It’s a trying time for businesses. The global economy is reeling from the effects of Coronavirus, impacting the livelihood of people worldwide. In Australia, auditing and accounting businesses walk a tightrope—on one side, remote work has become a safety challenge-on the other, there’s no margin for error in SMSF accuracy and compliance. With the help of Cloudoffis, SMSF business leaders-like hmh Advisory’s Sarah Molinaro-have been able to innovate amidst adversity. Cloudoffis was built for SMSF to be ready for tomorrow-so hmh Advisory used it to stay in front of the remote work revolution. For over a decade Sarah ran the SMSF department at hmh Advisory-in their physical offices of course. “When lockdown hit, we had to adapt fast,” she says. “From one day to the next, our entire SMSF team was confined to home. Our paper-based accounting audit system was great—but it wasn’t going to cut it during the pandemic.”
Poised for paperless.
As a specialist, Sarah came to hmh Advisory to run the SMSF department. She’d re-designed and re-built their paper-based systems for very high standardisation. Sarah supervises a team of 3 to 4 staff and personally reviews every fund before it goes to audit. She’d been looking at going paperless—but was wary of risking quality, and wary of the initial admin investment. “We have over 240 funds, from $100k to $15M—with about half of our clients using our financial planning services. There’s high complexity around member balances, pensions, investments such property and options trading”. “We’d seen Cloudoffis at the SMSF Association conference in the Gold Coast”, says Sarah. “We knew from using their SMSF Auditomation product that they offer great support—but we feared the admin burden, and had some older staff who were unsure about the technology side”.
Pandemic plug and play.
Then lockdown hit—and software was a non-negotiable. Remote work was suddenly required. After APES-110 industry changes, hmh found auditors using Cloudoffis SMSF Auditomation, and made the jump to using Cloudoffis SMSF Sorted for the accounting side. Fears of too much admin were soon blown away. “We were up and running in a matter of weeks,” says Sarah, “The tools worked seamlessly with Class and our existing software, and the onboarding process was smooth—even for hesitant members of our team.” It helps that the Cloudoffis team is based in Australia—giving businesses access to all the local support and guidance they need to succeed. We also run on Amazon Australia servers covered by Australian security law and protocol. “No other provider came close to giving us the reassurance we got from Cloudoffis,” says Sarah, “Having support—and our data—here in Australia was priceless.”
Remote and flexible with the cloud.
For Sarah and her team, opting for cloud SMSF software meant they could continue to service their clients even while working from home-at the same standard and quality they’d built their reputation on. “We have team members working in different locations. With a secure digital ecosystem, we can confidently deliver anywhere and anytime.” says Sarah, “Working remotely has been a big success.” Digital transformation might be a necessity during the remote revolution. But the future of SMSF isn’t just about today. At Cloudoffis, it’s about getting ready for tomorrow. Our SMSF tools leverage technology to transform underlying processes and supercharge SMSF businesses. “Cloudoffis technology reduces time spent on routine, repetitive tasks, resulting in a much more efficient end of year process,” Sarah says, “It improves profitability, efficiency and allows the team to better leverage their value elsewhere.”
Ready for tomorrow.
The pandemic has changed the way we all do business. For Sarah and the hmh Advisory team, it’s shown them the way of the future. “We can work from anywhere. We’re saving hours per fund. There’s no double handling. And we have an excellent workpaper system that’s easy to use,” says Sarah. There’s also a buzz about what’s possible with the new Cloudoffis AI features. “We use BT Panorama for financial planning clients —we’re keen to try the new features like AI driven, automated platform statement reconciliations—they could be a gamechanger for our efficiency”, says Sarah. Cloudoffis features have helped hmh go paperless, optimise processes and enjoy an end-to-end workflow. It’s transformed their ecosystem into a streamlined, automated, well-oiled machine—all in the midst of a pandemic. Sarah’s advice to SMSF accountants and administrators poised to go paperless with Cloudoffis? “Just do it,” says Sarah. “More and more of our clients are sending documents electronically, -it’s the new normal and Cloudoffis helps you get ready for it”. The future knocks on every door—at Cloudoffis we’re here to help you answer. Book your live demo today. In 15-mins, our support team will show you how to get your SMSF business ready for tomorrow..