Ashfield Accountancy/NetPayroll
For Mark Hill, Managing Director, at Surrey-based online payroll bureau NetPayroll, the transition to SmartVault couldn’t have come soon enough. Their company was using a portal system, which, unfortunately did not meet their needs.
“Prior to using SmartVault, we were using a different portal but it was a nightmare. Files weren’t always uploading properly and they couldn’t be sorted by date. Plus, we couldn’t download anything on Macs. In short, it just was not working,” Mark recalls. “Then, one of our clients mentioned SmartVault and recommended that we take a look at it.”
After seeing a demo of SmartVault, Mark and his team were impressed by how easy the platform was to use. They implemented it in December of 2017 and Mark says the experience has been, “Fantastic from the get-go”. His team think transferring to and using SmartVault is “as easy as breathing”, “streamlined”, and “exactly what you want when you have a change in systems, for everything to go so smoothly.”
A simple, powerful solution that secures client data and streamlines workflow
Mark’s Payroll Manager is the primary user of SmartVault for their bureau, with other team members from their associated accountancy practice, Ashfield Accountancy, using it to access payslips and payroll reports. All agree that the ability to easily set different access levels to files for different users is a critical benefit of SmartVault.
“We upload in excess of 800 documents a month for our clients to access in SmartVault,” said Mark. “Essentially, anything that we can’t email under the General Data Protection Regulation, such as payslips, P45s, P60s, pension letters and other sensitive information is uploaded to SmartVault. We generally save to the SmartVault drive from our scanner or print to SmartVault using the connected desktop which makes it easy. Then we can set different permissions to maintain client privacy and data security.”
Typically, when Mark starts working with a client he sets them up in SmartVault and sends them a link to access the platform. It’s a process that delights clients and the team alike.
“Some of our clients are not that computer savvy so we were afraid that we might get some push back using a cloud-based platform like SmartVault, but that wasn’t the case at all. It has been easy—and in the payroll world we aren’t accustomed to things being that easy. SmartVault has been like a breath of fresh air in that regard.”
Tackling GDRP compliance with ease
SmartVault has also helped NetPayroll tackle another aspect of the payroll profession that presented potentially serious challenges for them: the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
“We knew that GDPR was coming up and it was really worrisome for us,” Mark shared. “However, once we knew that SmartVault could take care of all of the GDPR needs for us we were relieved. Having SmartVault really has been epic, and the most important thing our company has done for GDPR compliance. It is truly brilliant because we know that we are completely compliant using SmartVault.”
In addition to eliminating the risks related to transmitting sensitive information via email, helping create new efficiencies and convenience for clients, and secure, self-serve client portals, NetPayroll also see other future applications of SmartVault for their payroll bureau and the needs of their associated accountancy firm. Mark views SmartVault as a solution that will keep pace with their needs for security, client privacy, and file sharing and storage due to the capability to create required audit trails and activity logs for GDPR compliance, and the ability to have engagement letters e-signed with DocuSign integration.
Final Words
Talking to Mark, it is apparent that SmartVault has brought a good level of relief to their payroll bureau and their clients, in both a day-to-day operations and the need to meet the requirements of GDPR.
He doesn’t hesitate to recommend that other bureaus evaluate SmartVault, too. “I definitely recommend SmartVault. It’s incredibly user-friendly and it’s a very diverse solution. There are so many things that you can do with it, we’ve found it to be an extremely useful system.”
