24 August 2021

Is your business reliant on one or two people to keep all your accounting records in order? Would you manage should that person suddenly not be there? 

We have recently seen a number of clients have key accounting staff changes and the handover to the new person was either short or non-existent, meaning the knowledge that the outgoing person had amassed from years of service was not passed on. This has resulted in gaps in knowledge of how the business runs day to day and why certain processes are followed. This has been more exacerbated when the business uses an industry-specific accounting software system that the new person is learning. 

Having your business processes documented is important as it will allow you to not only illustrate how to perform a process, but also why it is done a certain way. 

There are many benefits of documenting business processes: 

  • preserves knowledge even if staff leave the business 
  • easy to review for efficiency gains 
  • allows for quick adaptability to changing environments 
  • provides continuity so tasks can be redistributed but still done the same i.e. temporary cover for extended leave 
  • assists all people within your business to understand the wider business and who to contact for certain tasks/issues 
  • practical tool for teaching new staff 
  • allows outsourcing because you can easily transfer knowledge 
  • standardising activities 
  • build in fraud protection to processes  

Everything from inventory ordering and management, customer sales, debtor management, wages, accounts payable, monthly management accounts, and even your IT system should be documented. 

Get started today with your critical business processes, such as inventory management, and ensure your business processes are efficient and that the business can continue successfully regardless of people changing. 

To assist with the documentation process, we have a framework to step through to document each business process.  

Contact your Nexia advisor to get your critical business process review and documentation underway, or you can find our general contact details here. 

Written by Debbie Egan and Amanda Billington and

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