Amir Morani's response to David Kupferman CPA

-----Original Message-----
From: A. Morani CPA CMA CFM MBA [mailto:morani@officewithoutpapers.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 8:27 AM
To: David Kupferman, CPA
Subject: RE: Question on running a paperless CPA office.. job/task tracking
I remember you mentioning about your size of the practice being significantly larger than mine so I am not sure if my solution is good for you or not. Still, let me tell you how my office operated and if that works for you or if you already have something like that in place and are looking for even better solution.
I was using Microsoft Outlook in my office like crazy. Every single staff member was required to maintain their tasks on Outlook. Each of them had a category for each of their clients - so clients were categories. I was using the same categories in my system. Whenever there was a project to be worked on for a client I would send a task to them internally and they would accept it. By accepting, the task would appear on their list under the respective client category and on my list as task assigned to a particular staff member. Whenever they made progress on the task they would update the task on their computer and I would automatically get update in my system and I could see where it stands. I would print out my task list in a format where it showed the tasks assigned to each staff member separately. They would print out a task list which would be categorized by client. So, at any given time, you could get a printout from their task list to see what is pending for each client. That task list was always up to date because they were required to enter every thing that they were working on for any client into that task list before starting on it. Actually, they were supposed to enter it immediately upon the determination that it needs to be done even if it was to be done 15 days from now. That way we never lost track of client work. My practice was to very frequently ask them to email me (or place a printout in my inbox) their task list.
Microsoft Outlook (not Outlook Express) turned out to be a great organization asset for my firm. I used the Task system and the calendar in there very extensively and for more than 3 years before I got on to the paperless bug. It worked extremely well for me as I was able to monitor it wherever I was in the world.
I am not sure if I answered your question. I tried based on what I understood of the question. I have not used Lacerte as I developed my own system and that is what I am very strong about. Developing your own filing system gives you total control of the process and you can improve it as you like. You really don't need any ready-made solution as Adobe becomes a printer option on your system and you can print any document (including tax
return) in PDF format and save it in any folder you like.
I apologize for delay in response as I was taking care of some out-of-office work yesterday.
May I have your permission to post your question and my answer on my blog?
Thanks.
Regards,
Amir Morani