TaxAssist Accountants Norwich North
TaxAssist Accountants Norwich North Makes the Dream of Leveraging a Cloud-Based Document Management System Reality
Robin Johnson, owner of TaxAssist Accountants Norwich North, knew that in order to work remotely and securely while continuing to service the firm’s clients, he needed to adopt a cloud-based document management system (DMS).
“The urgency to move our documents into the cloud was definitely Covid-inspired,” said Robin. “I had wanted to move in this direction from our desktop-based system for two years, but it was having to work as a remote team that really made us act on it.”
Robin’s firm took action to implement SmartVault in August 2021 after using an alternative document storage solution for several years. Currently, Robin’s team includes himself and three other professionals with plans to hire two additional team members in the next few months.
“The transition to SmartVault only took a week, and our team was essentially able to start using it immediately—it’s that intuitive,” explained Robin.
Making the leap and leading the way to higher productivity and a paperless workflow with SmartVault
As a firm that is part of a franchise organisation, the decision to move to SmartVault is one that Robin believes will eventually benefit all 220 member firms once it is completely rolled out.
“We are leading the move to the cloud in the TaxAssist business and that is what I have been wanting to do for a long time. The fact that SmartVault is completely integrated with our tax software, TaxCalc, means that this tax season is going to be a lot smoother and we’ll reap significant time savings, too.”
Robin’s firm uses SmartVault exclusively as an internal DMS, printing all returns from TaxCalc directly into client folders. They also save all client documents in SmartVault—a move that aligns perfectly with their ultimate goal of being completely paperless.
“From a business continuity, collaboration, and security standpoint, there really is no other way to work in the times we are living in. It is absolutely essential. Utopia for our firm would be a completely paperless process and SmartVault is helping us get there!”
An integrated solution that provides scalability, security and seamless integration with tax software
“SmartVault is the forward-looking solution for document management and secure file storage that I knew we needed. Having the assurance of SmartVault being fully GDPR compliant is also key,” said Robin. “We need to ensure that we are handling all of our client data in a way that meets all regulations while giving ourselves and our clients peace of mind. It’s much more secure than having dedicated laptops and devices. Plus it eliminates the need for installing software, that’s a cost-saving, too.”
SmartVault delivers on the dream of an accounting firm-focused DMS
For a cloud-based DMS, the transition to SmartVault was smooth and seamless for Robin’s firm. Robin also utilises many of SmartVault’s resources such as the how-to guides and onboarding support. From Robin’s perspective, SmartVault has many strong points for accounting firms — and every firm needs a fully cloud-based document management system.
To other accounting firms considering a document management system, or thinking about transitioning to a more robust and secure DMS, Robin’s advice is simple: “Get a demo and just do it. It’s really a common sense solution.”
