Pinpoint Bookkeeping, spearheaded by Justine Marshall, enhances clients’ cash flow and efficiency, delivering real-time data for clients to make well-informed choices. As clients' businesses grow, Pinpoint Bookkeeping seamlessly transitions into the role of an outsourced accounts department, overseeing supplier payments, staff expenses, and more.
Justine detailed her journey, from a solo bookkeeper to heading a team of four delivering outsourced accounts departments. She shared three pivotal success pointers:
Given the substantial paperwork and juggling involved as a solo bookkeeper, in the beginning Justine could only add one new client at a time, organise them, and then contemplate the next one. This approach established Pinpoint Bookkeeping and signed a number of great clients, but had its limitations:
“In just three years, one of my clients had grown from a one man band to leading a team of 20, and turning over in excess of a million pounds. At that stage, he wanted the numbers quicker, so he could make the fast decisions needed to keep up with his business growth. Back then, everything was on paper and slow, so that’s what prompted me to explore cloud accounting.”
“I tried Xero and thought it was mind-blowing! At the time I had a six month old baby and we were renovating our house, which was horrendous. The following month, despite all that, I switched all my other clients from the existing system on to Xero. It meant all of a sudden I could work from anywhere.”
By forming a team and carefully selecting a cloud-based app stack featuring Xero and Telleroo, Justine could then focus on enhancing and expanding Pinpoint Bookkeeping:
“Accountants used to ask me if I took referrals. I would say yes, but only one every couple of months. Whereas now I'm happy to have two a week because I've built this team around me. I don't actually do any bookkeeping anymore. So I approve the Telleroo pay runs, and I check the VAT returns, and apart from that, my job is to fix problems, concentrate on new clients and refine our systems.”
What began with clients seeking additional support evolved into a need for supplier payment services.
“I have a client that just buried his head in the sand, and I suppose I just wanted to hold him by the hand a bit more. Plus, another client had issues doing a pay run via an import into their bank. I tried to help and it was hell, there were multiple issues every time you tried.”
Pinpoint Bookkeeping then began to offer recommended payment runs, given as a list to the client for them to make payments. However, this proved challenging:
“We found that if they are too caught up in their own business and they might not make the payments. Which by then, you're building the next payment run, but you don't know if they're going to then make the original payments late.”
Aware of the risks of accessing clients' bank accounts, Justine searched for a payment software that offered a more secure way to make payments on behalf of clients. That software was Telleroo:
“There’s a lot of protection on both sides. Clients have checked the payments, agreed to transfer funds and can just send lump sums to cover pay runs. Human error is always going to happen, but if there is an error, it's not all on me. Telleroo offers protection on both sides, which I think creates trust, and confidence.”
“And the thing that I really like is the customer service and response times. Because you go and think, ‘Oh God, look, the credit limit, it's not covered by the credit limit. Is this going to go late? Am I going to have to get the client to pay things directly?’.”
“And then within like three minutes, you get a response saying it’s updated for you. It’s those things that make it really excellent for me.”
Since offering supplier payments through Telleroo, the impact was seen not only by clients and their suppliers but also by Justine and her team. It became clear that payments complimented and supported their bookkeeping services:
“When we do supplier payment runs for clients, the whole of their accounts tends to be more accurate. As clients can't transpose figures resulting in not paying quite the right amount. Plus, as part of the service, we chase the suppliers for missing invoices and verify large statements. So what we find is that the accuracy of the books is much more stable. Because we’re involved in more of the process, it saves more time all round.”
Telleroo champions bookkeepers to make payment services work for their practice (here are three ways). And it’s something that Justine and the Pinpoint Bookkeeping team highlight with great success:
“I love it. It’s been great for us because I think it's the difference between just being a bookkeeper, and what we're aiming to do. Which is to be this accounts department for people where we're on-hand to do anything that needs to be done.”
“And people keep saying, ‘Why don't you call yourself an accountant?’ Well, I want that bit in the middle. It's the systems and the processes and all of that area that I really enjoy.”
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