“5 Years of Innovation in the next 18 months” – Part 3

“5 Years of Innovation in the next 18 months” – Part 3

So, to recap – business are facing unprecedented change forced on us by the COVID pandemic, and the lockdown. We’re being forced to make big changes, fast …. and we really don’t like it!

We’re being challenged to break things and make them better.

So what might a law firm think about?

Sales Process

Do you have a sales process that is rigorous, data driven and measurable? Do you know where your clients come from, how they find you, and have a process that takes them (in a systematic and trackable way) from enquiry to closed?

A couple of years ago, we were using Hubspot, an “off the shelf” sales tools, but it wasn’t quite working for us. In response we developed a module for our Portal (the tool we use to communicate with our clients) which created a Sales Pipeline, represented as a Kanban Chart, showing all our current prospects and their progress towards a sale.

It allows us to track progress, hold our sales team to account on that progress, and provide data for analysis and insight.

(For clients wondering, it’s a module available for internal use, and not displayed to clients! Get in touch if you want to know more.)

Is there scope to develop or improve your sales process? How does it need to change, now that face to face interaction is much less common?

Management Accounts

Do you know exactly where your business is? Do you know how much you made last month, which department/lawyer made it, and how that compares to the position last year? Do you know how much cash you’ll have in the bank next month, in 3 months, in a year? And can you “flex” these projections, taking into account all the uncertainties we face?

I’m embarrassed to admit that, before I met Catherine (the Cashroom’s founder, our Chariman, and from the outset, my Finance Director in a previous life as managing partner of a law firm), I didn’t know the difference between profit and cash, a balance sheet was a mystery, and I had never looked at a cashflow projection in my life!

But I suspect I wasn’t the only one, and I’m probably still not. If you’re one of these people (or suspect you might be(!)) the most important innovation you can make in the post COVID business world, is to have prepared regular, reliable and helpful management accounts.

Reliable and up to date management accounts and management information makes everything easier. It makes the uncertain, more certain and makes it easier to deliver changes and innovation – because, if you know where you are, working out where you’re going, how to get there, and what you need on the journey, is so much easier.

Business Processes Improvement

Is there something in your business that drives you nuts? A process or a procedure that’s grown up over time, driven by “its good enough for now”, with no regard to the bigger picture? Well sort it now!

Even if its “OK” ….. “”if it’s not broken, break it and make its better”!

And, if it’s got anything to do with the flow of money and cash through your business, how you run your accounts team, and how you ensure compliance with the rules … we can help!

 

David Calder, Managing Director at The Cashroom Ltd

For more information about The Cashroom please visit our website: https://www.thecashroom.co.uk/

This article was submitted to be published by The Cashroom as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.

Cashroom

http://www.thecashroom.co.uk/

The Cashroom Logo   The Cashroom Ltd exists to deal with the day to day administration of a law firm’s finance function, ensure compliance with the Solicitor’s Accounts Rules, and provide firms with management information and Management Accounts. We provide the time and the information allowing solicitors to focus on their business. The Cashroom provides a specialist accounting service to the legal profession, comprising an outsourced legal cashiering service, and an outsourced management accounting service. We now do this for almost 150 clients in the UK. Our legal cashiering service is delivered remotely by a team of qualified cashiers, working in our offices. We use our client’s own practice management system (there is no need to change system), logging on remotely to run their cash room, as if we were in the room next door. We also provide an outsource management accounting service delivering management accounts and management information to law firms quickly and economically, often to firms who could not afford to employ a full time accountant. More importantly, we work with clients to analyse that information, helping them understand their firm’s finances more clearly. Lawyers are not accountants and employing, supervising and managing a cash room, was a worrying prospect for many solicitors. Our Legal Cashiering Service takes away that worry, running and managing a firm’s cash room, on an outsourced basis, and ensuring compliance with the Accounts Rules. And we usually do it for around two thirds the cost of running an accounts function in house. Few small to medium sized firms produce the management information they need to run their business effectively. Few produce monthly Management Accounts, few have annual budgets, and fewer still track performance against budget on a monthly basis. Our Accountants combine “best practice” from a number of firms to create a finance function, which produces Management Accounts and management information quickly and efficiently. The Cashroom produces annual budgets, monthly management accounts, monthly management information and cash flow projections. More importantly, our Accountants spend time with our clients making sure they understand the information, and what it tells them about their business. And, again, we do it for a fraction of the cost of employing a Finance Director. We also run a full outsourced payroll including auto-enrolment services for firms of all sizes.

Key Contacts:

If you are regulated within the English and Welsh market then please contact: Alex Holt T: 07817 420 466 E:  alex.holt@thecashroom.co.uk English Office The Cashroom, West Lancashire Investment Centre, White Moss Business Park, Maple View, Skelmersdale , Lancashire, WN8 9TG Tel: 01695 550 950 If you are regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, please contact: Gregor Angus T: 07875 598 593 E: gregor.angus@thecashroom.co.uk. Scottish Office, Livingston The Cashroom, Craglea House, 7 Quarrywood Court, Livingston Village, Livingston, West Lothian. EH54 6AX Tel: 01506 401 270

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