With Blue J Tax, you can now easily collaborate with colleagues on diagrams and tax research. Gather all of your diagrams, tax research, and references, then choose which colleagues can review and edit them, providing you with their expertise on client files.
To see how Collaboration will transform your workflow, watch the quick walkthrough below. You can also keep reading for a detailed guide on how to use Collaboration.
With Collaboration you can:
- Work more efficiently. Have colleagues review work or make their own changes and edits, all in one workspace. You can hand-off projects between teams or departments with one click, avoiding back and forth emails, direct messages, and lengthy meetings.
- Develop a polished review process. Engage with colleagues in a clear, organized manner on all client files, with diagrams, research, and analysis in one space for easy reviews.
- Maintain quality and consistency across the firm. Easily maintain the highest standards for diagrams and tax research across the firm. Bundle your own standardized diagrams, documents and resources into shareable Workspaces, or leverage Blue J Folios (which include diagram templates) as learning and research tools on a range of tax topics.
We're very excited about this new feature and the value it brings to our Blue J Tax clients. Here's how it works.
How to Use Collaboration
Once you and your colleagues have signed up for Blue J Tax, collaboration is just a click away.
1. Open any Workspace item like a diagram that you've created or a Blue J Folio you've saved.
2. Once the Workspace is open, click on the share button at the upper-right corner.
3. A window pops up that allows you to select a specific contact within your organization, leave a note for them, and then share the Workspace with them. You don't have to download files, email them, and kick off a chaotic thread of messages and revisions that can be more confusing than helpful.
4. Now your colleagues can view your work and make edits. To view any changes they have made on their end, click Refresh and you'll see the most up-to-date version of the diagram or document.
5. Now your colleagues can view your work and make edits. To view any changes they have made on their end, click Refresh and you'll see the most up-to-date version of the diagram or document.
With Collaboration, you and your team can produce diagrams, tax research, and tax analysis faster than ever for clients – in the Blue J Tax platform.
Want to see collaboration for yourself? Get a demo with us and we'll show you how it can elevate your workflow.
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The Advantage of Effective Collaboration
There are obvious benefits to working collaboratively. We're able to leverage expertise and insights across our teams, streamline reviews, learn from one another, and deliver work to clients in a shorter time frame.
Perhaps less obvious is the profitability of collaboration. By improving workflows and reducing points of friction, we achieve new levels of productivity. The increased output means more client files are seen in a shorter period of time, in turn boosting revenue (and driving down non-billable hours).
We use many different tools to do our work, but not all of them facilitate collaboration. For example, email is a typical way to share documents, but what starts as a straightforward request for review can quickly lead to a confusing thread of questions and comments, multiple versions of the same document, the most up-to-date document lost altogether, time wasted, and frustration.
The more hours lost on review processes and revisions, the more non-billable work accumulates, and less client files are worked on through the course of the week. It all amounts to reduced profitability for the services being provided.
A recent report shows that inefficiency is a persistent problem for many firms, but also increased client expectations, increased competitiveness, and a constant need for researching legislation changes. Having a way to create complex diagrams, produce quality tax research quickly, and reviewing them all in one place with multiple colleagues cuts down on hours of inefficiency for you and provides everyone with the bandwidth to do more.
See collaboration in action – get a demo today.
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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
