Start-up success

The opportunity: launch an accounting firm powered by automation

When Hannah Adams founded Freedom in Numbers in 2017 with her husband Simon, she wanted to be an accounting firm of the future. From day one, they both knew that becoming a valuable advisor to small and medium businesses meant utilising the right technologies and offering services that would provide clients with valuable insights. 

“We found that business owners generally only have one or two points of contact with their accountant per year,” recalls Hannah. “They often work with old information, and really just have an advisor because they think they need to. We felt the relationship should be much more than that. The accountant is there to help guide a business and help owners make meaningful decisions using accurate data.”

With this in mind, Hannah and Simon decided to implement a standardised technology stack when launching Freedom in Numbers. Both had been working with Xero for years, and were familiar with the common issues clients might face. “We wanted to speed up the monthly bookkeeping process, not just for our clients, but for ourselves as well,” notes Hannah.

“At the end of the day, data entry should be the start of our processes, not the ‘be all, end all’ of what we do. When our data entry was manual, it took us away from being able to serve our clients better, so while we were preparing to launch, we looked for a way to streamline this task while also working seamlessly with Xero.”

The solution: using Hubdoc and Xero for data automation

The biggest roadblock Hannah’s clients faced when trying to implement a seamless accounting workflow was manual bookkeeping: saving receipts, bringing them to the accountant, entering data, matching to a transaction, etc. 

With Freedom in Numbers’ goal of clearing this roadblock, Hannah and Simon implemented their carefully selected standardised technology stack as they began working with clients. “All new clients get both Xero and Hubdoc,” explains Hannah. “We don’t tend to work with anything else because we find it’s the perfect integration and provides a complete bookkeeping experience.”

Realising that paper documents caused significant delays in the bookkeeping process (for both clients and themselves), Hannah and Simon made sure to provide training to their clients for using Hubdoc, focusing  specifically on Hubdoc’s mobile application so they could easily take photos of receipts. With clients snapping photos, Hannah and Simon could ensure a constant incoming document stream, rather than waiting one, two, or three months for a box full of receipts.

For clients such as Glade Consulting – a consultancy focused on helping companies achieve quality management, health and safety, and environmental certifications – moving to digital documentation was an important factor in switching to Freedom in Numbers. “When Hannah introduced Glade to Hubdoc, we knew it was going to be a great change,” says Richard Dolman, Founder and Lead Consultant at Glade Consulting. “Before Freedom in Numbers, I would spend two to three hours sorting, scanning, then sending my documents. Now, it’s all done in about half an hour because it’s an easy photo and done!”