Most of us use computers on a regular basis, but how many of us use them as anything more than tools to produce documents or process client information?
But your computer can do a good job of automating some of the more mundane, repetitive tasks that normally suck up your time and keep you from focusing on more important things.
Getting up and running with software that will help you manage the flow of information in and out of your office may take some time. However, you’ll probably find that the investment of time and money pays off in greater efficiency down the line.
Here are several ways that your computer can lend a hand on those everyday jobs:
> Transforming email from a burden into a bonus
Managing email is one of the most time-consuming tasks for many information workers, including financial advisers. However, there are several tools and techniques that not only keep your inbox clutter-free, but also allow you to do constructive things with your email.
Most modern mail software includes sophisticated filtering systems that can process incoming emails using rules that you create. Gmail, Outlook and Mail (the last runs on the Mac) can be programmed to handle email based on parameters such as who they are from, what the subject line says and what’s in the content. You might use this, for example, to catch email from your top clients, automatically categorizing these messages into an “urgent” folder, while email from second-tier clients could be forwarded to an assistant.
Other software will help to keep your inbox clear by analysing your email history to find out which senders are the most important to you. SaneBox (www.sanebox.com) moves all the non-important stuff into a separate folder to analyze later while keeping those messages that it thinks are most important in your inbox. SaneBox also features a followup system that will resend email messages to people if they don’t respond.
FollowUpThen (www.followupthen.com), does something similar.
Both services charge $5 a month to help keep your inbox in shape and track your outstanding conversations.
> News gathering
The savvy advisor keeps abreast of market developments, but it can be daunting to monitor the vast array of news sites out there for new information. Automate your news gathering to make it easier. Use Google Alerts (www.google.ca/alerts) to create a customized news feed that is updated every time key search phrases crop up in the news.
Is one of your key clients investing heavily in the mining business? Setting up a Google News Alert with several of the top mining firms, using generic industry terms, can help you to collect relevant information that others may miss.
Another service, Feedly (www.feedly.com), will draw various news sites that you dictate into an easily digestible, searchable, personalized newspaper.
> Scheduling
Scheduling appointments is a regular task for most advisors. You can do it manually, but it can be tricky to avoid double booking, especially if you are dealing with a busy individual whose calendar changes regularly. Avoid this problem with an online booking system.
ScheduleOnce (www.scheduleonce.com) integrates with your Google calendar, which can then be used to update calendars in software such as Outlook and iCal. ScheduleOnce enables you to schedule appointments with others and accept bookings from them, and offer multiple meeting types (such as phone conversations or face-to-face meetings). You also can schedule group appointments with your team.
Doodle (www.doodle.com) offers a similar service. It enables you to schedule events with participants who can confirm the times that they are available using an online form. The premium service allows you to track who is missing from a group appointment and request additional information, such as an email address or a phone number. You also can set up automatic reminders to confirm appointments.
> File management
Moving files around is one of the biggest headaches for advisors. Luckily, there are several services that can ease the pain.
Wappwolf (www.wappwolf.com) is a website that processes files arriving at certain destinations according to rules that you set. The system can process files posted to Facebook, Dropbox, Google Drive and Box.com accounts. Wappwolf can perform many actions automatically, including converting documents to PDF and sending them to your Kindle, uploading to the Evernote document-management service, copying files among accounts or sending them via email to a predefined set of recipients.
FileThisFetch (http://filethis.com/fetch/) has a unique take on file processing. This software monitors online accounts that you specify, automatically retrieving documents from institutions such as Toronto-Dominion Bank, Amazon.com and Travelocity, and storing them in a predefined location, such as a Dropbox folder.
This enables you to collect relevant documents automatically in a single place for bookkeeping or other administrative purposes.
> Program the task
Sometimes, an action is complicated enough that you just need to program it yourself. Depending on your technical expertise, this can be a sophisticated and powerful process or a simple but more limited one.
Mac users can take advantage of AppleScript, an English-like programming language that can be used to manipulate information automatically on your Mac.
You might choose to create a script to automatically rename a file, drop it into a folder on your computer, email it to someone and update a spreadsheet with information from the file, for example. If you had to do that on a regular basis, it could save you or your assistant hours over time.
Several systems exist that can watch you carry out certain tasks and record them for later repetition. MacroExpress (www.macroexpress.com/), AutoHotKey (www.autohotkey.com/) and DoItAgain for Windows (www.spacetornado.com/DoItAgain/) offer this function.
iMacros (www.iopus.com/imacros/) is a tool, available as a plug-in for the Chrome and Firefox browsers, that lets you record tasks that you perform online. This can be used to retrieve data from web pages to fill out forms automatically.
Example scenarios of this task include: pulling financial data from a news page, then populating an online spreadsheet with it; and scanning thousands of web-based records to find a few that match a set of narrowly defined parameters, then collating them.
Some programmable task-automation systems focus on online services.
Zapier (https://zapier.com/), for example uses a visual interface to help you define the tasks you want to perform, as well as the online events that trigger these tasks.
These types of services can manipulate data in 120 online services in a preprogrammed “zap.” Examples include services such as Gmail; the online document-storage service, Evernote; as well as customer relationship management systems such as Highrise.
You might program a zap to email yourself every time your assistant adds a row to an online spreadsheet, and another zap to update your calendar every time a new task is created.
Or how about updating a Google Doc every time a relevant story pops up in your Google Alerts, in order to form the basis of a market update document for clients automatically? IE