The Receipt Bank Blog

Melanie Power is a self-professed “social media queen” and it’s easy to see why, with a long list of online tools and applications being used on a daily basis. Mel’s bookkeeping practice, Power Finance may be based in the Hunter Valley but Mel and her team service a large number of clients throughout Australia. “We are good at developing relationships quickly without having to meet our clients face to face. Social media is a personal way to connect.”

With an impressive adoption of software, including Xero’s Practice Manager, Vend and Practice Ignition, Power Finance runs entirely in the cloud. If a task can be done by software, Mel ensures it is! This process driven workflow enables Power Finance to scale and specialise in a specific vertical. Providing Xero and Receipt Bank as an ‘in the box’ solution to all of their bar and cafe clients.

“With our cloud based model - our clients are trained on what they need to do.” This training and coaching is key component in the Power Finance service. Clients even receive an easy to use scanner so they capture and digitise all of their information!

But it wasn’t always that streamlined. “We were manually scanning our clients paperwork and entering the data” Mel explains. “This was labour intensive and didn’t allow us to get the most out of our processes. We needed to implement something to reduce data entry because the small business owner doesn’t want to pay for it.”

Receipt Bank provided Mel with “a more controlled solution” and “reduced errors, because manual data entry is always going to have errors.” The effect was exactly what Mel was looking for, “we gained our own efficiencies internally and passed these efficiencies on to our client.”

Mel quickly noticed the impact Receipt Bank had for her clients. “In an average cafe where the owner pays out of their takings, they are saving 2-3 hours a week, at $77 per hour, that’s $230 a week. For a client that is a massive, massive saving. Not enough SMEs know about this tool. The cost saving is huge!”

Power Finance also felt the instant benefits. “Now we don’t receive the paper we save 3-4 hours per client! As a practice that means we can grow without hiring more people.”

“When you see the efficiencies, the money you save, it’s just a no brainer. Why wouldn’t you be using Receipt Bank?”