How L&L Bookkeeping Uses Financial Cents to Manage More Clients and Deliver Services That Drive Referrals
What began with helping her entrepreneur husband get cleaner books and clearer insights for smarter business decisions grew into L&L Bookkeeping, LLC in 2018.
Today, the L&L Bookkeeping team assists clients both inside and outside the U.S. with all accounting services except tax returns.
As an outsourced accounting department, they work within their clients’ teams to monitor finances and ensure compliant financial records and quality financial advice.
Managed in an all-in-one practice management tool, the firm has optimized its workflows to meet client deliverables and manage client relationships effectively. This has earned them enough referrals to keep a running list of businesses waiting to use their services.
TL;DR
L&L Bookkeeping is a 5 person hybrid firm in Michigan founded in 2018 by president Lori Hawkins. She moved from a previous tool that lacked the features to grow, where the team tracked client emails in a special Outlook folder, to Financial Cents so the firm could scale sustainably. It now runs a steady waiting list of referral clients.
- Centralized work and client info in one hub. Tasks, due dates, team chat, client chat, documents, and client emails now live inside each project, so the team stopped logging into Outlook several times a day just to track outstanding questions.
- Automated client data collection. Staff send requests through Financial Cents and get portal notifications the moment a client answers a question or uploads a file, so nobody has to babysit the portal.
- Consistent service through easy handoffs. Because every project holds detailed instructions, any bookkeeper can cover for a teammate on vacation or out sick without a drop in quality, backed by an intuitive interface (rated 4.9/5 for ease of use) and responsive support.
With such strategic clarity, Lori sought an accounting practice management solution that would facilitate growth without sacrificing work quality, client satisfaction, and team morale.
The L&L Bookkeeping Team Needed a Project and Client Management Tool
The L&L team needed the ability to track client communication from their project management tool without switching apps. They wanted a system that centralized everything they needed to complete tasks and collaborate with clients in one place.
For example, going between the workflow tool and Outlook, where they stored client emails, increased their non-billable work, the risk of losing critical client information, and the chances of forgetting where client communication stood.
“We used a lot of emails and pulled client emails into a special folder in our Outlook system. That was difficult because just keeping track of what questions and answers were outstanding was an issue,” Lori added.
How Financial Cents Helps L&L Bookkeeping to Grow Their Operation
While Lori can’t wait to implement the Financial Cents’ email feature, the following Financial Cents features have given L&L Bookkeeping the control it needs to grow sustainably:
Centralized Work and Client Information
Projects in Financial Cents do not just have tasks, due dates, and assignees. Every project contains all the information assignees need to complete their tasks. This includes team chat, client chat, documents, client emails, and linkable resources.
For Lori’s team, this means the ability to centralize project-related information inside each client’s work, eliminating the need to log into Outlook several times a day.
Automated Client Data Collection
Financial Cents’ client task feature has simplified client collaboration for the L&L Bookeeping team.
Apart from the ability to request client files and information (with the client task feature), they can easily go into the client portal to track what they need to send or receive from each client, eliminating uncertainty in client data collection.
Moreover, the client portal notification saves them the stress and distraction of surveilling the client portal to see when a client grants them the file or information they requested.
Reassigning Client Work Without a Drop in Work Quality
Financial Cents helps L&L Bookkeeping to provide consistent client service by ensuring workflow continuity.
Whenever an employee serving a client is unavailable for any reason, the new assignee finds the information needed to serve the client in the client project and profile in Financial Cents. This keeps the work quality standard, no matter who in the team is drafted to serve the client.
This also helps the team fulfill its promise of being available to clients even when the employee assigned to them is unavailable. Availability, in this case, might not be what you think. Remember that the firm uses an outsourced accounting model?
That means they assign team members to clients. If that team member is unavailable, the client can feel neglected. With Financial Cents, Lori assigns another bookkeeper to that client, knowing full well that the client will receive the same level of quality work.
Ease of Use and Employee Onboarding
Rated 4.9/5 in ease of use on software review platforms, Financial Cents’ clean, friendly, and intuitive interface makes it easy for the L&L Bookkeeping team to teach new hires how to navigate the product.
While Lori’s words are kind, they are not surprising. Financials Cents’ CEO and CTO have approached every new feature and functionality carefully. Their intentionality in building the product to meet the unique needs of accounting professionals has made listening and engaging with users a critical part of their day-to-day tasks.
Responsive Customer Support Team
Lori is no stranger to time-wasting customer support calls. She has found the Financial Cents customer support team really accessible. As great as that is, it took Lori a while to adjust to her new and pleasant reality.
On one such occasion, Lori mentioned a challenge she was having during the monthly roundtable, where firm owners discuss their workflows and practice management strategies to help everyone grow. The speed with which the Financial Cents CEO, Shahram Zarshenas, implemented her feedback left Lori amazed.
