increased & profitability How Beyond Bookkeeping by adopting QuickBooks Online, Hubdoc, & cloud accounting technology Origin story

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1 How Beyond Bookkeeping increased efficiency & profitability by adopting QuickBooks Online, Hubdoc, & cloud accounting technology Company: Origin story Cindy Henderson Magner wanted to make a positive impact on her community. She attempted to build a company that would help individuals start and grow small businesses of their own. But through her research, she quickly realized that most small businesses fail because they lack the ability to control their finances or to interpret financial statements. And so her mission evolved. Cindy decided to start Beyond Bookkeeping (BBK), an accounting and bookkeeping firm that would help small businesses succeed by demystifying the complexities of their finances. Today, BBK is a virtual firm with 8 employees. It services organizations of all shapes and sizes. They are 100% in the Beyond Bookkeeping Location: San Francisco, US Founded: 2005 Founder: Cindy H. Magner Website: Services: Consulting Bookkeeping Accounts receivable Accounts payable Payroll Industry Focus: Marketing & PR Technology Legal E-commerce/Retail Cloud Accounting Tech Stack: Hubdoc Bill.com QuickBooks Online Practice Ignition

2 cloud, which has helped them scale their business and attract high value clients. But like most firms, transitioning from traditional desktop applications to the cloud wasn t easy. The old way of doing things There s a reason they say hindsight is 20/20. When you re so used to doing something every day it s hard to notice that it isn t working. From 2005 to 2015, BBK had solidified their workflow. They were using a combination of , cloud storage and a remote server to collect their clients' receipts, bills, invoices and other financial documents. Most of their clients would even give them access to their online banking for statements, check images and etransfers. Once the document collection stage of the workflow was complete, they would sort each document by type and vendor, manually enter the data into their systems, process payments, write out checks and finally, reconcile transactions using QuickBooks Desktop. Although their workflow seemed solid, it had its issues. For one, they thought clients would send paper bills and receipts digitally. But because they regularly forgot, BBK had to arrange courier pick ups. Once they added paper-based processes to the mix, their expected workflow was hardly their reality. The old workflow Intake Packets Snail Mail Cloud Server Processing Data-entry Hard-coding Approval Annotate Desk-work Expectation Reality We were spending so much time trying to collect client documents. We would ask for view-only access to bank and credit card websites, but for one reason or another some of our clients couldn't get us our own logins, so we would have to use theirs. That put us at increased liability, which I was never really comfortable with. This is really hilarious to me now, but we used to have my admin go out and do packet swaps with clients on Mondays. We would ask for bank statements, receipts, credit card statements, bills that needed to be paid, checks. We got to the point where it was no longer manageable. It s especially funny now considering Hubdoc automatically fetches all of those documents for us. Payment Print cheques Send to client Client mails paid bill back Accounting Manual reconciliation Lower morale 02

3 The new way of doing things - increased efficiency & profitability We asked Cindy what changed her mind about cloud accounting. Benefits of cloud accounting My big a-ha moment was in March I started using cloud accounting software with one of my clients, and a member of the Hubdoc team reached out and invited me to a demo. They showed me how Hubdoc automatically fetched bank statements, check images, receipts, and how it integrated with my cloud accounting software. They showed me how to attach source documents to transactions in QuickBooks Online, and it was so easy, not to mention in real time. That was my a-ha moment. That s when I realized how much time I could save by adopting the cloud. And so BBK started their journey to the cloud. They quickly experienced the benefits that came with it (see side panel). Saved time Bigger margins In this next section we ll highlight the steps BBK took to successfully transition their firm to the cloud (sprinkled in with some helpful tips). Easy access The Recipe Always up-to-date Workflow & Technology Scalable Employee-change Management Hourly to Fixed Pricing Customer On-Boarding 03

4 Workflows & technology Workflows or technology, which one comes first? According to Cindy: workflows. And we agree. By mapping out your workflow, you can pick the right technology stack to solve your problems at every stage. This will help you assess your needs, highlight inefficiencies and opportunities to reduce or eliminate paper-based processes. Once the map is complete, you can pinpoint the stages that are ready for optimization and start the vendor selection process. Put a lot of thought into your pain points. In a world full of applications, it s important to understand what truly matters. Evaluate vendors by asking yourself these questions: Does the app replace or improve an existing process? Does your accounting system endorse the app? What do existing users say about the app? Do they have an accountant partner program? Do they have excellent technical support? What data is being synced between the accounting system and the app, and is the sync bi-directional or uni-directional? How will the app scale with your business needs? Define key performance indicators that you can hold vendors accountable to, e.g. process costs, automation improvements, time savings, error rates and more. #PROTIP Vendor Selection Cloud technology provides a ton of advantages, including: time savings, reduced errors from manual processing, reduced paper, quicker approvals & processing, instant access to information and so much more. To take full advantage, it s important to pick the right vendors for your firm and clients. 04

5 Document Collection Problem BBK was spending an incredible amount of their time collecting client documents. They were managing couriers, monitoring s, cloud storage, a remote server and logging into their clients online banking accounts. Solution Hubdoc automatically fetches documents from financial institutions and major vendors. It supports , desktop and mobile uploads. With Hubdoc, BBK was able to use one platform to collect and manage financial documents, saving employees and clients a ton of time. And, because clients could enter their own banking credentials in Hubdoc, BBK didn t have to manage their logins and the associated risks. #PROTIP Workflows Map out your current workflow and break it out into stages. Each stage should represent a group of tasks BBK s Stages Example: Document Collection Document Sorting Data-Entry Document Sorting Problem BBK was collecting financial documents from multiple sources and in different formats, which meant that they needed to consolidate, sort and organize before they could process. Payment Processing Reconciliation and Reporting Solution Hubdoc automatically creates folders and sorts documents based on vendor name. It also allows you to create custom tags (e.g. categories, trips, types, etc.), which simplifies search and categorization. With Hubdoc, BBK automated their document sorting process, allowing them to focus their efforts on higher value activities. 05

6 Data-Entry Problem BBK employees were manually entering data and hard coding documents. As you can imagine, it was a tedious process, negatively affecting employee morale. Instead of spending time on high value activities, they were busy doing administrative work. Adopting New Technology: 6 Rules of Engagement for Your Practice Solution Hubdoc automatically extracts vendor name, date and total amount from uploaded and fetched financial documents. Using Hubdoc, BBK employees could focus more time on their mission, helping clients demystify the complexities of finance, rather than mundane administrative work. Read the Blog Click the link Payment Processing Problem BBK would receive bills and invoices from multiple sources and manually process payments which meant increased potential for lost documents, processing errors, longer client approval workflows and missed/late payments. Defining the workflow adoption curve Solution When you use tools like Bill.com (USA) and Plooto (CAN) alongside Hubdoc and QuickBooks Online, you can setup automated accounts payable workflows. With document auto-fetch and automated payments, BBK was able to reduce approval and payment time by almost 50%. Read the Blog Click the link 06

7 Reconciliation and Reporting Problem Although QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) powered the business for the better part of nine years, it started to become long in the tooth. Updates were infrequent and desktop-only access limited employee and client collaboration. They also found it difficult to ensure that they were working on the most recent set of books accounting for any changes that the client would make on their end which limited their ability to provide real-time financial information. Solution Cloud accounting has come a long way. It can be securely accessed from any internet connected device, enabling real-time employee/client collaboration. It s updated on a regular basis and it s built to scale. And because Hubdoc integrates with QuickBooks Online, BBK could set-up automated publishing workflows attaching source documents to transactions, which simplified reconciliation and audit proofed client books. By picking the right technology stack to automate their workflow, BBK was able to eliminate paper, reduce operational costs and spend more time providing higher value services helping them generate more revenue. Visit QuickBooks Online to learn more Official Site Click the link QuickBooks Online training resources to help you successfully make the shift to cloud accounting. Learn More Click the link 07

8 Employee-change management Defining your workflow and selecting the right vendors is crucial to a successful cloud accounting transition. That being said, it s all for naught if you can t get employee buy-in. Employees can be resistant to change not because they re difficult, but because they ve become so used to their existing workflow. To get employees bought into the idea of cloud accounting, BBK scheduled an employee summit. They decided to focus the event on their strategy (the why ) rather than their tactics (the what ). By getting to the bottom of why, employees were more open to the idea of change. We scheduled an all team summit and we put together a presentation about where we thought the industry was heading and all the benefits that cloud accounting could bring to our clients and business. We used a lot of images demonstrating why change was a good thing. A man with his head in the sand images like that. We even did a comparison of Blockbuster and Netflix. We drove home the message that the transition to the cloud was happening in our industry and that we didn t want to be left behind. Then I did a Hubdoc demo, the team saw how it automatically pulled in documents from financial institutions and vendors, and that was basically all we had to do to convince them. BBK s team now has multiple cloud accounting certifications, and they re an Intuit Firm of the Future Finalist and Hubdoc Top 50 Cloud Accountant. 08

9 Hourly to fixed pricing One of cloud accounting s biggest benefits is that it increases efficiency, which means that employees can focus their time on activities that are of higher value or take on more clients all the while working the same amount of hours. According to Cindy, BBK s transition to the cloud was the perfect opportunity to re-evaluate their pricing model. Once we converted to the cloud, it was very clear that we had to move away from hourly billing. Otherwise, we were just working ourselves out of a job. We were spending less time doing administrative work and more time providing client value which is why we decided to move towards fixed, value-based pricing. But, we didn t want to completely disrupt clients that were used to hourly billing, so we tried to keep prices relatively the same. What we did was average out their prior six month s hourly bills, and we came up with a fixed rate which included bundled services. Since the price wasn t so different from what they were used to paying, it made the whole transition easier to swallow. Clients ended up loving the new pricing model. They were getting more value, and they weren t getting a surprise bill at the end of the month for projects that weren t scoped or quoted properly. And by converting our clients to fixed rates, we could automate the payment process. We got ACH authorization and started using Practice Ignition for agreements and recurring payments. That eliminated billing, collections and any cash flow problems that we experienced in the past. On the flip side, we re also working on automating our payroll process. If the revenue is fixed, then the cost of the employee is also fixed. This fixes our margins. It makes scaling a lot easier because you always know what s coming in and going out. Today, all of BBK s clients have been converted to fixed fee pricing. To learn how to transition to fixed fee pricing download our guide How to Get Started on Your Brand New Fixed Fee Pricing Plan. 09

10 Once BBK... Customer on-boarding Defined their workflow Picked their technology stack Got their employees bought in Changed their pricing model...they needed to on-board their clients. It may seem like the last piece of the puzzle, but changing client behaviour was no small feat. The good news, however, was that cloud accounting would benefit clients as much as it would BBK. With tools like Hubdoc, clients wouldn t have to worry about hoarding financial documents. Their interactions with BBK would be about their financials, not about the location of a Comcast bill. Because BBK already had a robust client base, Cindy knew that she needed to roll-out the changes over time to not overwhelm their clients or employees. We used a three tiered system to transition our desktop clients to the cloud. We coined the groups A, B, and C. We decided to tackle each group after the previous group was onboarded successfully (learning and optimizing along the way). A B Group A represented clients that were already tech-savvy. They mainly worked on a Mac and were used to business cloud applications. For the most part, they were frustrated by our old desktop workflows because they were better suited for PCs. These were people that were waiting for a better solution, which made them easy transition targets. They quickly understood the benefits, which made them the perfect partners for the transition. They provided feedback throughout the process and helped us optimize for the next groups. Group B were similar to those in Group A, but for one reason or another the timing wasn t perfect, or they weren t as gung-ho about the change. In the end, that benefited us because we could transition clients over a period of time rather than all at once, which might have made it difficult for our employees to handle. 10

11 C Group C were the most challenging. They had the most intricate workflows and were the ones that would take the most time to set up, so we left them for last. We also had to do more work positioning the value to get them on board. But, because we learned and got better as we went, the transition wasn t as difficult as we thought it would be. How to get started on your brand new fixed-fee pricing plan The three groups didn t include all of our clients, we had to let some of them go. They wanted more of an old school solution. They were very resistant to change. It ended up being an opportunity for us to look at our client list and see who fit in our new model and who didn t. We created something that we called the BBK box (company size, industry, workflow, tech savviness). All clients had to fit in that box to be considered for the transition. A lot of the ones that didn't want to change ended up being too small to justify the investment anyways. Download Whitepaper Click the link In the beginning, like most firms, BBK took on just about any and all clients that would knock on their door, regardless of whether they were the right fit or not. Transitioning their clients to the cloud presented itself as an opportunity to re-evaluate what they wanted out of a client (BBK Box: Company size, industry, workflow, tech savviness). This allowed BBK to focus their efforts on organizations that would truly benefit from working with their team. Learn from a Pro: How to pick the right clients to grow your firm Watch the webinar Click the link 11

12 Parting words See Hubdoc in action! By transitioning to the cloud, BBK was able to: scale their firm increase efficiency and profitability and truly deliver on their mission help businesses succeed by demystifying the complexities of their finances. My advice to accountants and bookkeepers considering the move to the cloud is don't wait. If you're hesitant, start with a few clients, those that are looking for a positive change. Transition them into the cloud and test some workflows to find out which ones are right for you and your clients. I know that the move seems daunting, but if you re thoughtful about the transition plan, it can take just a few months before you and your clients are 100% in the cloud. You ll quickly find that cloud accounting will make your life, and the lives of your clients easier. And, not to be harsh, but the industry is changing if you don t do it, you risk getting left behind. Schedule a Demo When you book a demo, one of our staff members will guide you through all the inner workings of Hubdoc and how to leverage the power of total accounting automation 12