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Share Tips & Best Practices

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

  • 203 Discussions
  • 844 Replies
203 Discussions
Sara Goepel
Karbon Team
Sara GoepelKarbon Team
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
Karbon product roadmap preview: Features and updates coming in Q2 2023 🎉

Thanks to all who joined me and our Product Managers for our product roadmap webinars for Q2 2023. It was great to see so many familiar names!For those who weren’t able to join us live, we presented some exciting updates to Karbon and shared how you can expect you, your team, firm, and clients to benefit.You can watch the recording to see:Karbon AI Shared Triage New integrations Billing and Payments Updates to KPI, Work, and Client PortalPlease feel free to join the beta programs showcased in the presentation. Karbon AI BetaXPM BetaBilling BetaAnd for customers who would like to provide their feedback on Custom Fields for Contacts Report, please fill in this survey link.We’d love to hear what you think, and any questions or feedback you have. Feel free to share them below. 

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Amanda Lee
Beginner
11 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.

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Taylor Verni
Beginner
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

8
naomi_paulson
Superstar
6 months ago
Amanda Frisius
Beginner
Amanda FrisiusBeginner
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
@ mention same group

 If you frequently need to @ Mention the same group of Colleagues you should consider creating one of these and adding them as members? Work team, colleague, client team or team?

8
SamG
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
1 year ago
Gary Wood
Rising Star
Gary WoodRising Star
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
Tax Organizers

What's everyone using for tax organizers? Tax software organizer? Or something custom built?We have been internally designing a personalized organizer that looks and feels more like a "checklist" than the stale, old tax organizers produced by the tax software companies.We are at a crossroad in our design and we would enjoy collaborating with those who've custom built their own tax organizers. Please reply if this would be you!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ​​​​​

21
Cindy Hart
Rising Star
2 years ago
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
maxSr. Karbon Community Guide
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Connect Karbon API to Excel

Skip ahead:Introduction Template Files Instructions Troubleshooting Use-Cases and ExamplesIntroductionThe goal of this post is to help you connect the Karbon API to Excel.I will be updating this post with better code (more comments), and instructions on how to get this set up. I may do a series of posts loosely related to pulling in data from Karbon to model and use in Excel using Power Query and Power Pivot.If you use any of these functions or have better ways of executing this code, I would love to see your comments.Specific use cases should be addressed in new topics and then linked back to this topic. The most useful and interesting use cases posted in the comments will get added to this OP.Template FilesLink: Human Accounting Mastermind Document RepositoryIn the link above, you will find template files for Excel and Power BI (coming soon). These files have everything you need to get started, but there are some additional setup steps that I will cover below.InstructionsHow to add y

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D
Beginner
1 year 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. 

12
drich208
Superstar
5 months ago
B
Rising Star
blueprintbrianRising Star
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Client Manager vs Client Owner

Curious to know how everyone uses the Client Manager vs Client Owner vs Other Colleagues on a client.  We put tasks on organizations for bookkeeping and I’ve been assigning the Client Manager as the Bookkeeping Manager on my team. Other colleagues are then the bookkeeping team working on that client. How do you use these fields in your Karbon account?

18
Daniel Harcombe
Beginner
14 days ago
Cynthia Vincze
Rising Star
Cynthia VinczeRising Star
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
How do you use Email Templates in Karbon

I’m hoping to get some great ideas on where I should incorporate the “email template” in my workflow. Since not having this feature when I started Karbon 7 mths ago, I’ve made my own work-arounds using “work” and sending client tasks in lieu of sending an email. Can’t wait to see what everyone’s doing!

7
B
Rising Star
1 year 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

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max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
5 months ago
Zach Cochran
Karbon Team
Zach CochranKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
An overview of the Karbon calendar integration

Thank you to all those who joined me, and Lexie for our webinar covering all things My Week and calendar integration in Karbon. As a recap, in the session we coveredHow to connect your calendar in Karbon How the calendar integration works Best practice steps for managing and prioritizing your calendar in My Week If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please let me know in the comments below.

0
Zach Cochran
Karbon Team
2 years ago
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
maxSr. Karbon Community Guide
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Karbon API Examples

Skip Ahead:Introduction Examples Add a template-based work item to a list of clients ​​​​​​​Basic tools for running API requests (Python) IntroductionPlay along at GitHub: https://github.com/dchrm/human-accounting-mastermindThere are certain things in Karbon that I cannot automate the way I want, so I found that the API has worked in many cases. I’m curious how you are using the API. What problems are you solving? I’ll be sharing my implementations here and I welcome anyone to join and share theirs as well. I’ll edit this post with your examples so that we can start to build a repository of real-world DIY API implementations.ExamplesAdd a template-based work item to a list of clientsOur firm is focused on continuous improvement, so we quickly learned that annual recurring work items carry forward with them the poor layout of the year before. We are continually updating our templates with new learning, but our recurring work was missing out on the new way we were approaching work. We d

9
M
Rising Star
1 year ago
Lachlan Macindoe
Karbon Team
Lachlan MacindoeKarbon Team
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
5 common Kanban customized dashboards

Your Kanban board helps you to visualize what’s important, understand priorities and keep everyone on the same page. We see Karbon customers sort their Kanban columns and apply filters in lots of interesting ways, to create a dashboard that gives them exactly what they need.  Here are the 5 of the most common Kanban Board dashboards that we see, with the steps to replicate it in Karbon for yourself. If you recreate any of these, don’t forget to save it to come back to again later! What other dashboards have we missed? We’d love to hear what your go-to custom Kanban dashboards are in the comments.    #1. To stay across the progress of your own team   Dashboard name: <Team Name> Team’s WorkFilters: Assignee = <Team Name> (e.g. “Bookkeeping”)Columns sorted by: Due Date / Start Date Want a quick bird’s eye view of everything the Bookkeeping Team is working on? How many clients the Implementation Team is onboarding? Or a visual of the Accounting Team's pipeline? Creat

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G
Rising Star
1 year ago
Stuart McLeod
Karbon Team
Stuart McLeodKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Would you like some new airpods? Only 1 catch - post a review to G2 Crowd for me!

Today we have 69 reviews on G2 Crowd. We’ll send you a brand new pair of Apple Airpods Pro with Wireless Charging Case (worth USD $249) if you post a review between now and 100 reviews. Just post a link to your review in this thread, and I’ll get them out to you. Email me your postal address if your subscription details in Karbon aren’t the address you would like me to send the airpods to.That’s it. No other catches other than that.We love having you as a Karbon customer! Thank you.

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Lachlan Macindoe
Karbon Team
2 years ago
Erin Jamison
Karbon Team
Erin JamisonKarbon Team
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
6 time-saving ideas for using Karbon Automators

I like to think of Karbon’s Automators as ‘if this, then that’ rules. You let you set task and work statuses, assignees or more to automatically updated based on a certain activity happening (such as the preceding tasks being completed). They are one of the most powerful ways you can use Karbon to take care of all that boring admin work, and save your team a ton of time in the process. Here are 6 of our favorite ways that we’re seeing Automators being used. If we’ve missed any of the go-to ways you use Automators, we’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below!   Let your colleague know their tasks are ready to start.    A lot of tasks in your workflow are dependent on others being completed first. If you’re preparing a tax return, the work papers can’t be started until the financial statements have been signed off. Or if you’re performing payroll, there is a lot that needs to happen before pay run can be scheduled. This might be OK if you’re the one completing each step in th

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Rebecca Williams
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
1 year ago
max
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
maxSr. Karbon Community Guide
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Best Practice: Screenshots - Stop saying, start showing - Tutorial for ShareX (Windows 10)

Instructions   Tutorial DetailsInstructions Download ShareX Save your file Install I recommend installing ShareX in your AppData folder Search %appdata% in your start menu: Choose this folder when installing ShareX Setup your HotKeys  Tap Hotkey Settings Create hotkeys that make sense for you. Make sure you don’t use a system hotkey PRO TIP: Map screenshot hotkeys to application buttons on your mouse, if available. If not, check out this great mouse. Setup your image effects Add the effects you want automatically applied to your screenshot. I highly recommend a drop shadow to set your photo off from text field backgrounds. Setup your sharing services, if any I have a hotkey to record videos and post them as unlisted videos to YouTube so that I can share them in the community here. Setup your destinations for photos and videos here, if you use something like that:   Setup your default tasks All the pieces are in place, so now pick what you want to happen after you do a scre

3
Rebecca Williams
Sr. Karbon Community Guide
2 years ago
Erin Jamison
Karbon Team
Erin JamisonKarbon Team
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
Using Zapier with Karbon to help automate your workflow

Zapier is a great tool that allows you to connect your Karbon account with more than 2,000 apps. You can sync your data with different cloud accounting solutions, sales and marketing tools, CRMs and much more.  Here are a few of our favorite “Zaps” that can help you automate your workflow and save you hours within your week.  Keeping your contacts up-to-date with your cloud accounting software:One benefit of this ‘Zap’ is that as you make updates to important client details within Karbon you can ensure that your other databases will stay in-sync with this Zap Trigger: Person/Organization Contact Updated in KarbonAction: Create & Update Contact in your cloud accounting appYou can also do this in reverse. For example, if a new client is updated in your cloud accounting solution, you can automatically update a new contact in Karbon.Trigger: Contact Updated in accounting softwareAction: Update Person/Organization Contact in KarbonPossible apps: QuickBooks Online, FreshbooksView the tem

58312
Automation n Stuff
Rising Star
1 year ago
Omer Khan
Karbon Team
Omer KhanKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
An introduction to Karbon’s Client Portal

This week, Prasad, Amelia and I hosted a webinar all about Karbon’s Client Portal.We covered:An overview of the Client Portal How to increase efficiency when working with your clients using the Client Portal Some Client Portal best practices, including how to empower your clients to self-servehttps://karbonhq.wistia.com/medias/nvbwcz39yz?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640If you have any questions or feedback about the Client Portal, please add your thoughts below.

0
Omer Khan
Karbon Team
2 years ago
jamieokane
Rising Star
jamieokaneRising Star
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
What are best practices when setting up contacts?

What are best practices when setting up contacts? When should we use people, orgs/companies or client group?What is the best way to set up a tax return project for a family?

6
K
Beginner
2 years ago
Erin Jamison
Karbon Team
Erin JamisonKarbon Team
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Work-around: Email templates

When sending out multiple emails at a time or sending out the same email to clients on a regular basis, I’ve found that having the ability to easily pull a templated email to send off quickly has been a time-saver. While Karbon doesn’t have email templates, here’s a suggestion I have for those that would like the ability to do this in Karbon.   Create a work item called “Email templates” Give it a start date and a due date far in the future, so it doesn't pop into your work view or to-do list.  Use the work type of Internal.   Send emails to yourself using the subject line as the type of email and then add that email from Triage to the work item "Email templates".  This way, you can easily copy from these emails and paste into a new email to the client.

8
Stupefly
Rising Star
2 years ago
peter_g
Karbon Team
peter_gKarbon Team
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
An introduction to Karbon’s Client Portal

Leann and I recently held an introductory webinar for Karbon’s new Client Portal, demonstrating:An overview of the Client Portal Best practices for leveraging the Client Portal for effective client collaboration How you can empower your clients to self-serve within the Client Portalhttps://karbonhq.wistia.com/medias/ulc04vr2ce?embedType=iframe&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640I welcome you to add your questions, comments or feedback below. 

0
peter_g
Karbon Team
2 years 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 

5
Filomena Silveira
Beginner
9 months ago
Miya
Rising Star
MiyaRising Star
asked in Share Tips & Best Practices
What are others preferred tools?

What are others preferred tools? i.e. password management

14
Automation n Stuff
Rising Star
11 months ago
A
Anonymous
posted in Share Tips & Best Practices
Here’s a recording of the KPI virtual roundtable

Earlier, Ian, Logan and Saadat co-hosted a virtual roundtable, specifically for our customers, about Karbon Practice Intelligence (KPI)!We covered: An introduction to KPI The power of bringing together various datasets from your firm with KPI How KPI can help you make faster, more insightful and informed decisions, and improve productivity How to visualize your data without coding by using pre-built workbooks How to explore and action the data insights by going straight to the data source Best practice approaches to reusable and repeatable data visualization We would love to hear what you think about KPI, as well as any questions or feedback you have. You can add your thoughts right here in the comments below.   

3
amlbmo
Rising Star
1 year ago
A
Anonymous
published in Share Tips & Best Practices
Deep-dive into Karbon Practice Intelligence (KPI) workbooksKPI

Hi everyone!I recently hosted a session to help you make the most out of Karbon Practice Intelligence.Here’s the recording:We covered how you can use KPI to:Track email volume and response times Identify WIP and work to be billed Understand employee efficiency and client profitability Balance competing priorities, resolve resource conflicts and adapt to changing project demandsI’d love to hear your thoughts on KPI. You can add your thoughts and feedback right here in the comments below.

3880
A
1 year ago

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