Speakers:
Join operations leaders Ashley Fontenot and Whitney Kisner for an insight-packed panel where they’ll expose the hidden inefficiencies slowing firms down—and share how to fix them using practice management tools you probably already have.
You’ll learn how to spot blind spots in your workflows, uncover underused features in your current system, and apply proven strategies to streamline operations, improve collaboration, and get more out of your tech.
Whether you’re optimizing a system you’ve used for years or just starting to explore practice management, you'll leave this session with clear next steps you can apply in your firm right away.
What you'll learn:
- How to centralize client data and reduce time spent searching for information
- How to automate admin tasks and simplify workflows
- How to improve client communication and transparency with client portals and automated reminders
- How to leverage data insights to make smarter, more profitable business decisions
- ...and so much more!
Resources:
👉 Download the Practice Management Playbook
👉 Learn how to implement these strategies in Canopy
👉 Download our free workflow templates
Post-Webinar Q&A:
Here's a closer look, with answers included, into the great questions from our live session of this event:
Q: How can I start entering our SOPs in Canopy?
A: Start by outlining them in a Google Doc. In Canopy, you can templatize SO many things. It’s easiest to think through them, get a flow, then start writing/outlining, then move over to Canopy. Here’s how I would approach building an SOP:
- What are the basic steps? In Canopy, you can have 3 layers: tasks, subtasks, and checklists.
- Where do you need to insert client requests in those steps?
- Where could you automate emails? (NOTE: client requests have reminder logic on them, so you won’t need to include this use case in emails. Think of things like welcome or onboarding emails, status updates, etc.)
- Where can you use automation? Check out this support article for options in Canopy.
Next, you want to build the following in Canopy:
- Service items & rates
- User rates
- Write up and write down logic (if you’re using this)
Once you have task templates, email templates, client request templates, and billing settings all set up, you can start to build out engagement item templates. These bring together service items & rates and task templates (some of which you may have added client requests and email templates to). Build an engagement item template for each service item.
Once you’ve finished building engagement item templates, build an engagement template.
You will save SO much time by doing this. This will set expectations up front with the client on billing, frequency, and scope. It will decrease admin work significantly by automating task creation upon engagement acceptance, sending email reminders, and triggering any automations. This will take some time, but it will save SO much more in the future.
Q: How do you change to billing up front with existing clients?
A: First, I would recommend messaging all of your clients and notifying them that you’ll be doing some process and procedure changes so you can better serve them. Make sure you have alignment internally with how you’re going to package your services and what price points those need to have in order to remain profitable. Then, I would send your clients a new proposal. Don’t do every client at once. It’s best to break them into cohorts. If you can identify commonalities with cohorts, then you can simplify your processes in this change. This is oversimplifying all of this, but you can then send them a proposal with multiple options– stick with the services they’re getting and pay $X each [time frame] before work begins, or choose from some upsell packages. If you’re familiar with anchoring, you can use that technique as well. This, honestly, could be an entire webinar. And there are lots of great resources out there. If you’re familiar with building good prompts, I highly recommend taking this to ChatGPT.
Q: Where do y'all recommend starting - low-hanging fruit, easy wins?
A: Build out the client dashboard/profile. What do you want your team to see right off the bat? We utilized a bunch of custom fields to make it work for our firm. Also, ask your team! Find out what will help them do their job.
Another easy win, build out a workflow for an easy task. Maybe that client set up, or potential new clients, or accounting. Start with the high-level steps, then work your way through the in-betweens.
Q: We have a kludgy CRM and operations IR stack of Sharefile, Right Signature, CCH workflow (XCM), and CCH Axcess. Have you come across any groups with similar configurations, and have they seen benefits of pulling it all together with Canopy?
A: Yes, we see these all the time! Every firm has its own unique combination, but it’s not uncommon that we see someone with a DM tool (Sharefile, safesend, gofileroom), an older PM (Practice CS, CCH Axcess, OfficeTools), a few other point solutions (Right Signature, DocuSign, CPA Charge), and a hosting tool. For the most part, Canopy can replace all of that software. Every now and then, we run into firms who love one or two specific things about one of those software and they get disappointed that Canopy doesn’t have that thing. In that case, you need to make the game time call as to what is most valuable– consolidation and updated software, and the thing you love.
I always tell people to evaluate their tech stack and which parts of each software can you “not live without?” Then look at Canopy and see where/how you can achieve the same outcome within the system. Change is hard, I get it, but using two systems is harder.
Q: How do you handle clients who do not want to provide or receive documents/tax returns electronically?
A: We charge for “paper processing”... and it isn’t cheap!
Q: How about automating employee tasks/priority - do you use Canopy for that?
A: Absolutely! You can create as many templates as you want, you can specifically assign the primary employee to a task, or a subtask. It’s however you need it set up. For example, we have a 1040 task, but the billing/invoice subtask is assigned to me. So our tax team works it, and when it’s ready to bill, the system notifies me. We also use priorities, well, to show importance. You can also “pin” tasks in the Work list, which can help organize priorities as well.
Q: Do you use the "out of the box" statuses in Canopy? Do you have all tasks/projects automatically updating status?
A: Yes and yes. A certain status that means something to our firm that may not make sense to the next. There are statuses there for you, and you can add whatever you want. LESS IS MORE HERE. Find ways to utilize the same status in all service lines, otherwise, the list can get overwhelming. As you work through the workflow, you can automate the main task to change the status as well.
Q: Do you view Canopy as a CRM? A true CRM, like Hubspot (we use), offers much more in the relationship management. We use Liscio because Canopy doesn't allow a client to initiate communication through its portal. We use Canopy for all internal workflow, time and billing, and project management. We use Ignition for all engagement proposals. Do you believe that Canopy is able to compensate for the 3 apps mentioned?
A: We do use it as a true CRM. We have clients with multiple businesses that we link together. We utilize the tags to help group clients together as well. Explore linking clients more in Canopy, and I think this will help with the management aspect.
- I’d say, just because Canopy may not function like what you are used to, find a way it can. Evaluate the softwares currently used, and see if there are ways to achieve the same result. Sure, a client can’t initiate communication through the portal, but if you have email linked up, you can create a task from the email they send you. It’s just as easy for them to send an email to you as it is to initiate through the portal.
- Ignition hands down can be replaced… more cost effective if I hear correctly, since they just raised prices again.
Ask your team if having all of these things (albeit it may look different) in the same spot, outweighs the value of having a disjointed system.
Q: Is there a way to setup a client onboarding task so that when a new client is added our team would be able to gather the information needed to complete the information we need to establish the client database with a standard list of what is needed?
A: Yes. You can create task, email, client request, questionnaire, and engagement templates that help with any use case– client onboarding included.
When you propose a new engagement, you can set tasks to auto-trigger once it’s accepted to start the client onboarding experience.
Q: Is there a way to move documents from Canopy to my tax software?
A: Yes, you can use the Canopy Virtual Drive or the Desktop Assistant.
Q: Where can we find details about what automations are available to us and how to implement them within Canopy?
A: We provide a variety of automations related to workflows, engagements, recurring invoicing, email automation, and a variety of other automations
Q: What part of Canopy functions like texting?
A: Canopy gives you a global inbox that links emails to the right client—automatically. Tag teammates with @mentions to keep everyone in the loop. Need info from a client? They can reply directly in the portal. Fast, simple, seamless.
Q: Quick question on billing — does Canopy support monthly subscriptions with stored client credit cards? Can it link with Stripe or other processors to automate recurring payments and reduce billing friction?
A: With Canopy, you can set up recurring payments that include a client’s saved payment information. Our payment provider is Adyen. We are also considering adding other payment processors such as Stripe.
Q: What parts of the tax workflow can be fully automated, without human intervention, from lead to return delivery?
A: You can automate much of the client journey—from kickoff to work to payment. Each step moves forward as you complete the work. While some actions still need a human touch (like marking a task as done), automation can handle much of the rest. Here are some resources related to workflows, engagements, recurring invoicing, AI-driven document automation, email automation, and a variety of other automations.
Q: Can I lock documents, like tax returns or deliverables, until payment is received? Basically, no pay, no PDF?
A: In Canopy, you simply hold the output until the client pays.
Q: Can I build dynamic pricing into Canopy? Like, if a client selects more services or has more complexity, can the proposal auto-adjust? Or would I need to handle that outside the platform?
A: Dynamic pricing isn’t available yet—but it’s on Canopy's near-term roadmap. We created different engagement items to help with this. “Base level vs custom,” etc. Still 100% can be in the software, just takes a bit more time to build out those engagement items
