When Digit Books were announced as WA Bookkeeping Partner of the Year at Xerocon South 2016, it was confirmation that their focus on company culture and client service had paid off. Key to that is their innovative use of cloud bookkeeping technology to save time and focus on client relationships.
Ease of use for the client was a priority from the start when offering bookkeeping services. Leah Moore, Head of Customer Experience at Digit Books describes their original process.
“We would set them up with their own designated email address [to send items to] and we would process it manually. While our clients absolutely loved it, it did take a lot of people power and a lot of time.”
“We were spending so much time doing data entry and making sure it was a good client experience that we weren’t able to focus on the reporting, advising and helping them understand their numbers.”
In those days there were about 80 bookkeeping clients, managed by a team of seven people. “I’d estimate that in those days, about 60% of the time spent on each client was just on data entry,” Leah explains.
After trying various solutions, they settled on Receipt Bank in 2015 because of the simple interface and the data visibility provided by the bookkeeping dashboard: Practice Platform.
The data extraction and automation tools allowed them to save time, while Practice Platform provided a more efficient way for the cloud bookkeeping team to manage their time.
“I loved the visibility across all of the clients. It was also a way to manage the team better, with visibility over lock dates and what was coming through. It made sure had everything we needed for compliance side of things, seeing clients were sending everything through.”
“We just threw everyone it because I was just like ‘This is brilliant!’”, says Leah. This started with the Receipt Bank training, followed by a personal session with their Account Manager on the advanced features.
“It gave everyone a really good idea of how to use it and how to make it work for them, instead of it being just another tool I asked them to use.”
Luckily, clients were already used to emailing all of their items through to the team. All the Digit Books team had to do was change the email address they were using or introduce the Receipt Bank app.
Leah says of the reception, “We were excited about it, the team was excited about it and that catches on with the clients because they know you’re going to be helping them. And for those that were more resistant to change, Leah was able to point to the benefits of the new technology. This included better reporting, more advice and increased efficiency.
“I can say comfortably that we have cut our bookkeeping time in half. And I know there is room to build even more efficiency there,” Leah reveals.
So what do they do with this extra time? “Everything that we’ve saved we put back into the client themselves, making sure they feel valued and they have the information they need.”
“It’s exciting, because we know exactly the value that we can provide and we’re able to communicate that in a way that people understand. Receipt Bank has allowed us to work out exactly what we can offer and exactly what we can do.”
The proposition definitely resonates with their marketing audience. They have now doubled their cloud bookkeeping client number with just two more team members.
The recognition from Xero cements this achievement, “We pride ourselves on the service we deliver, so it was nice have a pat on the back and be told we were on the right track,” says Leah. This goes to show what happens when you combine a commitment to client service with tools like Receipt Bank.
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