For many dental accountants, one of the most challenging aspects of the job is finding enough time to get everything done. There are moments when it can seem as if gaining control over one’s workload is a near impossibility, and then—all of a sudden—something new and unexpected jumps in the way and delays things even further. While no one can pull additional time out of thin air, there are ways to ensure that you’re utilizing the hours that you do have as efficiently as possible.
Feeling overwhelmed? Here are just a few ways to (at least seemingly) create more time for yourself throughout the workday.

Clear the Clutter

There are few skills that can assist accountants in getting the most out of their daily grind than that of proper organization. The French cooking philosophy of “Mise en place,” or “everything in its place” speaks to this to a large degree, built around the notion that the only way to work efficiently is to have all of your essential tools at arm’s length and neatly organized. Clearing up any clutter, whether it be physical or digital in nature, can go a long way in terms of helping you get more done on a daily basis—it’s also usually a much faster process than most people expect.

Automate the Billing Process

It doesn’t matter whether you’re invoicing vendors, patients or any other party—keeping up can be a true challenge if you’re not organized. One way to ensure that billing doesn’t get the best of you is to automate the process as much as possible. Accounting software such as Quickbooks allows you to automate the invoicing process and track payment statuses without ever having to the heavy lifting yourself. It may not seem like much, but it can end up saving you quite a bit of time once everything is set up properly.

Consider the “Time Blocking”

Feeling lost during the workday? It may be a factor of simply not having taken the time to actually plot out when you’re going to do what. “Time blocking” is the process of scheduling-out periods of time throughout the week to handle specific tasks. For example, you may block out Wednesday afternoon from 1-3pm for balancing the books each week—during this period of time, you commit to not working on any other tasks. Time blocking takes some getting used to, but the benefits can be worth their weight in gold.
There are only 24 hours in a day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t utilize them more thoroughly to get more done. Take a moment to plan, and watch what happens as a result.