AIS Solutions is an Ontario, Canada based bookkeeping and QuickBooks training practice that focuses on providing business owners with “no hassle” bookkeeping that is always done right. AIS Solutions mission is to educate and empower those it touches. With their business owner clients, they provide more than just data entry services; they deliver valuable, accurate bookkeeping and accounting, which allows business owners to have up-to-date financial reports that can be used to make better business decisions throughout the year. AIS Solutions prides itself on being a partner with their clients to help them succeed in their businesses.
Juliet Aurora, CEO of AIS Solutions, saw that cloud technology was beginning to play a more prominent role in business. She recognized the opportunity to provide better service and support to clients and in 2010 AIS launched its cloud bookkeeping offering.
Payment processes were inefficient and manual
AIS Solutions was using a variety of different payment methods for their clients, including checks, e-transfers, and online payment providers. However, Juliet found that there were many challenges with these methods.
1. Ensuring clients got their prepared checks in time was expensive and inconvenient. AIS incurred costs from couriering rushed checks to clients that were out of town, or the client had to print the check themselves, which was inconvenient.
2. AIS did not want to incur the liability of making e-transfers on the client’s behalf, but they did want to offer the convenience of electronic payment methods and management of the payment process for their clients. As a result, AIS lost visibility into when and how the client had made the payment when the client used other electronic payment methods. Many times, Juliet's team wasn’t aware of a payment until month end reconciliation. Continually following up with clients and manually reversing or reconciling was certainly a point of frustration both for AIS' clients and the team.
3. Clients were not always in the office to sign checks or approve payments because of their travel or work schedules. Therefore, it was often a challenge to get all of the required signatures and approvals, meaning that payment delays were also frequent.
“There were a lot of challenges because the payment systems were inefficient. We could not create any efficiencies for ourselves or our clients because every client had different processes for their supplier payments.” – Juliet Aurora
4. However, the service limitations around these payment methods were one of the most significant obstacles for AIS. With all of the process challenges and costs associated with AP and AR, AIS was unable to offer clients real-time insights or information related to their payments and cash flow.
New payment solutions added value
Juliet wanted a better solution that would enable her practice to reduce internal manual labor, increase the insights and advisory services that she knew clients needed and wanted, and afford her firm the opportunity to create efficient workflows for both.
She discovered Plooto, a modern, cloud-based payment solution that helps businesses pay vendors and collect money from clients with simple, cost-effective technology. Using Plooto, businesses can create payments from invoices, approvals are done through email and can be accessed anywhere, and payments are transferred securely through online banking systems.
“We tested Plooto for our payments first, and we learned how the product and payment flow works. Because we tested it first, we were able to become the experts before we rolled it out to clients. It allowed us to understand the steps that they would have to go through and we could train them effectively.” – Juliet Aurora
Better service and real-time financial support with Plooto
As a result of implementing Plooto, AIS Solutions could increase visibility into client’s payments and streamline its internal processes. Plooto has also helped AIS and its clients establish internal controls and reduce delays since Plooto's email-based payment approvals can be done from anywhere. All of the payment data syncs with the records in AIS’ accounting software of choice, QuickBooks Online, which significantly reduces manual data entry and enables AIS to save both time and money.
The most important benefit to using Plooto, however, is that AIS can now focus on providing real-time financial support for clients. Clients appreciate the cutting-edge technology that AIS is using, and they rely on the information that AIS is offering as a result. Instead of merely cutting checks and making sure that records are up-to-date, AIS can analyze data, glean insights, and help their clients’ businesses thrive.
“Our focus is on empowering our clients by providing them with real-time financial support, and Plooto enables us to do this. We have been able to elevate the level of our offering and, using Plooto, we are providing more services and better information to our clients.” – Juliet Aurora
Juliet Aurora
Juliet Aurora is the CEO of AIS Solutions, a bookkeeping, and QuickBooks training firm as well as Intuit's Global Firm of the Future for 2017. She has been in the Accounting and Finance space for more years than she will ever admit and when she isn’t acting as the Sensei for her team of Bookkeeper Kninjas, you will find her working tirelessly on her latest venture, Kninja Knetwork. She was recently named to the Top 50 Women in Accounting and Top 50 Cloud Accountants for North America. Juliet can be contacted by email ([email protected]) or by calling 1 888 575 5385.
