91% of our 356 team members say that BlueRock is an innovative company. Want to know why? In this article, David Hanus gives a sneak peek into the automation and digital tools we’re developing to change the game in accounting and professional services.
When I joined BlueRock, founder and CEO Peter Lalor laid out the company’s vision to augment the advice our people provide to clients with technology. Through automation and the use of smart digital tools, we can provide a better client experience and better quality of information. It also enables us to increase the quality time we spend with our clients to help them be successful in their business and personal life.
Over the past few years of BlueRock’s innovation journey, the firm identified over 50 ideas around operational efficiency and client experience to transform advisory work through the introduction of advanced technology. By applying a test and learn approach to these ideas, we managed to launch a suite of tools to assist our advisors in driving efficiency and enhancing outcomes for their clients. And it appears our people are on board. In our recent company-wide engagement survey, 91% of respondents agreed BlueRock is an innovative company. We were also delighted to see that 81% agree that, “the technology I use daily works well and helps me work efficiently and productively.” Another tick for our tech and innovation team, especially as this was up 11% from last time.
It just makes sense. Why spend hours doing the heavy lifting preparing BAS or year-end statements when technology can automate a lot of this admin-heavy leg work? Our smart tech tools collate all relevant information from a wide range of data sources and organise it into prepopulated templates before running comparisons to identify any anomalies and discrepancies. This highlights to the advisors what areas of our client’s businesses they need to focus on. It also means they have more time for creative thinking and analysis of the insights presented. Ultimately, the tools free up the advisors to work on strategy, forecasting, modelling or budgeting, which all deliver more value to our clients than admin work.
Developing Tools For The Advisors Of The Future
The development of these tools supports the firm’s multidisciplinary approach in that all information is accessible to both the client and advisor within one central place. It enhances collaboration across internal teams too, as advisors can work seamlessly without requiring multiple inputs of data from the client, or across divisions. The client experience is also enhanced as teams are easily informed on client needs to provide a better level of service holistically and be proactive in their approach. These tools ensure we don’t just talk the talk when we say BlueRock is a one-stop-shop for busy business owners. We walk the walk too.
Game-Changing Accounting Automation Tools
Across the firm, we’re already using our year-end automation tool, which was developed in-house to assist advisors in driving efficiency and productivity. We estimate that this transformative feature allows advisors to save about 20-30% of the time it takes to prepare year end from a standing start. By this time next year, as we iterate and the tools get smarter, it will be closer to 50% and will increase each year.
Our goal is that our tools not only enhance our advisors’ ability to deliver phenomenal results, but to enhance our clients’ experience through end-to-end digital platforms. Our newly introduced tools are already showing great results in saving time, and the feedback from advisors has been positive. And while some say that young accounting graduates need to complete these manual tasks to learn the tools of the trade, I argue that across any industry, the grads of today won’t want to be doing tasks they know can be automated with technology.
Accounts Payable Automation and Cloud Accounting is Standard Industry Practice
We’re not the only ones bringing more tech innovation to the accounting profession as technology continues to evolve and is rapidly replacing the traditional scope of work. BlueRock has been implementing accounts payable automation for a while, leveraging smart accounting software such as Dext. We’re also a Xero Platinum Champion Partner, ensuring our clients get the most from their cloud-based accounting software.
We’ve also created tools that assist in efficiently preparing information for advisors, collating, and highlighting key information removing the manual tasks required in preparing data for review. The result is that advisors can focus more of their time on reviewing data and providing strategic advice to clients in supporting their business and financial growth.
Introducing BlueRock On Demand. Subscription Services for Busy Business Owners
We’re not just building out technology for ourselves. We’ve launched BlueRock On Demand, a suite of monthly subscription business services designed to help SMEs succeed through fixed-fee services that tick all the business boxes. We’re using technology to do the leg work and keep costs down so business owners can focus on their business adventure.
Think cloud-based payroll software, accurate bookkeeping and Virtual CFO services, all seamlessly onboarded through one team of business experts offering a choice of flexible monthly subscriptions. Get in touch with our BlueRock On Demand team to find out more.
