Accounting firms can see an incredible difference from making smarter software choices. Or, if you’re a fan of Scottish words that mean smart, clever, or shrewd, you might call it being a bit more… canny.
Canny Group is based in Geelong, Australia, and as you’d expect from their name, they have a reputation as a digital innovator. Like many Australian accounting firms, it uses Xero as the primary tool for clients – but other accounting software's are in the mix, including MYOB and QBO. This flexible approach, while ideal for clients, could cause issues when choosing the right software tools.
When it came to looking for ledger and workpaper products, Canny felt that most of the ledger products available in the Australian market didn’t really fit their scale and requirement. What’s more, doing workpapers the “old” way – on Microsoft Excel – was causing them problems that couldn’t be solved.
That’s why Adam Ramage, a senior manager at Canny who works as a taxation and business advisor, suggested Business Fitness’ Active Workpapers and Active Ledger & Reporting. Before making the move to Canny, he’d run his own firm, where he’d had a relationship with Business Fitness since 2000.
“When I sold my firm and started up at Canny, we started the conversation about Business Fitness, and we’ve been using Active for just over 12 months.
”Switching to Active was a big move for a firm like Canny, but thanks to Adam’s long relationship with the Business Fitness team, he knew they could be trusted to deliver continuous improvements. “I have a lot of respect for Business Fitness as an organisation, their integrity. That was a positive.” Adam says. The quality of the Active product was also better than free offerings, or competitors like ChangeGPS, Adam adds. “It’s head and shoulders above what’s available elsewhere.”
"One of the beauties of Active by Business Fitness is the flexibility." Since using Active Workpapers and Active Ledger & Reporting, the firm has made huge improvements on the trustworthiness, congruity, and availability of data. Previously, Canny was using Excel for workpapers, and there was no rigor about what data went where. “We didn’t know where to go to look for certain things, or what information was contained in it.” Adam says. What’s more, Excel workpapers used to be saved to the user's local document management system, which caused nightmares when someone needed to access another user’s data. It could be locked away, or lost, or simply incompatible across users.
Now, the standardised workpapers and the way it works with Active Ledger & Reporting is hugely appealing. Active Workpapers has changed the game completely. It’s cloud-based, which means data congruence, but it’s also based in Excel, which means familiarity and flexibility when needed. Data that used to be saved to an individual’s own drive, is now stored within Active. A seamless integration with best-of-breed document management solution FYI Docs means workpapers and documents can easily be linked together. "That's a big win because, as you know, an extra connection means extra issues. That's way better than what it was. It's brilliant. The fact that we can link an FYI document to the workpapers – you just click a button and you can see the FYI document in your browser." It’s still early days yet, but Adam says the investment in Business Fitness and Active has already paid incredible dividends. Staff are enjoying the flexibility and efficiencies offered by the new software, and clients are impressed with the speed and presentation of Canny’s work on their accounts.
“We have a client who owns two motels in one entity, and we ran the financial statements side by side by year foreach motel,” Adam says. “The client was so impressed with the presentation of the reports and the way we designed them that they specifically called and gave that positive feedback to the team." Adam says that the quality of Active is improving all the time, and that it’s already much better than it was just 12months ago. There is a learning curve, he adds, but it’s an investment that will pay off. “Active is a quality product. We believe that the automations, like bringing in the ATO data, and being able to roll over workpapers from one year to another. Rather than have to open last year's and copy across –we think there's going to be a significant difference in Year Two. Active has the automation, the consistency, the checklists.” He’s looking forward to the next 12 months, and another financial year, for Canny and its clients to see even more benefit from Active. “It’s about trust in the system, flexibility, and value for money. The quality of the Business Fitness team, the product, and the output will be reflected in our bottom line in years to come."