Emma Reid, Author at The Cashroom

This is not a goodbye, it’s a ‘speak soon’

You will by now be used to Blogs from me on topics as wide-ranging as wellbeing, to financial compliance, to leadership styles, to risk management.

But, this is the first one you will have read on this particular topic… my departure from Cashroom!

After eight years (that have flown by) at the business, the time has come for me to progress my career elsewhere. I will shortly be joining Amiqus to head up the Business Development team there. However, I depart on really good terms, with very fond memories and many close friends. So, I anticipate that I will have a close working relationship with Cashroom going forward. I therefore thought that I would take this opportunity to reflect on my time at the business, and just how far we have come.

I joined The Cashroom in August 2013, as the first person in a Business Development or Sales role. The business had 28 law firms as clients, all located within Scotland. Catherine O’Day and David Calder (Chairwoman and Managing Director respectively at the time), took a chance on me. I had been a solicitor in private practice for the best part of 10 years. I have had lots of contacts, but very little by way of marketing or sales experience. For that opportunity, I will be forever grateful to them both. I was looking to step out of legal practice, and David and Catherine gave me that chance, and I jumped at it! My time at The Cashroom has been all I hoped, and a whole lot more. It has allowed me to develop many skills, meet new people, and provided a role that I genuinely enjoyed.

Going back to the start though…

I was tasked at the outset with growing the business in Scotland, and trying to break into the English and Welsh market too. I’d like to think that I have been successful in delivering on those, as over the first couple of years we took on many new Scottish clients, and the first dozen or so English clients, to the point that it made sense to employ another member in the team to focus on English and Welsh growth. Growth has continued apace over the last few years, north and south of the border. As at the time of writing this, we now have around 220 clients, across the length of the country. It has been quite a journey.

Thinking back, we also provided just three services when I started – Legal Cashiering, Payroll, and Management Accounts. Today, we still offer these core services, but in addition have a large client base that use additional services we have developed, such as Statutory Accounts and

Gregor Angus

Tax compliance, Credit Control, and various project/consultancy services. The team delivering the services has also grown substantially in my time from around 15 people when I joined. Today’s head count is over 100 across two offices!

It’s true that you don’t notice the incremental day to day changes and progress. When you look back, you notice that rather a lot has happened!

Some of the above, I think, shows just how far we have come in the last eight years. I’m sure the work, ideas and initiatives that are currently underway will ensure that the business will continue to go on and achieve even greater things in the future.

It has been a pleasure to be a small cog in the wheels that have made things happen over the years. I sincerely wish everyone at Cashroom, their clients and contacts, all the very best for the future. I will certainly follow developments at the business with interest. As I said at the outset, I’m sure there will be many opportunities to collaborate. So, hopefully this is not a goodbye, but rather a “speak soon“.

Gregor

Everything’s Smooth

The last few weeks have been a blur. That’s not just because of my ageing, failing eyesight, but more due to a month or two of hectic webinar and judging activity.

The judging was for the Today’s Conveyancer inaugural awards.

Firstly, the webinars were numerous. This included Law South’s discovery days, Atlas Cloud’s webinar on managing remote working, Legal Eye’s ‘Securing the financial future of your firm’, and Menzies ‘Management Information and Strategic Planning.’

The reason for mentioning all of them is that something struck me as a theme which ran through all of these discussions, and the review of the submissions for the awards.

That theme related to the power of integration of technology.

To give an example, Coadjute won the Today’s Conveyancer award for Innovation. Their model connects the property software platforms used by estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage brokers and lenders. Their submission was the epitome of the them- they have looked at the end to end process, and realised that there is a flow of information that can be harnessed and guided through different platforms, hugely improving efficiency and creating a vastly improved experience for the firms using it.

In the same category were other submissions along similar lines. Both law firms and tech providers who were knitting tech solutions together to a greater or lesser extent…

…but all the time realising that there was a core principle at play – SIMPLICITY.

It may sound counter intuitive to think that utilising several tech products within one process is a simplification. However, like a duck swimming on the water, a system which provides a straightforward interface for the user but has leading edge, complex technology behind it is an extremely attractive proposition.

The webinars confirmed this. There was much discussion around the flow of accurate data. The importance of that data for making business decisions. The power of communication with clients, as far as customer service is concerned. Also, the benefits that can bring for online reviews.

At The Cashroom, our in-house tech development team have been working on creating system integrations with a number of Practice Management Systems. We will be launching four such integrations in the next month, with more to follow.

The principle behind our endeavours in that direction are the same as I mentioned earlier – SIMPLICITY.

We support any firm on any Practice Management System, using our secure portal to communicate with our clients. By integrating with systems we can improve the flow of data and reduce any need for re-keying. As a result, this will greatly reduce the risk profile of the process. We are also integrated with banking platforms, making our payment process slicker and more secure than ever.

I’m pleased to say that our tech development path is very much in line with the theme I saw in my hectic few weeks. We want to create simple ways for our clients to work with us and their technology. This will give them access to the very best Legal Accounting as a Service.

The legal sector is evolving. Technology is evolving with it. Are you embracing evolution? Remember Darwin’s theory- it’s always the survival of the fittest!

A Billion Pounds Story

In March our cashiering teams successfully processed £1,280,009,252.33 securely through our client portal. Over £1.2 BILLION! It’s an extraordinary amount of client money and we are thrilled with this achievement.

“It’s hard to understand how we would have coped with the volume of matters completing without the support of a great team at The Cashroom.”

Toni Wensley, Partner, Amphlett Lissimore

Anyone in the legal industry knows that March 2021 was a bumper month, however, here at Cashroom data is king. According to the UK property transaction statistics notes, the latest UK monthly property transactions data shows the provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of UK residential transactions in March 2021 was 190,980. Because of this, the number of transactions in March 2020 is double (102.3%) and 32.2% higher than February 2021! See our client data below.

Clearly, the stamp duty holiday has created an artificially inflated market in residential conveyancing over the past 8 months. Because of this, the market has become extremely busy, along-with other factors. People have been reassessing their priorities in the last year including where they want to live. First time buyers, encouraged because of the mortgage guarantee scheme reducing the deposit required to buy a property, have also lead to increased volumes.

There is also a backlog of property transactions due to the stamp duty holiday.

It was welcome news for many that the stamp duty holiday was extended and given a tapered end. Lenders, conveyancers and surveyors have been under pressure to keep up. Clients living through a pandemic seem to be more demanding and completions can be a fraught experience for firms’ clients, lawyers and also for accounts departments. The industry is experiencing pressure like never before. Firms are experiencing extreme stress during these periods and are more likely to make mistakes.

“The last year has been a rollercoaster for everyone. We have continued to work hard to support our clients through some difficult times and we are extremely proud of our teams for their ability to deliver this volume of activity in the month of March. We have been delighted to support our clients during an unprecedented busy time in the industry” Chris O’Day, Cashroom CEO.

As I said, we like our data and to put it into perspective the jump between 2020 and 2021 was marked.

In March 2020 we processed £396m and sent 6,508 client payments, but

For February 2021 we processed £727m and sent 9,137 client payments.

And in March, 2021 we processed £1,280m and sent 12,851 client payments!

Cashroom has strict controls and procedures to ensure our efficient service. Over 73,000 tasks were required to send the 12,851 client payments sent in March 2021. We manage and track these tasks on our bespoke client portal. This gives both clients and Cashroom a clear audit trail at all times. However, we can add in customisable partner approval of all payments, if required. In March 2021, 4,201 client payments leveraged our partner approval workflows helping to ensure accuracy and reduce risk.

With over 230 law firms as clients, March was the busiest month we have ever experienced.

Our cashiers were under the same pressures as the industry but we have the tools available to protect their clients. Therefore, Cashroom staff processed payments using secure open banking technology integrated into our portal. With integrations into the leading banking platforms, Cashroom can reduce the risk of human error. This will save time when initiating payments and checking for incoming funds. We could view March as our biggest test yet of our people and technology. In conclusion, we are delighted that our clients find benefit from our sophisticated technology and expert cashiering services.

“Cashroom continue to partner very well with Laurus. Key to the successful processing of a high level of transactions up to initial stamp duty deadline, was regular reviews and planning. The Cashroom operate like an in-house finance team, albeit they are outsourced which provides the benefit of greater expertise. Excellent processes were maintained throughout this busy period, and additional shifts and cover were provided to get through all transactions. Communication between Laurus’ dedicated team at Cashroom was excellent throughout, resulting in a high level of clients and Solicitors being very happy with the service.”

Richard Carroll, Laurus, CFO

According to Todays Conveyancer the market remains extremely active, with traffic to own-branded estate agent websites 44% above average, some 62% above the same week last year and 38% higher than the last “normal” year in 2019. In turn this traffic is generating 29% more live chat engagements than average which deliver 42% more leads than the pre-Covid 62-week average. Good news for conveyancing firms but are you confident in your firms accounting?

Reduce your risk and increase efficiency in your firm by outsourcing to Cashroom.

“The management information and constant support provided by Cashroom’s outsourced FD service was the life-raft that we clung onto to guide us through the stormiest of waters we have ever experience as a business – we could not have made it through the pandemic without the support of Cashroom.”

Billy Smith, Clarity Simplicity Solicitors

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