{"id":12320,"date":"2025-01-09T06:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T11:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=12320"},"modified":"2025-01-09T06:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T11:36:54","slug":"case-study-flow-works-bookkeeping-and-consulting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/case-study-flow-works-bookkeeping-and-consulting\/","title":{"rendered":"Case study: Flow Works Bookkeeping and Consulting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAccountants<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCase study: Flow Works Bookkeeping and Consulting\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"yassir-malik-profile-picture\"\t\t\t\tYassir Malik<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sara Gibb is a bookkeeper based on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has seen her business, Flow Works Bookkeeping and Consulting, grow from a one-woman show to a thriving small firm, with 40 clients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she recently won a Sage Circle of Excellence Award for Best Bookkeeping Partner of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara was initially employed as a bookkeeper for 2 construction companies on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But circumstances changed and she ended up setting up her own business\u2014with those construction companies among her first clients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara works predominantly with cloud applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sage Accounting is her preferred accounting ledger solution and she is also a big fan of AutoEntry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Discover AutoEntry<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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AutoEntry helps small business owners and accountants reduce manual data entry, giving them more time to focus on what matters.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn more about AutoEntry<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The problem with paper<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This will sound familiar: data entry was taking too long and lost or damaged documents needed to be re-issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also logistical issues relating to storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to losing receipts and mislaying paperwork, Sara says that the construction industry\u2014who make up several of her clients\u2014can be especially challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their work involves frequent travelling from site to site, endless purchases of items big and small (from huge lumber orders to last-minute hardware purchases), and numerous people making purchases and sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Sara puts it: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose guys lose everything!\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many of us, Sara also works a lot from home and wanted to decrease the volume of paperwork (such as boxes of receipts) dropped to her house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says that keeping physical paperwork under control is \u201ceven more important now that my office is in my home. I don\u2019t want their stuff here! Because once they give it to you, they never want it back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many successful business people, Sara also faced scaling challenges: meeting clients face to face can take anything from 5 minutes to almost an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AutoEntry helped address all of these issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting started with automation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of our customers start out with AutoEntry by uploading their own personal documents and letting automation take over some of their data entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara took a different approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outset, she decided to use the tech with one of her own clients first (with their permission, of course) as a test case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gave her a very realistic feel for how the software works in real terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you have worked through their books,\u201d she says, \u201ctake some time to look at what went well and what could have been done better. Then roll this out to your other clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara\u2019s implementation of AutoEntry into her practice is very evident when she tells us that 95% of her clients that are in the cloud use AutoEntry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, for new clients, she insists that they incorporate the software. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the number 1 app that I use,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s part of my onboarding process now. My older clients who are not on the cloud…fine. But any new clients coming on this year, it\u2019s been mandatory to use AutoEntry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting clients on board <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sara has had to onboard clients that might not be so comfortable with technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She shares a very simple take on using AutoEntry with these clients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI use the reasoning if you can take a selfie and post it on Facebook, then you can use AutoEntry. It\u2019s probably one of the most empowering updates to accounting software in the last decade or so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AutoEntry effect <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AutoEntry has helped Sara in several ways, namely: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Less time spent on manual data entry <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • More accurate tracking of clients\u2019 paperwork, especially receipts <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A more efficient business with less time spent on meetings <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • More flexible work <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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    Discover AutoEntry<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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    AutoEntry helps small business owners and accountants reduce manual data entry, giving them more time to focus on what matters.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn more about AutoEntry<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    AutoEntry and efficiency<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Sara loves chatting with her clients, but now that she has 40 of them, it became increasingly untenable to hold a meeting with them every time they gave her paperwork: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cAs much as I like to see my clients, it\u2019s a huge time sucker too. They drop in the receipts and we shoot the breeze for half an hour and I can\u2019t bill for that! My 8-hour working days are now more focussed. At the end of the day I know I worked for 8 hours. Maybe that wouldn\u2019t be the case if I was chatting with clients.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s the logistics of transport and travel too: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOne of my clients who came on was adamant about not using AutoEntry. And finally covid hit and I said \u2018I\u2019m not driving 45 minutes during a pandemic. You have to do it. Sit at your kitchen table and do one month.\u2019 He was in shock at the ease of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Flexible work, changing times <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI\u2019m picky these days about who I choose as a client,\u201d says Sara. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling to be in that position, to not be desperate about who comes my way. If a client is too old school I don\u2019t have to take that on. The last 4 people that came looking for a bookkeeper\u2014their reasons were because their current one wouldn\u2019t switch to the cloud.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThey want to do everything on their phones now. To be able to be at the park and be able to do something on your phone while your kids are playing\u2014that\u2019s the generation we\u2019re heading into.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI can only imagine what tech will be like when my 8-year-old kid is my age. Being in a small town, I have 60% of my town\u2019s business and a large portion of them are on AutoEntry. Even though they\u2019re local, they\u2019re automated\u2014you don\u2019t have to come to me [with your documents]. You can upload it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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    Subscribe to the Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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    Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Discover how Flow Works Bookkeeping and Consulting uses Sage AutoEntry to save time and focus on building her thriving accounting firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1774,"featured_media":11089,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[165,169,177,190,265],"business_type":[6],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[82],"imagine_tag":[34,49],"coauthors":[307],"class_list":["post-12320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accountants","tag-bookkeeping","tag-business-strategy","tag-customer-relationships","tag-financial-insights","tag-how-to-grow-your-business","business_type-accountants"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ca","author_name":"Yassir Malik","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-1270233164.jpg","imagine_tags":{"34":"Accountants","49":"growing business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada English","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1774"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/11089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}