Question

Virtual Assistant with Karbon Experience?

  • 26 January 2022
  • 10 replies
  • 206 views

Userlevel 2
Badge

We are struggling to find good admin staff locally and the Karbon learning curve doesn’t help.

 

Has anyone used a virtual assistant with Karbon experience?  Any idea where to find such a person?

 

I envision someone that knows Karbon through and through, who could work remotely for one or multiple firms, managing the day-to-day flow of information and work.

 

I’d love referrals if anyone knows this person!


10 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Hi @ryann! Welcome to the Karbon community.

I am not aware of anyone doing this, though there are some firms that use temporary remote staff.

I wish I had a better answer for you. What aspect of Karbon would this person help for your firm?

Userlevel 2
Badge

General admin (client management, work flow tracking, work/task creation, work template creation… while also answering phone calls and managing emails)

 

We are having trouble finding admin help right now and the time/effort required to champion Karbon is further filtering our options.

 

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Hi @ryann , 

 

I worked as a Executive Assistant @ AMLB and they hired me off-shore. 
 
I started off with no knowledge in Karbon at all but I became our Firm’s champion when it comes to implementing Karbon inside our business. 
 
Perhaps, did you consider hiring off-shore? 

Userlevel 2
Badge

I had not considered, as I expected the learning curve to be even more timely.

Can you share what training allowed you to become champion remotely?

Thank you!

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Here’s what I did (not off-shore, but I learned the program on my own before rolling out to our firm)

  1. Complete all training videos
  2. Complete the Karbon certification
  3. Take a small section of our firm’s work and fully implement Karbon to learn as you go (we used monthly sales tax)
  4. Add on each new section of your firm, fully implementing each section as you go
    (we did Payroll second, 1099s, recurring bookkeeping, 1040s, then partnerships, S-corps, C-corps, and finally recurring accounting and financial statements)

Fully implementing Karbon in a small section of our firm was invaluable as we learned how to setup work, how to do work templates, how recurring schedules worked, how to track for billing, staff hours, etc. all without too much effort (about 15 work items the first month).

We implemented during the US tax seasons with this iterative strategy and saw huge time savings, virtually 100% client adoption, and increased staff interest. We had staff who worked in two departments get frustrated with the status quo of our old system because they worked in Karbon for Sales Tax and in our old system for 1040s, etc.

Doing our whole firm all at once would have been overwhelming. I suggest starting small but fully implementing all aspects of Karbon with that small start.

Does that help at all?

Userlevel 2
Badge

Thanks, Max!

We implemented Karbon practice-wide two years ago.  We are having trouble getting new admins versed in Karbon and wondered if a virtual assistant (not full-time) already familiar with Karbon could be an option.

We love Karbon, but there are so many details!  We have detailed processes regarding work creation and contact creation.  I think we still need a process for creating/revising work templates.

But, really, we need an admin that can handle day-to-day tasks in Karbon.  Any thoughts for training new admin users, beyond the Karbon trainings?  We have talked about creating practice work for new users, just thought maybe other current users would have some brilliant ideas!

I’m building my training for my staff - Karbon videos are great but it isn’t complete in terms of practical application. I have a curriculum I built that has starter, basic, intermediate, advanced and I have levelled it depending upon Admin, Bookkeeper, Accountant roles in my team. I only have a very small team but I love process work so for me this was a no brainer. 

 

Can I ask a question though? When you say day-to-day tasks, what do you actually mean - ensuring time sheets allocated from prior day, people have done check ins, learning Triage, managing tasks, setting up/maintaining contacts or using the To-Do? What specifically do you consider Admin based D2D tasks? 

 

 

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

I had not considered, as I expected the learning curve to be even more timely.

Can you share what training allowed you to become champion remotely?

Thank you!

Hi Ryann, 

 

I have completed all training videos, Karbon certification and attended live sessions as well. 

 

In addition, we set up a 15 minute roundtable internally so we can share some ideas like tips and tricks across the team. 

Userlevel 1

We are struggling to find good admin staff locally and the Karbon learning curve doesn’t help.

 

Has anyone used a virtual assistant with Karbon experience?  Any idea where to find such a person?

 

I envision someone that knows Karbon through and through, who could work remotely for one or multiple firms, managing the day-to-day flow of information and work.

 

I’d love referrals if anyone knows this person!

Hi Ryann,

We “created” a position, we call it our Karbon Master.  We didn’t think anyone with this experience existed, at least not within the active, job-seeking market place, so we developed someone. 

Karbon is deep, so find a “processor” or “synergyst” type work-personality, with good tech skills (see Les McKeown’s book The Synergist).  We have successfully found two people, to embrace the Karbon learning curve, and both got certified in Karbon.  Both know things about Karbon that our accounting team does not begin to know about Karbon.  In our experience, giving this role to a NON-accountant/bookkeeper was critical.  Accountants are too busy doing accounting and working IN Karbon.  We recommend you find a strong, tech-saavy admin or manager, who specifically does not do accounting work, but works ON Karbon.   

We hold weekly Karbon huddles with the entire team, led by the Karbon Master, to help clear out roadblocks on overdue items, update templates, adjust frequencies, etc.  The team huddles together for about 15-30 minutes.  Individually, the team focuses on tidying and updating Karbon tasks and statuses.  Meanwhile, they take turns bringing forward issues to the Karbon Master.  The Karbon Master works with the team members to make the task reflect the updated details, set all the automators, due dates, etc.   Doing this all together, each week, reinforces learning and habits.  

We also hold onboarding huddles to create and tweak the work for a new client, assign it out, and commence the work.

Karbon is an evolutionary system for our practice.  We do not just “set it and forget it”, because clients change, work changes, everything changes, over time.  Karbon requires strong work habits and discipline, as does any workflow system.  For sure, we get out of Karbon what we put into it .  Three years into our Karbon journey, we are more committed to Karbon than ever.  Regarding the new AI features, currently in beta testing, well, to be sure, we are swooning at how great it is.  We feel as though its giving us a major edge.

Finally, if you have not taken full advantage of the Karbon team, I highly recommend hiring them for the white glove onboarding or their extra support.  Don’t go it alone!

Hope this helps!

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Yes @Silvia Evans !  I love this.  We merged two firms that were each on their own Karbon journey (years in), the Karbon team has been invaluable, and the learning (and unlearning) curve has been steep.

I agree, having a non-accounting Karbon master and regular Karbon tips and update sessions would be great for the whole team, particularly as new features roll out.

We are looking at a role that is a people & operations liaison to tackle these things.  We are now at 87 users in Karbon, I am thinking this is going to be a busy role, championing Karbon and ensuring the team is using it effectively.

Fortunately, we do have some super users on staff to help move it along, once we have settled on best practices!

Reply