How to delegate tasks effectively within your accountancy practice

Everyone knows that a problem shared, is a problem halved. Yet, it’s still tempting to take care of everything yourself (especially if you’re not sure how to delegate tasks effectively).

Practice leaders could be concerned with questions of quality, efficiency, and oversight that can prevent them from passing tasks on. But, taking care of everything yourself is a fast route to burnout, and eventually, it’s a compromise on quality.

Taking ownership of certain tasks means you and your team can specialise in a few key areas, instead of being spread too thinly. And, with a little extra time on your hands, and more space in your practice, you can realign with your goals and grow in a way that suits you.

In this guide, we show you how to delegate tasks effectively. Discover delegation techniques that enable quality work and help you grow a more successful, balanced, rewarding practice.

Why is delegation important for accountants and bookkeepers?

You can’t do everything by yourself. And, giving your team the tasks they can thrive with can help your practice to continue to deliver high-quality work. But, needless to say, the benefits of delegation don’t end there.

Delegation will also help you with:

• Improved workflow efficiency (as people are matched with tasks where they are most proficient)
• Reduced risk of burnout (for individuals who are tempted to take on too much or overcommit themselves)
• Elevated client services (since staff are focused and dedicated to their specific areas)

That’s not to say delegation is without risk. People make mistakes, miss deadlines, and overlook errors. This can reflect poorly on your practice and disrupt the workflow if tasks need to be corrected or completed.

When you delegate responsibility, you put trust to the test. Finding delegation techniques that work for your practice isn’t just about doing less work yourself – it’s about making space for higher quality work, better balance, and increased client satisfaction.

You could assign tasks using project management spreadsheets, brief team members via email, or delegate jobs in your weekly meetings. None of these options, however, will give you complete oversight of the work ongoing in your practice.

Cloud-based accounting software used with project management features offers a secure and centralised system for managing and assigning work, tracking progress, and keeping up with deadlines. For instance, Xero Practice Manager – our product for taking care of your team and tasks – gives you a complete overview of jobs scheduled, who’s doing them, and the deadlines and milestones for each one.

How to determine if a task needs to be delegated

How you delegate responsibility is up to you. But, here are some things to consider that will help you decide what to assign to your team:

• Look at the strengths of your staff. Are there tasks you’re taking care of that could be passed along to more specialised and willing team members?
• Review how much fulfilment you get from your tasks. If you’d rather be spending time on client advisory, but most of your week is spent on onboarding, it’s time to delegate this work to someone else.
• Identify administrative tasks that could easily be completed with software. Modern software offers automation features that speed up tasks like invoicing, bank reconciliation, and document capture. Automating these tasks gives you time back to devote to more meaningful work.
• Find out what your team is curious about and eager to learn. Look at the tasks available in your practice and consider which ones will help your team on their professional development journey.

A clear view of employee workloads and resource availability can also help you delegate. Knowing who and what you have available can be a great starting point for delegation.

Our practice management software, Xero Practice Manager, is designed as a complete solution to help run your practice. The platform covers jobs, timesheets, invoicing, and detailed client management and insights. Allocate tasks to your team, set deadlines, and track progress as you go, so you’ll always know who is doing what, and when. You can learn more about Xero Practice Manager here.

Coupled with using our tax solution Xero Tax you don’t need to jump between compliance tools to complete a return. Everything you need – client information, transaction data, and the ability to submit online returns to HMRC – is available in Xero and at no additional cost to accountants and bookkeepers as part of the Xero Partner Programme.

How to delegate tasks

Here’s a simple framework for how to delegate tasks effectively.

1. Choose the right team member for the client task

To get the full benefits of delegation, you need to match the right team member to the right task.

Start by looking at each team member’s skills, experience, and current workload to see who’s the best fit. Then consider their professional development goals – which tasks can you assign to them that will help them achieve their ambitions? And, finally, look at the specific needs of the client and who they enjoy working with. That’s how you make the perfect match.

By assessing each of these factors, you can give your team fulfilling and engaging work that plays to their strengths, and deliver high-quality services for clients.

2. Explain why you’re delegating this work

Having new work on your desk can be surprising – and confusing. Make sure you explain the importance and relevance of tasks to your team members when you delegate responsibility to them. Explain why the work is being delegated so that your team can meet client and practice expectations. Clearing up questions early helps your team hit the ground running.

You can set the tone with a simple conversation, but if you’re using software to manage practice tasks, creating a quick brief for the work will help prepare your team. With Xero Practice Manager, you can create jobs with individual tasks and assign them to staff. There’s room to include a description and attachments so your team has what they need to crack on with the work.

3. Provide clear instructions with client-specific details

Make sure your team has everything they need to get the task done. This could include documents, reports, and specific client details.

Giving precise instructions takes skill, and it’s okay to ask individual team members what they need when you delegate responsibility. Make sure you cover the basics like client requirements, deadlines, and any compliance considerations. Access to software and supporting resources is also useful.

In a busy practice, information can be stored everywhere – in digital files, physical documents, and written notes. Centralising client and task information in one place will help you prepare team members faster and avoid delays. Xero accounting software comes complete with cloud-based file storage. This means your team can access files from anywhere, so long as you’re signed into Xero. You’re in control of who gets access to what, so private data stays safe.

4. Equip your team with the right tools and training

Give your team the best shot of getting work done well by providing tools and training.

Make sure you add connected, reliable tools to your arsenal of delegation techniques. Using lots of disconnected tools can lead to a duplication of work. Information updated in one system may need to be updated in another, which is inefficient and tedious for your team. Opting for software that can house all of your tasks in one place means you only need to complete them once.

For example, with Xero software, you can add apps that make regular tasks fast and automated. Take Hubdoc – an app that automates data capture. Your clients can simply snap a photo of a receipt or bill, and upload it to Xero directly from their smartphone. Transaction data is extracted from the photo and flows into Xero ready for reconciliation.

Training can come in all sorts of forms. You can pair experienced team members with individuals who need to upskill. Or, you could also deliver bitesize learning over lunch times. You can even take advantage of the learning resources available from your software provider. It’s a good idea to have more than one member of staff who can perform the same task – this ensures you’re covered if somebody is unavailable.

5. Delegate responsibility securely by granting access as required

You’ll need to share access to resources and software with staff – doing this safely is crucial for data security. Depending on the tools you use, you might be able to grant access to individual documents one at a time. But, this can take a while – especially if you need to hunt through folders and programmes for files.

With accounting software like Xero, you have customisable user permissions for giving role-appropriate access to client data. In our tax and accounts production product, Xero Tax, you can give role-based permissions like ‘preparer’ and ‘reviewer’, so your team can complete specific jobs. Xero makes it easy for your team to deliver work, uphold quality standards, and delegate responsibility safely. Plus, at no extra cost to you or your clients as a Xero partner.

6. Review the work and share constructive feedback

Maintain high practice standards by reviewing work and sharing constructive feedback with your team. Once your team is confident with their delegated tasks, you can wind down reviews and feedback. But, having a review stage in the beginning is essential because it means you can ensure quality and help staff improve over time.

Monitoring improvement can be tricky – some team members might feel more confident than others, but this isn’t always reflective of their skills. Software can help here, particularly reporting features that let you track practice productivity and efficiency.

In Xero Practice Manager, you can access various practice reports that show you how your team is performing. View reports such as productivity, profitability, and capacity to get a data-backed snapshot of performance.

7. Acknowledge effort and celebrate success

One of the delegation techniques that’s easy to overlook, acknowledging effort and celebrating success, is crucial for boosting team morale and confidence.

Some of your team might like to be celebrated publicly, while others will prefer something more discreet. You could try handwritten thank you notes, shout-outs in your weekly meetings, or a team lunch to celebrate the biggest wins. Make sure you have options for public and private celebration that meet your team’s preferences.

Having your good work recognised can be a morale boost, and when things get busy, positive moments like these can help you through hard times.

Examples of delegation in the workplace

The tasks you delegate should be based on your practice requirements. Here are three examples of delegation in the workplace to inspire you:

• Tax and accounts production: Submitting accurate tax returns and sets of accounts is one of the most critical tasks accountants and bookkeepers do. But, that doesn’t mean all of the responsibility should fall to a single team member. With accounting software like Xero, you can assign tax and accounts work to the team using the ‘preparer’ role, and give senior staff the ‘reviewer’ role to make sure everything is complete and accurate.
• Approvals process: Sometimes you don’t need to delegate to a team member – software can take care of a task for you. Instead of manually chasing up clients to sign off on purchase orders and invoices, you can use an approvals tool that sends documents to approvers automatically. Once these are signed off, your team is notified, and you can move onto the next stage of the process. No phone calls or lengthy email chains required. Xero uses automatic invoice reminders so your clients will always know when an invoice payment is either due or overdue.
• Tax law updates: Keeping up with regulatory changes is a constant effort, and instead of leaving your team to hunt down the latest updates individually, you could assign a single person to do this. As researcher-in-chief, they’d be responsible for getting all of the latest information and disseminating it to the team. This ensures everyone has access to the latest information, and the whole team is on the same page for compliance.

How to delegate work with Xero

Delegation helps practices operate more strategically. So, whether your goals are growing your client numbers, or making your small team work together cohesively, how you delegate responsibility counts.

Software can play an integral role in making delegation simple, transparent, and fair. With Xero’s product for handling team workloads – Xero Practice Manager – you have access to centralised client information and a complete record of financial data.

Plus, the ability to track tasks in Xero Practice Manager and see work in progress, deadlines, and team capacity makes it easy to prioritise jobs. Xero gives you complete oversight of what needs to be done, who’s available to do it, and when they need to deliver it. Customisable user permissions make it easy to equip your team with the tools and information they need, without putting sensitive information at risk or compromising on quality.

Getting your team up to speed with Xero software is simple, too. We have plenty of training resources – like our webinars, events, and help centre – that means you can quickly get tasks off your plate and over the line for clients.