The strategic value Accountants and Financial Planners deliver to businesses and individuals is the sum product of Time put to good use. While there are plenty of Quotes and Jargons related to Productivity these days, we will look at 5 Hacks that can change the economics of Time management for the better.

An effective Principle “Leading professionals” understand and apply is the Pareto Principle. This rule suggests that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results.

Number Crunching professionals can leverage on these steps to augment the time they spend on Critical Business Processes that deliver the highest value.

Choose your Meetings Wisely

Most professionals spend a majority of time in meetings. The importance of these meetings may not be undermined. Reflecting on factors like the time spent on travelling for a meeting, the value of a meeting, the cost of a meeting for you and for those that will be present at the meeting helps choose your meetings wisely. Prioritizing your meetings, frees up sizeable amount of time for Most Finance Professionals. Limiting Meetings that can essentially be carried out in your absence, and saying “No” to some meetings can make way for a more manageable Daily Schedule.

Automate everything that can be automated

The technology we have today presents a strong case for automation. Like all Professionals, Accountants, Financial Planners and Business Owners have to find time for manual efforts. Automation enables you to spend less time on Data Input and more time on Data Interpretation and thus an opportunity for better strategic value. There will be tasks that may be repetitive in nature, time consuming or a no brainer, it might as well be automated. The accessibility, security, support, flexibility that most providers offer on cloud based automations reap equities that can be measured in Time.

Outsource what you can

If you have chosen to delegate some of your work or hired talents with specialized skill-sets that can help you accomplish otherwise time consuming tasks. Cost of conducting business is rising. But the fact that the cost of Staffing, maintaining your own team, talent retention and footing the bill for Salaries month on month eats into a sizeable amount of your margins. If there is a need for Human Efforts and long hours of work, with the added advantage of lesser turn-around time for completion it makes more strategic sense to outsource. You can start by finding the right fit for your requirements and know what you can expect from an Outsourcing Partner. Outsourcing to the right people enables you to develop a scalable, repeatable and flexible process that can deliver consistent results with no compromise on quality.

With more time on hand it is needless to say your time can be put to use on critical area of business and your clients are sure to be delighted by the reduced turn-around time. Building something big is time consuming. Every minute saved is more time for you to build something bigger.

Delegate what you can

Like the saying goes “Rome was not built in a day”, not everything can happen in a day. To do everything you need done everyday, delegating some simple tasks when your plate is full is necessary for the greater good. Businesses Big or Small need a redundancy system in place, not just in the absence of a key person, but also when there is a lot more to do and yet so little time on hand. Cross-training resources around you to cover certain aspects of your job and vice-versa is an efficient approach that can help delegation easier.

Consider training time as an investment, it takes time, but training others allows you to quickly delegate a key project later without having to stop and explain everything. If you’re constantly overstretched, you could be delegating tasks to others on your team almost instantly as opposed to spending even more time to brief and get started from scratch. Building such a communication system, giving your team some autonomy and being sure they know you’re available to answer questions or perhaps even give feedback when necessary will add more value to these efforts. Indeed this can enable you to focus more of your attention on higher-level matters, like say, building successful client relations, strategic functions, business growth and maybe even some time for yourself.

Re-purpose your downtime

Being in the forefront in any Business means, we spend a considerable amount of time travelling. Choosing a chauffeured drive rather than driving yourself during commutes is a good idea to start. This means you can actually start making use of the time you would have otherwise spent driving, or spent finding a parking space, walking back to meeting location and back to the parking area and so on. The time spent during commutes on road, and time spent waiting in Airport Lounge, could all be used to connect with clients, catch-up on work, a quick call with your team could be something that can happen during these windows.

There are more than 5 Time saving Hacks that you can use to find more time. These are 5 common Hacks that can solve most situations. If you have been considering “Outsourcing” to help you save more time, Get in Touch with us and learn how AccSource can help you with that today.