Walsh Accountants closes the gap on disconnected systems with GreatSoft
Seamless integration between key applications helps this accounting practice save time and deliver better client service.
3 business benefits Walsh Accountants gained from using GreatSoft:
- Ability to provide better and deeper customer service
- Seamless integration with other apps to improve efficiency in the practice
- Visibility of the workflow and business intelligence to empower decision making
Walsh Accountants was founded in 1976 and is one of the longest-running family-owned businesses on the Gold Coast. Today it employs over 30 staff and maintains its proud roots and commitment to the local community.
People first, numbers second
Tom Walsh, CEO and Managing Director, says, “Our mission is to unleash the potential of people and businesses to grow communities.” Personal relationships at Walsh Accountants are everything:
"We treat our clients as people, not a business name. We’re focused on people first, numbers second."
Tom Walsh CEO and Managing Director, Walsh Accountants
Walsh Accountants specialises in supporting local businesses. Tom says, “Whether that’s from a small start-up through to a medium enterprise, we try and support them all the way along their journey, helping them with their structure set-up, with the way they do their asset protection, their tax planning, their business growth and really trying to help them achieve their business goals.”
On top of helping business owners with regulatory compliance, the team provides advisory services to pre-empt client needs and help them achieve their potential in their businesses. Tom puts it this way: “Clients should join us because we are totally focused on supporting them and their needs, and making sure we’ve laid down the train tracks for their business needs before the train gets here.”
Creating efficiencies, realising potential
The client experience is a key reason why Walsh Accountants decided to upgrade their practice management software to GreatSoft. Quite simply, the new system allows Walsh Accountants to engage with clients quickly and efficiently, providing them with a far superior level of customer service.
Prior to GreatSoft, Walsh Accountants’ practice management software couldn’t do everything they needed and didn’t integrate smoothly with the other applications the practice used. This meant staff needed to spend undue time doing administrative work, updating multiple programs each time a client made a change, and fixing up data errors that wouldn’t have happened if the software applications talked to each other. Inefficiency was costing Walsh Accountants money, while also impacting their client service.
The team chose GreatSoft because it’s a modern, cloud-based business management platform that integrates smoothly with the range of tools they use in their firm. This means staff only need to update data in one place for it to synchronise across their tech stack. Further, the software is specifically designed for enterprise-sized accounting practices like Walsh Accountants, with best practice workflows built in to deliver real efficiency gains:
"With newer software like GreatSoft, the program has thought through the way we do our work so things move smoothly."
Tom Walsh CEO and Managing Director, Walsh Accountants
A game-changer for Walsh Accountants
Walsh Accountants use GreatSoft for time-sheeting, billing, customer relationship management, work in progress and workflow planning. In particular, the workflow tool Planner has been a game-changer for the practice, providing visibility of all the tax and compliance jobs currently on the go.
Abby Corcoran, Senior Accountant at the firm, says, “From my perspective, we've had issues with workflow programs and workflow management. There hasn't been a program to date that's been able to manage this for us. Planner through GreatSoft looks like this could be the solution.”
This is echoed by Grant O’Donnell, Senior Manager, who explains how, traditionally, they’ve had weekly – even daily – workflow catch ups which had a considerable time lag on the business. He says, “Having all those people now update everything online in the system allows our managers to get a report to see the status of jobs, the budget, and who’s performing what job for the week. This has cut down our administrative time so we can focus on spending time on our clients and in providing value.”
Grant now receives a workflow email every Monday from GreatSoft, with the status of every job and what the team is working on. “I can effectively plan my week on Monday morning without having to interview my team, and they can get straight on with their jobs for the week,” he says.
Tom also values the business intelligence (BI) that GreatSoft provides, which enables empowered decision making: “BI dashboards give us up-to-date, live information on how as a firm we’re performing, and also how every team member is performing,” he says.
Engage clients more and provide better service
“If someone was thinking of transitioning to GreatSoft, I’d strongly recommend them to do that,” Grant says. “The efficiencies that they’ll see in their business will allow them to actually engage more with their clients and provide a better service.”
Tom adds, “I would suggest they look at all the software they’re using and understand how much it’s costing them in lost time with those programs not talking to one another. And then there’s the time it takes to update multiple programs and the data errors. The value of GreatSoft becomes very clear.”
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Practice management software that gives you a clear view of your business in one place.