Gascoynes provides expert accountancy advice and related services to clients across Norfolk and Suffolk. Businesses of all sizes choose the firm for its modern, personalised approach, supported by the latest digital and cloud solutions.
Since it was founded in 1987, Gascoynes has grown organically and through acquisition, and is now present in four locations across East Anglia.
“As we were growing and adding offices, it seemed natural for us to move to an accountancy package that was cloud based,” says Chris Reeve, Managing Director of Gascoynes. “The fact Silverfin is in the cloud and comes with working papers, made it seem like a good fit.”
Getting more done every day
Gascoynes found it straightforward to integrate cloud-based Silverfin with other systems, like Xero and QuickBooks. “This has really speeded us up and allowed our business to grow and scale quickly,” says Mark Thurston, Director at Gascoynes.
Silverfin supports enhanced collaboration across the Gascoynes offices and enables people to work from any location, with all the data they need at their fingertips.
“Silverfin lets us work effectively as one big team and do many more jobs that previously would have taken weeks using manual, handwritten schedules.”
Mark Thurston, Director, Gascoynes
With Silverfin, a director like Mark can review a job as soon as it’s ready, with no need to travel to the office that prepared it. Silverfin also lets him make better use of what he calls ‘in-between time’ — a spare hour here or there that he can spend on a review, whether he’s in the office or working from home, even out of hours.
“I don’t have to make sure I take the right files home with me — I can simply review them in Silverfin whenever and wherever it suits me,” he says.
Consistency drives efficiency
In the past, Gascoynes used Excel for working papers, which led to different teams using different formats. Now Silverfin working papers helps standardise the way everyone at Gascoynes works, allowing the firm to boost its capacity, despite the challenge of recruiting qualified staff.
“There’s been a major improvement in our working papers and they’re now really consistent across the firm,” says Chris. “Everyone knows there’s currently a staffing shortage. Improving our internal procedures and the speed with which we prepare the working papers really helps.”
The Gascoynes team prepares the initial accounts work in Xero and QuickBooks so that the client’s records are always up to date. Every day, that data is automatically synced to Silverfin for use in the working papers. “Silverfin delivers a lot of time savings as we’re not repeating work,” says Chris.
Enhanced client service
Along with increased efficiency comes greater accuracy and enhanced client satisfaction, as the accounts and the client’s records always match. “We used to have issues where we would do the accounts, but the changes wouldn’t be reflected in the client’s own figures,” says Mark. “A big advantage with Silverfin is that clients now get accurate information.”
The launch of Silverfin’s corporation tax module further increased the efficiency of the Gascoynes team.
“We no longer have to pull information out and drop it into another piece of software, which saves us even more time,” says Chris. “I’m also happier about the quality of service we’re providing to our clients as I’ve got more confidence in the working papers process and how that interlinks with the corporation tax module.”
Standardisation streamlines onboarding
The standardisation that comes with using Silverfin also helps with new employee onboarding. “With standardised processes everyone knows what they’re expected to achieve. When a new employee comes in, they can get straight on the job, and Silverfin plays a big part in that,” says Chris, concluding:
“Silverfin has really helped us with our capacity and consistency. On top of that, our employees definitely prefer the modern feel of Silverfin. It’s exactly what they expect from a firm like Gascoynes.”
Chris Reeve, Managing Director, Gascoynes
