Are You Using Slack for CPA Project Communications?
By Charles Hall | Technology
Do you ever find yourself digging through hundreds of emails to find one message? You know it’s there somewhere, but you can’t put your electronic finger on it. Use Slack to communicate by project–that way, you’ll have all messages (by project, e.g., individual audit engagement) in one place.
What is Slack?
Slack is software designed to allow project teams–e.g., audit team–to send and store messages. Why use Slack rather than traditional email? Messages are stored by channel (by project), making it much easier to see project conversations.
The Slack website says the following:
Most conversations in Slack are organized into public channels which anyone on your team can join. You can also send messages privately, but the true power of Slack comes from having conversations everyone on the team can see. This transparency means it’s quick to find out what’s going on all across the team, and when someone new joins, all the information they need is laid out, ready for them to read up on.
How CPAs Use Slack
How can you as a CPA or auditor use Slack?
Create a channel for each project, and ask all team members to communicate using Slack (rather than email).
In CPA firms, some activities are year-round such as quality control reviews (we perform several hundred a year). Other activities are a true project, such as an audit engagement. Either way, you can use a separate (Slack) channel to communicate and store all related messages.
Using Slack for Quality Control Reviews — An Example
Below you see an example of how Heather, my associate, and I use Slack to communicate about file reviews in our quality control department. By doing so, we can see who is doing what and when. Also, all of the messages are searchable by channel. So, suppose I’m wondering when we reviewed the ABC Bank engagement. I can search the CPR (cold partner review) channel to see who performed the review and when. Notice, in this channel, Heather and I are posting status comments. We do so for the following reasons:
- To create a history of each review
- To notify each other that the review has commenced (Slack automatically sends a notification message to those included in a channel)
To select our quality control channel, I click the CPR channel on the left (where all the channels appear). Once I click CPR, I see the most recent messages for this channel.
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Audits – Another Example
Think about a typical audit. You have three to five team members, with some individuals coming and going. To maintain continuity, you need a message board that allows all audit team members to see what is going on. That’s what Slack does when you create a channel for a particular audit. Think of it as a message board in the cloud since the designated personnel can see the audit communications with their PC, iPad, or cell phone.
Other Advantages of Slack
Advantages of Slack include the following:
- Accessibility from all devices, including cell phones and tablets
- Shareability of documents such as PDFs and spreadsheets
- Integration with other apps such as Trello and Google Calendar
- Configurable notifications of messages to team members
- Private messaging (when needed)
- Basic plan is free
Give It a Try
The best way to see how Slack works is to try it yourself. You don’t need any training since it’s easy to use. To see more information about Slack, click here.
