{"id":7268,"date":"2020-07-14T17:58:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T21:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=7268"},"modified":"2026-02-12T05:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:04:47","slug":"automation-for-accountants-bookkeepers-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/automation-for-accountants-bookkeepers-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"AutoEntry: An Accountant\u2019s Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For 63% of accountants and bookkeepers a major pain point is the time-consuming task of manual data entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Sage and the seamlessly integrated tool AutoEntry<\/a> are helping accountants, bookkeepers and their clients take back time and provide a more up to date view of their business with the power of automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sage Accountants Network member Sara Gibb discusses how accounting and bookkeeping practices can benefit by migrating to Sage and offers top tips to help clients make the switch with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bookkeeper<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In just under four years, Sara Gibb has grown her bookkeeping practice from serving two clients in a home office to celebrating the onboarding of her 40th client in recent times. Opening her own offices was one of two big steps that positively impacted Sara\u2019s practice, the other was embracing Sage’s accounting solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides additional part-time support staff during busy periods, Sara is a one-person operation. This required her to look for ways to reduce the time spent on tedious tasks such as data entry that were cutting into her professional hours. As her practice grew and she continued to take on clients in the construction and retail sectors, she recognized that she would need to introduce automation into her bookkeeping practice to continue delivering value services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara took the leap and became familiar with Sage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was tough in the beginning when you are used to doing things a certain way, and you are comfortable with your system, but I needed to get the work done faster so I can move on to the next client. Moving to the cloud helped me get and give the most value for my wages before I brought on anymore staff, because otherwise I would have been losing money,\u201d said Sara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara\u2019s transition to Sage involved two journeys. The first was becoming familiar with a new software system and adapting her practice\u2019s operations accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, as her client roster grew it became necessary to teach her clients the benefits of switching to the cloud while encouraging them to use tools such as AutoEntry<\/a> to improve efficiencies in their day-to-day receipt submissions. The ease of use of AutoEntry and its widely available smartphone apps were game changers in winning clients over to the cloud.<\/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.<\/mark> It\u2019s probably one of the most empowering updates to accounting software in the last decade or so,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The client<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sara recently celebrated a successful migration of a large franchise client in the retail sector to the cloud. The client\u2019s business comprises two accounts and four very large franchise stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara would process bank statements running between 40 and 50 pages, plus any other entries the franchises had recorded. On average it took Sara 2.5 days each month to reconcile the accounts of all four locations. This period of time did not include any of the other client requests that would occur throughout the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She soon realized that this time-consuming process was hindering her ability to take on new clients or effectively service her existing clients within allocated business hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a number of construction and franchise clients already on her client list, Sara chose the franchise client for migration to the cloud as their complex structure could benefit the most from automation. Now that she has implemented this transition, it will be easier for her to walk clients of all sizes through the transition in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara said: \u201cOut of my 40 clients I have 15 in the cloud right now and they\u2019re making my life so much easier. I have a handful of clients that I can\u2019t move to the cloud all at once because this could overwhelm them,\u201d said Sara. \u201cSo, this is how AutoEntry comes into play. Now that it can integrate with both desktop and the cloud, it\u2019s changing my life when dealing with receipts for cloud and non-cloud customers. I don\u2019t manually enter anything anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediate benefits of switching to the cloud<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sara had already made the transition to the cloud for her own practice, but she was reluctant at first to move her large franchise client away from a desktop system that they had used for so long. However, according to Sara once the change occurred both she and her client saw the immediate benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n