We all know how frustrating email can be. Sometimes it just doesn’t work as you want it to. In Part IEmail Blunders That Cost Accountants Time and Money of this series, we took a look at some of the most common email blunders that can cost accountants time and money. In Part II, we’ll take a look at some more email blunders that can trip up even the most experienced accounting teams.
Part 2: Email Blunders Experienced Accountants Need to Watch For
One of the biggest email blunders that can cost accountants time and money is forgetting to include important contacts. This can happen for a number of reasons – you may be working on a tight deadline and forget to include everyone in the email, or you may accidentally hit “reply” instead of “reply all.” Whatever the cause, forgetting to include important contacts can be a costly mistake. Not only will you have to spend time correcting the issue, but you may also damage your relationships with the people who were left out of the email chain. By taking a moment to double-check the email before sending it, you can avoid this mistake.
Another common email blunder is sending sensitive information to the wrong person. This can happen for a number of reasons – incorrect contact information, confusing email threads, or even human error. Whatever the cause, it can be a costly mistake to make. Not only will you have to spend time correcting the issue, but you may also damage your relationship with the person who received the sensitive information. This is especially true in the age of Outlook and Gmail auto-populating names/contact information with a few letters in the “To” bar. Enough clients whose names start with “Jo” and you’re liable to send an invoice meant for Joel at Customer 1 to Joanna at Customer 2. Too many of these mistakes and your customers and sales teams will be upset.
A common blunder that happens all-too-often is forgetting the “B” in BCC. Sending important announcements to your full customer base is pretty common. Whether announcing a pricing or staffing change or some other big detail, being able to send one email to every contact is essential for doing business in 2022. However, sending an email in the To or CC line results in all of your customers having access to the contact details for each other. All of them. Surprisingly, that mistake is more common than you’d believe. The solution is to use the BCC line when sending important announcements. This will allow you to send one email to your entire customer base without giving everyone access to everyone else’s contact information.
While these are just a few of the most common email blunders that can cost accountants time and money, they’re certainly not the only ones. By taking a moment to double-check your email before sending it, you can avoid these and other costly mistakes. In many ways, this is why we’ve created Lockstep Inbox. The only platform that connects Outlook and your accounting system, Lockstep Inbox brings all of your accounting workflows to one place, making email blunders like these, a thing of the past.
In Part III of this series, we’ll take a look at some more email blunders that can trip up experienced accounting teams. Do you have any funny or frustrating email blunders to share? Tag Lockstep on social or comment in our community.
