This is a guest blog by QuickBooks Advanced Certified Pro Advisor and Method Solution Provider, Robin Hall.

As Accounting Professionals, we are a bit different from the rest of the service industry. We have specific things that we need to track on our clients. As Intuit Professionals we have a different set of things that we need to track for our clients. The information that we gather about our clients helps us to service their needs, but it also helps us sell the Intuit product line to them.  

It would of course be nice if we could just work on one client at a time, and then move on to the next one… but we know that is not reality in our world. We always have about 4 or 5 client tasks going on at a time, and we also have to keep in mind what we need to do tomorrow and keep up with what our staff is working on. NEXT was created to allow us to see everything that we need to know or do NEXT!

This application was built out of the sheer necessity that comes out of running a consulting firm, specifically business owner experiences at VARC.  VARC was growing its client base, services offered, and staff! As a need arose, it would be added to the application. The application was originally built in QuickBase but there were a couple of very important pieces that were missing… specifically, syncing with QuickBooks. We created the application in Method CRM to be able to sync the customer base and the tie for payroll and billing into QuickBooks.

NEXT is not just a Customer Relations Management (CRM) database, but a very powerful Practice Management Tool. NEXT begins with the information from your QuickBooks file and lets you add things regarding your clients that are needed to be tracked. It allows you to manage them much more easily and effectively in a single location. NEXT becomes an all-in-one business management tool that can facilitate the management of your firm in ways that you might never have conceived... until now. Through the database you can:

1. Empower your Sales Staff - Give your salespeople a tool that keeps them up-to-date on whom to call, when to call, and why they are making the call (i.e., initial sales call, follow-up call, or schedule an appointment, etc.)
2. Access Client Data - Track your clients from the day they make their first contact with your firm. You are also able to track their version of QuickBooks and all of the add-on services that you are able to sell them. Have every bit of information you have ever collected from them or generated for/about them at your fingertips
3. Track New Prospects - What products do they think they need? What products do they actually need? What additional services will they need in the future, etc.?
4. Record Firm Data - Create, track, and update informational records essential to the smooth functioning of your firm; i.e., that phone number you keep losing
5. Record Login Data - Track/access client login/password data from any location, at any time. Do this for your own firm as well
6. Track Client Tasks - Track ongoing activities being performed by your firm, such as bookkeeping, support calls, onsite visits, etc
7. Support Portal – Allow your clients to enter support tickets directly into your system without having to pick up the phone
8. Create timesheets for you and your employees - NEXT lets you track billable time and sync it directly with QuickBooks. This includes time spent on site with clients, support telephone calls with clients, or any other billable time

If you are the owner or manager of a firm, NEXT allows you to see what has been done during the day while you may have been with clients or performing other tasks required by your position. It is an absolute record of accountability. Once a note is entered into the system, it is permanent, and notes are date/time stamped with the recorder’s name. Not only are activities for that day/week/month easily retrievable in a report on your screen, but also the status of support tickets, activities, appointments, etc. Additionally, NEXT allows you to track all client/firm information entered into the database from any location. And by that, we mean accessible anytime from anywhere; your desk, your client’s office, your home, the beach in Hawaii, anywhere you have an internet connection.

NEXT is offered exclusively through the National Advisor Network and requires an access code in order to be installed. NEXT requires Method CRM Pro and is $28.00 per month. For more information on NEXT, please contact Robin Hall at NEXT@VARCSolutions.com, or call her at 281-412-6914.

Robin Hall is the Principal Consultant at VARC Solutions; she is an Advanced Certified ProAdvisor and has been consulting on QuickBooks products since 1999. Not only can she be seen helping her clients but she often teaches other Intuit Consultants at various Intuit centric conferences around the country. NEXT was born out of her own experience with her clients and her employees.