Tom’s #1 reason for moving from Practice CS to Qount?

"We wanted everything in one place."

Before Qount, the firm’s team members were hopping back and forth between different apps. If they needed data to transfer from one place to another, they had to roll up their sleeves for manual export and import. Now, everything is gathered in one interface. Qount's modules talk to each other natively, so there's no more manual data transfer. By working out of one integrated platform, AC has cut down on needless complexity and menial admin tasks. Accountants can move through their task lists faster and focus on skilled work.

As a technology-focused leader, Tom Bade recognized the long-term potential of a highly interoperable system.

“I looked at [Qount] through the lens of a tech guy. The possibilities were there to do endless integrations. And so it very much appealed to us.”

For example? Qount's integration with Quickbooks Online. In ye olde days, if one of the firm’s accountants had a question about a client transaction, they had to start an email thread. Do we even need to explain what a pain that was? Inbox bloat, messiness, and scattered pieces—if you've ever tried to go the email route, you know.

By comparison, Qount's QBO integration is, per Tom, "a very, very efficient way to communicate with our clients about transactions. No doubt. You don't have to actually reach out to them!" Instead, accountants make notes directly in Qount and clients receive prompts in the portal. Everything syncs real-time with Quickbooks.

"Another important thing for us was to be able to visualize our workflows a little bit better. You know, have automatic notifications coming to staff that are assigned to a particular task—things like that.”

Qount’s automation hub came loaded with pre-fabbed task templates (e.g., 1040s, write-ups, payroll), but Tom can build custom templates to suit the firm’s unique workflow. Task assignments, notifications, recurring tasks, and dependency-based progressions can all be automated.

“That’s been very helpful,” Tom says.

He volunteered that centralizing Document Management in Qount’s all-in-one system has also made everyone’s lives easier. As head of IT, Tom appreciates the ability to set permissions and granularly control what people see.

“Before, we were just doing it through a remote desktop server that was hit or miss,” he says. “Now it’s way more efficient, way more reliable. We don’t have any issues with it.”

One of the biggest impacts of the Qount switch has been the firm’s proposal process.

“That’s been a real game-changer,” Tom says. “It looks so much nicer than what we were doing before and it’s so much more consistent. Easier for the client.”

Before Qount, a partner would conduct live interviews with clients and try to take notes in a Word document. They’d upload their notes to a folder system and go through “lots of Excel spreadsheets” to generate a quote. Ouch.

Now, the firm can program their pricing into Qount, whether that’s flat-fee service packages, hourly billing rates, and/or add-ons. Qount walks their clients through a step-by-step onboarding process, where pricing and services are clearly defined. The customer selects what they want, signs the engagement letter, provides their billing details—and voilà! They’re off to the races.

Tom envisions a future without scattered .XLSX files.

“We’re trying to eliminate those spreadsheets one by one and get reports out of Qount.”

Because the relevant data all live in one place, Qount can generate comprehensive and contextual reports. Firm leaders can track business performance with automated month-end close reports, as well as a range of out-of-the-box reports on revenue and task management. Client engagement reports help them monitor churn, proposal acceptance, and profitability. Sales reports make it easy to track commissions and incentives, while monitoring retainer usage and accounting for tax/VAT. And for people like Tom, who love to customize, there’s a custom report builder, Power BI integration, and API access.