Category: Accountant Stress

Relax the Rules and Increase Employee Productivity. Yes, It’s Possible!

When you think about employee productivity, chances are good that you think about driving home the message that the faster and better you can get people to work, the more productive they’ll become.

Yet such employee productivity messages often backfire. Employees are adults, and hearing messages about working harder, smarter, and better often have the opposite effect. Instead of saying, “Yes, Boss!” and forging ahead, they slack off. It’s as if you’ve issued them a challenge instead of a request.

If you’re tired of giving workers the same message about employee productivity, we’ve got good news for you. Relaxing, instead of tightening, the rules at work may boost productivity.

Three Low-Risk Rules to Relax for Productivity

Although most of the evidence about relaxing to boost productivity is anecdotal, you can still try a few simple ways to lighten up and get more done. These three low-risk, high-potential-benefit changes can be tested in most nonprofit workplaces.

  1. Extend casual Fridays to casual summers: Casual Fridays offer even the most conservative offices to relax the dress code once a week. Casual summers take this a bit further, offering employees the chance to ditch the neckties or high heels in favor of casual, professional attire. Speak with your organization’s human resources department on how to craft a policy about casual attire to make sure people understand that ‘casual’ doesn’t mean ‘ready for the beach.’ You may also want to specify exceptions, such as meetings with clients, donors, directors, and the public that require a more polished, professional appearance.
  2. Relaxed working hours: While it’s necessary to have enough staff to handle routine business during your regular working hours, allowing people to come to work early and leave early on a beautiful summer’s day may help productivity. Instead of feeling trapped at work, they may work harder and faster to get their work done and get out the door. Relaxed hours, flex time, or even working from home may help people focus so they can obtain the reward of more free time.
  3. More breaks: Frequent breaks, even if they’re just to walk around the block, help boost productivity by giving people a change of scenery and a chance to clear their head. Banish the stigma of taking a break. Allow your employees a chance to actually have a lunch break, and give them a space away from their desks to eat. Breaks are part of work, and the less you hassle people about taking a few breaks here and there, the more productive they can become.

So which one of these ideas will you try? Choose one or try them all. The more you can reward, encourage, and inspire people, the better they will perform. Gone are the days of the Industrial Revolution when a mean supervisor was the way to get more work done. Instead of being the stick, offer a carrot. It’s the 21st century way to increase employee productivity.

Survival Guide for Nonprofit Finance Teams

Looking for more ways to enhance productivity of your team? Join us for this free webinar on Wednesday, August 31, at 2:00 PM ET. Survival Guide for Nonprofit Finance Teams will discuss ways you can increase productivity while facing the challenges facing nonprofit finance teams. Register here.

At Beck & Company, we can help you increase productivity when it comes to your accounting by taking the weight off your shoulders. Our experienced CPAS understand the nuances of nonprofit accounting and love helping great nonprofits succeed. We offer auditing services, tax and accounting services, and more. Contact us today or call 703-834-0776.

Affordable Care Act Tips for Employees and Employers

Health Care Plans have led to many questions for organizations who desire to provide and remain in compliance with regulations, while leaving the “affordable” in Affordable Care Act. The cost of healthcare and health insurance is high and seems to increase annually. Today we will take a look at some creative ways to help employees and employers mitigate the complex and expensive health care system.

  1. Ensure that your particular group is fairly treated within the health insurance marketplace. You are likely aware that the nonprofit industry is rated, on average, 15% to 20% higher by health insurers. Typically churches are rated even higher. For this reason, it is imperative to consider how you are going out to market as a group.
    1. Timing is everything. You don’t want to get stuck making decisions under the pressure of a deadline. To avoid this – consider when your plan will renew and be sure to allow plenty of time to review the dynamics of your group. Provide information to your insurance company, leaving plenty of time for them to look at all aspects of your group and acknowledge the positives so they can offer you the best possible policy.
    2. Approximately 40% of groups that have over 50 employees renew their health insurance January 1. Second to January, December and July are the next most popular renewal months. For this reason, we suggest avoiding those dates and presenting your request for a proposal in the off-season. This way you allow the insurer to thoroughly and objectively look at your group without the added pressures that exist in those busy months.
    3. Check the accuracy of your claims data before you submit it to your potential insurer. Errors or incomplete documentation can potentially weigh negatively on your request and risk ratings.
  2. Look at all of the options for your group’s health plans. Self-funded plans are a notable option that are growing in popularity. Although self-funded plans have their own risks associated with them, there are also potential benefits to be considered. For instance, with self-funded plans employers:
    1. Are given more information on group claims as well as on larger individual claims.
    2. Are given more control of the plans features and drug card program.
    3. Can benefit from controlled health risks and lower claims. Because of this incentive, employers tend to be motivated to take advantage of wellness programs, data analytics, and additional opportunities to reduce health risks for their group.
    4. Can diversify their providers based on different components of their plan. Vendors such as drug card providers, network, disease management, and more can be selected individually.
  3. Communicate with your employees regularly. Due to the complexities of the Affordable Care Act and increased costs, employees have more questions than ever. This new system offers many different and unfamiliar ways to obtain health care. such as walk-up clinics and free-standing surgery centers. These options are confusing and difficult to navigate. In addition to the annual, one hour health care options meeting be sure you maintain open and consistent lines of communications with your employees to help them understand and make the best choices regarding how to spend their health care dollars. Some ideas for communication are lunch and learns, WebEx meetings, mass-emails or even mass-texts.
  4. Inform your employees of their options before they make a claim. Even within network, health care provider’s costs can vary greatly. Costs for an MRI can vary upwards of 200% depending on where the service is provided. Take advantage of online tools that can aid individuals to better understand the procedures and costs before they have them performed. Your employees will be especially grateful for the opportunity to save on out-of-pocket expenses and co-pays.

As Beck and Company’s Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors, we understand that you, as small business owners, want to do what you can for your employees and hope this information has helped you understand your options more thoroughly. To learn more about our accounting services to help you navigate through these tricky processes, visit here. Contact us here at Beck and Company CPAs so we can help you with your unique needs as small business owners navigating healthcare and the Affordable Care Act.

Beck & Company CPA’s Client Accounting Services

Founded in 1987, Beck & Company, Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors is an independent certified public accounting firm serving the Greater Washington D. C. metropolitan area with clients also along the Eastern Seaboard. Our firm has been built upon a tradition of service, technical expertise, and creative thinking. Did you know that here at Beck & Company, Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors, we provide audit, tax, accounting, nonprofit, and consulting services? Our goal is to help our clients’ financial endeavors flourish while exceeding their expectations. Our background and experience in public accounting and business allow us to offer qualified assistance in practically any area of your business. Over the next few weeks we would like to take a deeper look into the services we provide so that you can take full advantage of our expertise, to help your organization meet its business and personal financial objectives.

Last week we took a look at the Accounting and Audit Services provided by Beck & Company, CPA’s. More than audit services we provide an array of accounting and other services for small and middle market organizations, privately owned companies, partnerships, not-for-profit organizations and other forms of businesses. Another valuable service is our:

Client Accounting Services

Reduce cost while increasing the value delivered by your accounting functions and better utilization of accounting resources. Nonprofit organizations are constantly looking for ways make the best use of their resources to focus on their cause. The complexity of managing the business aspects of a nonprofit organization while furthering its mission may inspire the need to seek outside support for some elements.

Almost every nonprofit can benefit from the insights and expertise of a chief financial officer (CFO) or a Controller, but unfortunately, few can afford to staff that position full-time, at this level and if they do, they may only have five to ten hours of work for this person per month. Overcoming this objective by outsourcing these functions, your organization will be positioned to access CFO and Controllership skills, tailored to meet your specialized needs.

Reducing Costs through Business Process Optimization (BPO)

With a thorough assessment and analysis of your operations and the reorganization and optimization of your processes, which can reduce cost and increase efficiency.

When you outsource some or all elements of your accounting, you will:

  • Significantly reduce overhead – The finance and accounting function is a cost center and does not generate income.
  • Optimize processes and improve workflow.
  • Allow management to spend more time and effort on your operation.
  • Improve operational efficiencies that impact your bottom-line.
  • Re-direct finance and accounting expenses to pay for new programs and events.
  • Gain faster, better financial information to help direct your leaders and drive your mission.

Beck & Company, Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors is an accounting and consulting firm delivering specialized expertise, creative thinking, and unsurpassed service to ensure that our clients’ financial endeavors flourish. At Beck and Company, CPAS we’re different because we’ve been where you are – either in our professional experience in running our practice and business or we’ve seen situations similar to yours when working with clients much like you. Our broad base of managerial accounting and systems experience and our deep understanding of business process and technology enable us to apply knowledge from the past, together with up-to-date best practice know-how to help you solve your challenges and capitalize on the opportunities you face. Our creative and innovative team of experienced professionals with senior or owner involvement in all client engagements ensures you know you have direct access to specialized expertise on which you can rely and trust.

Helping companies reach their financial goals through Accounting and Audit Services

Founded in 1987, Beck & Company is an independent certified public accounting firm serving the Greater Washington D. C. metropolitan area with clients also along the Eastern Seaboard. Our firm has been built upon a tradition of service, technical expertise, and creative thinking. Did you know that here at Beck & Company, Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors, we provide audit, tax, accounting, nonprofit, and consulting services? Our goal is to help our clients’ financial endeavors flourish while exceeding their expectations. Our background and experience in public accounting and business allow us to offer qualified assistance in practically any area of your business. Over the next few weeks we would like to take a deeper look into the services we provide so that you can take full advantage of our expertise to help your organization meet its business and personal financial objectives.

Accounting and Audit Services Overview

We provide an array of accounting and audit services for small and middle market organizations, privately owned companies, partnerships, not-for-profit organizations and other forms of businesses. They include:

  • Financial Statement Audit In a financial statement audit we will examine an entity’s financial statements and accompanying disclosures and provide a report which attests to the fairness of presentation of the financial statements and related disclosures. This service provides the client with the highest level of assurance.
  • Financial Statement Review A financial statement review of the annual and quarterly financial statements, will include some analytical procedures and result in limited assurance. We will verify that there are no material modifications that need to be made to your financial statements for them to be in conformity with the applicable financial reporting standards, such as GAAP, General Accepted Accounting Practices.
  • Compilations of Annual and Quarterly Financial Statements.  A process in which we will read through financial statements and considers whether they are appropriate in form and free from obvious material errors.

Additional accounting and audit services include, financial statement preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services on an interim or long-term basis, outsource CFO or controllership services, and other services as needed for public companies where Beck & Company is not the auditor of record. In public companies where we are not the auditors, Beck & Company can assist the audit committee and management in a wide variety of services that are considered prohibited, non-attest services; services that cannot be provided by the auditor of record. Simply stated, we are a full-service firm commit­ted to providing you the best possible service. Our goal is to earn your trust and respect and to be considered part of your team

At Beck and Company, CPAS we’re different because we’ve been where you are – either in our professional experience in running our practice and business or we’ve seen situations similar to yours when working with clients much like you. Our broad base of managerial accounting and systems experience and our deep understanding of business process and technology enable us to apply knowledge from the past, together with up-to-date best practice know-how to help you solve your challenges and capitalize on the opportunities you face. Our creative and innovative team of experienced professionals with senior or owner involvement in all client engagements ensures you know you have direct access to specialized expertise on which you can rely and trust.

Personal Principles that Relieve Accountant Stress

For accountant stress management to be effective over the long haul, the key is to not only learn and use certain stress management tips that we discussed last week but to also learn to live your life and see your world in a way that makes distress less likely. Stress management is a process that includes more than just healthy living tips but honing and applying personal principles to your overall life as well. If you find the main sources of your stress come from current accounting practices that could use an overhaul or adjustment, Beck and Company Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors are here to help. Please contact us for a consultation about your accounting needs.

Here are some principles that, when practiced consistently, can help you manage your stress and keep your distress at a minimum:

 

  • Take responsibility for yourself, your life, your behavior, and your stress.

Consciously or sub-consciously, if you don’t take responsibility, you effectively delegate it to someone or something else. This means you are handing over control of your life and your stress level to someone or something else.

  • Identify your principles, values, and goals. Live by them, too.

Decide what’s important to you and what you want out of life, and make your behavior consistent with this. For example, if a strong family life is most important to you yet you repeatedly take on tasks that make it impossible for you to be with your family, you will feel distress. The more your behavior matches your values and principles, the less distress you will experience.

Make sure your principles, values, and goals apply to you and your behavior. If your values are centered on everyone else in your life acting fairly and appropriately, you set yourself up for frustration. People will not always act in accordance with your goals. Make sure your principles, values, and goals are flexible enough to allow you to still be human. If it is important to you to be perfect and never make mistakes, you will live your life in a constant state of distress.

  • Learn to practice a measure of acceptance in your life.

Things will not always go the way you want them to. Focus more of your attention where you have influence and less of your attention where you have little or no control.

  • Don’t take yourself too seriously all the time.

At least once a day, do something just because you enjoy it no matter how small or ridiculous it may be. Find some humor in your day, and in the process, get a change in perspective.

  • Conduct an inventory of yourself and identify your own personal internal stressors.

Identification is half the battle to resolution. Are you a people pleaser? Do you have a hard time saying “no” to people or opportunities? Are you a perfectionist? Does every mistake take another notch out of your self-worth? If you need help dealing with these issues, get it.

Identify your own personal cues that signal when you are distressed. Do you tense up? Do you get headaches? Do you become irritable, angry, or defensive? Do you feel confused? Do you have a more difficult time than usual making decisions? Create strategies to lessen or eliminate these tendencies all together.

  • Think outside of yourself, and give back to others.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to put stress in perspective is to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and realize that your life might not be so bad after all. By serving and giving away time and resources to others, you get fulfillment in the process of fulfilling the needs of others. Decide how you want to give back, and go do it!

Although you won’t always do all of these things right, stay focused on the daily process of stress management and living by your personal principles. Over time, you will begin to notice that the times of distress become fewer and further between. Even though the accountant responsibilities and pressures of your accounting job still exist, you will be able to cope better with them. If it is your accounting practices that are causing you the most stress, contact us here at Beck and Company CPAs so we can assist you with these.

Accountant Stress Management Tips

Addressing accountant stress requires a holistic approach to deal with the overarching impacts it has on many facets of life. Last week, we took a look at factors that cause stress in the workplace. Once those are identified, it is important to deal with each stressor individually. Unfortunately, those can be mitigated to some degree but will likely not be solved completely nor will they stay isolated to the workplace alone. Therefore, stress management must also address physical, psychological, social, and environmental factors both now and for the longer term. Beck and Company Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors personally understand accountant stress and can help you alleviate them through assistance in improving accounting practices. Let us help you address your specific accounting needs.

Here are a variety of tips for holistically managing accountant stress both at the workplace and outside the workplace:

 

  1. Have a personal and professional social support network

Developing a good social support network and spending time with friends and family away from work is helpful for managing stress. Work teams need to spend time doing other things like team building every so often to develop some social bonds and not just associate each other with work and its stressors.

 

  1. Maintain a healthy diet

This is so much more than simply watching your portions and intake. It also means intentionally not indulging in unhealthy foods thinking they will relieve stress and reducing the intake of things link caffeine, alcohol, and unnecessary over-the-counter medications.

 

  1. Exercise regularly

Exercise is a great stress management technique that also has endless health benefits. Non-competitive forms involving mindfulness are especially beneficial. Exercises that are done outside and in nature, such as golf and hiking, are great, too.

 

  1. Sleep well and get sufficient sleep

It may be common sense, but getting enough sleep benefits stress levels. You can’t cheat your own biological system and get away with it long term. Although it seems like having more time in your day may be beneficial, less is not more when it comes to sleep.

 

  1. Practice deep breathing and use relaxation techniques in moments when stress hits hard

Tense your stomach muscles, shoulders, fists, eyes, jaw, and all the other muscles of your body while holding your breath. Release and relax. Put your hand on your stomach just below your belly button and breathe slowly and deeply so your hand moves out as you breathe in. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Repeat.

 

  1. Laugh and play more

Laughter is something we can all afford to engage in more regularly. The most stressful professions often use humor as a healthy coping mechanism. Additionally, a little playfulness even in the workplace will actually boost productivity and help staff stay happy and healthy. By lightening up you will not only live longer but, contrary to fears, get more done.

 

  1. Reframe your thinking and attitude

Often just changing the way you think about something will make it less stressful because stress really results from perceived difficulty. You can always change your own viewpoint to a more effective one and find ways to stay positive.

Now that we have addressed many tips to help any accountant holistically deal with accountant stress, we will take a look next week at the personal side of managing stress. We will address personal principles that, when practiced on a daily basis, can help you personally manage your stress and keep your distress at a minimum. If you need more assistance with increasing your accounting practice efficiency or other factors that may be influencing your stress, contact Beck and Company CPAs.

Workplace Factors that Cause Accountant Stress

It is a universal problem that comes with the territory. Yes, all accountants experience stress. Hopefully this gives you hope that you are not alone. Although this fact of universal stress is known, the common causes might be less known and a bit more subtle. To manage stress well, it is important to know specifically where it originates from first. Only then can those factors be dealt with effectively because they can be addressed individually. It is much more meaningful and productive to deal with individual stressors instead of simply seeing stress at a collective level and therefore be overwhelmed by it all. Beck and Company Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors know all about accountant stress that impacts all of us and can assist you with this and with your specific accounting needs that may be one of the factors causing you worry.

What are the factors causing accountant stress in the workplace, and how can they be dealt with?

  • Role Ambiguity

This stress is created because an individual does not clearly understand what is expected on the job. It might be worth a conversation to get this sorted out or to ask for a list of responsibilities complete with deadlines and explanations of each.

  • Role Conflict

This stress is created because an individual is presented with conflicting demands or an unclear chain of command. Most organizations likely have organizational charts detailing who reports to who and who should be doing what. Ask for this document for clarification purposes or find a time to meet and clarify things with the co-workers who may be requiring opposing responsibilities without even realizing it.

  • Overload—Quantitative

This stress is created by the perception of too great a volume of work to accomplish in the allocated time or the job scope and depth. Figure out what your focus should be and prioritize tasks accordingly. Set time frames and parameters for yourself so you don’t get bogged down by menial tasks instead of essential ones.

  • Overload—Qualitative

This stress is created by job requirements which exceed the individual’s ability or skill level. Albeit awkward, have a conversation with your boss if you feel some of the expectations put in front of you are not correlated well to your expertise. You likely won’t be able to hand off all of that work to someone else, but you can educate your boss on your skills so future assignments are more aligned to your skills.

  • Career Progress

This stress is created by not having enough perceived opportunities to advance or learn new skills and techniques. Just like educating your boss on what skills don’t suit you, also inform him or her about your interests and ways you would like to grow as an accountant.

  • Time Pressures

This stress is caused by the perception of unreasonable deadlines and time demands. Although some of this is just the nature of accounting work, see if any work can be shared or if there is a way to spread tasks out more evenly. Consider ways to organize yourself better so deadlines don’t sneak up on you.

  • Personnel Tensions

Stress resulting from lack of trust in co-workers or dealing with challenging differences in opinion and/or work style. For more information on this and to help in developing strategies for coping with difficult staff member situations, visit here. The article details how to establish trust in the workplace, tips for communicating with others, recommendations on avoiding the troublemakers, and the importance of verifying rumors.

Take a look back through the list, and do a quick personal assessment of what the top accountant stress factors are for you personally. Take small steps in trying to alleviate what you can. Stay tuned over the next few weeks to discover or refresh yourself on some important stress management tips that go beyond the workplace. In the meantime, if you have realized there is one or more factors from above that you could use some help in addressing or for more assistance with your accounting practices, Beck and Company CPAs can help. Please contact us for a free consultation to find out how we can help you address your accounting needs.