How Ascendant delivers secure, scalable client payments with Telleroo

Ascendant is a national accounting firm with hubs in London, Milton Keynes, and York. Luke Streete serves as Group CFO and formerly led the company's specialist Finance as a Service (FaaS) division, which now generates £5 million in annual turnover, representing half of the firm's total revenue.

Payments are at the heart of any outsourced finance function. Luke shares how Telleroo has become the backbone of their payment operations. This allows them to scale the service across clients, delivering ironclad security and reliability that their reputation depends on.

Assessing the time wasted on manual and risky processes

Before adopting Telleroo, Ascendant made payments manually by logging directly into clients' bank accounts. But when it came time to grow their outsourced finance services, this created serious operational and security concerns.

Reviewing time sheet data, Luke could see the team was spending too long on manual payment runs. But the bigger issue was risk. Accessing client bank accounts directly left the firm exposed, and managing that access across a growing team was a constant headache.

"It was the risk of going into a client's bank account. Team members leaving, managing devices, having to get cards resent out, all that is a nightmare to administer." Luke explains.

There was also no consistency. Every bank worked differently, so the same task could be done in several different ways depending on the client. Ascendant needed:

• A way to remove direct access to clients' bank accounts and reduce risk
• Centralised control over who could see and action payments
• Standardisation to bring efficiency that would support service growth

Moving away from bank accounts and focusing on central control over payments

Ascendant turned to Telleroo and found a platform that solved both the security and efficiency challenges. As a wallet-based solution, clients get a dedicated e-money account in their business name. This ensures every client benefits from the same functionality, providing the consistency Ascendant had been looking for.

"I actually prefer that it's not like open banking, pulling money from their bank account," Luke notes. "It gives a good segregation. It's a very clean way of doing it."

With Telleroo, Ascendant can grant team members the right level of access for each client. No bank cards, no extra devices, no administrative headaches:

"Having that central way we can manage access to Telleroo is critical. But also that control layer enforces the standardisation. Otherwise, with normal banking, you might be trying to do the same thing across Barclays and NatWest, but having to do it in two completely different ways."

Finding peace of mind on a critical, sensitive process

Restricting bank access and centralising control for accounting teams is just the beginning when it comes to reducing the risk of client payments.

Paying the right supplier at the right time or the right employee the correct amount is one of the most important aspects of Ascendant’s outsourced function. Even though clients review and approve every payment, the firm is the first place they'll turn if an error occurs.

"Telleroo gives me that confidence. The fact that we've had so few errors, so few instances where we've had to ask Telleroo to put a trace on the money. I can remember maybe two times over the eight years, is a testament to the way the technology works." Luke reflects. "It makes me sleep easy."

Telleroo has built-in security features, including account name and bank detail checks, helping route every payment to the right place and flagging anything that looks wrong before any money goes out.

"Fraud is one of the biggest risks we face as accountants. So Telleroo's continued improvements to functionality around bank fraud detections and security are really critical for us."

Ensuring standardisation through engagement letters and pricing

Ascendant's tech philosophy is simple: use the "best in class" for each part of the process. From invoice capture and approvals to payments and beyond, Luke and his team handpick the right software for every stage.

For clients who want to use Ascendant's outsourced finance services, using these tools isn't optional - they’re a requirement. Payments via Telleroo are written into every client engagement letter from the outset.

"We dictate it. If you want to work with us, we are doing payments through Telleroo," Luke explains. "I can't remember the last time we've had pushback from a new client. As long as it's done efficiently and in a good manner, it doesn't matter to them what technology we're using. We take that decision away from them."

Software is also embedded within the service's pricing, which Luke believes is essential:

"If it's a tool that makes us more efficient, like Telleroo, we bake the technology into our pricing. Clients have pricing that's focused and driven on output, such as payment runs, management accounts, whatever they need. They won't see a line on their invoice for a software charge, as it's a tool that helps us deliver to clients."

Having one powerful hub for payroll and supplier payments

Telleroo allows Ascendant to easily connect clients' accounting, payroll, and expense software, creating payments in just a few clicks. These direct integrations have also become a powerful selling point:

"We come across a lot of clients that have used other payments software, but still found themselves loading payroll payments into the bank manually. So the fact we can say we use Telleroo for supplier payment runs and also for payroll payments is quite an attraction. It's all in one platform, in the same place."

Telleroo has even shaped Ascendant's app stack. When the firm adopted Acting Office, an integration with Telleroo was a requirement.

"We've been using Acting Office for just short of a year now. When looking at their payroll solution, we asked them for a Telleroo integration." Luke says. "Telleroo is so important to us that it impacts future software choice."

An essential partner for firms handling client payments

For Luke, Telleroo does "exactly what it should and does it well", delivering the accuracy, efficiency, and peace of mind the firm needed to scale its payment services with confidence. 

Even though more payment solutions have entered the market since Ascendant partnered with Telleroo eight years ago, Luke’s stance remains unchanged.

"The market has evolved, solutions are more nuanced, but Telleroo still stands out," Luke says. "The team is always very open about the pros and cons of the way Telleroo processes payments. That comfortable, quiet confidence reflects the quality of their product. For us, Telleroo remains the clear choice."

For Luke, choosing the right software isn't just about functionality, it's also about the relationship behind it. He wants to work with tech partners that offer reliable support as Ascendant continues to grow.

"I feel listened to, which I think is important. I always want to work with a vendor that's interested in what their customers have to say about the product. I know I can raise ideas, concerns, issues, and they genuinely care."

When asked what he'd say to another firm considering Telleroo, his answer is clear.

"We've had a fantastic experience over the eight years, and never felt the need to change," Luke concludes. "That speaks to a lot of angles. The product is always developing and improving, but Telleroo is just very solid, very good at what it does."

Get started with Telleroo today to standardise your payment runs, protect client money, and win back valuable time. 🚀