Speaker: Matthew Portess, Managing Director, Appleleaf Accountancy & Tax
Matthew Portess: Hi, my name is Matthew Portess. I'm the Managing Director at Appleleaf Chartered Certified Accountants in Grimsby. We're a relatively small practice with approximately 7 employees, we've got quite a large portfolio of small to medium size sole traders and limited companies.
Before using Glasscubes, how did you request information from clients, and what problems or frustrations did that cause?
Matthew Portess: So before using Glasscubes, how did we request information from clients? Well, unfortunately we didn't have any form of structured way of requesting information from clients. This was a real problem to us and it created bottlenecks in our workflow, especially towards the end of the tax return filing deadline. Staff were having to do extra overtime. They were getting more and more sort of stressed. It really was creating massive bottlenecks within our practice. It also meant that staff weren't able to advise clients proactively and let them know what their tax bill is well in advance of any filing deadlines. It left it quite towards the last minute, which is never great. We had some grumblings from clients but, you know, it was causing massive problems. Like I said, we were a relatively small practice and we weren't able to dedicate that amount of resource for an admin assistant to be constantly requesting information from the clients. So there were quite a lot of problems within the practice before we looked at Glasscubes.
Did you have any concerns about moving to a new solution like Glasscubes, and were any of these subsequently realised?
Matthew Portess: So do we have any concerns about moving to the new solution like Glasscubes? I don't think we had any major concerns. I think it was just whether they could actually deliver on what they promised on the website. When I viewed the website, it was sort of a bit of a light bulb moment as to, you know, if Glasscubes can deliver on getting better uptake from clients and sending information in quicker, then it really could, you know, have a massive transformation on the practice, both from a staff morale point of view and also, from clients. So, as I say, I don't think we had any major concerns. It's just whether they could deliver on what they promised, and after the initial meeting that I had with Kayleigh and the owner it was myself and Stephanie, who was one of the Accounts Managers here, Senior Account Managers, we were blown away. We really were by, you know, the enthusiasm, the commitment to making our practice better, to make the workflows better, and also, the whole experience was really, really good, efficient, always good communication from Kayleigh. So you know, were any of the concerns realised? Absolutely not, no. You know, the whole experience has been excellent from our point of view.
Please describe working with us. How has Glasscubes helped you, your firm, and/or your clients?
Matthew Portess: So moving across to Glasscubes, the whole process like I described before, has been an absolutely amazing process where, we've now got a structured and systemised system for requesting year-end limited company, sole trader accounts information, and also tax return information. We can basically set the system going and forget about it, until basically, the client responds to the email. So we'll get systematically they'll get an email every couple of weeks to chase that information. This allows us to get the information into the practice workflow quicker, and also allows us to produce the tax returns or the limited company accounts far more efficiently. The clients are happy. The uptake on responding to the secure email is far better than what we've, we've previously had. We do use a separate client portal, but I think because Glasscubes don't require a portal, the clients feel more at ease to respond and just upload the information. It's just more of a two-way, you know, channel of information coming to us, if we're missing anything and responding back to the client. So, it's been absolutely, you know, fantastic. I know the phrase game changer in software is used quite a lot, but for our practice, Glasscubes has been a game changer. You know, it really has made a massive difference to us alleviating, you know, overwhelm for staff and, you know, making the clients far more engaged with us and show that we're a proactive practice, which is, where we want to be, so it's been really, the whole process of working with Glasscubes has been absolutely flawless.
Matthew Portess: So how likely would I recommend Glasscubes? Well, 100%. As I mentioned previously, it's had a huge impact on the practice. It's one of those pieces of software that we just couldn't do without now. So, it's part of our workflow, it's part of getting that information in, and staff are happy, I'm happy, clients are happy. It's really had a huge difference on our practice. You know, my one bit of advice would be, if you are struggling with the issues that as a practice we were having, trying to get that information in from a client sooner, having a systemised approach, then my advice would be, take action, make the investment in Glasscubes. You really won't regret it. It's been, the whole process has been absolutely fantastic, and I couldn't recommend it highly enough, so, my advice would be just take action and make the investment, definitely.
