Written by Tara Morgan Schinkel, CPA – Accounting Systems Lead & CFO, Stewart Technologies
For months after my “aha” moment that a better work-life balance was needed, and months after continuous pursuit of automating our accounting processes, I realized there were some things I was doing that couldn’t be automated. I couldn’t automate them, but perhaps I could delegate. For example, I couldn’t automate our payroll but I could outsource it, so we used our local accountant (CSI Accounting) to take over all of Stewart Tech’s payroll needs. However, in outsourcing our payroll, I identified a new challenge; in order to book the payroll into our accounting system it meant taking the reports I was being given each week and manipulating them so they could be keyed into our system. Although this step was far better than dealing with the hassle of payroll twice a month, it was not getting the payroll process completely off my plate. Unfortunately, payroll is not something I can delegate internally, so I decided to turn to an outside source.
One thing Ari Meisel promotes in all of his books is the need for a virtual assistant (aka outsource). Up until 2021, I had heard of virtual assistants but had never understood the concept. I thought virtual assistants were for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, not the co-owner of a small business. It wasn’t until reading Meisel’s books that I realized how vital a role a virtual assistant could play at Stewart Tech. Our staff constantly had more work to do than hours to complete it, and our office administrator was often asked to do things outside of her responsibilities because there was no one else who had the time to do them. Or…sigh…Kristy Mumma and I were doing these things because we felt guilty asking the staff to do it for us. Classic entrepreneur guilt – taking on things you should delegate to others because you don’t want to ask anyone else to work more.
So, in January 2022, we brought on the virtual assistant team, Chatterboss, and have been using them ever since. I could write countless articles on how Chatterboss has changed my life professionally and personally (and have on LinkedIn) but for today, I’ll focus on how Chatterboss helped me with my payroll problem.
Documenting the Payroll Process with an SOP
The first step in getting payroll entry into our system and off my plate was to document how it was done. I didn’t have time to spend hours training someone on how to do this – or write the documentation myself. My plan was to record all of it while I did the work, then have my assistant use the recordings to write up a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Then she could use the SOP to perform the necessary steps to do payroll entry on her own. Important note when doing this sort of work – Meisel strongly encourages you to have one person record it/train someone on it, that person writes it and a third person uses what was written to see if they can follow the steps. In this particular situation, I did not have a second person to help, but I wanted to mention this because it’s a practice that I have adopted with every other SOP or tech document that we have written at Stewart Tech.
To record the SOP, I used a tool Valerie Trapunsky at Chatterboss had recommended called Loom. Personally, I think it’s great. You can record your screen, your voice, or yourself while you explain whatever it is you need done. Now I want to highlight that I am a huge fan of asynchronous communication, and using tools like Loom has saved me hours in typing long emails or having a meeting just to explain something. Microsoft also has one called Stream, which allows for the recording of longer videos, but I’m a big fan of Loom. Even with the free version, you get up to five minutes for each recording and it’s really easy to send it out.
Successfully Delegating the Payroll Process
With Loom at the ready, I proceeded to record the flow for the entire payroll report process and how to break it down to enter it into Sage 100. Next I emailed the video to my assistant who wrote up the entire SOP for me. On the next Payroll run she used the SOP to create the payroll entries in Sage 100. In full transparency, we did have a few rounds of her doing payroll and me recording loom videos to make corrections (and my assistant documenting those corrections and updating the SOP). Once resolved, I got the entire project off my plate, an SOP documented, and another three hours back each month.
Now – unbeknownst to me, having this SOP would become priceless in 2023. My assistant at the time unexpectedly left Chatterboss. I depended heavily on my assistant for a large number of things I could not ask other people at Stewart Tech to do for me. I won’t lie, it was a pretty rough time. However, thanks to all of her amazing work documenting our SOPs, the new assistant Chatterboss gave us stepped right in to take over. Had we not taken the time to write those SOPs, I would have needed to start from scratch training someone new on a really technical process – something that would have taken weeks to do.
With payroll reporting off my plate and SOPs in place, it was time to let someone else take the reins on this process. Read more about how I successfully delegated the payroll process once and for all in the seventh “Less Doing, More Living” blog post here.
Stewart Tech CFO and Accounting Systems Lead Tara Schinkel shares her journey of “Less Doing, More Living,” and how optimization, automation, and delegation continue to transform her business and her life. This is the sixth blog in the series and part one of a two-part payroll delegation process. Read the continuation in the seventh blog here.
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If you’re looking to automate, optimize, or streamline your accounting and ERP processes, visit the Demos and Overviews section of our website to see how Sage can better serve your accounting needs. Looking for more information? Consider scheduling a Sage consultation call with one of Stewart Tech’s Sage certified consultants.
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