3 reasons these ambitious advisors invested in MYOB Practice Management
1. Ability to track where most time is being spent across the firm — this allows for optimisation of tasks and client priority.
2. Keep on top of workflow and manage advisory services — in order to maximise output while delivering outcomes, keeping workflow organised and managed is key.
3. Integrate with all other existing and new apps and software across the business — by seamlessly working with all other accounting and tax software, MYOB Practice Management allows for a complete digital business experience.
Starting a business from scratch is hard work. The team at Altias Advisory know that all too well, but they also know that hard work pays off.
Since starting their accounting, tax and advisory firm in 2015, the team of directors — made up of Ben Johnson, Brayden Allenberg and Benjamin Venter — have been dedicating their time to organic growth.
Starting with one client that Ben admits they “overserviced” by practically moving into their office, Altias was able to gather organic referrals and grow their client base steadily.
"We have to grow to offer our staff the opportunity to grow as well."
- Ben Johnson, Director, Altias Advisory
After identifying their need for time-saving software that uplifted their existing workflow, the Altias team engaged MYOB’s Practice Management solution (previously known as GreatSoft), after some thorough due diligence.
“We wanted more of a cloud-based package that could make the firm viable and responsive, and also help us set the stage for the next phase of growth,” explains Ben.
From little things, bigger things grow
Born out of frustration with the old way of doing things, Ben, Brayden and Benjamin set about developing a full-scale accounting service. They were able to identify opportunities to uplift and grow their clients’ businesses quite early on, which led them to expand their own practice services to include a financial planning division. But that’s not all – Altias also purchased a smaller firm soon after and began their journey to the full-service financial advisory firm that they are today.
For this next phase of their business to be successful, they agreed they needed to implement a practice management platform to help them with their growth trajectory.
"The functionality of GreatSoft [MYOB Practice Management] is very intuitive, it’s designed by accountants for accountants."
- Brayden Allenberg, Director, Altias Advisory
“Ultimately, the reason we brought GreatSoft [MYOB Practice Management] onboard was to help us track time and understand where our time is going within the firm,” explains Brayden. Time, it was agreed, was the most precious resource within their business.
“Quite often, clients require a lot more support than they think they need. It can be very hard to explain to a client how much time you have actually spent on their file. Being able to record data correctly within GreatSoft [MYOB Practice Management] means that you are able to have a proactive discussion with the client, explain how we have spent our time working on different areas, and add on additional services or support that they need,” says Ben.
Bringing the right elements together for success
Another real bonus of MYOB Practice Management for Altias Advisory was how seamlessly the practice management solution integrated with the other cloud-based apps like HowNow, NowInfinity and Class that were already implemented in their business.
“GreatSoft [MYOB Practice Management] offers great flexibility: it's cloud-based so we can access it from anywhere. We also have the ability to have it integrate with other software and apps, which means we can change a piece of data in one place, and it'll sync up everywhere else. So, because it integrates across a number of different platforms, it helps us reduce any manual data entry and room for error, ultimately enabling us to better support our clients with our time spent on valuable tasks,” a relieved Brayden explains.
Practice growth made possible with MYOB Practice Management
More than just a time-saving tool, MYOB Practice Management has been a driver of practice growth for Altias Advisory. Despite being in the early stages of implementation, Altias has already identified some priceless benefits that the platform has enabled.
“GreatSoft [MYOB Practice Management] is a great tool for tracking productivity and billables. That's the main reason for the use of it at this stage, but it also has some excellent planning capabilities with regard to task management and project management,” says Ben.
In particular, the team at Altias Advisory are excited to be using MYOB Practice Management's workflow and project management capabilities to accurately plan how to support a client's needs, including allocating appropriate resourcing, tracking the status of a client job, monitoring employee productivity, and finding opportunities for efficiency or improvement.
“You can actually run comparisons against different staff members to see how they’re actually operating. Why is one staff member basically completing the same task in half the amount of time? Or why is one job with a particular client being over serviced? This level of visibility will allow us to proactively take steps to improve overall practice performance and efficiency,” explains Brayden.
Patience pays off, but a healthy dose of hustle does too
For Altias, it’s important to prioritise the success of their clients first, as the benefits of their success will positively reflect in the practice’s revenue growth.
“With the full-scale visibility that GreatSoft [MYOB Practice Management] provides, it means that we are able to marry up the data to maintain the ideal clients for our firm so that we can continue on our growth path,” says Benjamin.
“The idea is that we can plan much further ahead in terms of 10- or 15-year growth plans. And we can basically plan the business out a lot further, because the data that you're getting [from GreatSoft] is a lot better.”
