CCH Workflow A practice overview. March 2014

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CCH Workflow

A practice overview

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 Disclaimer

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UNITED KINGDOM

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Contact Details

Website www.cch.co.uk/softwareproducts

London

Wolters Kluwer (UK) Limited 145 London Road

Kingston Upon Thames Telephone: 0844 56 18181 KT2 6SR Facsimile: 020 8547 2637

United Kingdom Email: [email protected] Software Support Telephone: 0844 56 18181

Email: [email protected] Website: www.cch.co.uk/softwaresupport

Dublin

Wolters Kluwer (Irl) Limited T/A CCH Software

First Floor, Unit 7 B Global House

Forest Park Mullingar

Co. Westmeath Telephone: +353 1 460 4729 Ireland Facsimile: +353 1 686 4786 Software Support Telephone: +353 1 278 0034

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1. Overview

A workflow is defined as a sequence of processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion. In the context of software, a workflow solution is one which helps a practice record, manage and monitor tasks and activities in order to maximise efficiency, meet deadlines and service agreements, and manage business risk in the context of any or all of the work undertaken.

Historically, practices have used a number of different tools to manage workflows. Some of these have been electronic systems incorporated into the CCH suite or other software, while others have been kept manually on spreadsheets or elsewhere. Crucially, however kept, any such tools have been focussed on engagement delivery, and offered little visibility of status from a client relationship management perspective.

CCH software has now developed a cross-suite tool, CCH Workflow, which will enable you to focus on managing the entire client relationship end-to-end, rather than simply engagement assignments. It will offer an efficient and standardised approach, involving key automated steps and complete reporting and business process monitoring. In time, this new cross suite module will replace current CCH workflow functionality such as Job Management and Tax Workflow enhancing your ability to manage your practice relationships holistically.

The purpose of this paper is to provide you with more information about the new CCH Workflow modules, their release schedule and the opportunities they will offer to your practice.

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2 CCHWORKFLOW – A PRACTICE OVERVIEW

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2. CCH Workflow modules

While CCH Workflow will as a whole offer a single cohesive cross-suite solution, we appreciate that not all areas will be of interest to all practices. We have therefore developed the software in a modular way so you can select the items which most benefit your practice.

Fundamentally, however, all modules can be used for recording the completion of standardised workflows set up by the practice, to alert employees when certain tasks need to be completed and by the practice to oversee and monitor progress. However each module will have specific capabilities which are described in more detail below.

CCH Workflow can also be operated from two different interfaces. The first is a simple step based designer, which is similar in design to the old Tax Workflow system made available in our CCH Personal Tax product. The second is a full function Workflow Designer module which offers greater customisation and flexibility, but requires a greater understanding of the software than the standard designer, and so will be more suited to firms with in-house IT expertise or those who want to extend the workflow capabilities for their practice to maximise the efficiency benefits by investing in some consultancy and training services.

2.1 CCH Workflow – Compliance

This will be delivered using the standard workflow user interface and this will support the “must have” workflow functionality that compliance departments need. Each module will be made available free of charge with the respective compliance software.

Within each compliance module there will be functional capabilities specific to that compliance product to enable you to create workflows which are relevant to that engagement type, such as signing off workflow tasks when the tax return status is altered in CCH Personal Tax.

The three compliance modules will be as follows, and will be delivered in stages (see below for the release schedule):-

 CCH Workflow – Personal Tax  CCH Workflow – Corporation Tax  CCH Workflow – Accounts Production

2.2 CCH Workflow – Document Management

Again delivered through the standard workflow interface, this module will enable users to manage document workflows within the practice. This will encompass both workflows around document creation, review and approval, and also around document upload and “add” tasks such as managing incoming post or documents delivered electronically to the practice.

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For those firms using our legacy Singleview product, this module will provide all the functionality previously offered with Singleview workflows, enabling you to upgrade to the integrated CCH Document Management system.

2.3 CCH Workflow – Client Management (Central)

This module, also available with the standard workflow interface, will play a key role in provid-ing your practice with holistic workflow management. Sittprovid-ing across the entire suite of products, you can develop workflows which manage your client relationships end-to-end.

Furthermore, with the ability to link workflows together, and build in steps which are co-dependent, you will be able to develop workflows which more closely mirror your current manual working practices. For instance you will be able to create a workflow which manages the entire client relationship, with engagement workflows such as tax, accounting, and billing triggered from the main relationship workflow as shown below. No longer will your tax team be wondering if the accounts have been finalised enabling the tax work to be completed!

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2.4 CCH Workflow – Advanced

This is the chargeable Workflow Designer user interface which will include access to the Workflow API. This will allow practices to design more complex workflows and use the API to call out to third party products to enable practices to truly manage their client activities holistically. The Workflow Designer will require higher levels of understanding of the software than the standard workflow interface, and so it will be more likely to be suited to practices with in-house IT expertise and/or a willingness to undertake some training to learn how to make best use of its capabilities.

For those firms who need the extended capabilities offered by CCH Workflow – Advanced, but do not wish to understand the technical complexities, consultancy services will be available at the usual rates.

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3. Automation

Practice efficiency is a key driver for firms to implement workflow systems. While streamlining and standardising process across the practice will offer some efficiency savings, being able to automate certain aspects will free up fee earners’ time to undertake more valuable work. In the first release of each CCH Workflow module, some elements of automation will be available. We intend to build on these, based on market need. Unless indicated otherwise, automation capabilities will be chargeable.

In the context of CCH Workflow, automation will fall into four key types:-

3.1 Automated task signoff within CCH Software

This is where a workflow is designed to recognise markers built into the software, and will automatically update workflow tasks as completed as those markers are set.

An example of this, will be the ability to connect a Personal Tax Workflow step to the “Tax Return status”. As the user changes this status flag in CCH Personal Tax, any workflow step looking for a status change will automatically update and advance the workflow, recording when that step was completed and flagging the next task which requires completion.

3.2 Automated CCH Software functionality triggered through a

workflow

This is where a piece of functionality is automatically triggered by the completion of another task in the workflow and this functionality happens without any manual intervention. Some examples of such automation are:-

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©WOLTERS KLUWER (UK)LTD 3.2.1 Notification emails

For all workflow tasks it is possible to set a flag to send a notification email to the person responsible for the next task. This is generated automatically by the system as the previous task is completed.

3.2.2 Document related automation

Our CCH Document Management users have identified a number of automated tasks which would be of benefit to them, and the following will be delivered with the initial release of CCH Workflow – Document Management:-

 Automatic locking of a document to prevent editing once transmitted to the client  Automated generation of a pdf from a Word document for electronic transmission  Automated notification to the client partner of document tasks completed

3.2.3 Automation ideas yet to be implemented

The following ideas are an indication of the sort of automation which may be developed in the future based on market need. Please let us know if any of these would add value to your practice as well as feeding back any other ideas of automation which would particularly help your practice.

 Automated publication of a set of accounts and tax return to the client Portal

 When your client has approved the accounts and tax return in the Portal, automatically submitting the documents to Companies House and HMRC without further intervention from your team

We anticipate in time building groups of related automation capabilities specific to the main modules in the CCH suite which you will be able to purchase to add in to your workflows to increase practice efficiency.

3.2.4 Other automation available in CCH Workflow - Advanced

Following early adoption of CCH Workflow – Advanced by some firms, additional automation has started to be developed in the Advanced Workflow Designer such as the automatic generation of an IR mark on a personal tax return, once the tax return review process is complete. It is anticipated that some automation features so developed will in time become available in the standard workflow interface too.

3.3 Linking two or more workflows

This is where one workflow is completed or even a particular task in a work is completed and it automatically triggers off a new workflow, or signs off a step in a different workflow. A typical example of this would be where the Accounts are approved by the Client which automatically triggers the Corporation Tax Workflow to start (or proceed to completion). The diagram above under CCH Workflow – Client Management (Central) indicates how this could look.

This functionality will be available with the CCH Workflow – Client Management (Central) module and will include:-

 1 workflow completing advances a step in a different workflow (eg completion of engagement workflow enables client workflow to advance in the above example)

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 1 workflow completing invokes a new workflow (eg when tax workflow completes, step advances and a billing workflow is kicked off)

 1 workflow completing enables a different workflow to proceed (eg a tax workflow can proceed once the accounts workflow is completed)

NB if your practice wants to optimise your workflow management, we recommend you ensure you have access to all workflow modules linked to the CCH software modules which you use, particularly as we increase the automation aspects within each module.

We will be offering training and consultancy to practices which want to maximise the efficiency savings such workflow capabilities can offer, including assistance in mapping out workflow structures and developing the workflow steps themselves.

3.4 Interaction with third party tools outside CCH Software

CCH Workflow is designed to provide centralised management of all your practice processes. While many of these will be undertaken through modules in the CCH suite, there will be other activities which may be delivered through other software. A typical example of this might be where a practice undertakes electronic anti money laundering checks using a website or other software as part of its client take-on and risk review processes.

CCH Workflow – Advanced, coupled with the CCH Workflow API will offer a practice the ability to develop their own workflow events which are tasks or activities associated with software outside CCH Central. This API and designer allows you to build automated activities which will feed responses back into the workflow process and advance it to the next activity on completion.

While some practices will have the IT expertise in-house to undertake such design and development work, CCH will also offer training and consultancy services to practices which are keen to develop the functionality they need.

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4. Workflow Look and Feel

The following screenshots will give you a preview of what CCH Workflow will look like on release.

4.1 Designing a workflow in the standard designer

For those of you who are familiar with the current tax workflow, you will see that the standard workflow designer looks similarly straightforward to use in terms of an easy to use grid system. It offers the facility to create date defined or time offset (eg 1 week from start of step) steps, an ability to allocate the step to a particular individual, group of individuals or responsibility types, and the ability to create steps which are tasks, decisions (pass/fail or do activity A, B or C), and launch or wait for other workflows.

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4.2 Summary view of all outstanding workflows on a client

For the first time, a practice will be able to see exactly what stage all work is at from a new Workflow tab in the client record. This will include the name of each workflow, the step each workflow is at, the due date for that step to be completed, and who has responsibility for its completion.

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4.3 Home page view of workflows running on “my portfolio”

A home page view will be available for each workflow type created, reflecting the different steps incorporated into each. Users will be able to set up home pages to monitor the workflows which impact their day to day operational use. In the example below, we can see 2 workflow controls – one for Client Relationship Management, the other for Accounts, where the second step in the CRM workflow triggers off new Accounts workflows, demonstrating how they can interact.

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4.4 The Advanced Workflow Designer

The advanced workflow designer displays workflows pictorially rather than in a grid, and offers the full functionality of the underlying architecture of Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation.

NB workflows built in the standard designer can be viewed on the advanced designer, but the display is not neatly rendered. It is not possible to view workflows created in the Advanced designer in the standard workflow interface, however.

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5. Release plan

There will be a phased release of CCH Workflow as follows:-

January 2014 - CCH Workflow for Document Management

This chargeable module will be made available to interested CCH Document Management users as part of a managed release. It will also offer the workflow capabilities which users of our legacy document management workflow system, Singleview workflow, require in order to upgrade to CCH Document Management.

February 2014 – CCH Workflow for Personal Tax (Beta release)

The personal tax module of workflow will be available on limited beta release in February. If any practices want to take an advanced look at our new workflow capabilities, please get in touch with us. As is usual with our beta programmes places will be allocated on a first come first served basis to a small number of firms so we can work closely with you to obtain feedback on this key release.

For those of you who do not join our beta programme, we will be running a series of webinars to give you an opportunity to familiarise yourself with the new module and to start planning for the new tax season.

April 2014 – CCH Workflow for Personal Tax

The full release of CCH Workflow for Personal Tax will be made available as part of our April compliance release, and will enable you to set up workflows for the start of the new tax return season.

Many practices have indicated that they are likely to want to run the new workflow system in parallel with their existing systems in order to give themselves time to get to know the full range of capabilities of this new module. To give you ample time to do this we will not be retiring our existing tax workflow system until April 2016 at the earliest, when we would hope the majority of practices will be using the new workflow system.

July 2014 - CCH Workflow – Client Management (Central)

This workflow module, which enables to you create interlinked workflows in order to manage client relationships end-to-end, will be made available in the July quarterly release.

July 2014 – CCH Workflow - Corporation Tax

Additionally, we will be introducing CCH Workflow for Corporation Tax in the July quarterly release.

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We will continue to add module related functionality, including CCH Accounts Production and CCH Practice Management, together with enhanced automation capabilities to CCH Workflow with forthcoming releases based on practice need. Please let us know if you have particular requirements which we may be able to assist you with.

CCH Workflow A practice overview. March 2014

CCH Workflow

A practice overview

Contact Details

Contents

1. Overview

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2. CCH Workflow modules

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3. Automation

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4. Workflow Look and Feel

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1. Overview

2. CCH Workflow modules

2.1 CCH Workflow – Compliance

2.2 CCH Workflow – Document Management

2.3

CCH Workflow – Client Management (Central)

2.4

CCH Workflow – Advanced

3. Automation

3.1 Automated task signoff within CCH Software

3.2 Automated CCH Software functionality triggered through a

workflow

3.3 Linking two or more workflows

3.4 Interaction with third party tools outside CCH Software

4. Workflow Look and Feel

4.1 Designing a workflow in the standard designer

4.2 Summary view of all outstanding workflows on a client

4.3 Home page view of workflows running on “my portfolio”

4.4 The Advanced Workflow Designer

5. Release plan