Sage Timeslips for Accountants in practice

With difficult economic conditions, including public spending cuts and job losses in both the public and private sectors, there are many challenges facing accountants with corporate and private clients. Accountants who specialise in insolvency cases are finding that business clients need advice on company rescue or close down issues, while individuals with financial problems need debt management advice.

The nature of accountants has always been that time spent on client has been recorded for billing purposes, and this has never been more important as clients seek transparency in charging. Making sure that all time spent on a project is recharged in an accurate and timely manner, along with recoverable expenses, can make a big difference to client profitability and the overall wellbeing of the firm.

Sage Timeslips Introduction

Sage Timeslips is a Windows PC based project time and expense management solution. It integrates with other systems but can function as a standalone system, giving you more insight and control over how time is spent in your business. Sage Timeslips is a global leader in Time Tracking and has been purchased by thousands of businesses worldwide.

Case Study – MacGregors Chartered Accountants & Insolvency Practitioners

MacGregors (www.debtenoughisenough.co.uk) are a small specialised firm of Chartered Accountants based in Edinburgh and covering the Lothians, Borders and Fife. The firm was founded by Robin MacGregor who has 25-years’ experience in the field of Personal Bankruptcy and Debt Advice and has been the Trustee of over 5,000 cases. Known as an individual who speaks his own mind and who by his own admission is a bit of a maverick and a cynic, his personal view on business and management is both practical and level headed.

Unlike many businesses that are always seeking to expand, MacGregors are happy with the size of their business and have not wanted to grow. This has allowed their clients to have access to qualified experts with vast experience under their belts.

Even in a small practice it can be difficult to ensure that all hours and expenses are faithfully recorded. And it is important that clients are billed timely and accurately so that queries on fees are eliminated or reduced and cash-flow maintained. That’s why about twenty years ago MacGregors decided  to investigate time and expenses recording solutions.

They wanted a system that was flexible, value for money, easy-to –use and implement and with the transparency they required. So, they set up a ‘beauty parade’ of potential systems, applied the above parameters and concentrated on fitness for purpose. Deepak Sareen Associates who demonstrated Sage Timeslips to them were put through the same regime.

Benefits of Sage Timeslips

The subsequent implementation went smoothly and MacGregors had what they wanted – all the necessary information they needed to run the business easily and kept simple and reliable. Moreover, they found that they had better management of WIP, avoiding confusing activity with progress.

In a business where it is important to record not just face-to-face meeting time, but lengthy phone conversations as well, it can be difficult to ensure that all time spent on a client project is recorded accurately. Using Timeslips makes it easy to record all time spent on a client and that is why Timeslips full-featured time and billing solution has proven to be so popular with small professional service firms.