I help accountants and auditors turn insights into impact by improving their business writing.
The episode title is TL;DR and I talk about ways that internal auditors can improve their communication in terms of writing and presenting. It was a fun 25-minute conversation with host Jon Taber and includes lots of tips that can be implemented immediately. Listen to the episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Let’s replace PDFs with documents that are readable on mobile devices.
“Does he really think big emotions come from big words?” That was Ernest Hemingway about William Faulkner. As an accountant, what do you think you get from using big words? Client satisfaction? Trust? Big fees? What you don’t get is thanks from your readers. They don’t want to mine your cleverness to get your meaning. Do your readers a favour and write for them instead of yourself. And you’ll find they will see you as a professional accountant, but not a show-off.
Yesterday the company that supplies our energy sent me an email to tell me the amount of my monthly direct debit will change. Both the old and the new monthly amounts are shown to the penny. This suggests a level of accuracy in their estimation models than is justified by the fact that my wife and I are almost £1,000 in credit with the company. Their estimate would be just as bad if it were rounded to the nearest pound, or even £10.
Want your documents to look more professional? Here’s a simple way to make your documents look more professional in under 5 minutes. The secret lies in making the body text look great because, let’s face it, there’s more of that than there is headings or tables. First, choose a good font (if you are allowed). I know some corporations insist on a standard font, and it’s likely to be a boring one like Arial or Times New Roman.
PowerPoint allows speakers to pretend that they are giving a real talk, and audiences to pretend that they are listening. (Edward Tufte, 2006) Ouch! I am not against PowerPoint or any of the other slide applications. My view is that the slides should be made after the thinking has been done. I suspect many people start with the slides and all that choosing of themes and rearranging bullet points is actually a substitute for thinking.
“If you can’t explain something to a first-year student, then you haven’t really understood.” This goes for accountants and auditors as much as it does for physics teachers. If you’re speaking to folks who aren’t accountants, keep it simple. With non-financial managers, there’s no hiding behind terms. You need to speak in plain, everyday words. Here are three tips to keep things clear: Assume your reader is new to the topic.
I like writing as a verb. I like to write: to think and express my thoughts as words on a page or screen. But I also like writing as a noun. I always have. I like the writing you find in museums, whether it is a handwritten journal, a typewritten letter or a carved inscription on stone. This love is why I have a weakness for buying pens and notebooks, and why I have two (really, two!
Save the stories for books and movies. At work, your reader just wants to know how the story ends. Writing a chronological narrative puts conclusions and recommendations at the end. Busy people will do one of two things They won’t get to the end (especially if your story is boring) and will never see your conclusions. 𝗢𝗥 They will skip directly to the end (missing out your story to get to the bit they are interested in) Here are two better ways to structure a document.
Tables in reports are helpful for presenting information but you need to help your reader to see your message. Formatting your table can help but too much formatting works against you. All you’re doing is adding clutter. In particular, don’t use “zebra striping” (where alternative rows are shaded one darker, one lighter). You may think it makes your tables more organised as well as pretty, but it doesn’t actually help the reader focus on what’s important.