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Find out how SmartBooks has made a difference for clients like you.
Education
Young Broadcasters of America
Watch the video testimonial:
http://blog.smartbookscorp.com/2010/05/smartbooks-commercial-by-jimmy.html
Investment Bank
Progress Partners
The Company
Progress Partners is a boutique investment bank that works with the owners and management of emerging growth companies to plan for, build and realize business value. Progress helps companies obtain investment capital; realize potential returns through mergers, acquisitions and other strategies; develop and implement strategic plans; and grow through expansion into new markets and acquisition of new customers.
The Situation
A relatively small company, Progress Partners was doing business with a bookkeeping firm that simply wasn't giving it sufficient attention. The problem was compounded by the fact that Progress didn't have someone on staff who functioned in a CFO capacity. Consequently, the bookkeeping system wasn't well organized or systematized. In the words of Progress partner Nick MacShane, "it just wasn't a well-orchestrated partnership."
The Solution
Nick had worked with SmartBooks' co-founder Calvin Wilder when Calvin was a principal of Thrive Networks, so he had a personal understanding of Calvin's approach to process engineering. It was, Nick says, "a no-brainer" to entrust Progress Partners' bookkeeping to SmartBooks. In particular, Nick was impressed with what he terms SmartBooks' "modern business model". Almost immediately, Progress had on-demand access to its bookkeeping system; the principals could bring up anything in the system at a moment's notice. What's more, they are extremely pleased with the kind of responsiveness they enjoy as SmartBooks' clients. For example, they use Instant Messenger when they have questions they'd like answered quickly and get immediate response. Another factor in SmartBooks' favor is pricing. It is proving to be a far less expensive solution than Progress' previous bookkeeping relationship.
Testimonial
"I really saw SmartBooks as an extension of a mindset," says Nick. He explains. "I'm going to be good at what I'm good at, and I'm going to accept that I'm not necessarily good at other things. I'm going to outsource those things that I'm not great at.
"SmartBooks is a very innovative kind of company. I talk about them as being smart, responsive, competent – all the favorable adjectives you can think of.
"There's something about the immediacy and the ability to bring everything up at a moment's notice that is refreshing about what they're doing. It's accounting on your schedule. It's a way to bring your accounting into the 21st Century."
Consumer Electronics
ThinkFlood
The Company
ThinkFlood is a software and hardware company founded for the purpose of developing technological solutions that allow people to simplify their lives. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, the company's first product, the RedEye Remote Control System, is an application that gives iPhone and iPod users touch control of their TV, stereo, cable box, DVD player and many other home electronic systems.
The Situation
Like the founders of countless other start-ups that have come before them, the principals of ThinkFlood began by doing their business accounting themselves. But in concert with the launch of a beta version of RedEye in June, 2009, they expanded their business operations, brought in new employees and began building up inventory. According to founder Matt Eagar, "things were starting to get really complicated. And we were also potentially looking at a bank loan to finance some of the inventory growth." Clearly, it was time for ThinkFlood to move to a more sophisticated accounting model.
The Solution
After first bringing in another bookkeeping service that failed to satisfy their expectations, the principals of ThinkFlood were introduced to SmartBooks by a trusted advisor. Their charge to SmartBooks – help them gain a clearer view of their financial picture. In less than a week's time, ThinkFlood's books were in good, working order, and the principals had become familiar with SmartBooks' way of working. SmartBooks has subsequently supported ThinkFlood's efforts to structure a national dealer network and contributed to its growth in other meaningful ways.
Testimonial
"Bookkeeping isn't something we really care to be specialists in," says Eagar. "SmartBooks makes sure that the bookkeeping process is low maintenance for us and low profile, and that's actually the way we like it.
"SmartBooks does something we try to do in our own business, which is to use technology to automate the process. We're a young company, and we're trying to be as lean and low cost as possible. We believe that technology can do that for us, and SmartBooks seems to have that similar mindset.
"We've structured ourselves so that everybody in the company has laptops and our phones are actually run on our computers. We can be anywhere in the world and do our work, and we really wanted an affiliation with a company that was compatible with that approach. The SmartBooks solution is perfectly in line with the way we work – mobile, on demand and very, very responsive."
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