Cloud helps Carbon hit new heights

5 min read

 Cloud helps Carbon hit new heights

The National Bookkeeping Firm of the Year. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Well that’s exactly where Carbon Group find themselves, having beaten more than 7,000 other bookkeeping firms nationwide to take out the top honour at the Australian Accounting Awards 2017. 

 

Their heads are in the cloud

The format to Carbon’s success? Essentially, they utilise cloud partners such as Xero and Ezidebit to help businesses implement more efficiencies, which in turn means their clients can focus on what’s important to them.

 

A word from the winners

To get more details behind Carbon’s continued success, we sat down for a bit of a Q&A with Jamie Davison – Co-Founder, Carbon Group.

Q: What sets Carbon apart from the competition?

A: We aim to make accounting fun and engaging. Cloud-based platforms like Xero and Ezidebit encourage paper-free work and are fun to utilise, giving our clients and their employees more freedom and the opportunity to work on more important things.


Q: What was the key to winning the National Bookkeeping Firm of the Year Award?

A: The key to winning was to keep thinking like a small business, even though we’ve grown rapidly over the past four years, and now have 70-plus staff. We also have multiple partners with multiple teams, providing autonomy with some oversight, and without micromanagement.


Q: How important is cloud-based software for Carbon in moving the business forward?

A: It’s still very important, but compared to a few years ago, businesses now accept that it’s just the way things are done – nobody expects desktop solutions to their problems any more.


Q: How has partnering with other cloud-based platforms and providers benefited Carbon?

A: Specialising with partners like Ezidebit helps us in a whole range of ways. It allows us to help products become more marketable to clients, to increase scalability by focusing on a few key platforms rather than supporting 50+ add-ons, and to keep costs low and manageable for clients.

Q: What advice would you give to businesses that are on the fence about cloud-based platforms, or simply not using them correctly?

A: On fence sitting – why not? What you did yesterday is not what you need to do tomorrow to move forward. On inefficient platforms and solutions – you’re paying for it one way or another, via more staff or wasted time. So why not replace multiple solutions with a cheaper, more specialised one? Consistency is key.

 

Carbon has partnered with EziDebit to provide a faster method for our clients to receive payments from their customers. This also reduces time spent chasing late payers, meaning more time can be spent on the business, which in turn can lead to increased profits. Clients can choose to take credit card payments direct from their Xero invoices, or setup automated recurring billing for ongoing work with clients. Carbon uses Ezidebit internally for all our needs, and this allows us to safely recommend the solution to our clients, knowing full well the solution will work as promised.

To see how your business could benefit from the integrated solutions from Ezidebit, just as Carbon and their clients have, Enquire with us today.