How Infinite Accounting Solutions Collaborate and Automate Tasks with Financial Cents to Prevent Errors
Author: Financial Cents
Stelle Anderson
Name
Infinite Accounting Solutions
Firm Name
Bookkeeping, Payroll, and Consulting Services
Services
Staff Members
7
Location
Langley
Year Founded
2008
Working Style
Hybrid
Financial Cents enables us to send each document request as a line item to get their bank statements, credit card statements, receipts, etc.
Thanks to the (passwordless) client portal, clients can see completed and outstanding document requests, and Financial Cents will auto-remind them for us.
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Stelle Anderson’s ability to seize opportunities has been crucial to the success of Infinite Accounting Solutions. She still had a full-time job when the 2008 economic downturn presented the opportunity to help trade companies keep their books to reclaim their time for the work that gave them more satisfaction.
I saw an opportunity to do bookkeeping in the 2008 economic downturn. There were a lot of trade companies and self-employed trade guys popping up who needed bookkeepers."
By 2015, Stelle had built a solid reputation for the firm and knew it was time to focus on Infinite Accounting Solutions full-time. The firm has grown steadily since then, hiring six more staff members and serving a hundred and ten (110) clients.
Stelle appreciates the power of the right technology to facilitate collaboration and productivity, but it took some unpleasant experiences to understand the limitations of using generic software.
Trello Worked Well Until They Got Too Big for It
Eager to improve team alignment, collaboration, and productivity, Stelle moved the team to Trello. Trello worked well, but it didn’t take long before it began to restrict the firm’s growth.
Before Financial Cents, we used Trello. Trello worked well until we got too big for it, and then I started hunting for accounting workflow software."
Stelle AndersonAs the team added more staff and clients, their administrative hours went through the roof. Trello didn’t have accounting-specific automation like Recurrencies, so they spent hours recreating projects from scratch each month.
Naturally, this manual work increased the chances of errors, which became a cause for concern for Stelle.
We had to create a new Trello board for the monthly project every month. It took so long to do that, and it created more room for error. We found out Trello wasn't robust enough and didn't have the automation we were looking for."
Stelle AndersonThe Popular Accounting Workflow Solutions Didn’t Fit the Bill Either
When Stelle decided to get accounting-specific workflow software, she went for the most popular options. After gathering enough information, she realized that implementing them would be too drastic a change for her team, and being her decisive self, Stelle determined to look beyond popularity.
Only then did she tap into her professional network for recommendations, which led her to Financial Cents.
Stelle said,
I looked at Karbon, Jetpack, and Canopy. I was worried there would be too much of a change for my staff. I had coffee with a fellow bookkeeper friend, and she told me, 'I use this new program called Financial Cents.' I looked it up, and the features (automation, colors, and interface) were exactly what we needed."
How Financial Cents Helps Infinite Accounting Solutions
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Information Sharing for Workflow Continuity and Firm Growth
The Infinite Accounting team values the ability to communicate openly using the Financial Cents Team Chat feature. It lets all relevant team members share all project-related comments on the project instead of holding conversations in individual inboxes.
This enables anybody who takes over the project halfway to see what has been said and know what to do next.
We enjoy the ability to share information between staff. We can talk in Financial Cents for other staff members to see. When things are stuck in an email, only the people in those emails can see it."
Stelle Anderson, Owner of Infinite Accounting Solutions“Chatting in Financial Cents gives us historical information. If someone did a project and wanted to look back at what happened, the information is stored in the project or client profile. Just having that ability to communicate more and share information has been instrumental to the growth of our company,” She added.
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Pinning Emails to Projects for Other Assigned Staff to Work Efficiently
The Infinite Accounting team assigns two staff to each project to prevent setting the firm back whenever the primary assignee is unavailable.
With the ability to pin client emails to projects in Financial Cents, two bookkeepers working on the same project can keep each other up to date.
We have two bookkeepers working on the same client, and both bookkeepers can add client emails to the project so that if one person's away, the other one can pick up. It also helps us with staffing. If any of my staff leaves, it would be easy enough to hire and train someone."
Stelle Anderson-
Template Library for Better Client Onboarding
The Financial Cents Template Library has become a treasure trove of workflow information for the Infinite Accounting Solutions team, and it’s not hard to see why.
The templates in the library were created by actual accountants who have used these steps to solve their most difficult workflow challenges.
Every once in a while, the Infinite Accounting Solutions team goes into the library to find insights that help overcome their worst workflow problems. That is how they found a more efficient way to onboard their clients.
When Financial Cents released the Templates Library, we told our team, ‘Can you see if there's something helpful?’ We found some templates that helped us to clean our onboarding workflow."
Stelle AndersonStelle’s Favorite Features in Financial Cents
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Confetti 🎉
That burst of excitement that comes with completing a project can keep you motivated to take a project to the finish line. That’s what has made the Financial Cents’ Confetti feature so valuable to Infinite Accounting Solutions.
Financial Cents rains confetti on the screen when you finish a project (or a client completes their request list).
According to Stelle, the Confetti feature gives you that “Yes, I got it done” feeling.
One of our favorite Financial Cents features is the confetti. The confetti are just fun,"
she added-
Client Reminders
Financial Cents’ email reminders have saved Stelle hours of non-billable work. The automated reminders help the team to follow up with clients for outstanding requests.
Before Financial Cents, Stelle manually requested files and information from her clients. That meant she had to chase clients to send the files or information the team needed.
All of my staff have their favorite Financial Cents feature. Mine is the client task and the ability to send recurring client reminders until they grant our request instead of us having to worry about following up with clients."
Stelle Anderson-
Tags
Stelle’s team uses the tags feature in Financial Cents to manage priorities, which helps everyone know what to focus on at any time.
We love the tags. If a team member has a tax filing due, we always mark them as a high priority for the month. That helps our bookkeepers to prioritize the tasks and paperwork that’ll help us meet the deadline."
Stelle AndersonHow Financial Cents Makes Stelle Feel
My team loves how Financial Cents is constantly adding new features to meet client needs. Many software solutions are archaic. They don't make changes. You have to create workarounds to use them. Knowing that Financial Cents is open to growing and making changes that meet our demands is amazing. That's one great reason we're staying with Financial Cents."
Stelle Anderson, Owner of Infinite Accounting SolutionsInstantly download this customer story as a PDF
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