Pipelines: Overview

Pipelines are an essential part of your workflow. They are a visual representation of a process that takes a client from point A (start) to point B (end) along a series of defined stages. You can use them to manage various services, such as monthly bookkeeping. tax preparation, weekly payroll, and more. 

In this article, you will learn the main steps to start working with pipelines in TaxDome. 

Understand pipeline structure

Our pipelines are designed to look like a kanban board . The overall function of a pipeline is to help you easily track the progress of similar jobs for different clients while allowing them to flow smoothly toward completion.

What happens inside a pipeline:   

• Stages are the steps in an overall work procedure. Once all the work involved in a stage is completed, a job moves to the next stage.

• Jobs, the individual projects a client pays you for (such as a tax return or a January payroll), are introduced to a pipeline specifically designed for it. Each job associated with a client account moves through the pipeline from the first to the last stage, or completion. 

• Automations, the mechanisms that automate a pipeline, make things happen independently. Once triggered, they create tasks for team members or send organizers and proposals to clients, for example.

You can explore pipeline structure further .

Get your first pipeline

Once you understand pipeline structure, you’re ready to set up your first pipeline. While it’s possible to build a pipeline from scratch, the fastest way is to start with a ready-made template.

If you don’t currently have any templates, you can find popular options in Templates > Pipelines and get started with pre-built options designed for common workflows. You can also get templates from the Marketplace for free.

Tip

You can request a pipeline template you need by clicking Complete request form.

Set up your pipeline

Once you have downloaded a pipeline template, you can fine-tune it to fit your needs. This includes:

• Rename or adjust stages: Customize the stages included in the pipeline template—rename them or reorder them to match your firm’s workflow. This lets the template fit your team’s style while keeping it ready for use in TaxDome.

• Review pipeline automations and templates used. Each stage can include one or more automated actions, such as emails, proposals, organizers, and tasks. When you copy the template, all automations are included—take time to review and adjust them as needed.

• Adjust pipeline settings: In pipeline settings , you can decide which team members can access the pipeline, configure the kanban view, and select default job templates to speed up job creation.

Tip

Explore setting up pipelines in practice further

Map your processes

Pipelines in TaxDome represent your business processes, so before you start using them, it’s important to map out how your work flows. Mapping your processes helps you understand what’s included in a pipeline template and what might need to be customized.

Here’s a simple way to do it:

1. Understand your own process: Compare the template you’ve downloaded to how you actually work. Identify the steps your team takes from start to finish. Ask yourself:

   • What are the inputs and outputs of each step?
   • What actions are required at each step?
   • How do I know when a step is complete?

2. Identify gaps and adjust: Mapping your process makes it clear what’s missing in the template. Add, remove, or rearrange stages so the pipeline reflects your actual workflow.

   • For tax return services, the stages typically include sending the engagement letter, collecting documents, preparing the return, reviewing it, and sending the completed documents. At TaxDome, it will look something like:

• For bookkeeping services, you might have stages for collecting invoices, entering data into the accounting software, reconciling accounts and generating reports. At TaxDome, it will look something like:

• For payroll, you will need to receive the employee timesheets, prepare the payroll, obtain the confirmation, process the payroll and upload all necessary documents. At TaxDome, it will look something like:

Add jobs

Once your pipeline is set up, you can start adding jobs to it. One job in a pipeline is one project you are doing for your client. So, your pipeline will really start working for you only when you add a job . 

Jobs may contain all the info needed to provide a service, such as linked documents, tasks for different team members, filled organizers, and more. 

To automate working with jobs and spend less time creating them, you can: 

• Use job templates to pre-fill general data, such as service name, description or due date.

• Set up job recurrences to automatically create jobs for recurring services. 

Move and complete jobs

When you finish the step you are working on, you can move the job to the next stage . This can be done either manually or automatically. An automated move happens when all pending items for a stage are completed. For example, if the client pays an invoice, this may automatically move the job to the next stage of document preparation.

When the job moves to the next stage, further automated actions may occur, such as creating tasks for team members, notifying the client of job progress, sending an invoice, and more. 

Once your job reaches the final stage and everything is done, you can archive it so it disappears from the kanban view but can still be accessed at any time.

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