Speaker: Tom Stork, Audit Manager, Brebners
Tom Stork: Hi, I'm Tom I'm an audit manager at an audit and accountancy firm based in central London. I'm personally responsible for looking after various clients across different industries, ranging from small recently incorporated businesses into larger entities and groups, and our firm has been using Glasscubes for about the last 6 to 12 months.
Before using Glasscubes, how did you request information from clients, and what problems or frustrations did that cause?
Tom Stork: So before using Glasscubes our system for requesting and receiving info was quite basic. It was largely done by email using an Excel spreadsheet, which just listed out our order requests. It would then be up to one of the audit team members to maintain this request list and just note any items that were still outstanding. Any items that caused issues. This would often mean that sometimes bits of information that we've requested would go under the radar a little bit, and perhaps there would be disputes between us and the client as to whether they've sent info or not. In other instances we use client's portals such as Dropbox, which did prove useful. However, sometimes it would be blocked by our IT system security. So it wasn't always accessible in the office, which is why a sort of web-based system such as Glasscubes has been a bit of an improvement for us.
Did you have any concerns about moving to a new solution like Glasscubes, and were any of these subsequently realised?
Tom Stork: So our main concerns at first were whether the client would accept the use of Glasscubes, whether it be due to familiarity or due to security but most of their minds were put at ease quite quickly when we show them the extensive security information on the Glasscubes web page. Other concerns, mainly just surrounding the actual use of Glasscubes and whether we or the client would have any issues using the actual system itself but it's quite an easy piece of software to use. It's been quite self explanatory in most cases and we've rarely had to help clients out navigating their way around the system.
Please describe working with us. How has Glasscubes helped you, your firm, and/or your clients?
Tom Stork: So ourselves and our clients have found using Glasscubes to be quite a big improvement on our previous systems of requesting and receiving info, which was just basically done by email. It's provided a lot of clarity with regards to any outstanding queries and any recommendations we've had for Glasscubes have been taken onboard and updates are made and our direct contacts with Glasscubes have been really responsive and helpful, and will respond to queries in a timely manner.
Tom Stork: So we definitely recommend Glasscubes to other firms who've had similar previous issues to ourselves in that they didn't have a formalised portal in which they can share and access information with clients. We found it's really improved audit efficiency and clarity with clients regarding what's been provided and what's not been provided. It's got great security accreditations. It's an online platform so it can be accessed on different devices and due to the simplicity of sort of navigating your way around the system, we actually found that we could implement it pretty much overnight, so there's no real reason to delay implementing the system as your sort of main portal.
