Streamlined Workflows, Increased Revenue, and Saved Time with an Accounting Platform That “Gets It”

It’s rare to find a platform built for the way you work and think. My team at Abilene West found just such a solution—uncovering pain points we didn’t know we had and helping us double our revenue along the way.

I started what is now Abilene West in 2008, after I left public accounting. The company has evolved over the years to focus exclusively on client accounting services (CAS). Staying fairly small and local allows us to focus on providing high-end services to SMBs in the $5–80 million range.

One of our great wins came from securing the business of a private equity firm that completed an acquisition and wanted to hire someone to help with their accounting. Abilene ultimately won that account because we are flexible and agile, and the CFO appreciated that we don’t try to force a model on our clients the way some firms do.

During that initial interview, the company’s CFO asked if we used FloQast. It was the first I’d heard of this solution, but coming out of that meeting, I thought, “I have to look into FloQast.”

We Didn’t Know Our Pain Until a Platform Fixed It

Before that moment, we hadn’t used dedicated accounting workflow software, so we weren’t even aware of our pain points. We used Asana for our workflow management and Windows Explorer for file storage. 

The tools weren’t anything special, but we thought they worked fine—until we saw FloQast’s user interface. Accountants built the platform for other accountants, and we related to the structure in a way we never did with Asana. At the time, there was nothing like FloQast on the market. I was sold. 

Comparing FloQast to our original setup, I uncovered our unknown pain points by experiencing how FloQast resolved them: 

• Review processes: I could never get Asana review processes to work for me, so I never knew where anybody was in their work. I couldn’t tell if I had already reviewed a work paper unless I changed the file name or opened it to look for my edits. By contrast, any time I go into FloQast, I can see who is doing what and how far along they are, which allows me to follow up with people as needed. And I can see what I’ve already reviewed, which keeps me on track, too.
• Document management: Ensuring we closed and reconciled every account each month was another issue. When we rolled forward work papers, we didn’t know if the preparer updated it unless we went into the file to check. Inevitably, something would get missed and we’d have to spend time correcting it. Rolling forward work papers in FloQast, we know they are up to date. 
• Standardization: All accountants are painfully familiar with collecting information for an audit without a standardized system. With FloQast, every document is where you expect it to be, because it’s standardized for every client. We have consistency in our monthly checklist, allowing us to roll forward work papers with ease. 
• Automation: We used to spend a lot of time repeatedly performing tedious manual tasks associated with checking different files against various documents. Instead, FloQast eases that entire workflow through automation. Everything lives in one place where everyone can see it, which builds confidence in the process and the numbers.

There are a few features we use regularly. FloQast Analyze shows us how we perform relative to our deadlines, and we can also share these graphs with clients. Incorporated review notes also save time and effort while reducing mistakes. Instead of working through a separate Excel worksheet that could have 100 lines with instructions like “Go to work paper 1.2,” the review notes are attached to the work paper itself. We can leave messages within the document saying, “Revise this number,” and preparers can click on it to see the referenced work paper. Then, they can revise and check it off.

We don’t miss accounts at the end of the month the way we used to, meaning we don’t have to go back and catch up, and the entire audit process is so much easier and faster. I used to spend days—if not weeks—preparing work papers for the auditors. Now, all we have to do is copy and paste what we need directly from FloQast, because it’s easy to find information.

The Power of Community

People don’t generally associate fun with accounting, but the FloQast culture is fun, and it’s made our day-to-day work as CPAs more fun, too. They created a comedy series, “PBC,” that we love to watch, and their songs are hilarious and catchy. Everything is on YouTube, so it’s easy to share, too.

Through these and other efforts, they have lightened the tone of the accounting profession, allowing accountants to be seen in a way we never have before. I have a background in psychology, and coaching is my passion, and it’s remarkable to see how FloQast validates and understands who we are and what we do—while having fun. They’ve done more than create software. They have tapped into something much deeper and created a sense of community.

They support that sentiment through their dedicated space for customers, the FloVerse community. Not only does the community have valuable product-related information, but they also offer purely fun activities unrelated to work. For all of these actions, community members receive points that count toward members-only rewards and swag.

One of my colleagues, Jolie Trogdon, manager of client accounting at Abilene, is consistently at or near the top of the FloVerse leaderboard for all FloQast customers. Her favorite pieces of content are the virtual classes—which are not related to accounting! There, FloQast community members get to interact with each other while learning something new. On the educational side, FloQast puts out a lot of information through events, webinars, and industry news, with the opportunity to earn CPE credits.

We even like how they’ve structured the FloVerse community: When you log in, the industry news briefs are right there. No one has to go searching for material elsewhere online. Jolie and other colleagues turn to the FloVerse community for a mental break. Within a few minutes, they’ve read an article or taken a quiz, remaining productive and ready to return to their tasks.

The gamified nature of the community is a great motivator to learn and interact with other members, and there’s something satisfying about seeing the point total rise! Even the way checklist tasks turn green when completed in the FloQast platform delivers a little dopamine hit, and the analytics make beating your deadlines into a bit of a game as well. All of these small psychological aspects matter, and we’re looking forward to the FloVerse community board becoming even more interactive.

In addition to the FloVerse community resources, we also have access to the FloQademy, FloQast’s learning library of self-paced courses. This material is available on-demand and delivers CPE credits on completion. The FloQadamy also benefits non-accountants. FloQast is very intuitive, but some of our non-accountant staff may need more instruction. When we hired a new administrator, we directed them to the FloQademy to get up to speed on processes, and the tool made training and onboarding even easier.  

A Partnership That Puts Us in a Different League

Saying that we work better doesn’t begin to convey the transformation. FloQast has streamlined our workflow, improved profitability, decreased mistakes, and saved time. 

I went back to look at an old file from 2019 (before we implemented FloQast), and I was completely horrified when I looked at the structure of the file. It was so disorganized! I can’t imagine working without FloQast now.

We now have something to offer that puts us in another league than our competitors. We pride ourselves on accommodating the needs of our clients, and FloQast has become another of our selling points. We’ve significantly increased our revenue since adoption because we can go into much larger clients with confidence, knowing we can handle the workload, manage the team well, and catch mistakes. Two years ago, we brought in a high-value account with many affiliates under one umbrella. Before using FloQast, I never would have thought we could handle a company like that, but FloQast walked us through the whole implementation every step of the way. 

Unlike some software that looks the same year after year, FloQast is constantly improving and is open to new suggestions and feedback to enhance the product. We are beta testing features for them right now, one of which helps perform a monthly close and another that connects work papers to FP&A reports. Of course, FloQast continues development because they want to sell more solutions, but they approach it by filling the legitimate needs of their customers. In this case, ensuring that when someone changes one document, that change reflects everywhere else.

Whenever I talk to somebody related to FloQast, I can’t think of better humans I’d rather chat with. They’re true professionals who know how to find answers, guide customers, troubleshoot, and think through scenarios to reach solutions. The combination of the FloVerse and our beta testing makes our relationships feel like a partnership. That’s everything for a firm our size. The fact that the FloQast CEO and COO will have a meeting with me to pick my brain lets us know how connected they are to their customers. 

FloQast is an incredible tool. It puts Abilene in a better position to share new solutions and platforms and gain the efficiencies that help our clients succeed.