Manage Team (Basic): Account roles
Task and job assignments can be exhausting, especially if there are more than three people in a team. This is why you should consider using account roles instead. Here, find out how to set up account roles in your portal and, thus, simplify task/job assignments.
Account roles, explained
Assigning tasks/jobs to proper team members automatically is one of the most important steps in your workflow, ensuring the right employees start working on their assignments timely. However, if you have many employees, you can't just add the assignee to the task/job template because when used in pipeline automations the assignee will depend not only on the type of the task but also on the client. This is where account roles come into play.
With account roles, you can assign jobs and tasks not to the specific team member, but to the account role, such as tax preparer, consultant, bookkeeper, account manager, reviewer and so on. The list of those roles is fully customizable and can be set up at the portal level either by firm owner or admins.
Once you create account roles, you can define which team members will be responsible for which clients. For example, you may have Team Member 1 set as a Bookkeeper for some clients, while for other clients, Team Member 2 will be given this role instead.
This way, when the task/job is created automatically, the assignee will be set based on the account role selection for the specific client account.
In general, the process of using account roles is the following:
1. You define the account roles and add them to the portal.
2. You update all client accounts to include the team member(s) who perform each role for the client. This could be done in bulk.
3. You add account roles to task/job templates instead of specific team members.
4. When using task templates in pipeline automations and job templates in automatic job creation, tasks/jobs are automatically assigned to team members allocated to these roles for particular clients.
Account roles are designed to help distribute tasks by providing visibility into who is responsible for what. However, it's important to note that account roles do not influence system roles, such as Admin or Employee. Also, they do not influence access rights of the particular employee.
Step 1. Add account roles
To start using account roles, first, you need to define which account roles you will need and add them to your portal. You can use either of two ways to add them:
- From settings: Go to Settings > Team & plans and switch to the Roles tab. Click New role or Create role. Enter the role name and click Save.
- From client accounts: Open a client account and switch to the Info tab. In the Account roles section, click Create role. Enter the role name and click Save. This role will be available for all client accounts.
Step 2. Allocate team members to roles for each client
Once you have your account roles created, you need to allocate team members to roles for each client. A single team member can be assigned different roles depending on the client, one team member can hold multiple roles simultaneously, and several team members can be allocated to one role.
You can do it for each client individually or in bulk:
- Individually: Open the client account and switch to the Info tab. In the Account roles section, select one or more team members to assign to specific roles.
- In bulk: If you need to add account roles to many clients at once (e.g., you want to start using this feature with an existing client base), you can use the import tool (see below)
Allocate team members to roles in bulk via the import tool
This method is a huge time-saver as you can allocate team members to roles in bulk, both to your new and existing accounts.
For adding roles to new accounts, follow the common import procedure and make sure to include a column for each account role.
If you want to allocate team members to roles for your existing accounts, follow these steps:
1. First, export all your accounts. To do this, go to Clients > Accounts from the sidebar menu, then click the export icon. You will receive an email with the download link.
2. Open the exported CSV file and delete all columns from the spreadsheet except for the account name column. Add columns for each account role you want to add, fill in the data, and then save the file. Note the following:
- Check if the account roles columns correspond to account roles in the system (this way, the columns will be mapped automatically).
- Check the team members' names twice. If there is a non-existent employee in the spreadsheet, it will not be allocated to the role.
3. Upload the spreadsheet to TaxDome by clicking the Import button on the Clients > Accounts page.
4. For the Account type, select Ignore, so that this field is not updated.
5. Select the Role account field for each account role column. If the column titles in your spreadsheet match the account roles in the system, it will be mapped automatically.
6. Skip the other steps of the import. Make sure to select Ignore for all contact fields.
7. Click Start Import on the last step. No new accounts or contacts will be created. Instead, the team members will be allocated to account roles in your existing client accounts.
8. Check the allocated team members in clients' accounts.
Step 3. Start using account roles in your workflow
Once you have account roles created and team members allocated to them for each client, you can start using them in your workflow. For now, it is possible in two ways:
- By adding account roles to the task template instead of assignees and then using this template in pipeline automations (e.g., automatically assign the review task to the team members set as reviewers for particular clients)
- By adding account roles to the job template instead of assignees and then using it in job recurrences (e.g., recurring job always assigned to bookkeeper allocated to the client)
3.1. Add account role to a job/task template
To start using account roles in your workflow, you need to set up a template:
1. Go to Templates > Firm templates and switch to the Tasks or Jobs tab. Click Create template or select an existing template you want to adjust.
2. In the Assignee section, select Roles. In the Assigned roles field, add a role you want to associate with this template.
3.2a Set up pipeline automations with task template
Now, you can use the task template you created in pipeline automations:
1. Open the pipeline you need for editing and select a stage where you want to add the automation.
2. Add the Create task automation and select the template you set up in the previous step.
Now, when jobs enter this stage, task assignees will be automatically assigned based on the account roles in the client account.
3.2b. Set up job recurrences with job template
You can use the job template you created in job recurrences:
1. Open the job recurrence you need for editing.
2. In the Job template field, select the template you set up in the previous step.
Now, when new jobs are created from this recurrence, job assignees will be automatically assigned based on the account roles.
Who can do this?
Only firm owners and admins can create account roles and change them. However, assigning/reassigning existing roles to accounts could also be done by team members with Manage accounts and Assign team members access rights granted.
