Does it take you longer than two minutes a day to manage accounts in your business? Over the years I have built up considerable expertise in digitising office processes, so I was surprised to find that so many immigration advisors still manually send invoices, record payments, and send receipts.

 On the popular website Small Business Trends, Steven Scheck explains how small businesses like yours can achieve business process automation. This is known as BPA and when you get it right you will have more time to develop and grow your business. Scheck says one of the key ways to implement BPA is through automating repetitive tasks – such as accounting and invoicing.

A post on Xero’s blog goes further, explaining the benefits of emailing invoices to clients instead of sending them manually. It says emailing is more secure, more environmentally friendly and quicker to send. It goes on to say that people pay emailed invoices promptly plus you can use the email address to send marketing messages.

Three Tips For Managing Your Accounts And Invoicing More Efficiently

 By automating your accounting processes you can cut the amount of time you spend on invoices and accounts to about two minutes a day, while still meeting your tax and IAA obligations. Here’s how:

• Invoice in multiple currencies – this is often one of the most challenging day-to-day accounting tasks that an immigration professional faces. Your customers are in another country and use a different currency so the best way to invoice them (for hassle free and prompt payment) is to send the invoice in their currency. Ezymigrate lets you do this simply and quickly.
• Automate invoicing – the process of creating, emailing and keeping a record of invoices should be automated too. With Ezymigrate you can set invoices to send automatically, plus you can integrate it with Xero if you send invoices using that platform.
• Automate payment processes – proper automation also means recording payments electronically on a client’s file. With Ezymigrate a receipt is automatically generated and sent to the client too.

The way forward for immigration advisors to keep you competitive and give you time to spend on the things that are important in life is to let IT solutions like Ezymigrate handle your repetitive and mundane tasks like invoicing and accounts.

Running a business as an immigration advisor requires organisation, nurturing customer, and planning, but it is hard to find the time to fit everything into your day in order to grow your business to its full potential. I have seen this first hand while working with professional New Zealand immigration advisors as we developed the Ezymigrate platform.

Anyone working in the field will understand the issues: you deal with a large and often disparate client base. Each client has different requirements, deadlines, and expectations. Some want to speak to you in person, others constantly call you on the phone, while there are a few that you can never seem to get hold of. 

You have to make sure deadlines are not missed, you have to keep accurate client records for the benefit of your business and for the immigration authorities, and you have to send out invoices and chase clients for payment.

All of this usually has to be done before your morning tea break! You also have to do it after your morning tea break, during the afternoon, in the evening, and even at weekends. 

Improving Time Management 

One thing that I have learned about immigration advisors it is that they work hard – you have to work hard in order to make your business profitable. 

Another thing that I have learned is that there is scope in most immigration advisor businesses for improvements in time management. Why is this important? If you can get better at managing your time you will be able to deal with your current clients more efficiently. This will give you more time to look for new clients, grow your business, and make it more profitable.

Here are my three time management tips for your immigration business: 

1. Organise your tasks – you probably already work with some sort of to-do list system, but you should consider upgrading this to a fully-fledged task management system. It should list your tasks, prioritise them, send you reminders, and seamlessly integrate into your day-to-day work processes.
2. Keep accurate client records – how much time have you lost in the last month trying to find a record of a conversation with a client, or a telephone number? Even if you are disciplined enough to keep good records it is probably across multiple platforms, i.e. emails to your clients are in your email account, their VISA application details are in a filing cabinet, and their telephone numbers are in your phone. An integrated system will save you huge amounts of time, particularly when it comes to looking for information in the future.
3. Automate systems and processes – automation is one of the modern keys to success for almost every business, including immigration advisors. You can automate a number of your processes with the right platform including marketing, client communications, and accounts. Automation means the task gets done without your involvement, leaving you free to work on improving your business.

Ezymigrate can help you implement each of these tips, freeing you up from the constraints that are felt by many immigration advisors. As a professional your time is money, and it is time you made more of it.

For any further question please feel free to contact me at anna@app.ezymigrate.co.nz