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Share Tips & Best Practices

Find and share Karbon tips and tricks, and get inspired by others

  • 204 Discussions
  • 848 Replies
204 Discussions
G
Beginner
Grace McKayBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Benefits of tracking time for both work and contacts?

Hi! I just synchronized Karbon with QB Time. As I use QBO for payroll, the integration with QB Time is handy so that staff can stay in one system (Karbon) to track their hours. So far, I have set up the sync to track time against contacts only.  I am curious if there is a benefit to setting this option to track time against “Contacts & Work” instead. As background, I have service items set up in QB Time & QBO that largely mirror what I have for “work” items in Karbon and staff already have to select a service item in their timesheet so I am not sure if tracking time to “work” in Karbon is redundant. Does tracking time against “work” in Karbon benefit budgeting and reporting features in Karbon? 

1044
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
4 months ago
D
Beginner
Daniela Antlova
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Dealing with "for later - reading" type of emails in Karbon

We all get various emails with newsletters, blogs etc., things we may want to put “in a pile” and perhaps read once a week, maybe at the end of each day.I want to set up a way to clear these from Triage but have a nice virtual “pile” to go to when I have my reading time scheduled. I would like that “pile” to be in Karbon rather than in Outlook. Anybody has a smart system for this?I know I can add these to my To Do list but I am not loving the To Do list function, I way prefer the Work Kanban view but that would require me turning these emails into “Work” which does not make much sense. I am guessing I could set up a private client “Reading” and add each such email to this client and then check it through the To do list when I am ready.But if anyone has any other process that they love for themselves for this I would love to hear it. Thanks!

2939
Chris Tinta
Beginner
4 months ago
Lachlan Macindoe
Karbon Team
Lachlan MacindoeKarbon Team
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
10 years of Karbon: Celebrating a decade of customer-led innovation

This year we mark the 10th anniversary of Karbon, and we want to take a moment to thank and celebrate you, our incredible customers.Over the past decade, you’ve not only supported and adopted Karbon as a practice management tool within your firms but also played a crucial role in our journey.Your feedback, ideas, and questions have helped us evolve and grow. Testing new features and sharing your insights have been invaluable to our continuous improvement. And that is particularly true of those of you reading this and active in our customer Community.One of the most rewarding aspects of our work is witnessing the success of so many of our customers. We draw inspiration and strength from you all, and your achievements drive us to keep pushing forward.We’ll be celebrating throughout the year and recognizing some of our incredible customers along the way, starting with this video featuring some of you reflecting on what’s changed in your profession over the last decade, and what the future

292
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
4 months ago
Jason Grant
Rising Star
Jason GrantRising Star
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
List view - moving and resizing the columns

in the List view, it would be GREAT to be able to reorder the columns resize themand obviously save the view afterwards. eg below I would make the “Name” column narrower and like to bring Assignee much further to the left.   

312
Jason Grant
Rising Star
5 months ago
Zach Holmes
Beginner
Zach HolmesBeginner
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Script to handle looking up Contacts with a duplicate email in Zapier

Repo https://github.com/ZachHolmesDev/find-karbon-contact-handle-duplicatesThis script is designed to run in Zapier and works as a replacement for the prebuilt find contact zap with additional logic to deal with different clients who use the same emailit sends a request to the Karbon API to fetch a list of contacts using a provided email address.The script will return the first contact in the list from the APIthat matches both the provided first name and last nameExample UsageIn our business we have a number of clients who are couples sharing the same email address, this script helps us automatically create work items in Karbon using a similar method using Zapier for the correct client who books with us on Calendlycreation of Karbon work items can be done via API requests using Zapier's built-in HTTP request functions, Hopefully I can release a tutorial on this in futureHope this helps someoneCheck the README in the repo I shared for setup instructions  /** NOTE* putting your auth and

262
Zach Holmes
Beginner
5 months ago
Scott Wadman
Beginner
Scott WadmanBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Form to gather new client information

Is there a form for gathering information from prospective clients?  Is there a way to do this in Karbon?  I would like to send a form to a client as part of the onboarding process.  What is the best practice for this, specifically when gathering private information such as SS#/EIN#s?

3238
drich208
Superstar
5 months ago
S
Newcomer
Stacey BarkerNewcomer
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
My Week - To plan

What is the trigger in the work item to plan it to This Week, Next Week, or Later in ‘My Week’?  I do not want work items going into ‘To plan’.  Is it that I have to set due dates for every single task and the overall work item? Is there a specific Automator I have to setup? Thank you!

552
drich208
Superstar
5 months ago
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
maxSr. Karbon Community Guide
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
HTML in Client Task Emails - Send Beautiful client tasks

Goal:Make collecting information from clients as easy as possibleSteps:Create a questionnaire in Typeform Add hidden fields   Publish (You’ll get a URL that looks like this but with your own typeform_key and form_key) https://typeform_key.typeform.com/to/form_key#preferred_name=xxxxx&client_name=xxxxx&work_item=xxxxx&contact_name=xxxxx Add a little HTML link to a Karbon client task. This page may help you understand what’s going on here: https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp   Replace the placeholder “xxxxx” with your the dynamic tags in Karbon (update typeform_key and form_key to your unique values) Add dynamic text between the <a> tags <a href="https://typeform_key.typeform.com/to/form_key# preferred_name=<%preferred_name>& client_name=<%client_name>& work_item=<%work_name>& contact_name=<%contact_name>"> <%client_name>'s <%work_name> Questionnaire</a> Send and

75828
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
6 months ago
Ian Jack
Rising Star
Ian JackRising Star
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Shared Mailboxes in Karbon

Has anyone implemented shared mailboxes in Karbon, even in a partial way?I know this is likely to be a new feature in a future release of Karbon but shared mailboxes are such an important part of our business processes that I really need to try and do something to include communications to and from shared mailboxes in our Karbon workflows now.So, for example I have created a Karbon account for one of our shared mailboxes, but when it is specified as the email address in the “From: Other Colleague” section of the sending settings of the client task the email appears to come from the assignee not the shared mailbox. 

93112
drich208
Superstar
6 months ago
Victoria Peters
Sr. Community Champion
Victoria PetersSr. Community Champion
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
What Karbon hack have you created that you are most proud of?

I’ll go first - I have created a Hidden, Internal contact for myself (I used my role as the name of the contact since using my name would be problematic)Under this contact I have created several work orders that are not related to clients (internal reporting prep, setting up regular meetings, Newsletter creation...) but are key to me staying on top of my work.The repeating schedule matches the work  I have weekly commitments broken down by task, I keep the status updated on each task so even if I get interrupted I will know where I am at on my weekly commitments. Bi-weekly/Monthly/Quarterly are set up so I don’t drop the ball because time flies. I have them set so the tasks populate 1 day before the start date so it is always a current list of tasks. I link emails and notes as they come in but do not have to shift my focus to that work until it’s time to actually work on it. Some are simply ‘parking lots’ for items I don’t want to lose track of One off projects that may have severa

11778
naomi_paulson
Superstar
6 months ago
naomi_paulson
Superstar
naomi_paulsonSuperstar
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Encouraging Staff Adoption of Karbon Software

Hello again,I'm reaching out with a question regarding staff adoption of the Karbon software within accounting firms. We've recently implemented Karbon to streamline our client management processes at our firm. However, I've been faced with a lot of reluctance among our staff to fully embrace the platform.My boss and I have observed that many team members are hesitant to transition from their previous methods of client management (excel spreadsheets, mainly). They see Karbon as more labour-intensive and challenging to navigate. Despite encouragement to explore and familiarize themselves with the software, I'm finding it challenging to motivate them to do so.I'm curious to learn from your experiences.How have other accounting firms successfully encouraged their staff to fully adopt Karbon software? What strategies or incentives have been effective in overcoming initial resistance and fostering enthusiasm for using Karbon? Have you encountered similar hesitancy among your team members, a

563
naomi_paulson
Superstar
6 months ago
naomi_paulson
Superstar
naomi_paulsonSuperstar
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Encouraging Client's Usage of Karbon Checklist for Document Uploads

Hi everyone!As we are nearly fully transitioned to Karbon, I've started sending out Onboarding checklists to our clients. These checklists help us gather all the necessary information for setting up their profiles in the system and preparing their corporate taxes. However, we've run into an issue where many clients are sending their documents as attachments in reply to the email, instead of uploading them directly to the Karbon Checklist.I'm curious to know how others have tackled this issue and encouraged clients to use the Karbon Checklist for document uploads. Any tips or tricks you've found effective in making this process smoother would be really helpful.

782
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
6 months ago
Sara Goepel
Karbon Team
Sara GoepelKarbon Team
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
Webinar recording: 2023 Karbon review and roadmap preview

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our final product roadmap webinars for 2023!For those not able to join live, we recapped on the top 5 new features released to Karbon this year, plus a preview of the features currently in development and what you can expect to see in early 2024.You can watch the recording below. Please feel free to provide your feedback on the Approvals and E-Signing feature we shared.You can also join the beta programs we showcased:Shared Triage Redesigned TriageWe’d love to hear what you think, and any questions or feedback you have. Feel free to share them below.

128519
Taylor Verni
Beginner
7 months ago
Ben Bessler
Beginner
Ben BesslerBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Karbon Integration with QuickBooks Online

I’ve seen some conversations around a sync/integration between Karbon and QuickBooks Online. With that connection, could there be a way to comment/tag/mention someone in QuickBooks with an add in the same way we do in Karbon? I.E. if I’m looking at a transaction and need to request support, rather than hopping over to Karbon and typing out all the transaction detail and asking for support I could just “@teammember please attach the support to this transaction” and it would show up in their Triage.

703
Ben Bessler
Beginner
7 months ago
Rob Clark
Beginner
Rob ClarkBeginner
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Bookkeeper Mindset on Scheduling

Hello everyone,The bookkeeping firm I work for recently began using Karbon. I’m wondering if there are good resources and advice on how a bookkeeper should be thinking about managing workflow with regard to scheduling. With bookkeeping workflow very task-list oriented, I’m wondering how people schedule their work. Sorry if that’s vague!

864
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
8 months ago
DianeK
Sr. Community Champion
DianeKSr. Community Champion
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Using Time and Budgets to track Team Members time-off

You can create work items in Karbon to track sick leave, vacation or even holidays.We are using Time and Budgets to track PTO.  We created a work item using our business as the client and put it on a yearly repeat.  When Team members are using PTO, they make a time entry here and it tracks back to their timesheet.  It also provides a place where you can see at a glance how much PTO has been used by each person and how much has been used company wide for the year.  You can do this for Sick Leave and Holidays.  This has been working well for my company.

18111
DianeK
Sr. Community Champion
8 months ago
Lachlan Macindoe
Karbon Team
Lachlan MacindoeKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
#2023inKarbon is live! Share your stats and Karbon type.

#2023inKarbon has landed. Hopefully you have received your personalized link in your Triage or through a message inside Karbon (if not, let me know!). There are some big numbers this year! We hope you can all take a moment to reflect on all that you've achieved. And this year, you’ll also reveal your Karbon personality type based on your unique Karbon habits. There are 6 different types—let’s see if we can discover them all. If you’re game, share your own link here with the Community 💪 

667
Lachlan Macindoe
Karbon Team
9 months ago
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
SamGSr. Karbon Community Guide
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
#2023inKarbon vs #2022inKarbon - last year's was way better

 Hey @Lachlan Macindoe,I must admit, I way preferred the way #2022inKarbon statistics and summary were presented compared to the #2023inKarbon. I think 2020 and 2021 was more similar to 2022 as well.On a scroll page, no summary to share, no comparison to the average user 😢If we can’t get the same for 2023, can we go back to the old way in 2024? It would also be interesting to see this year vs last year on the summary.Thank you

709
M
Beginner
9 months ago
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
SamGSr. Karbon Community Guide
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Why are these date formats different? 🙂

 

171
Victoria Peters
Sr. Community Champion
9 months ago
N
Beginner
Nadine BoboBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
physically mail client information

client is requesting to have checklist mailed to physical address and not emailed is there a template for this or do i simply mail only the checklist in an envelope?

232
LD7E
Superstar
9 months ago
D
Beginner
Danny GossBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Xero Practice Manager

Hi,We are switching over to Karbon at present. I am just wondering how those using XPM for billing handle Karbon? Do you still set up a job in XPM? If so then there are two jobs on hand - one in Karbon and the other in XPM? How do you then bill the client?  What is “Best Practice”?Still a bit confused here.Thanks 

4325
Filomena Silveira
Beginner
9 months ago
thea.schlobohm
Karbon Team
thea.schlobohmKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
10 More Days to Apply for Karbon Customer Council!

Here is a quote from one of our current Council members: "The Karbon Customer Council has been an unparalleled experience for me. The opportunities to meet directly with Karbon leadership, witness the company’s strategic vision, contribute to the product roadmap, and engage with some of the world’s best accounting firm leaders have been truly amazing. It’s a platform that not only values our insights but actively involves us in shaping the future of the company and the industry. Being part of the council has been a game-changer for understanding and influencing the direction of Karbon" The KCC application process will be open from November 14 2023 to January 12 2024 for those interested in joining our advisory group.  For more information and common questions, click here: https://karbonhq.com/resources/introducing-the-karbon-customer-council/To begin the application process, click here: https://karbonhq.typeform.com/kccapplication 

320
thea.schlobohm
Karbon Team
9 months ago
thea.schlobohm
Karbon Team
thea.schlobohmKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
There Is Still Time To Become a Member of the Karbon Customer Council!

Are you passionate about Karbon and the future of practice excellence? Are you motivated to drive change and revolutionary solutions in the accounting profession world wide? Are you a strategic thinker who likes to test and design new concepts?  Then the Karbon Customer Council (KCC) is the committee for you!  We are opening our 2024 Customer Council application process to help us achieve our objective of building the world’s vital operating system for accounting firms, meet the needs of our customers, and shape the future of the industry.  The Council is a place for innovative and community-minded individuals who have an interest in shaping the future of Karbon and its capabilities through open and frequent engagement and feedback. If you fit the description and are interested in becoming a member, please submit your application here:  The KCC application process will be open from November 14 2023 to January 12 2024 for those interested in joining our advisory group.  For more informa

200
thea.schlobohm
Karbon Team
10 months ago
A
Beginner
Aileen BedoniaBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Additional column in the work view list for "Notes"

Can we request to add a column on Work View List Report for “Notes or Remarks” for us to see also the last notes to consider in a wide report list. 

381
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
10 months ago
Nicole Lansdowne
Beginner
Nicole LansdowneBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Broken Link for Client Request

I’ve sent a Client Request to a client, and they’re getting a blank screen. A colleague tried to open the link and said that they had an expired link.I’ve tried accessing the link and it takes me to the checklist with out any issues. Is there any reason that the link would still work for me (the sender), but not to anyone else? 

901
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
10 months ago

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