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Cloud System Boosts Accounting Firm Efficiency

Charteris and Barnes, a large multi-office accounting firm, implemented a cloud-based back office system from Accfin to replace their outdated system. The implementation involved converting over 8,000 client records and training 240 staff members on the new system. Initial results showed improved efficiency, with debt collection receipts increasing 58% in the first month. The new system allowed for real-time timesheet processing and paperless tax returns. The accounting firm reported being very satisfied with the implementation process and results.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
2K views7 pages

Cloud System Boosts Accounting Firm Efficiency

Charteris and Barnes, a large multi-office accounting firm, implemented a cloud-based back office system from Accfin to replace their outdated system. The implementation involved converting over 8,000 client records and training 240 staff members on the new system. Initial results showed improved efficiency, with debt collection receipts increasing 58% in the first month. The new system allowed for real-time timesheet processing and paperless tax returns. The accounting firm reported being very satisfied with the implementation process and results.

Uploaded by

Mark Silberman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CASE STUDY: Implementation of a Cloud Based Back Office

System for A Large Multi Office Accounting Firm

“We increased debtors collection receipts in December 2016 by


58%”
“Our practice efficiency has improved substantially”
Andrew Alt - Partner

The Firm

Charteris and Barnes CC (member of A2A Kopano) is a home grown


Eastern Cape accounting firm that is almost 100 years old. The firm
originally Sampson, Ryder & Co, was formed in Queenstown in 1928. In
1990, Charteris and Barnes CC opened an office in East London – today
there are offices in Port Alfred, King Williams Town, Queenstown and East
London each manned with over 60 professional staff. Over the last fifteen
years the firm has grown into one of the leading independent firms in the
country.

Today, there are 8 partners, 240 staff and over 3000 clients which expands
to about 5000 taxpayers.

System History

Charteris and Barnes have been using Accfin Software’s Professional


Series for the last 15 years. Clearly in the beginning it was quite adequate
to cater for the firm’s needs. However as the firm grew by making various

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acquisitions in all the surrounding towns there were issues in regard to
sizing of the systems and internet connectivity. What the firm really wanted
was one global integrated system to run the whole group across all branch
offices. The firm ran Accfin’s Professional Series using a dedicated virtual
network between the offices, but as it grew soon found that the software
was not adequate for the size of the firm.

The Biggest Headache

The biggest issue was to process 240 time sheets every week. Partners
review timesheets and work in progress and invoice as much as possible at
the end of every month. The firm was making use of Accfin’s remote
timesheet system which was not a real-time system, as at the end of every
week or month the data had to be collected and processed into the main
timesheet system. By its very nature this was time-consuming and prone
to errors as one can imagine the kind of things that can go wrong with 240
people processing timesheets.

The Research Process

The firm realised that they needed to find a better way of running the
various departments in the firm, making use of one truly integrated master
client file to serve all disciplines. Time Sheet processing had to be real time
updating and available for checking by managers and partners.

In early 2016 the firm started detailed research on all the major competitor
back office products. There were essentially three contenders, Sky Software
from Accfin, Competitor 1 and Competitor 2. The research project led by
Andrew Alt the IT partner took some time as it was a complicated project
and the firm wanted to make the right decision.

One of the most significant aspects of the software had to be strong


integration with all the disciplines of time, debtors, tax and company
secretarial practice.

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Unfortunately the Competitor 2 system, driven by four different
applications with weaker data integration had to drop out early.

So the choice really became the difference between Competitor 1 and Sky.
Now the question was to look at the individual functionality of the
applications. Both systems had pretty good Time with the Sky being much
easier to use. Competitor 1 Debtors had more management features than
the Sky debtors, but when it came to tax and secretarial the Sky product
was far superior in terms of functionality.

A question which arose is which company could convert the data best
keeping the data integrity intact. Sky in fact was not an upgrade to Pro
Series but a totally new system with a totally new technology. The problem
when doing conversions is, if they are not done properly would cause huge
problems for the firm in the future. As Accfin controlled the data in both
Sky and Prof Series the conversion would be a much smoother process.

Which Company Would Respond Quicker To Queries

Support factors in making a purchase decision would be how quickly the


selected vendor was able to respond to support issues and how quickly the
company was able to change the software to cater for the volatile tax
changes in South Africa.

As the Firm had been dealing with Accfin support for many years they had
a pretty clear idea of the support capabilities of Accfin. Taking on a new
vendor would always be a risk because there was no history. The Firm had
inside information about member firms in the A2A Kopano group dealing
with other competitors which helped them in making a decision.

High Weighting for Tax

As with most accounting practices that deal with medium-size small


business, the number one issue is tax compliance. A huge weighting had to

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be given to the abilities of the vendors in regard to tax in making quick
changes. In doing his research Andrew Alt advised that that he was told by
a number of accounting firms that when it came to tax and company
secretarial work Accfin was in fact the best product. His evaluation of this
aspect proved this to be true.

Price Considerations

Price considerations also had to be taken into account and after detailed
discussions on price with Accfin consensus was reached.

A major factor was that Sky provided the Firm with an unlimited user
licence for all the applications which would have a major impact on
everyday work.

Planning the implementation

A great deal of planning went into the conversion and implementation of


the system from Professional Series to Sky. Accfin’s technical director Sini
Naransamy prepared a detailed implementation plan with all dates and
timelines being approved by Charteris Barnes.

Getting the infrastructure right

The Firm had to decide exactly what infrastructure they were going to use.
They advised Accfin that they required a cloud-based system and they
wished that Accfin would help with the management of the system.

They started with taking space at a cloud service provider which was not
adequate in terms of speed. The firm eventually settled on a dedicated
server and changed cloud service provider. They upgraded their own server
and fine-tuned it to produce the maximum speed possible. After the
implementation the firm is running with more than adequate speed,
however there may be times where there is a speed issue on heavy duty
processing but it is totally adequate for all data inputs. During this early
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stage Accfin fine-tuned the speed of the heavy duty processes. The Firm
found that the all-round benefits of running the system far exceed a few
speed issues.

The Conversion Process and Implementation

A huge amount of effort went into planning the conversion process. A trial
conversion process was undertaken well before the take-on date in order
to test that everything would come through properly and allow the integrity
of data to be tested. This process in fact alleviated many potential problems
when the conversion was run live.

It was agreed that implementation would take place after the May 2016
month end.

All the work in setting up the systems was done in the Accfin Johannesburg
office before the firm closed May 2016.

After conversion two staff members went down to Queenstown from Accfin
and proceeded with the training of the systems which took three days.

The June debtor’s statements were sent out within two weeks of the June
month end.

There were in fact some issues getting statements and reports to the firm’s
exact requirements, but Accfin was able to provide the firm with everything
they needed in a relatively short time span.

All the support issues and set up situations like statements and tax letters
were handled from the Johannesburg office electronically and the firm
actually reported that they were very happy with the implementation as it
went relatively smoothly with some minor hiccups.

The biggest challenge was the roll-out of the timesheet system to 240 staff
members. If anyone could break a system then trainee accountants could

5|Page
do it. There were some minor issues that were quickly rectified by Accfin
support personnel. At any one time there are in excess of 100 people in the
system.

Results of the Implementation to Date

Accfin went into this implementation knowing that they could add more
functionality to debtors. A bank statement implementation import facility
was added to the software resulting in no posting of receipts and the
debtor’s receipting clerk having to be allocated to perform other duties.

A management Debtors collection system was implemented with sticky


notes and an ability to allocate duties to various people in the organisation
and very strong export facilities to send reports around the office to
partners.

Andrew Alt processed the August 2016 provisional tax run on a totally
paperless basis for his clients saving a huge amount of time.

The implementation of the Sky Software system was highly successful with
virtually no downtime. The methods used were so successful that Accfin is
totally convinced that that it can upgrade any competitive system to Sky
Software using the methods implemented in converting Charteris Barnes.

Comments by the Firm

The Firm reported that the software had a major impact on the operations
of the firm. It is quite rare that the implementation of a new system in any
firm has such a major impact on the operations of the firm.

Some of the feedback that Accfin received was that the debtor’s statements
for November went out on 30 November 2016 resulting in cash receipts
improving in December by 58%.

Quotes from Andrew Alt - Partner

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“I can assure anyone looking at back office software that there is nothing
to touch Sky Software, we are so happy with the way it’s improved our
practice efficiency.”

Quote from Tracy Wormold – Practice Manager

“I just love Sky!”

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