When it comes to small business accounting software, QuickBooks is the reigning king of the hill.
In 2015, the Intuit product commanded a whopping 80% market share with small businesses that used financial management software.
A vast network of accountants who live and breathe QuickBooks has been instrumental in helping them capture that massive share of the market.
Karine Woodman, the brains behind the Minnesota-based 24hr Bookkeeper, is one of these accountants.
No wait — scratch that. Karine is way more than a QuickBooks-capable bookkeeper. She’s a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor, putting her in an elite group of people who know the ins and outs of QuickBooks like nobody’s business.
That’s not all. In June of last year, she was appointed to the Intuit Accountant and Advisor Customer Council, which helps Intuit formulate strategy, products, and programs and services. And just recently, her company was named as the US finalist for Intuit’s Firm of the Future contest (you can vote for them here daily until October 15!).
When Karine started 24hr Bookkeeper in early 2010, however, there was no deliberate push to become masters of the QuickBooks arena. She had been working part-time as a bookkeeper for a few years, and had finally decided to focus full-time on helping small businesses with their financials.
Masters of the QuickBooks Arena – CRM for QuickBooks
“I originally worked for a construction company,” she explains. “When I had my first child I did bookkeeping part-time for a few years, until I reached that point where the mindset just changed; the motivations and what we wanted to accomplish changed.
“I would say in the last two years, we’ve moved the practice to focus more on QuickBooks Online. Now, we only take on clients who either are already using QBO or want to be on QBO.”
Aside from keeping a watchful eye over client finances, 24hr Bookkeeper has also expanded their offerings on the QuickBooks side of the business. They handle everything from data migration to training and consultations. They also do a lot of third-party integrations, especially for construction firms.
“It’s like how WORKetc works with QuickBooks,” says Karine. “We have a few construction applications that we work with, and we help our clients integrate their 3rd party software with QuickBooks.”
It was also this deep relationship with QuickBooks that led her to WORKetc.
“I actually found WORKetc on the QuickBooks app store,” she explains. “Because we’re Intuit-centric, we want to work with products that work with QuickBooks; kind of keep it all in the family, basically, so a CRM for QuickBooks Online was the obvious choice.”
Building a Baseline
When Karine came across WORKetc in early 2016, she didn’t sign up for QuickStart immediately. She first wanted to see for herself what the software could do and how far they could take it by themselves.
“We actually went in and implemented it on our own first,” she recalls. “What I really like about WORKetc is that it’s a nice, robust software that really allows me to run every piece of my business within it. That’s a huge thing for us.
“Once we figured out the baseline of what we wanted I went ahead and purchased the QuickStart program to get help with the specific stuff we wanted.”
When they started the QuickStart onboarding program, Karine already had a lot of specific questions on hand. Most of them involving reporting; specifically, how to get the exact information she needed from the system quickly.
“I would often ask about best practices,” Karine says. “If I explained my workflow and told them what I was hoping to do, all it took was to ask, ‘OK, what’s the best way to do that?’ And then they would show me around in that aspect.”
Karine also got some guidance with tracking everything needed for 24hr Bookkeeper’s monthly payroll.
“It was a way to easily help with my payroll process,” she confides. “For me to pull the hours and to get the right activities to make sure that I was catching everything, was a big one for me.
“Plus, thanks to the support team’s guidance, I can now pull the information I need much more efficiently than I was able to before.”
High Level of Support
Karine is very quick to say that QuickStart has definitely helped 24hr Bookkeeper use WORKetc more efficiently. Her favorite aspect of the program? The high level of one-on-one support.
“Just to have that level of support, to be able to say, ‘this is what I’m trying to accomplish, tell me how to do it’, was really nice,” she explains. “What I really liked about the QuickStart is that I just really had the one on one to ask whatever question I wanted.”
It seems the high level of client support offered in QuickStart resonated with Karine since it’s something in which 24hr Bookkeeper also prides itself.
“The really funny thing is, we actually are not open 24 hours a day,” she reveals. “We are definitely available ‘round the clock, though. We take calls late at night and early in the morning. Time zone differences don’t even matter to us; we’ll take the call, we’ll work with your schedule, and we’ve absolutely done that.
“One particular client, I remember working with him from early evening until 3 o’clock in the morning. He had a really sensitive deadline to meet and we just made it happen for him by working with him that late.”
Asked if she would recommend QuickStart to other WORKetc clients, Karine is equally quick to respond in the affirmative.
“I think QuickStart makes complete sense because it goes against your subscription,” she says. “You’re just pre-paying. If you’re gonna use WORKetc for a long time, you’ll love the one-on-one support you’ll get.
“It’s definitely worth it, and we were very happy with the experience.”
COMMENTS
I found out about Work Etc randomly when looking for a CRM. After doing research on them and several others, they ended up being the most cost efficient with the features I needed. Plus, they don’t nickel-and-dime customers with every little addon.
While I don’t have nearly the experience you do in QuickBooks, I have used it in the past, and it’s good to know that Work Etc has a plugin for it. Thanks for letting me know!
The Quick Start program was a tremendous asset to getting our company up and running with WORK etc. We originally signed up with the free trial to poke around and kick the tires. WORK etc seemed like it would work for our company but we were not sure it was a good fit. The support person we were working with to get our questions answered suggested doing the Quick Start program. That certainly was the best thing we could have done. The one on one attention we received was great, the support staff explained the proper setup (sometimes more that once) and got us up an working much faster that we could have done by ourselves. They know how to setup WORK etc to meet the needs of your company. Each company is different, but they know how to deal with the fine details to make your setup successful and not just muddling through what you think will work. The staff has been great, Thanks.