Embracing document management and automation to work remotely.

Based in Melbourne, for nearly four decades BBB Partners has assisted its predominantly medical based clientele in their success – from their professional careers all the way through to retirement. Its team of highly qualified financial specialists provides insights, expertise, and experience for its loyal professional and personal financial customers. BBB offers services across accounting, tax, business services, SMSF, financial planning, and risk and mortgage broking.

The search for a new way of working.

Back in 2019, BBB Partners approached FYI after seeing how powerful a solution it was during a demonstration at XeroCon – Xero’s annual conference. The firm had a vision where all of its staff could work flexibly from home or office, but it was yet to put a plan together on how to reach this goal.

Talking about taking the initial step into cloud-based working, Andrew Holdsworth, Practice Manager at BBB Partners said: “It was always an ambition of the Partners at BBB to offer the team workplace flexibility, but the systems we had in place, being server-based, never allowed it. At the time we had no idea that in just a few short months the world would change, COVID would hit, and working from home would become a necessity. We were very fortunate that we started the shift to the cloud when we did.”

BBB was using MYOB but found it wasn’t integrating with other aspects of their business or supported how they saw themselves working in the future, and so the Partners at the firm made the decision to switch to predominantly use Xero. “Once you’re free of the shackles of your old system you find further changes far easier,” Andrew added. “Xero had a whole ecosystem of apps that it could work with, and this provided us with far more scope in picking our new customised cloud-based system.

“FYI was a natural choice given its capacity to integrate so well with Xero and other solutions in the Xero ecosystem. Such integrations are so useful – each one has been carefully considered by FYI to ensure firms can reap very real benefits in efficiency and time-saving.”

FYI was a natural choice given its capacity to integrate so well with Xero, and other solutions in the Xero eco-system….each one has been carefully considered to ensure firms can reap very real benefits in terms of efficiency and time-saving.

Onboarding then COVID hit

BBB Partners commenced their onboarding with FYI towards the end of 2019, through a smooth transition from its old document management solution to FYI’s cloud-based offering. Andrew continued: “FYI was with us the whole way through – the support was amazing. FYI would speak directly with our IT guys and make sure the transition between the old way of working and the new way, was easy and seamless.

“We went live with FYI in February 2020, so we were very lucky to be fully operational when the pandemic hit. All team members easily pivoted to working from home – all they had to do was log in to FYI as if they were in the office. Again, our original goal was flexible working, so we were ready for it all – lucky timing for us. Everyone was connected, with the ability to access all the documents they needed. Also, FYI’s integration with other apps in the marketplace has just been amazing.”

Deep integration and process automation – the perfect combo.

FYI prides itself on the level of integration it has with complementary solutions that make the day-to-day tasks within an accounting firm much more efficient. “For example,” Andrew continues, “FYI’s integration with NowInfinity allows client ASIC statements and documents to automatically flow through and be auto-filed without anyone needing to do anything.

“We use the wealth app, MyProsperity, and we approached FYI to see if they could integrate with it. They made it happen for us. They are an incredible business in the way that they listen to their clients. Our chosen app now integrates with FYI, meaning document sharing and connection with our clients is faster and far greater than it ever has been,” Andrew added.

“The deeper you go into exploring what FYI can do, you realize that it’s the automations that make your life so much easier. What FYI has really helped us with is taking away those menial, small, and tedious tasks that just don’t need to be done by an individual. They can be part of an automated process that, once created, will trigger a chain of small processes, and assign the right task to the right staff member.”

The deeper you go into exploring what FYI can do, you realize that it’s the automations that make your life so much easier.

FYI has a feature that is loved by all its customers called ‘Custom Processes’ where users can automate repetitive, mundane, or low-value tasks to save time. Users can create their own custom automations across client service, marketing, admin, or HR. They can schedule recurring work to repeat automatically, and then apply that repetitive task, even if it is multi-step, across the practice. Teams are empowered to automate their own processes their way and are limited only by their imagination. “We just want to automate more and more now – it’s a fantastic feature,” Andrew said.

“We plan to use automations to take away all those tedious tasks that don’t need to be done by a human anymore – like filing a tax return or an engagement letter into the client’s file. FYI just does all of those small little tasks for you. “

We plan to use automations to take away all those tedious tasks that don’t need to be done by a human anymore – like filing a tax return or an engagement letter into the client’s file. FYI just does all of those small little tasks for you

More fantastic features.

Another feature that BBB has found very useful is FYI’s Email AutoFile. Client emails are auto-filed by FYI and can be immediately accessed by the whole team. Once filed, subsequent emails in a thread, and email attachments are all automatically stored and filed against the corresponding client and job. By applying consistent filing rules across the whole practice, valuable time can be saved. Talking about the feature, Andrew said: “AutoFile is so useful – when you file one email, you file all messages in that thread.

“Also, with a dedicated workspace for each client, it’s easy to collaborate on client work no matter where you are. Anyone can access emails, documents, jobs, recent interactions and outstanding tasks for each client or group, with customisable client views to suit our specific practice. Anyone can jump into the workspace and see exactly what’s happening, what the last team member did, and the last correspondence with the client. It creates greater cohesiveness within our business, and the ability to work from anywhere.”

With a dedicated workspace for each client, it’s easy to collaborate on client work no matter where you are. It creates greater cohesiveness within our business, and the ability to work from anywhere .

Making life easier for accountants.

Andrew believes FYI is a product that every accounting practice needs to have “purely for the ability to grow and to make the lives of accountants far easier.”

“We wanted a document management system that covers everything – all aspects of the business. We didn’t want financial planning on one side, in one document management system, and then mortgage broking on another. We wanted it all to be under one system. Now it doesn’t take us three days to get a document from one part of the business to another. It’s all on the client’s profile and available to everyone.”

FYI has definitely been a gamechanger for BBB Partners and is sure to contribute to their future success.

Want to see FYI in action? Register for a live platform tour to see how you could be using FYI in your firm.