It's a cliché these days to say that sitting in an office from Monday to Friday, nine to five sitting is a thing of the past. Your Finance team now has some folks working remotely, doing flexible hours or even working from different countries (with associated time zone headaches). All of this means the way we organise and communicate with our Finance teams needs a drastic change.
Sometimes it is not possible to ask that two second question across the desk or see an overloaded team member drop their head into the hands, however work still need to be discussed and stress levels checked. A team split by time and space just means that more thought is needed to find the balance between the micromanager insisting on two video calls a day to discuss progress updates, and the absentee manager who just hopes everything will figure itself out in the end.
It's not just checking in on the team to get a feel for progress that can be a team killer, individuals also need to know what work they need to do and when it is expected by. No one wants to end up in the situation where Joe sends you his work for review at 4:59pm on Friday because he was waiting on confirmation for an immaterial balance for the last two days. He didn't set out to ruin your weekend - he may have simply not known how urgent it was.
The first, most important, and thankfully easiest solution to implement is ensuring that you have your team has the correct software to support you. Modern accounting teams should not be trying to make do with either no work management tool or trying to co-opt multiple pieces of software that were very clearly not designed for accountants. The right software designed specifically for accounting teams will help your team find the middle ground between knowing how the all the team is progressing on their tasks, while giving them the freedom and space to actually complete the tasks.
If you would like to know more about how Easy Month End can help your Finance Team manage their workflow in the hybrid work setting, then please
get in touch! Managing a finance team is full time job, so let us help make is as smooth a job as possible.
Pete Archer
