Our business is Bright Bookkeeping, run by my husband and me. We are a remote Bookkeeping service handling day-to-day bookkeeping using QuickBooks Online, primarily for Residential House Painters. I started the business in 2007 after realizing I did not enjoy working for others. Since it was just me in the business at the beginning (and I am terrible at documenting processes), I kept everything in my head. This was fine for a while.
Once the business was successful and completely remote, I realized we could live anywhere and did not have to stay in the cold Chicago winters. My dream was to live in Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom, but since they don’t actually let you live there, I picked the closest town to it. In 2017, my husband (also an accountant) quit his 9-5, came on board the company, and we built our first house in Winter Garden, FL.
Documenting the Bookkeeping Process
The biggest problem we faced was getting all those processes I had created out of my head and into some format that could be easily shared with him.
The challenge now was finding a product that could help us document all the steps of our bookkeeping process. It needed to be clear and allow for multiple people to be able to access the information.
My husband, who is AMAZING at processes, and with the help of ActiveCollab, created each client as a project. Then he created tasks for each service we offer to the client and the precise steps for each service. There is plenty of room for notes in ActiveCollab, which can be as detailed as necessary.
Teamwork Is Easier With ActiveCollab
Once we started hiring more team members, ActiveCollab allowed us to simply assign each task to the right person, eliminating so much confusion as to who should do what and when. Everyone can access all the notes, eliminating many questions and wasted time.
We use ActiveCollab as our project manager. Each member of our team knows exactly what is expected and how to do the work. We are able to communicate within ActiveCollab with the use of comments on tasks and the internal messaging system. The team also tracks their time for each task right within ActiveCollab. The reporting module lets me see how the work is distributed, what is completed, and what is still outstanding.
There is no more guessing about what needs to be completed each day. With the ability to set up recurring tasks in ActiveCollab, I have been able to stop keeping all the information in my head. It has been very freeing and allows me to concentrate on more important things like which Disney park we will go to this week.
ActiveCollab has been super helpful to our business by saving time since there is no confusion about what needs to be completed. It gives us one spot to put all of our directions.
Less Work, More Play!
We want to continue to help business owners become more knowledgeable about what is actually happening in their business through understanding their numbers. Decisions are often made solely on the balance in the bank account, not financials.
The dream is to bring on more members to our team to handle the day-to-day tasks and for us to take on more of a management role. This will allow us to spend more time on other activities like golf, to enjoy the Florida weather, and playing in the Disney parks.
