Craig Seddon, Partner at Westcourt Chartered Accountants, speaks of how Futrli’ live reporting and strong visualisations helps ‘cut out the noise’ and allows clients to see the financial information that matters most.

Challenge

Westcourt is a firm full of true tech-lovers. They wanted to find a solution that would match their future focus and better serve their clients. The team wanted to be proactive when serving clients, as they could see the power of working with real-time data.

Solution

Signing up with Futrli has meant the whole team has embraced advisory as an organisation. The ease of use means it was a smooth transition. This, in turn, has made their client relationships stronger.

Results

Westcourt uses Futrli to clearly lay out key performance indicators (KPIs) for clients. By presenting critical data through performance indicators they cut out all the noise and provide focus. They’re adding massive value to every client business to help them achieve their business goals, and enjoying the processes as they go.

Interview in full

Westcourt is a boutique accounting and business consulting service located in Perth, Australia. Founded in 1998, the firm predominately works with private and family businesses turning over up to £20 million annually.

Westcourt are firm believers in using the latest technology, such as cloud computing, to invent a new definition of the relationship between accountants and clients – moving it from being a purely reactive one to a genuinely mutually beneficial one focusing on growth and spotting new business opportunities.

“We pride ourselves on our personal service and offering,” says Craig Seddon, Partner at Westcourt. “Our clients know that we are available whenever they need us and that we understand and care about their business. They are never some anonymous, faceless clients to us, they matter.

The move to cloud accounting in recent years has enabled Westcourt to build even closer ties with those they serve. Allowing them to spend less time looking back at complex Excel spreadsheets and more time looking forward.

“At Westcourt we’ve realized for a long time that the future is in advisory services,” says Craig. “But while accountants may know this, it isn’t always the case with clients who often box our industry in as only being all about compliance.

“Thanks to Futrli’s ease of use, it has become much easier to demonstrate how we can add massive value to their business. Not only that, but clients now see how far their accounting budget can now go as the time gained from Futrli’s automation is diverted to producing incredibly detailed metrics for them that inform their daily decisions.”

As well as demonstrating Futrli’s advantages to new and potential clients, Craig and his team have also converted many of their long-standing customers to the platform.

“We have one major partner who was already impressed by what using Xero had done for the financial process,” explains Craig. “Then we showed him just the basics of what Futrli could do and he was gobsmacked.

“When we explained that the information was in real-time too, it was like Christmas had come early for him. Clients have an instant response to the platform and it genuinely helps them think more creatively as they see the potential in what we can offer them now.”

The software’s clear and colorful visualization of financial data such as cash flow, gross margin, net profit margin, and gross profit margin and the ease of understanding, is helping businesses to understanding compliance is now just the starting point of a relationship with Westcourt. Craig and his team devote time previously allocated to compliance and reallocate it to strategy and one-to-one personal time. For Westcourt costs have gone down, but the quality of their metrics they can produce has gone up.

Using Futril for key performance indicator (KPI) based reporting

“A big thing we use Futrli for is to use snapshot boards clearly laying out KPIs for our clients,” says Craig. “By presenting the critical data in this manner we can – and I quote a client here – ‘cut out all the noise’ and provide focus.

“The visual boards quickly convey very pointed info but in a simple user-friendly manner. We get the specific details the client needs to know over to them in a style that suits and can do in a few hours what would have taken several days before.”

The result of adopting Futrli for Westcourt is that a firm that has always put great store in strong personal relationships with its clients, can now dedicate even more time to fostering close ties.

“The response we’ve had to our adaptation of Futrli has been hugely positive across the board,” adds Craig. “I like to use the famous movie line ‘If you build it they will come. That has certainly rung true with Futrli. The opportunities it offers us really hit the nail on the head for what we want to do here.”