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Calmwaters Cloud Accounting
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Bookkeeping and Consulting
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Founded in 2011
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2 staff members
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Ontario, Canada
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Fully Remote Working Style

TL;DR

  • Calmwaters Cloud Accounting, a 2-person fully remote bookkeeping and consulting firm in Ontario founded by Kellie Parks (CPB) in 2011, switched to Financial Cents after her old workflow tool had no client portal, recurring projects, or task assignment features.
  • Everything in one place: project details, client info, and communication all live inside the project and client profile, just one click apart.
  • Client notes and a secure vault: client notes keep the whole team current on a client, while the client vault securely stores passwords and login details for third-party apps.
  • Automation on her own schedule: custom recurrences let her kick off month-end close on the first Monday of the month instead of a fixed calendar date.

When Kellie Parks CPB, a relentless organizer, started Calmwaters Cloud Accounting, she wanted all work-related resources (information and client communication) neatly arranged.

She knew that would be difficult without cloud technology, so she was on the hunt for a reliable solution early enough.

I am a relentless organizer and I believe cloud financial technology is key to organization.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

This desire to leverage technology has enabled her to build a lifestyle firm and career that she loves. It has freed her up to participate in activities that matter to her outside of her bookkeeping business, like:

  • Speaking at accounting conferences.
  • Partnering with leading productivity apps (Financial Cents, 17hats, Ignition, PandaDoc, Etc.).
  • Raising two Australian Shepherds (dogs).
  • Snow and water skiing.

However, Kellie’s journey to successful cloud accounting was not without initial struggles.

Working with Messy Workflows and Disjointed Storage Systems

Kellie started out by tracking work wherever they came from. If they were one-off projects or ad-hoc email requests, she would leave them there to go and get it done. She would move the completed work to the client’s folder in Gmail afterward (to keep a record of it). The process wasn’t as smooth as it sounds.

I simply left emails in my inbox if they were one-off to-dos, and the task would be done and dusted in a sitting, but the process was messy.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

Struggling to Assign Tasks, Recur Projects, and Engage Clients without Client Portal

As essential as workflow tools are, choosing one that suits your firm is more important. Else, you will buy software solutions that lack the features you need.

Kellie’s first workflow tool didn’t have a client portal, recurring projects, and task assignment features.

I was using a workflow management tool that, while it had great automation and I could template my workflows, was awkward to recur workflows. There was no client task list, communication method, or client portal. It wasn’t great for assigning work, and I planned to hire a team member.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

With so many limitations, Kellie searched for a tool to manage projects and client relationships from one place. The search led her to Financial Cents.

I didn’t want to be bouncing around in a bunch of different apps to find things to get work done. And I wanted that solution to be simple and intuitive to implement and use. I wanted my clients and team to feel comfortable using it. Financial Cents hit all the marks on all that”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

How Financial Cents Helps Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

Kellie treasures efficiency and consistency of work quality (in terms of project delivery and client communication). Financial Cents helps her achieve this by bringing project information, communication, and resources together in one place.

Financial Cents has enabled us to consolidate our work, client tasks, and communications. We have everything in a single space, which is fabulous for visibility and accountability.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

Here’s how Financial Cents consolidates Calmwaters’ work resources:

1. Work and Client Information Are Stored in the Projects and Client Profiles

Kellie stores every project information she needs for a project inside the project. Clicking into a project in Financial Cents shows her team all the information (due date, tasks, client emails, files, etc.) needed to complete the project.

The client profile also contains all information about the client. Both features are one click apart from each other. Kellie doesn’t need to leave Financial Cents or click multiple tabs to find project or client information.

We can keep so many details within Financial Cents. They’re in easy-to-action spaces. They can be within the client or in the project. We can even keep more granular resources in the description area of the subtasks.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

2. All Client Notes in One Location

The Calmwaters team uses Financial Cents’ client notes to stay on top of everything going on with a client. This feature allows them to make notes on a client’s profile for everyone to have up-to-date information about a client and their projects.

I love the client notes feature. We have one client with over three dozen notes. They are consolidated in Financial Cents. We can download those notes in a single click.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

Want to see how it works for your firm?

The demo is free, and there’s no pressure to sign up.

3. Sensitive Data Are Stored in the Client Vault

The CalmWaters team stores sensitive client information (like usernames and passwords) in Financial Cents’ secure client vault. The vault has a handful of security features. One of them is data encryption, which renders client information inaccessible to unauthorized persons.

This also allows Kellie’s team to access third-party apps without leaving Financial Cents.

We store some client login information in Financial Cents’ client vault. It is nice to click the link to open the client’s application when working on the client’s project in Financial Cents.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

Kellie’s Favorite Features in Financial Cents

There are so many Financial Cents features that I love. It is almost impossible to choose.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

1. Custom Recurrences: the recurring projects feature enables accounting teams to create copies of repetitive projects for future dates. Custom recurrences allow them to automate repetitive projects according to a schedule that is unique to them. For example, with this feature, accounting teams can get Financial Cents to automatically create projects for the last Tuesday or Wednesday of the month.

I love the ability to start a month-end close on the first Monday of the month. I don’t want to start them on the first day of the month because it could be a Saturday or Sunday. It enables me to set boundaries around when we work.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

2. Global Search: this feature enables firms to search for information in their firm by entering a keyword in the workflow dashboard.

The Global Search feature in Financial Cents enables me to search for anything with just a few keywords.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

3. Emails Triggered by Task Completion: this feature enables you to trigger the sending of emails to a client when their task is marked complete.

At the end of the month, when we have completed data validation and reporting, an email is automatically sent out.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

How Kellie Feels About Financial Cents

Financial Cents gives me all those little quality-of-life things in a few clicks! For example, we store and share two-factor authentication backup codes in Financial Cents rather than pinging each other for the text code.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting

Words of Advice to Accounting and Bookkeeping Firms Owners

Financial Cents create insane effectiveness, efficiency, and consistency in work, communications, and collaboration. Its intuitive interface and automation features improve efficiency.”
Kellie Parks, CPB, Owner, Calmwaters Cloud Accounting