Episode 84: Adjusting Month End Close Due Dates to Better Manage Client Work with Brooke Swan
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In this episode, Alyssa Lang interviews Brooke Swan, owner and founder of Clarity Bookkeeping & Consulting who’s on a mission to help her clients gain more clarity in their finances. Brooke’s become an educator in this space and today they talk about how to identify month end deadlines and how to shift them for clients to create better project management for herself and her team.
In this episode you’ll hear:
The original due date Brooke set for herself and her team to hand over financials
The reality of managing month end close for a large amount of clients
Due date options for sending clients final reports
How to get passed unrealistic pressure we put on ourselves
How to survey your clients to determine what day they want their reports
How to get input from your team and make changes for the better
Resources mentioned in this episode:
💻 Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants
🔗 CloudHQ
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Ready to break industry standards by shaking up how you handle month-end close in your firm?
Month-end close is the lifeline of every bookkeeping business. And while we’ve all been taught that the 10th is the deadline for month-end final reports, I’m challenging you to ask why. Why is the 10th the goal? Who set this standard within the business, and is it necessary?
In this blog and podcast, Brooke Swan, founder and CEO of Clarity Bookkeeping & Consulting, shares the her AHA moment that made her question everything. Basically, she created a new system with new rules which changed the game for her and her team enabling them to service more than 50 clients per month in a 4-day work week.
In this blog, I’m dishing out:
Brooke’s original month-end close dates (that most of us follow)
The reason Brooke chose to go rogue on industry-standard month-end close dates
How and why she chose the new dates
The process for choosing the right dates for each client
Brooke’s system for replicating this process in your own bookkeeping business
The Original Month End Close Date
Whether you earned an accounting degree or took an online bookkeeping course like Bookkeeper Launch, it’s industry standard that we have the month-end close dates set between the 1st of the month and the 10th. Brooke was no different. When she was on her own as a single bookkeeper, she did as she was taught, have all accounts closed by the 10th of the month at the latest.
The argument for providing your clients with their financial reports as soon as possible is valid, as Brooke points out. Knowing what the business’s financials are as soon as possible allows a client to address any problems the reports may show as soon as possible. However, most clients don’t use their financial reports in this way, and some don’t even open them at all!
THIS, plus Brooke’s growing client list, that brought her to her aha moment. “Why am I pushing to get all my clients’ month-end closing reports sent out by the 10th? Who set this arbitrary date when it’s not necessary?”
Have you ever stopped to think about it? I hadn’t!
Dealing with Month-End Close and a Large Client Base
The standard 10th of the month deadline for month-end close had always worked for Brooke as a single bookkeeper and even as her team began to grow. But when they started to experience exponential client growth, things got sticky.
With servicing 50 clients a month, requesting and waiting on submissions, and closing the financials each month, the stress started to show. Brooke and her team were drowning. The old standards were no longer working for her team with the new size of their client base, and it was time for a change.
Unrealistic Pressure Over Month-End Close
“I have busy clients and that’s one of the reasons they hired us,” states Brooke. “I want to respect their time.” However, as her client base grew, it became harder and harder to hit that date consistently. They were happy with her work and just as happy to wait to receive their reports at month's end. Getting her clients' financials turned in by the 10th of each month was a priority to Brooke until she realized it was her priority, not theirs.
Don’t we all do this? We put unnecessary and unrealistic pressure on ourselves. Just like Brooke, when that pressure starts to creep in, it’s a good time to evaluate our processes and the reasons behind those processes.
Month-End Closing Process Client Survey
Brooke decided to send out a survey to identify the needs of her clients. She admits the process was a bit messy at first, but she ironed out a way to communicate with clients and meet the needs of her team. Using a Chrome extension called cloudHQ, Brooke was able to create a survey directly in the body of her Google email, making the process simple and streamlined for her and easy to use for her clients. Because it was easy to use, her response rate from clients increased from the first time she sent a survey.
Within the survey, she asked her clients to indicate which date they would like their month-end reports delivered. She offered 3 options, one of which was “anytime.” Brooke was surprised by the number of clients who truly had no preference for when they received their financials.
With this new information, Brooke and her team could prioritize clients based on when they wanted to receive their reports. It was a game-changer for the team. They were no longer burning the candle at both ends in an effort to deliver reports their clients were happy to receive later in the month. Instead, they were focused and intentionally spread their time more evenly over the course of the month.
Getting Team Input on Month-End Close
Brooke’s quick to credit her team for their openness with her when it comes to project management and the processes they use. She creates a company culture that allows her team to communicate honestly about ways in which the processes can be improved or challenges they are facing.
Often it’s difficult for business owners to allow themselves to be vulnerable with their team and admit they don’t have all the answers. However, as Brooke points out, it’s easy to lose touch with how effective and efficient processes are when you are aren’t really in the day-to-day of your firm anymore. It’s SO important to listen to your team, their ideas, and their needs since they’re an incredibly valuable asset to the business!
Due Date Options for Month-End Close Schedule
After speaking with her team, they decided to move forward with the surveys, including due date options of:
15th
20th
“Anytime" option
When sending the survey out they made sure to have a catchy subject line that encouraged clients to actually open the email (important!).
Then, they requested that the surveys be returned by a specific date or the client would default to the “anytime” option. This solved a previous problem they had with prior surveys, “what do we do with the clients who don’t answer?” “Do we leave them on their old dates?” In this way, all clients were entered into one of the three date categories.
Brooke says it’s important to make choices based on your niche and the needs of your bookkeeping firm. These are just the dates that work for her firm, clients, and team. There’s no right or wrong answers if everyone’s needs are being met!
Brooke began implementing the new system the next month and says, while the changes weren’t easy to implement, they were so worth it. Things are more uniform visually, there’s less stress, clients are just as happy with the results of the work the team is doing, and the team no longer feels like they are drowning.
Tips for Choosing Month-End Close Dates for Your Bookkeeping Firm
After fleshing out her system, Brooke has 3 tips for implementing changes of your own when it comes to choosing month-end close dates.
Consider your niche when providing options
Talk with your team
Send out a survey to clients with a catchy subject line, RSVP date request, and notification of default into a particular category should they not respond.
But what if you’re just starting out and haven’t hired a team yet? Brooke says, “You don’t need to have everything figured out. It can be intimidating talking to someone else further along in their business. You will get there. You make mistakes, change, and grow. Just keep showing up and questioning everything.”
What do YOU think? Maybe now you feel empowered to change the way you handle month-end close in your firm!
About Our Guest
Brooke Swan is the founder and CEO of Clarity Bookkeeping & Consulting. She started her firm in 2018 with the goal of helping business owners not only understand their finances, but enjoy a better work-life balance and helping them build the business of their dreams. Through their advisory services and creative strategic approaches, Clarity has helped hundreds of business owners reach their goals!
Brooke operates her firm on a 4-day work week that values efficiency, collaboration, and positivity which also allows her team to enjoy a better work-life balance as well! Brooke has a burning desire to help others and has been coaching other bookkeeping business owners for years. She now exclusively coaches with Team Workflow Queen in their Breakthrough program. She has been featured on the I Love Bookkeeping Podcast, The Finance & Accounting Show podcast, and was a featured speaker at BKX 2022.
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