The Practitioner: Missing our Admin Queen
The Practitioner bemoans the loss of the backbone of the firm: their administrative assistant
I’VE ALWAYS BEEN a believer that the admin function within an accountancy practice was important but over the past few months this belief has been reinforced more than ever. We have had a change of personnel in that role recently and it has made us realise a couple of things:
1. You don’t appreciate how good someone is until they have gone, and;
2. Maybe some of the systems could do with a review!
Since the death in November last year of our brilliant admin/reception lady of 20 years, we have had three people take up the position. The first lasted a day and disappeared off the face of the earth, the second lady lasted two weeks, and the third we have recently had to dismiss for being totally and utterly lazy and useless.
Every cloud has a silver lining however and the frequent change in personnel has highlighted a few weaknesses in our admin function that we had once considered to be the best, most efficient system in the entire accounting world…
It also highlighted the problem with a lack of change, you just carry on thinking what you are doing is the right way of doing things.
The key is to now make sure we take this opportunity to strike while the iron is hot and do a thorough review of all the admin systems and put changes into place quickly and effectively.
When I say ‘we’ I mean ‘the senior managers’. I am far too busy going through the client database looking for clients who play golf. The golf season is well and truly upon us and my clubs need a dusting down!
I often leave an Out of Office reply on my emails saying that ‘I am on a course’ and frequently receive replies back saying, ‘a course? Don’t you mean a golf course??!!!’
Our old admin lady used to be so good at getting rid of telesales calls and replying to clients. Being a keen golfer herself she would often tell them that I was ‘on a course’. She knew what I was doing really and she did a great job of keeping it to herself.
RIP Admin Queen, and I’ll see you on the great course in the sky one day.
The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from the coalface of a regional firm in the heart of England
