Moving to the cloud pays off for Freedom Accounting Inc.

Since purchasing Freedom Accounting, Inc in 2012, Colleen Hoggarth has grown the practice to 15 team members across two locations in Canada — Victoria and nearby Shawnigan Lake. With plans to reach neighboring markets and beyond, Hoggarth wanted to ramp up efficiency.

Paper-based inefficiencies

Before migrating to Sage Accounting, Freedom Accounting offices were filled to the brim with their clients’ financial paperwork: reams of bank and credit card statements, stacks of receipts for manual data entry, invoices, bills, and more.

“So much inefficiency was caused by the paper our clients had to bring in to us every month,” Hoggarth explains.  “As much as we simplified the process, it was difficult to get clients to actually come in and drop it off.  We also dreaded asking them to return records, just to dig through piles of paper to find one missing receipt.”

Hoggarth and her staff did their best to simplify work for everyone, but the process remained labor intensive, prone to breakdown—and no workaround diminished the endless influx of paper.

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Automation to the rescue

Hindered by paper-based inefficiencies, they looked to automation and the cloud to streamline processes, enhance service, and grow their practice. Hoggarth chose Sage Accounting – along with add-on AutoEntry – to overcome her business challenges.

“It’s a better way of doing business for both our clients and ourselves,” Hoggarth shares.  “Now, clients feel like they’re in control of their business. They’re able to recognize when they’re hitting a roadblock, and we’re able to help them look through cash flows to see if there’s a way to avoid it in the future.”

Poised for growth

The move to Sage Accounting offers staff and clients real-time access to financial information. Clients feel more in control.  Staff have the insights to be more strategic.  Plus, AutoEntry eliminates the need for manual data entry, weekly client visits, and the endless influx of paper.

“The client absolutely sees that we can become more of an advisor to them.  A bookkeeper is no longer just the person entering numbers into a software program.  They are a part of the team that helps a small business thrive.”

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