Kevin and Deanna tell us about their experience switching to Firm360

0:02 hi this is Clay Lehman with firm 360.
0:04 I'm here today with Kevin and Deanna
0:07 um from Kevin Minkoff CPA uh you have
0:10 been using firm 360 since May of 2020
0:13 and um I just wanted to
0:15 get a couple of questions and see uh
0:18 what you thought of the platform for
0:20 other people who might be thinking about
0:21 making a switch um so first of all when
0:24 you were started first started talking
0:26 to us how how big was your firm how many
0:28 people
0:29 uh five people okay
0:33 um and what what were the softwares
0:34 you're using like for tax and uh project
0:37 management or whatever
0:38 we use Drake tax software we were using
0:43 smartsheet for our project management
0:46 and we didn't start out with a client
0:52 portal we were using a well a
0:56 proprietary software package that was
0:59 tied into our website initially and
1:03 discovered that it was very much out of
1:07 date our programmer didn't keep up with
1:10 the latest software and it was a couple
1:12 of generations late and so it was
1:15 creating all kinds of security
1:17 issues with our very sensitive data of
1:20 course tax returns and Social Security
1:22 numbers
1:24 and we switched to Drake has a secure
1:30 file pro
1:32 program that that's linked up to Drake
1:35 tax software but unfortunately it didn't
1:40 work very well for our clients it was
1:42 very clunky and I think it just was in a
1:45 very early stage and it's still very
1:48 clunky to use their tech support team is
1:53 not very responsive they weren't to our
1:56 requests for upgrading or making some
1:59 changes and we just couldn't use that
2:01 anymore with
2:03 um I'll I'll say I'll I'll add in here
2:06 that a smart sheet
2:09 was a huge problem as well and anyway
2:14 those are the reasons why they switched
2:16 over to firm 360. awesome okay
2:19 um and then I this question might be
2:20 redundant what problems when you when
2:23 you called us the first time what was
2:24 the problem you were looking to solve
2:27 well I'm gonna let Deanna jump in here
2:29 well first of all it was right smack in
2:32 the middle of tax season and our smart
2:34 sheet
2:35 um literally just kind of blew up and so
2:37 anytime I made a change to uh the smart
2:42 sheet
2:43 it would dump about three to four
2:46 hundred emails into my email box
2:50 and it would we also started realizing
2:52 that the computer started changing the
2:55 dates as to that date and so we weren't
2:57 able to track
3:00 um what was actually happening with each
3:02 of the clients tax return because it was
3:04 changing the Status date
3:06 um to whenever it dumped the email and
3:09 then secure file pro it was just very
3:13 difficult for the clients to understand
3:15 what the the security questions were
3:19 asking of them and so they had to go
3:21 make a password and
3:23 um as they had we had to tell them what
3:26 the computer was looking for or the
3:28 program was looking for so they could
3:30 actually get into their portals in order
3:34 to get their documents okay okay
3:37 um so
3:39 um you switched to firm 360. it's been
3:41 uh most of the year now how would you
3:44 say uh things have changed or is there
3:46 anything specifically that that has
3:48 helped has helped your business with
3:50 this process
3:51 well I'll start off by saying it has
3:55 been a tremendous help we were relying
3:58 very heavily on smartsheet to track all
4:03 of our tax returns we had at the time
4:07 the 350 tax returns
4:11 um well in fact
4:13 I had just purchased or was in the
4:15 process of purchasing another smaller
4:17 CPA practice I had 350 clients roughly
4:22 and this other practice was about
4:24 another 150 tax clients
4:26 and at the same time that we were
4:29 switching over to firm 360 and I have to
4:31 say that firm 360 has allowed us to
4:36 easily manage
4:38 all 500 clients I don't think we would
4:41 have been able to merge our two firms
4:44 together with the success that we've had
4:46 if we hadn't had firm 360 there to be
4:50 able to track all of the steps that are
4:56 part of a project which is a tax return
5:00 and managing other tasks so not just tax
5:04 returns but when clients get notices or
5:07 when they want us to do a tax projection
5:10 or they want to have other work done
5:14 review financial statements whatever it
5:16 is firm 360 can manage and help us track
5:20 all of those types of projects really
5:23 well and it's made our life much easier
5:27 and I would say we've been in the
5:30 process of trying to hire an assistant
5:32 for Deanna but we've been able to even
5:36 though that's still critical we've been
5:39 able to get by
5:40 with the support of firm 360.
5:44 um in the background helping us manage
5:47 all this to kind of take some of the
5:49 responsibility of that extra person now
5:51 we still are going to hire an extra
5:53 person
5:54 so but I just want to say that it's been
5:56 a tremendous help
6:05 we did have receptionists but the thing
6:08 is is that before from 360 Kevin had
6:10 said we're going to hire you attempt for
6:13 tax season next year in addition to the
6:16 administer the receptionist firm three
6:19 with firm 360 we don't have to do that
6:21 wow some of the features that you have
6:24 created the the computer programmers
6:27 have created are such a time saving tool
6:32 it is phenomenal I mean there it's
6:36 Second To None just the things that you
6:38 have been able to program for a tax
6:42 office
6:43 to have such uh time saving features has
6:47 been I mean you've you've freed us up
6:50 from having to hire a sixth person wow
6:54 that's awesome thank you
6:56 um and just one one final thing if if
6:58 you were talking to somebody that had
7:00 five employees and they were using Drake
7:03 um and they were on the phone and they
7:04 were like I'm thinking about maybe doing
7:06 firm 360 or somebody else what would you
7:08 tell them don't think just do it
7:12 we can tell them that we've tried yes
7:15 other Solutions we looked I looked quite
7:20 in depth to a program called monday.com
7:24 we have tried canopy as another project
7:28 management solution and we've we found
7:33 numerous problems with both of those
7:36 smartsheet
7:38 is touted as Excel on steroids because
7:42 that's the framework it has and
7:45 monday.com is supposed to be smartsheet
7:48 on steroids the problem is it's this
7:53 blank canvas of
7:57 almost like what you would call a you
8:00 know the marker board that that liquid
8:03 chalk board it's just blank and you're
8:06 handed a bunch of pens and say here you
8:10 go create yourself a project management
8:13 process well I I'm not a programmer and
8:18 and and it was going to be very
8:21 expensive to hire somebody to program it
8:24 all the way we need it but firm 360 is
8:27 already programmed the way we need it it
8:30 thinks like we think we are a tax office
8:34 it's created for for accountants
8:37 and for tax offices so
8:40 um so it's it's complete and take my
8:45 word for it you can save your time and
8:48 energy and money looking at other
8:50 Solutions this is the solution and
8:53 second to the program itself is just the
8:57 support
8:58 um between the programmers
9:00 page the training I mean you everybody
9:04 has seriously been an email away we get
9:07 a response
9:09 um if we are having a problem you are so
9:12 receptive to helping us figure out what
9:14 to do and without getting a bill for it
9:19 or you know there's no worry that oh
9:22 gosh we gotta call them again and it's
9:25 going to cost us a little bit of money
9:26 you the thing that I so appreciate about
9:30 firm 360 is their support staff because
9:33 they want us to be
9:36 um successful successful with the
9:38 program with the program and there there
9:41 is nothing out there like that anywhere
9:44 else and so the program is good but the
9:47 programmers are even better the support
9:50 is terrific Second To None awesome well
9:54 I really appreciate y'all taking the
9:55 time to talk to me here today
9:57 um and thank you and we we look forward
9:59 you know to working with you for a long
10:00 time to come absolutely we do too all
10:03 right

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