For business services firm Forvis Mazars, LLP, implementing a standardized process for engagement letters or contracts is crucial for reducing accounts receivable days outstanding. Clear, well-defined terms set expectations up front, streamlining billing and payment processes. Training the workforce on this process ensures consistency, accuracy, and efficiency, minimizing delays and disputes.
In fiscal year 2024, the FORVIS Approach to Client Engagement Acceptance, Continuance, Independence and Contracting (i.e., Contract Workflow or CWF) modules trained more than 3,500 team members, or approximately 58 percent of the legacy FORVIS workforce, as this training took place before the Mazars USA acquisition.
Program Details
Contract Workflow Training is a comprehensive program designed to ensure firm-wide understanding of and compliance with acceptance, continuance, independence, and contracting processes. It includes detailed firm policies, how-to resources for documentation tools, and instructions for delivering approved contracts. The training integrates business metrics, best practices, and firm standards.
Developed with the Learning Design Lab, the program uses diverse delivery methods to accommodate all learners, including live virtual sessions, office group viewings, self-study modules, and a resource hub. To create efficiency in content creation, the Learning Design Lab used innovative techniques such as voice cloning to generate the audio for the self-study module to match the voice of the presenter of the live Webinars, giving the self-study credibility by using a voice familiar to the audience. Voice cloning allowed the Learning Design Lab to create the self-study module in advance of the live sessions and ensure a timely rollout of the self-study to those who were unable to attend the live session, while saving the subject matter experts valuable time in recording content.
Post-launch, a ticketing system and office hours were established for support and feedback, leading to content adjustments as needed. Each office has a CWF champion to address local needs, and routine compliance checks ensure adherence to policies.
Contract Workflow has had a dedicated section in the company’s weekly firmwide e-mail communications since the training and process around CWF was released. This is an important area of focus as the process is new to client-facing professionals at the firm. In addition, the CWF team is frequently featured as part of Forvis Mazars’ Firmwide Training Day series, which occurs monthly.
Since the creation of the Contract Workflow process and initial training, the CWF team has continued to roll out major enhancements in the areas of reporting, project management, and data analysis for client engagement executives, including a PowerBI dashboard. With each iteration or enhancement of the overall process, additional training and reinforcement of the original modules is communicated to all Forvis Mazars employees through weekly firmwide e-mails.
Results
As a result of the new Contract Workflow process and training, one area of improved behaviors has been around documentation consistency. Team members have verbally expressed how this process has made it easier to locate contracts more efficiently because client engagement leaders are consistently following the guidelines established in training for where documentation should be retained and stored for each client engagement. In addition, the CWF team does routine compliance checks ensuring all legal requirements are consistently met for their selected sample; they have reported a decrease in the number of findings over time.
As a result of this training and standardized process, the firm was able to reduce the average number of accounts receivable days outstanding by one day, which has resulted in a positive impact on cash flow and contributed to firm-wide FY’24 growth of 9.3 percent.
