How Ritter’s Accounting & Tax Services Keep Work From Falling Through the Cracks with Financial Cents
Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
Tax & Bookkeeping
2 staff members
Founded in 2016
Customer Since 2020
Syracuse, New York
Hybrid Working Style
TL;DR
- Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services, a 2-person hybrid firm in Syracuse, New York founded by Kim Ritter in 2016, moved off notebooks and Google Sheets to Financial Cents in 2020 after losing track of notes and completed work.
- Nothing falls behind: putting work into Financial Cents as a project with a due date surfaces information that would otherwise get buried in an email.
- Automated client follow-ups: client tasks send recurring reminders until clients submit required tax documents, saving hundreds of hours of manual chasing.
- Consistency and accountability: checklist templates and client notes keep work standardized and information accessible, so nothing gets skipped or lost, even during hectic tax season.
From To-Do Lists and Google Sheets to Financial Cents
Embracing digital technology
Kim started her tax firm as a side business in 1996 but didn’t get serious with it until 2016 when she invited her friend, Barbra to join her. Since then, they’ve gone on to build a small team with 1000 clients.
They started out by tracking work with notebooks and to-do lists then advanced to something more fancy – Google sheets. They could both access files and were gradually going digital. What could possibly go wrong?
We noticed that we were taking notes but deleting them. We also weren’t able to see what we’ve done throughout the project. So we realized we needed something more to keep track of all the tax returns we were doing, and the notes we were taking on them. And Google Sheets just wasn’t doing it for us. That’s when we went looking for a program and finally found Financial Cents.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
How Financial Cents Helps Kim Prevent Things from Falling Through the Cracks:
- A more organized firm: Tax-focused firms have first-hand experience with being so busy that work falls behind and critical details get forgotten. With Financial Cents, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services is able to keep tabs on work, easily access client information, and track due dates without skipping a beat.
Financial Cents has definitely kept us more organized. It keeps projects from falling by the wayside. Sometimes we get so busy that we forget things. For example, important information may be buried in an email but if we put it as a project with the due date in Financial Cents, it’ll bring it right back up.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
- Hundreds of hours saved through automated client follow up requests: Like all tax firms, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services require tax letters and documents from clients to process tax returns. But like many tax firms can relate with, clients aren’t the best at sending required documents in due time. Some firms try to manage this delay by slamming clients with huge fines for delayed submission, others just continue to struggle and work overtime especially during tax seasons.
For Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services, they overcome this major problem by automating client requests with Financial Cents.
Financial Cents’ client tasks allows us to be proactive and follow up with clients to send required documentation. These automated emails prevent us from forgetting about it. And we don’t have to worry about the client forgetting about it too. Automated emails continue to go out to them (at the frequency we set) until they send in the required information.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
- Staying consistent and building a high-quality work culture across the firm: When there’s no collaborative work management software or standard operating procedures in place, work is done with little or no accountability and zero desire to meet a set standard. For Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services, staying consistent and accountable is a big deal and Financial Cents helps them to do that.
Financial Cents keeps us on track. For example, when completing work, we might be tempted to say ‘Oh, they (a client) didn’t fill out an intake form. Let’s just skip it. But now that it’s a project within Financial Cents, we’re more likely to get every step of the work done accurately just to stay consistent and keep a high work quality standard. And that keeps us accountable and disciplined.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
Financial Cents Work Management Software has 40+ workflow checklist templates to help firms get work done faster and more accurately. These checklists contain steps or tasks that must be completed before a project can be closed.
Having to check off tasks before we can close a project forces us to be more disciplined and leave an accurate status of projects. Also, since Financial Cents helps us to work more collaboratively, when we’re in the middle of tax season and we see tasks checked off, we’re confident that those steps have been completed because that’s the standard across the firm. And we quickly move on to the next step or another client work.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
- Keeping track of client updates and notes: Kim felt a huge burden lift off her shoulders after she started using Financial Cents to track important client notes and updates. A sharp contrast to when she did all that with sheets, vanilla folders, and sticky notes. Deciphering handwritings, losing notes, mixing things up, and digging through files are some of the problems she dealt with but no longer has any business with. Thanks to Financial Cents’ client notes.
Keeping track of client updates just became easier because we put new updates in the client’s notes. And then whether you’re in the office or not, you can access it faster. You don’t have to dig through files. That would be a big one.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
- Team communication and collaboration: As a hybrid firm, using Financial Cents has helped move Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services team collaboration and communication up a notch. On days when one of the team members is working from home, the person working from the office doesn’t have to run helter skelter to get information or track important project updates.
Financial Cents does help with communication in terms of presence. We have our admin write the date that a tax return was mailed. And if she’s not here, we can easily look it up and we don’t have to worry about it.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
How Financial Cents Makes Kim Feel
I feel like I’m more in control of what’s going on. Tax season can get hectic and you feel like you don’t know what’s going on. And the fact that I can go and check on a project and see that we spoke to this person and check the notes and know where the project stands. I definitely feel like I’m in better control.”
Kim Ritter, Owner, Ritter’s Tax & Accounting Services
