Carter Lance

Owner

Strategic Tax Planning PLLC

Firm Name

Bookkeeping, Tax Planning, and Fractional CFO Services

Services

4

Staff Members

2018

Year founded

Arkansas

Location

Virtual

Working Style

Strategic Tax Planning PLLC was still a side business when Carter Lance began searching for practice management software.

He learned a lesson many accounting firm owners discover too late: Technical accounting skills alone won’t lead to success if your workflow systems are manual and disconnected.

Even before I went full-time, I was looking for a practice management solution. "

Carter Lance, Owner, Strategic Tax Planning PLLC

Carter was determined to help businesses create financial plans that met regulatory standards and enabled confident decisions through bookkeeping, tax planning, and fractional CFO services.

However, his search for a suitable workflow software led to an unpleasant realization: most tools were strong in some areas of accounting practice management but lacked in others.

He wanted a tool that checked enough boxes and solved enough problems to warrant his financial commitment.

 

I tried other practice management platforms. None of them was complete enough to solve our problems, so I stopped looking. I didn't feel like there was something that would check enough boxes to be worth paying for."

Carter Lance, Owner, Strategic Tax Planning PLLC

This decision to discontinue the search and continue with manual workflow systems opened the door to some of the worst challenges an accounting firm can face:

1. Asking, Begging, and Pleading to Get Information from Clients

Like every firm that doesn’t have practice management software, the Strategic Tax Planning team members had to email clients to request the necessary information.

They used Excel Spreadsheets to track which clients had responded and which hadn’t.

Since there was no way to automate follow-up, they also drafted fresh emails to follow up with clients, which drained their productive energy and slowed down their workflows.

Client data collection was a very manual process that involved a lot of spreadsheets and email back and forth, especially during tax season. We would send an email to clients and use an Excel sheet to track all the requests.
There was no way to automate the follow-up, so if we don’t hear from them in a week, two weeks, etc., we’d send an email to follow up again. We had to ask, beg, and plead with them to provide the information."

2. Manual Work Prevented Them from Taking on More Clients

Even though they had given up on finding the right accounting practice management solution, the challenges they faced forced them to search again.

Carter knew that they should be serving more clients and generating more revenue, but with everyone struggling to complete their tasks due to administrative work, he couldn’t see how that would be achieved.

The inability to find a suitable tool forced us to feel like we were at capacity, but that was because of the manual process, the client follow-up, and all those things that bogged us down in our existing client engagements. It didn't feel like we could take on much more. So, when we found Financial Cents, it just alleviated a lot of those things."

How Financial Cents Helps the Strategic Tax Planning Team to Reclaim Their Time

1. Automated Data Collection and Follow-Up that Reduces Client Chase

The Financial Cents Client Task feature enhances their data collection workflows by enabling them to clarify their requests.

It allows accounting firms to create a checklist of the files, information, and actions they need their clients to take, making it easier for clients to understand what is expected of them and perform it without losing time.

The best part of this feature is the automated reminder that frequently notifies the clients to grant their requests.

Team members no longer have to worry about the clarity of their requests or leave their current tasks to follow up on outstanding requests.

The ability to use client tasks that not only notify clients about your requests, but also follow up with them. We know that once we send a request and set the reminders, Financial Cents will work for us to keep reminding clients until they send the information. Once we hit 'send,' we've done our part. Financial Cents notifies that it's been completed. That has improved how quickly clients send us information."

Carter Lance, Owner, Strategic Tax Planning PLLC

  • Centralized Client Collaboration that Increases Response Rate

The Financial Cents client task feature doesn’t stop at informing clients about the files and information Carter’s team needs. It also directs them to the Financial Cents client portal, where they can upload files, answer enquiries, and sign documents securely.

Since clients do not have to dig through emails or log into multiple apps to track conversations, they are more responsive and collaborative.

This improvement in response rate has helped the Strategic Tax Planning team to complete projects faster than usual.

Not only are they getting reminders, but it's a more streamlined process for the clients. They know where to go to upload information. When they are done, the information is ready for us to work on. That has saved us a lot of time and stress, and enabled us to get tax returns done earlier in tax season."

3. Effective Task Assignment that Improves Consistency

Financial Cents practice management software has also empowered the firm to delegate tasks more effectively. Using the Workflow Templates feature, the team has been able to define the tasks needed to complete each accounting process, which is the first step to effective delegation.

The ability to create custom templates for the different types of work that we do is not only helping us to define our process, but it also helps us to delegate tasks to other employees."

This has also helped the team to provide more context, how-to guides, and other resources that help team members deliver client projects to the firm’s standard.

Financial Cents’ Template Resources feature enables us to insert little training videos on certain steps. This ensures that when we assign work to someone, they have a full picture of all the steps and all the tasks."

Carter Lance, Owner, Strategic Tax Planning PLLC

“If they don’t know how to do something, they know there’s a resource (process document or Loom video) right within the project that walks them through what they’re doing. This increases consistency in our work quality regardless of the team member doing the work,” added Carter.

4. Employee Onboarding that Enhances Productivity

The ability to delegate tasks has also helped the Strategic Tax Planning team to onboard and get value from new team members more quickly.

Financial Cents enables Carter to tailor the workflow templates to reflect each client’s unique financial situation, eliminating second-guessing and empowering team members to complete tasks efficiently.

The workflow templates resources make employee onboarding easier, knowing that their approach to work is going to be consistent as long as they follow that specific client's template.
We often customize each client’s templates according to their unique financial situations. Following the template that has been created for that client or the recurrence of the work makes it easier to hand off tasks to new team members. We know that they're doing it the way we expect as long as they follow the process."

How Financial Cents Helps Accounting Firm Owners (According to Carter Lance)

After about one year of using Financial Cents, Carter believes that its greatest benefit is the ability for firm owners to free up their time and mental energy by automating routine, administrative tasks.

Financial Cents provides visibility into the status of projects and client communication and eliminates the manual tasks that they're currently doing to free them up to run their firm, so that they can focus on serving their clients at a higher level."

How Financial Cents Makes Carter Feel

I tried many practice management software solutions, but Financial Cents was the most complete. It checked all the boxes, and they're always improving and adding new features. I’m excited to see where Financial Cents goes. "

Carter Lance, Owner, Strategic Tax Planning PLLC
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