When you started your business, the processes you developed helped you to manage all the behind the scenes tasks to enable you to provide products and services to your customers. As your business grows your processes will need to change for a number of reasons:
Data volume: more business usually means more data to be processed and stored. It is likely you will need to set up a more bespoke customer relationship management (CRM) tool to help not just you, but your employees too.
Financial information: to complement your CRM tool, you may find you switch accounting packages to a cloud-based package or upgrade your existing system. There will likely be an employee forming your finance team and you will need to consider relinquishing control of some tasks.
Cyber security and fraud: you will not be able to focus on developing the business and have full control over all other transactions in the business, there just are not enough hours in the day. You need to ensure your employees have the appropriate training in place to spot attempts at fraud through phishing emails and telephone calls, scam messages from the bank and even scam messages purporting to be from you!
Changes in roles: As a business expands the role of the founder will evolve too, some prefer to continue with the core business development and use the expertise of say finance and HR staff, whilst others prefer to develop a sales team and manage the day-to-day operations.
Legislative changes: Over the year we have seen more regulation connected to employment law and data protection which usually means more processes need to be in place to ensure your business is compliant.
Cultural changes: Increasing interest in wellbeing of employees has created cultural change for many organisations and, if you are a business planning to apply for BCorp certification, you will again have to consider how your whole business operates.
How do I know when to change?
Processes will change frequently, this can be organically, as a result of changes in the technology your business uses or because you have to change to comply with regulations such as GDPR. Here at Plus Accounting, we have changed our systems several times since we began:
The key is to not be afraid to have conversations with your team about possible changes and be open to new ideas and involve those who will be affected, thereby considering all the positive and negatives aspects of a change.
We recommend starting with documenting your current processes in detail, including:
1. What the process aims to achieve eg compliance with employment law, ensuring accepted quotes are forwarded to the right people to deliver the goods or services.
2. What steps are involved to do this:
a. Software used, hard copy documents used
b. Staff, what do they do, are there levels of supervision
Then think about:
3. What is good about the current process?
4. What needs to change and why?
5. How should it change and what tools can be used to do this?
It is also ok not to change a process if it works.
What do I need to consider when making changes?
Here we consider some key processes for most businesses:
Customer related processes:
- The process should allow your employees access to the tools they need to provide services/goods to a customer. Consider:
- Ease of processing quotes → contracts → delivery → invoicing → collecting payment
- Clearly outline who is responsible for each task, who oversees each task and can provide help
- Have a process manual so everyone knows who does what, how and when
Supplier related processes:
- The process should allow your employees access to the tools they need to action the purchase of goods/services they need to fulfil customer needs or needs of the business to function.
- Clear guidance on how to make a purchase, who has authority to place orders up to certain limits, who is responsible for checking quality of goods/services delivered and authorising payment*
- Clear guidance on supplier selection.
- Clear guidance on how supplier payments are communicated to the finance team*
- Process manual so everyone knows who does what, how and when.
Employee onboarding and offboarding
- The process should allow your employees access to the information such as:
- Employee handbook
- Appraisals and goals
Consider any tools you can use to make onboarding a new member of staff easier for the person inducting them such as checklists. The same applies to offboarding leavers, the process can cover exit interviews to more practical issues such as removing them from payroll, recovering IT equipment, keys and so on.
In summary, your business will change over time for a number of reasons and these changes are an opportunity to review your processes to check they are fit for purpose and make changes when necessary.
*This is a key area where it is good to build in fraud training and safeguards around:
Invoice fraud
Changes to supplier payment details
Four eyes principle for bank payments
Author: Helen Griffiths, Accounts and Audit Manager, Plus Accounting
Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal, belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of Plus Accounting. All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.
Date published: 08 April 2025