You have multiple accounting deadlines looming. How do you prioritize and manage them?

Assess the situation The first step is to assess the situation and get a clear picture of what you need to do, by when, and for whom. Make a list of all your accounting deadlines, along with the scope, complexity, and importance of each task. You can use a spreadsheet, a calendar, or a project management tool to organize your information. Then, review your list and identify any conflicts, dependencies, or risks that might affect your ability to complete your tasks. For example, do you need to wait for someone else's input, approval, or feedback? Do you have enough resources, time, or budget? Do you foresee any potential issues or challenges?

You should assess the importance and risk of each deadline, the time it will consume, the expected outcome from delivering it, your available time, develop a matrix and start working with the highest ranked deadline

In prioritizing and managing multiple accounting deadlines, assess deadlines based on urgency, regulatory requirements, and potential impact on financial reporting. Utilize task management tools like Trello or Asana to organize and prioritize tasks. Allocate dedicated time blocks for each deadline, delegate tasks where possible, and maintain clear communication with stakeholders to ensure alignment and timely completion.

Assessing the situation is crucial in nearly every aspect of professional and personal life. It truly helps us to Informed Decision. Assessing the situation allows individuals to gather relevant information, analyze it, and make informed decisions. Whether it's in a business setting, interpersonal relationships, or personal endeavors, understanding the context and circumstances is essential for making the right choices.

Firstly, clarify the deadline's scope and assess the flexibility of this deadline? Next, break it down. Divide the project into smaller, achievable tasks with their own mini-deadlines. Prioritize ruthlessly the tasks after understanding the significance and sequence, taking into consideration that some tasks could be done simultaneously, and others should be done in sequence.

- Accounting is implementation of mandatory corporate policies and procedures approved by the Board of Directors. In prioritizing the accounting work, the topmost should be adherence of the governance surrounding the task which is nonnegotiable for a professional accountant. In prioritizing, use communication as well to request for any additional time to complete the task and once new timeline is agreed it must not be compromised.

With any task there is going to be down time (waiting for something). Have something else to work on in those times of wait. Every project goes through the Deming wheel. Plan - Establish the policy and define the procedure. Do - Educate those who need to be involved, receive their feedback and make adjustments to policy and procedure. Train the people needing to implement and adhere to the procedure. Acquire the resources to execute the procedure. Have them do the work against the procedure. Check - Establish metrics about the work. Gather the data. Analyze the data. Act - Make adjustments and corrections for escapes, hold the gains, plan your future improvements, and recognize the people. Lay out the Gantt chart on these steps.

It's not just your time. It's also the time of your team and other resources. Pace yourself and your team. Remember to take breaks. Ask for help. Have a daily stand up with the team to identify progress and potential support by the team (also ideas when stuck).

List down all tasks that need to be completed, splitting them between internal and external. Assign priority list according to significance,discuss with all stakeholders involved.Develop an action plan for the items and set priority after discussing with all stakeholders.

Keep a tracker of projects and accomplishments. Use the metrics to reflect during the year and at the end of the year. I use this to prepare Timely Awards for team members and to have periodic team celebrations with them and my boss.

Review and learn, after the deadlines have passed, conduct a review to assess what went well and what could be improved. Use this feedback to refine your approach for future deadline

Eisenhower Matrix can be very useful tool to effectively bifurcate urgently neet-to-do tasks. Categorise tasks as urgent & important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, or neither urgent nor important. We must focus on urgent & important quadrant first.

To manage multiple accounting deadlines, prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance. Create a schedule, break down tasks into smaller steps, and allocate specific time slots. Consider seeking assistance if needed and communicate with stakeholders about realistic timelines. Regularly reassess priorities to ensure timely completion.