switch to a practice management platform that’s at the cutting edge of technology, using AI to deliver benefits that will revolutionise your processes and client relationships. 

Moving to XBert gives you:

1. Enhanced communication with your clients  – using our client portal, you can work with your clients in one online space, making the process of reviewing work, requesting information and delivering advice as smooth and seamless as possible. 

2. Timely compliance that keeps your clients ticking the right boxes – workflow automation and client notifications keep the whole engagement on track, so you never miss a deadline, and the client stays compliant and free of any late penalties.

3. Proactive insights that help boost your advisory value – AI analysis helps you pull out key insights to share with the client. Whether it’s a dip in cashflow or a large upcoming loan repayment, you can always keep your finances one step ahead. 

4. Efficient and accurate data and reporting – our 80+ practice algorithms will constantly review, assess and analyse your clients’ data, helping you spot the issues, variances and incomplete data that could have held back the delivery of the job.‍

5. Customised reporting and business advice – XBert’s tailored reporting tools allow you to produce bespoke management information for clients and get a high-level overview of the performance and tracking of your entire client portfolio.

XBert is a one-of-a-kind practice management system, bringing you AI-powered practice management power that fires up your data and constantly checks your data.

If you want to spend more valuable time with your clients, XBert is the platform you need.

Try our 14-day FREE trial of XBert