Case Study: “Cloud is here and happening and it’s definitely the future!”
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About Springfords’¦
Springfords LLP is a progressive firm of chartered accountants with two offices based on the outskirts of Edinburgh in Eskbank and Livingston. With 30 years experience and a team of 43 employees they offer a range of services to suit owner managed businesses at each stage of their life cycle – advice on accounting, management information, auditing and business assurance, tax compliance and specialist tax advice and corporate finance. Clients each have a dedicated account manager, which enables Springfords to give a high level of personal involvement and service. Springfords also participate in Praxity which is a global alliance of firms and advisors that internationally offer advice and guidance on doing business.
Carol Wright is one of the 7 partners in Springfords and is also a Business Growth Specialist. Carol supports a wide range of owner managed businesses, gaining expertise in over 25 years of professional practice after qualifying with Arthur Young.
Liquid & Springfords’¦
Springfords first began looking for a cloud-based accounting solution 6 years ago, but found that the systems weren’t user-friendly enough. The technology was newly emerging, so the functionality wasn’t fully developed and the user interface suffered as a result. Their accounting clients were only just getting used to the online way of thinking with the introduction of online banking, overall she felt there was too much of a fear factor where online accounting was concerned. With all these issues, going into the cloud just wasn’t the right time for Springfords.
Fast forward to 2010 and Carol realised technology had moved on a lot more since first researching cloud-based accounting solutions – so she began the search again’¦
‘We’ve been using Liquid Accounts for 10 months now, after doing some thorough research and using the 30-day free trial we came to the conclusion that it was easy for our customers to understand and we liked the fact that it was an entry-level solution that could grow and develop with their businesses with the add-on modules.
Liquid stood out from its competitors because, from an accountant perspective, it didn’t cost us too much, and it was a reasonable monthly cost for our clients.’
We have several account managers that use Liquid, they are all primarily office-based but with the flexibility of the cloud it means that they can work from home if they need to. Being able to access our client’s data remotely means that we can provide a better service, as we don’t have to travel to meet them – it’s more efficient and cost effective for both us and the clients!
We’ve also been able to take advantage of Liquid Accounts’ training scheme and after taking part in one of their in-house classroom training sessions we are now one of Liquid’s Accredited Training Partners.
As a firm, we are definitely now embracing cloud computing, enabling home to office working and generally introducing more flexibility. Cloud is here and happening and it’s definitely the future!’
Carol Wright, Springfords LLP