The Business: Nexis Accountants is a Canberra-based business advisory and accounting firm focused on helping small-to-medium sized enterprise clients manage everything from tax planning and compliance to asset protection and business growth. Its team of more than 20 offers tailored and innovative services to both personal and business customers.
Products: SMSF Sorted & Workpapers Sorted
Industry: Accounting & SMSF
Interviewees: Jacklyn Ersan, manager and chartered accountant; Tom Rowe, manager – superannuation
Key Results:
With a stable of long-standing clients and a focus on precision, the Nexis teams previously relied on a highly detailed, PDF-based workpapers process developed over several years. The large PDF files contained bookmarks, references and supporting documentation, which allowed the team to be thorough, but also created challenges. Staff often maintained separate calculation files outside the final workpaper package, making it difficult to verify formulas and track supporting information.
At the same time, Nexis learned that its previous workpapers solution was being discontinued, which allowed team manager Jacklyn Ersan to investigate alternative options to fit the firm’s future growth goals.
The practice wanted to preserve the detail of its existing processes while moving to a modern cloud-based solution.
“We wanted to improve our processes without reducing quality.”
After meeting Cloudoffis representatives at a series of industry events, Nexis decided to take a closer look at the platform. A few members of the Cloudoffis team visited the Nexis office for a demo and showcased how the platform works.
While the offering was significantly different to Nexis’ previous solution, Jacklyn saw potential to streamline the firm’s practices. On the back of the demonstration, Nexis initially adopted SMSF Sorted and found it saved significant time.
Nexis later began implementing Workpapers Sorted as a replacement for its outgoing workpapers solution.
Rather than immediately rolling the platform out across the entire business, Nexis took a staged approach. A small pilot group of five to six team members began testing the platform first, allowing the firm to refine templates, workflows and processes before introducing it to the wider team.
“We found that worked really well. It was much easier managing feedback from a small group than having 20 or 25 people trying to learn something completely new at the same time.”
Instead of asking Nexis to completely change the way it worked, the Cloudoffis team took the time to understand the firm’s existing processes and templates. Cloudoffis worked with the firm’s existing documents, building placeholders and automations directly into their established workflows.
According to Jacklyn, this meant staff could continue working with familiar templates while benefiting from automation and cloud-based functionality.
The result was a much smoother transition and less disruption for the broader team.
Customer support became one of the defining features of the implementation. While the previous provider had offered generic help articles, the Cloudoffis team differentiated themselves by closely with Nexis throughout the rollout.
Jacklyn says questions were answered quickly, issues were resolved promptly and the firm received direct access to people who could help refine and improve the platform.
“The customer service stood them out miles ahead of anyone else.”
The support also extended beyond standard onboarding.
During the implementation process, a Cloudoffis developer travelled to Canberra and spent time working directly with Nexis managers, reviewing workflows, identifying opportunities for improvement and gathering feedback for future development.
The experience gave the Nexis team confidence that their feedback was being heard.
“They’re very open to asking accountants what they want to see. They’ve always been incredibly receptive.”
On the superannuation side, SMSF Sorted has been a substantial improvement on the PDF docs and binders Nexis previously used. Tom said it has saved his team a lot of time.
“Reworks are far simpler and has also made working with the auditors way easier too.”
Although the firm is still in the early stages of its Workpapers Sorted rollout, several early benefits have emerged.
For Jacklyn, one of the most significant has been the ability to automate data population through placeholders linked directly to accounting systems. By retaining their existing templates and integrating automation into them, Nexis expects to reduce the need for manual data entry while also minimising the risk of transcription errors.
“The biggest time saver we’ve had is the fact that they were able to load all our templates and put placeholders straight into them.”
Nexis is preparing to complete its firm-wide rollout of Workpapers Sorted, following its staged implementation with a pilot group.
The firm is also exploring how newer Cloudoffis modules may fit into its broader technology strategy.
“Cloudoffis introducing things like the Workflow module has enabled us to see a future where going to fit into one platform.”
While some of these products are still being developed, Nexis has been involved in testing and providing feedback on new functionality.
“Their vision of having one tool that does workflow, from workpapers to allocation, from everything to connecting to due dates with the ATO is definitely our vision as well.”
The firm expects to gain a clearer picture of the platform’s impact once all staff are using the system and the rollout is complete.
For firms considering a move to a new workpapers platform, Jacklyn recommends the following:
Tom’s advice is simple.
“Best to get to it sooner rather than later, you won’t regret it.”
Although Nexis is still relatively early in its Workpapers Sorted journey, Jacklyn says the support provided throughout the implementation process has been a major factor in the firm’s experience.
“The customer support is probably the one and main reason why we’ve stayed with them and we’ve chosen them compared to the likes of our existing provider,” she says.
Throughout the transition, Nexis has worked closely with the Cloudoffis team to customise templates, provide feedback and help shape future developments.
“It’s been a really incredible journey seeing them develop a product that’s changed so quickly in the last six to 12 months and seeing how we could be part of that change.”
As Nexis prepares for its full rollout, the focus remains on building greater efficiency while maintaining the quality and consistency of its existing workpaper processes.
“We could develop and assist them in developing new things that could see their product growing as well as our firm and efficiency growing. It’s been enjoyable to be part of.”
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