Interaction

Continuous Improvement

The notion of continuous improvement invokes the concept of never being "finished" and always developing out the highest priority items (from the customers perspective) first and using feedback to determine the priority, not a boardroom.  

In true Interactive Accounting style, we have tried to embody the mentality of continuous improvement, focusing on delivering a better experience for our clients and consistently raising the bar. We'd love more feedback from our customers (share your ideas here) on how Interactive Accounting can improve, as, we are far from "finished". 

and

Practising what we preach

As a company Interactive Accounting promotes the evaluation and use of technology for businesses to  streamline business process flows and release bottlenecks from lead management through to debtor collection. Keeping that in mind, we looked at our own processes, business flows and have looked to make improvements embracing the concept of the "Modern Practice" taking it to the next level. 

Thank you

Additionally, we have had feedback from our clients and peers to help ensure that this website is next level in both form and function. 

Always make sure you validate your website and business models with customers, peers and professionals. The last thing you want to do is miss the mark. We just think we've made another step forward, and, we hope you agree. 

Version 3.0 features - What have we changed?

• Calendar Feeds
• About Us
• Events
• Knowledge Base
• Screen recorder for support packages
• Online quoting

Sync your calendar with relevant tax dates

Subscribe using RSS or .ics to keep up to date with either our Interactive Accounting events or your tax events with reminders in your existing tools. Never miss a lodgement deadline again! 

About Us

We've added a bit more about what Interactive Accounting does and provided a bit more of the journey we've taken and what we offer as a business and why. 

As a great little metric, we've filled our marketing/ account management position without the need for any additional marketing since our soft launch on Friday.

Events

We are Interactive. This is not just a branding, this is a way of business. So we've launched a few new events to share the interaction with out clients, networks and partners. We've launched #startupbeers and #xerocoffee. Click here for more information and to see what the events are like.

Free knowledge

Yes, an accountant is giving something away for free. We've made it easy to get access to those questions you always want to know the answer too. 

• Xero basic information
• Getting Started tips for new businesses
• Tax news and tips
• Feedback > what do you want to see next?

Click here to review what we've served up.

A screen recorder for your troublesome issues when you're signed up to a support package

No longer do you have to provide a lengthy email with screenshots, no longer do we have to struggle to understand your problem with accounting or software....

Now, you can simply click a button  and you can record and narrate your screenshot and one of our team will answer your question correctly first time around. 

Modular online quoting - choose the level of service that suits your needs

This has been a long standing goal of Interactive Accounting. We want to provide the ability for our new and existing clients to choose their own level of Interaction with their accountant. 

We now have this functionality linked directly into our website. 

Stay tuned for future blogs and information on the steps to this functionality, but, it's here and will continue to get better, so, our clients can choose what they want from their accountant. 

Change is a constant, we are simply embracing it. We hope you like the new site and look forward to your feedback. 

 3 minutes with Jonathan Hayden from Hayden Real Estate

1. What is your core business?

Rental Property Management

2. What sets your business apart from your competitors?

By Developing a relationship with owners, so as they view Hayden Real Estate as their experts with regards to property.

Our service levels are extremely high, as property managers have less properties in their portfolio than most agents, allowing a more personal service, with a longer view to profitability. We personalise our sales market by only offering views of properties by private appointment only. 

3. What elements of your business are currently running in the cloud?

• Google Apps - Mail & Calendar
• Salesforce - CRM, Email Marketing, leads and follow up scheduling for clients
• VOIP phone system

4. Why do you feel it's important to operate your business in the cloud? What were the main factors/hesitations to consider in moving your business in this direction?

Factors:

•  Microsoft Outlook used to be on our server, which, resulted in large licencing costs & high technician bills. In addition, there was also a fairly sizeable capital outlay to upgrade the mail server for our team. With Google Apps you get "like for like" functionality & increased accessibility for the staff. It was the logical step.


• Salesforce is the market leader and we decided to move here form a traditional server based solution. However, we did experience a lot of trouble with the implementation and ended up hiring someone in house to do our customisation. So bare this in mind. As a result there was a long time to value for this product.

5. What functions/elements of your business are you looking to consider moving into the cloud next? (e.g. CRM, mail etc.)

• Property Management Software
• Xero - Accounting

6. What are your biggest bottlenecks in your current processes?

It was our trust accounting. However, we've now outsourced this to a specialise REST (Trust Account Software) organisation to look after our landlords/clients reporting in a very timely and efficient manner. Our Property Management piece is still being ironed out, we are hopeful for a link to Xero to increase our real time reporting and therefore our real time decision making capabilities.

7. Do you find that you gain extra revenue or saved on costs by running your business online? If so, what creates the revenue/reduces the expenses and how you have tracked it?

 Costs

• We've saved around $24,000 p.s. on our phone bill by moving to VOIP, which, is around 50%.
• Google Apps has removed the mail server capital costs and IT service costs for this facility.

Revenue

• As a result of implementing Salesforce, we know have greater customer knowledge which is leading to better business. Over the next 12 months, we are looking to develop marketing KPIs so we can measure the real impact of marketing methods on our business growth.

8. Why do you run your accounting in the cloud? What platform do you use and why?

At present our business uses MYOB. We use this package as this package as this is what historically we have used. We are looking to move to Xero in the near future.

9. What other products do you link with your online accounting package? 

Once implemented, we will link the following software to Xero, where possible:

• REST - Property Management Software
• Paycycle - Payroll

10. Where would you spend $100,000 on your business and what benefits/ROI would you expect to see?

Recruiting and training two more property managers to bolster the core offering. We would expect that with and additional two property managers, we would see a return of >120% inside of 12 months (including time and costs for training).

11. What is the best sporting triumph from the 2nd last weekend in July: The Wallabies winning against South Africa (finally)? Cadel being the first aussie to win the Tour De France, 4x100m Mens Freestyle Gold Meal @ the World Swimming Championships?

By default, it's gotta be Cadel.

I wasn't aware the other two events had taken place on the weekend. Cadel deserves it because it's a great achievement and he's a star! 

Big Thank You to Jonathan from Hayden Real Estate for his time and views on their cloud story.

1. What is your core business?

Travel for all kinds, focusing on corporate travel for organisations with a travel spend of around $1m.

2. What sets your business apart from your competitors?

We recognise that there are many kinds of corporate traveller - not just the stereotype of a man in a suit. Our great differentiator is our flexibility, we customise our business around what the client wants.

We also have some passion projects: Vida Travel, Reho Study Tours, rehope, Travel with Kidz and glutenfree travel.

3. What elements of your business are currently running in the cloud?

• Tramada - Mid Office Accounting System (Trust Account system)
• Gallileo - Booking System
• ACT! - CRM system
• Website
• Newsletter

4. Why do you feel it's important to operate your business in the cloud? What were the main factors/hesitations to consider in moving your business in this direction?

Factors:

• Client access to data with Tramada, and
• Being able to work from anywhere (several of our crew work from home and others send reports in from overseas), and
• Automatic Updates

Hesitation - some products don't work as efficiently with Reho's sized business.

5. What functions/elements of your business are you looking to consider moving into the cloud next? (e.g. CRM, mail etc.)

• Benchmarking
• Xero
• Paycycle
• Payments on website
• Tiered approval process for travel
• Digitalising Group/Study Tours booking processes for large groups

We want to remove all paper where possible.

6. What are your biggest bottlenecks in your current processes?

Due to our flexibility, we "fit in" with out clients. This can be difficult. Especially where our clients have paper processes and Reho's are paperless.

Integration has meant that there is no longer one consolidator e.g. Gallileo. We now have to pull in online data from a multiple range of data sources.

Management Reporting - Accounting/Clients. We are moving towards client and internal dashboards. 

7. Do you find that you gain extra revenue or saved on costs by running your business online? If so, what creates the revenue/reduces the expenses and how you have tracked it?

 Costs

• Dashboards create the ability to negotiate with our suppliers as we can better view our current volume of business with our suppliers.
• By removing the paper process we can scale paperless procedures and reduce our admin overheads.

 

Revenue

• With our new website, we expect to see a further drive in online business. 
• Additionally, by removing the paper processes, we can increase our ability to sell our packages to clients online.

8. Why do you run your accounting in the cloud? What platform do you use and why?

• Tramada - Real time access to clients trust acocunts. Clients also have access to data, invoices and reporting in real time.
• Xero - Streamline processes

9. What other products do you link with your online accounting package? 

• Resurg Dashboards
• Paycycle
• Enett - online client charging solution
• Emada - online supplier payment solution

10. Where would you spend $100,000 on your business and what benefits/ROI would you expect to see?

Spend it on the fitout on a new Headquarters. The ROI would be: Staff retention, great environment and as such there would be a long term return on investment and improve the value of Reho. $100,000 would not fix the other pain points, sadly... Our staff are the core of our business, we want them to continue to stay happy!

11. What is the best sporting triumph from the 2nd last weekend in July: The Wallabies winning against South Africa (finally)? Cadel being the first aussie to win the Tour De France, 4x100m Mens Freestyle Gold Meal @ the World Swimming Championships?

Cadel, he's an absolute champion!

The Wallabies? It's not AFL, it's not footy. 

Big Thank You to Karsten from Reho Travel for his time and Reho's cloud story.

3 minutes with Dylan & Chris from Feel Creative

1. What is your core business?

We specialise in delivering Digital Marketing & Communication Solutions to our clients. In a nutshell we help our clients connect with their customers online. The thing that makes us different is our ability to offer large ad agency resources with small boutique agency client service.

2. What sets your business apart from your competitors?

We like to say to clients that the web is our playground [but we think outside the screen],
this is what makes us unique.

We actually care about understanding the core of your idea and then developing rich and immersive experiences which work across multiple channels to express it. So if digital isn’t the best option - we will let you know and help you develop the solution that works best.

The second difference is that we know ideas can come from anywhere and anyone so we treat our clients like team members. There is no hierarchical structure to the company - clients have access to all the brains and resources they want - we dont guard our team from them, instead we encourage brainstorming as a team with everyone involved and if something pops up that is outside of our core capabilities we will introduce our partner agencies to the client to help out.

Ultimately we are about creating the best solutions, not about forcing a solution on a client because it works better for us.

3. What elements of your business are currently running in the cloud?

Accounting , Strategy, Presentation of Design, Project Management.

Our busniness works as a Cloud structure in itself. We deliver the campaign strategy and then project manage teams from around the world to deliver best of breed solutions all online.  This helps with flexibility and reduces costs and time.

4. Why do you feel it’s important to operate your business in the cloud? What were the main factors/hesitations to consider in moving your business in this direction?

• Allows our leadership team to stay connected to our team and clients where ever we are. e.g. Chris is taking a well earned break, but is going to be able to “work” from Europe.
• Creates transparency and visibility for our clients.

Factors considered: Flexibility & risk management (safer), wanted mobile access to all functions of the business.

 

Hesitation: Size/Weight of data transfer for large files makes storage of work in progress an issue. We put our final works up on ftp/gmail. This is the case as the Australian Internet is still too slow and expensive for an effective solution for our storage.

5. What functions/elements of your business are you looking to consider moving into the cloud next? (e.g. CRM, mail etc.)

• CRM - manage time/cost efficiences and deliver management reports without manual input.

• Storage - If faster & easier solution is presented.

• Project Management …. In development.

6. What are your businesses biggest bottlenecks in your current processes?

Management of job costing & learning how to delegate effectively. Like all business owners, we struggle to release the responsibility of an owner.

7. Do you find that you gain extra revenue or saved on costs by running your business online? If so, what creates the revenue/reduces the expenses and how have you tracked it?

Costs

• Travel & Time.

• No need for administration staff
• Reduced Rental costs
• Reduced Equipment costs (Capital & Maintenance)
• No Traditional Advertising Required

Revenue

• Word of mouth/referrals still the main lead generator

• Online presence 2nd largest Business Development tool

• Google Adwords & Analytics to track inquiries and follow through to sales.

8. Why do you run your accounting in the cloud, what platform do you use and why?

Xero

We use Xero as it's accessible everywhere & anytime. We don’t need to wait for your bookkeeper/accountant to get information right now. It enables:

• Greater understanding of processes as they’re visualised.
• Demystifies the nature of accounting.
• No more "black magic" by your accountant

9. What other products do you link with your online accounting package?

Debtor, Paycycle & CRM (to come) - with many more as they become available, convenient and make running the business easier!

10. Where would you spend $100,000 on  your business and what benefits/ROI would you expect to see?

We have the need but not the consistency in income to employ a gun project manager and guarantee their salary for the long term. If we had the guarantee of 12 months salary for this new team member we would snap them up and expect to see an increase in business of around 50%. It would also give us the ability to take the current leadership out of “working in the business” and “work on the business”.

11. What is the best sporting triumph from last weekend: Wallabies winning (finally), Cadel being the first aussie to win the Tour De France, 4x100m mens freestyle gold @ the world swimming championships?  

Cadel - Positive story of triumph received more exposure then all the tragedies in the world in recent days.

Big Thank You to Dylan & Chris from Feel Creative for their time and views on their cloud story.

At Interactive Accounting we believe in the best of breed model that SaaS platforms allow you choose, however, this does not suit all businesses as they grow beyond the capabilities of these small, agile platforms. 

At some stage of operation these small platforms lead to large user management requirements:

• Whom has access to what platform?
• What level of access do they have within each platform?
• Adding/Deleting users from multiple platforms, why does it take so long?

When these issues become more problematic, then it's usually time to move to a all in one ERP (Economic Resource Procurement) system that allows for one central management system for your CRM, Calendar, Inventory, Sales, Freight tracking, Webshop integration and general Accounting for all of your locations/branches in one central platform. 

Traditionally ERPs have, like all other software, been server based. The movement to the cloud means the following:

• Low cost of implementation
• Hardware updates not necessary on such a large scale
• Access to data anywhere at any time
• Automated backups and offsite redundancy plans

To find out more about how your business could improve it's efficiencies by implementing a SaaS based ERP system and what system is best suited for your business, please contact us at hello@interactiveaccounting.com.au