February and March are quiet months for accountants and we have a bit of spare time. One new activity for us is to update or fine-tune our client-customised keyboard to give a better result.

As an example, if a client makes regular payments to Pioneer, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, then we can redefine the keys F6 … F9 on the keyboard to be able to generate these narratives just for that client. This makes it a lot quicker to type in client data from handwritten records onto our system, and of course once the data is in the system we’re laughing.

It might occur to the reader that life would be easier still if we redefined F6 as Morrisons, F7 as Tesco, F8 as Sainsbury’s and F9 as Pioneer, so there is some similarity in vowel sounds to make it easier to remember. This is the sort of thing we can do in February and March. Overall, doing this gives us a strong feeling that the computer is working with us rather than against us.

Generally the advanced technology campaign is coming to an end now. The new priority is to produce crib sheets and checklists for everything so we can concentrate on service to clients.