For nearly 15 years, FAB Accountants has been dedicated to serving SME clients, with a unique specialisation in the marine sector. FAB Accountants offer a comprehensive range of services spanning taxation, accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll, as well as support for R&D claims and mergers and acquisitions.
A couple of years ago, Jim Walker, the Director at FAB Accountants, made the strategic decision to transition to FreshPay payroll software. This move was driven by his desire to speed up payroll processes and use cloud software.
“We were using payroll software that wasn't truly cloud-based. Then FreshPay came along, and Jennie, one of the founders, and I were in a mastermind group together. ”
“When we first started using FreshPay, we were excited by the automation around it. For example, director-only payroll is set up once a year and it just happens in the background. Everything just happens behind the scenes, and saves us a lot of time at the back end.”
Already making payroll payments for clients, FAB Accountants made the transition to Telleroo when the FreshPay and Telleroo integration was announced:
“Our old system worked okay, but it wasn't ideal. Making payments was still quite a long-winded process. Then in my mastermind group, there were two or three accountants using Telleroo for supplier payments. So I already had that trust because people I know were using it and saying it was good. As soon as FreshPay mentioned the Telleroo integration, we went ahead and adopted it as soon as it was available.”
Whilst assessing the overall security of the Telleroo software, Jim was especially impressed by its ability to highlight payment risks. Telleroo not only flags new or updated payees, but also checks that the payee name matches the bank account.
"Obviously with this sort of process and system, the security around it is really important, we're dealing with clients' money. I'm trusting my staff to make payments in the hundreds of thousands, so we need full confidence that there's a good process. In the past, we have received emails that appeared to be from legitimate contacts, requesting updates to bank account details. However, it’s not always from the person you think it is. So we love the fact that Telleroo checks to make sure payee details match the recipient bank account details."
Accountants using Telleroo can submit pay runs for client approval. Clients get notified via email, log into Telleroo and either approve or reject the pay runs. This is great for streamlining communication and approval processes between accountants and clients.
Jim says "The approval process is brilliant, better than we had before. So it's very easy for my team to schedule the payments. Then I can double check and approve what’s been set up and the client can do the same at their end as well."
FreshPay and Telleroo share common strengths: exceptional user support and easy-to-use software that integrates with Xero. This ease of use is also reflected in the seamless integration between the two platforms.
"The support we’ve had from FreshPay has been fantastic. I think that's been a big advantage to us."
"And Telleroo is a very intuitive package. I like how user-friendly the layout is. It's nice to click a button in FreshPay and have the pay run appear in Telleroo 10 seconds later, so we can review and approve from there."
“When we moved to FreshPay it was our second change of payroll software in three years, so we did have to be careful about how we approached it with clients, but they trust us at the end of the day. We work closely with our clients and we explained that we felt it was a better package moving forward. They would have more access to the system for approvals and reviewing reports. FreshPay’s easy-to-use portal made it an easy sell.”
“We always strive to be as efficient as we can, and our clients know that we've always been early adopters of software. We were heavily into Xero when we first started all those years ago, so we always think for a small firm we're certainly at the cutting edge on the technology side. That’s what our clients expect from us.”
“With that in mind, the move to Telleroo was very straightforward. We explained to our clients that we felt the system was going to work really well for them, and then the proof was in the pudding! They've not had any issues and their payments are going through nicely. So they're all happy.”
With a streamlined payroll and payment process now established, FAB Accountants looked to provide this service to clients needing to save the most time, beginning with a client managing payroll for over 100 employees:
"With our first client on Telleroo, we decided to go big, with over a hundred people. And it's quite a complicated payroll, with lots of different aspects to it. So we were a little bit wary, but this client could never get BACS files right. She was spending almost a day each month just entering the payments into the bank, and obviously that's then open to human error."
"So we thought if we're going to test Telleroo, that'd be the best one to do it on, and the process has been great. It's been seamless in terms of payment side, giving us the confidence to roll out to our other clients and we're now working our way down the list."
As FAB Accountants progressively integrated both software solutions across their client base, the benefits of these tools were felt within the firm:
"FreshPay and Telleroo have brought efficiencies that have saved us time internally, and that time really adds up. With FreshPay, the finalise button on the pay run simplifies the process. In previous systems, you often had three or four additional tasks to complete for payroll, like ensuring pension contributions are uploaded, RTIs are filed, and that payroll and payslips are distributed. That's all just handled for us on FreshPay and they're only five-minute jobs, but times that by a hundred clients, that's a real big time saving for us. So that's been really important."
"With Telleroo, the benefits are on the client’s side. Our clients were paying staff in various ways, and quite a few were doing it manually in their bank accounts. We've all dealt with online banking and know that it can be very time-consuming, so that's been a great saving for our clients. It’s been great for us to be able to say to our clients that we can save them literally a day a month in some cases, but even if it's saving them 15 minutes, it all adds up. Time is precious to everyone these days, and certainly to our clients who want to be getting on with their day jobs, not sitting on online banking and paying staff."
Finally, what advice would Jim offer to someone thinking about integrating FreshPay and Telleroo?
"Do it. If you're currently keying payment information in manually it's a fantastic time saving. It's all automated. It's securely backed up. It's got that level of security that you won’t get even with your online bank. it's a no-brainer for me."
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