The problem
A trades partnership with two partners is struggling to keep the books up to date with invoices and payment collections. Tax time is especially challenging, as the contracted accountant needs to perform extensive housekeeping on the books. Since the partners are completely booked out, there is little or no time to fix the systemic administrative issues in the business. Even the weekends are spent trying to keep the the business operational.
Furthermore, it has been pointed out during a tender process, that their health and safety processes were not inline with the Australian requirements. This uncovered some other areas of improvement pertaining working with contractors.
Finally, the booking process is manually coordinated between the two partners. As they are on the road, and take bookings "on-the-go", they lock in an approximate date and time with the client, and have to coordinate between each other on how to divide the work, and then reconfirm the actual date and time. In over 25% of the cases, the client cannot make the allotted time, and the booking needs to be replanned and reconfirmed again.
Our solution
- An integrated invoicing system that is available on the smart-phone, customers can be invoiced "on-the-go". Payment can be taken via credit card.
- All materials purchased and consumed during the work is immediately allocated, and where applicable, invoiced
- All expenses on the company credit card are captured in the expense management system via automatic feeds, allowing for easy association with scanned receipts (via mobile)
- Appointment management is handled via an integrated bookings module. Once scheduled, the customer can reschedule up to 48 hours before the appointment via the web, where the scheduling system automatically displays the available alternative time slots
Your benefits
- Invoices generated same day, up to five days reduction in payment outstanding
- All material and time correctly accounted for, and no longer missed on invoices where they should be charged to the customer increasing job profitability
- Detailed insight into company sundry expenses via the company card, allowing for significant better budget performance, and 100% lodging of GST returns
- Over 90% of appointments are scheduled with a single touch-point with the customer, saving time and increasing customer satisfaction
- The Corporate Essentials add-on provided all the required documents, policies, and procedures for compliance. In combination with the supplied guides and templates, as saved tens of thousands of dollars in procedure development and writing
The verdict
By implementing the accounting and expenses system first, we were able to tackle the revenue loss through "leakage", The improvement in profitability was visible within the first month of this being operational.
By automating the appointment scheduling, the customer has a better experience, where the appointment can be scheduled in a single touch-point, where prior that would require at least two touch-points with the customer. Rescheduling can now be done by the customer up to 48 hours prior to the scheduled appointment - making the booking process more efficient to both the customer and the company.
The compliance was a big worry for both partners - if audited, this could have resulted in significant business hardship. The provided templates were incorporated into the business in a fraction of the time required to get this developed, and at a fraction of the cost.
Digital Solopreneur
The digital business foundation plan, with the following integrated applications for 2 employees:
- Mobile invoice management
- Accounting and expense management
- CRM
- Booking and appointment scheduling system
