GDPR and salary management for bookkeepers

What is the problem with receiving personal information via e-mail – in short? 

Before 25 May 2018 when the new GDPR rules took effect, is was common practice for bookkeepers to receive information needed for bookkeeping, salary management and time registrations from their customers via e-mail. 

Unless you now encrypt your mail and make it easy to search for specific persons, this no longer works for you. 

The reason is that the information we share for salary management is personal information, and according to the GDPR rules, we all have the right for protection and deletion. 

Is your inbox still full of personal information?

Even with the best intentions, there are still a number of bookkeepers who struggle to end the mail cycle with personal information.

Often the challenge is that the customers and colleagues do not think about GDPR when they send timesheets or similar via e-mail.

If you experience that it is a challenge to make GDPR work in practice, don’t despair: By changing a few of the old routines, we guarantee that you will emerge from it maybe with an even better well-oiled machine and business as a result.

Skip e-mails and ad hoc, add systems and processes

If you think about encrypting your e-mails for starters, then hang on a minute! Maybe GDPR is a good time to do some spring cleaning and exchange your e-mail practice for a simpler and GDPR safe solution.

The challenge of e-mails for personal information management in your bookkeeping:

• Demands high administration efforts
• Carries a risk for leak of information
• If you need to delete data for a specific person, the data may be difficult to search for
• You cannot make sure that the information you need in a streamlined format or with the use of the same terminology. Again, it costs you administrative hours

So maybe GDPR is a great opportunity to move from mail to system and from ad hoc to processes? In this way, you spend less time on administration and clean ups and more time on counselling and core tasks.

From clean up and administration to focus on core bookkeeping tasks

Instead of receiving salary information via mail, then look for a GDPR safe system, where you have access to the employees’ time registrations, mileage, absence or flex, expenses and more.

And preferably one that integrates to your salary system.

When your customers use a time tracking system, you have access to the necessary information exactly when you need it. You don’t need to waste time on reminders for customers, set up different systems or keep track of Excel sheets.

And when the time registration is integrated into the salary system, you no longer have unsafe GDPR data laying around in your inbox. On the contrary, all data is secured in systems and is easy to manage.

More time for counselling and customer service

Getting out of the mail limbo alone will free up more time for your core competencies and customer counselling.

If you would like an even bigger gold star from your customers, you can also help them to select a time tracking system, if they don’t have one already. Then you can keep track of the process from time tracking to your bookkeeping together, and both you and your customers are GDPR safe.

If you have many customers using the same time tracking system, you will experience synergy effects and save even more time. The time you save on administration of personal information and different formats in your inbox, you can spend on your core tasks or find new potential customers.