Challenge

Westcourt want to help family businesses and sole traders thrive. They recognise the multitude of different needs that small businesses have and established their niche providing advisory for family businesses. These clients represent a broad spectrum of needs, from rural micro businesses to national brands that employ over 300 employees. One of the key challenges that Westcourt face is ensuring they maximise their advisory potential.

Solution

Through the development of their forecasting solutions, Westcourt empower their clients to make business decisions that are grounded in the financial source data. Through this information, family businesses clearly understand how their business history has brought them to their current position and how new opportunities for growth will affect their business.

Results

Westcourt deliver on their vision as a value-driven accountancy firm. Their connections with clients are meaningful and contribute to better advisory offerings. Through predictive forecasting with Futrli, Westcourt have been able to help protect many businesses during the tough times, and see those businesses thrive during the better times.

Interview in full

Tell Us About Westcourt

Westcourt are a firm based in Perth. Driven by their values, they support family-owned businesses through taxes and advisory. Having rejected the dreaded timesheet in favour of upfront, transparent pricing, they focus on in-depth, authentic interactions to see clients achieve their potential.

Tell us about what brought you to Futrli

As early adopters of forecasting technology, Westcourt had been using forecasting software solutions that were labour-intensive and were not linked to financial source data. When CEO of Futrli, Hannah Dawson, reached out to Westcourt in 2014, they knew that Futrli’s solution solved many of the issues they had been facing. After adopting both Xero and Futrli, Westcourt were able to perform three-way modelling which was integrated into their source data.

On top, they were able to create dashboard-style reports within Futrli. Many of their clients have bank funding arrangements and are required to provide annual financial information. They were able to create templated reporting packs and the banks’ response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Tell us about a client who has benefitted from your advisory services

Westcourt had a client in the real estate industry who had a particularly tense relationship with the bank during a difficult period for the property market.

Using three-way forecasting and scenario-based modelling in Futrli, Westcourt were able to help them. The client used dashboard reporting through Futrli to track their financial information including their overheads and income generated by the sales team. From this information, they were able to work out where changes needed to be made.

Over the course of a 5-year journey, the client came back from a difficult relationship with the bank to a far more amicable situation. Their cost restructuring, forecasting and data-integrated reports ensured that the bank understood that while things weren’t great now, they were on the right path to becoming profitable once more.

Through making cost-cutting decisions based on forecasts in Futrli, they shaved $1 million of costs over a 12-month period. They were able to bring themselves to a profitable position and over a 2-year window reduced their deposition by $1.2 million too.

When the market turned back in their favour they launched upwards again. The client reaped the rewards of their frugality during tough times as they continued to keep their costs very low. They thus enjoyed a greater profit margin as a result.

How have your clients responded to Futrli?

Futrli drives the forward-looking engagements Westcourt have with their clients. It has also significantly helped develop a core element of their offering: bank packs. Clients recognise the instant value in template-ready reports to show banks that communicate their financials clearly and are linked to their source data.

Westcourt are proud users of Futrli and having referred to Futrli in their blogs and online, clients have reached out across the country for Futrli-driven forecasting solutions for their businesses.