Blogs – Page 11 – The Cashroom

Why do you need Management Accounts?

Having spent the past 12 years within the Legal Industry, undertaking various roles from Finance Manager through to Managing Director, I made the decision to join Cashroom in April of this year to lead our professional services team.

A question I am often asked is “why do I need Management Accounts?” and “how should the information be used?”

In summary, Management Accounts provide an overview of your current and historical performance for the Financial Year, a comparison to budgets / forecasts and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). They would normally include a “Statement of Comprehensive Income” (stating the Profit or loss for period), “Statement of Financial Position” (Assets less Liabilities) and some choose to include Cashflows (to record historical and future inflows and outflows of cash).

The information should be reviewed, ideally monthly, to measure profitability and to ensure that expenditure is under control. Typically, many Law firms focus solely on Income, without applying the mantra of “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity”! Or they are aware of the “profit” of the firm but do not consider how that profit margin can be improved.

Without accurate, relevant, and timely information, decisions tend to be made without the financial information to hand. Decisions with regards to recruitment, salary reviews, suppliers etc. are likely to me made from a reactive standpoint rather than a proactive one!

The question therefore to be asked is “how can Cashroom assist in improving my Financial Reporting?”

Cashroom provides monthly Management Accounts to over 50 separate law firms in England and Wales, providing those same firms with an insight as to the firm’s performance and highlighting those areas for review. The Professional Services and Management Accounts Team can also provide relevant financial reporting and information from an “in house” point of view, while your external accountants are likely to produce things from an accounting or audit point of view (speaking as an Accountant myself!). With many of our services being offered on a fixed fee basis you can be assured that the expenditure being incurred can be measured against the output provided, which results in one less thing to worry about as a business owner.

Should you wish to discuss any of the above in further detail then please contact my colleagues within the Business Development team, Alex Holt (alex.holt@thecashroom.co.uk) Or Daniel Jones (daniel.jones@thecashroom.co.uk)

Adam Wilson

About Cashroom

Cashroom provides expert outsourced accounting services for Law Firms including Legal Cashiering, Management Accounts and Payroll services. Our mission is to free lawyers from the complexities of legal accounting by supporting the industry with accurate management information and allowing lawyers to do what they do best – practice law.

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We’ve been with Cashroom for quite a few years now, and I would never go back. In any business, and particularly in times of uncertainty, it’s important to control your costs, and that’s exactly what you help me do.

Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Building a Community

When you think of a brand such as Harley Davidson, you may not only think about motorcycles that are manufactured and sold. You possibly also think about the community that has been created. The groups of bikers who gather together, who dress in uniform and are loyal to one another as friends and family. This is an example of a company who have created such a strong community and brand that you can instantly visualise who they are and what they represent.

So how can you start building a strong community for your own brand?

Start off with grass roots activity – this strategy is when brands plan and make content that’s highly targeted to a specific audience. This could be offering product samples or flyers and free gifts at an event. Take time getting to know your audience, especially when meeting them in real life. People will naturally spread word about your brand if you leave a good impression by showing you really do care about their business interests.

Create or join a group of people who regularly interact with your target market – meetings online with these groups or face to face you will gather market information will quickly. You can host casual meetings for drinks to build relationships with your partner group and combine target market contacts to invite too – pulling contacts from a variety of people helps increase everyone’s pool of contacts. Try to gather with your target audience at least once a month if you plan to host events for them.

Using social media is obviously an important tool to build a community.

It can take time, but consistent posting will bring results in time. Videos and adverts that focus on storytelling are important – discussing relatable aspects of your company’s back story could be a good place to start. People tend to share more content that they can relate to or find inspiring so keep this in mind when creating content or sharing others.

Use social media to create groups that can keep your followers up to date with information about your company and events. LinkedIn and Facebook have simple ways to create groups where you can keep in touch with people within your brand’s community. This is especially useful if you would like to host online meetings. Remember to only run these groups if you have the time to do so. Inactive groups don’t look great.

Most importantly, figure out who your target audience is. Find people who care about what it is your company provides. What do potential clients, contacts, colleagues need from you, where they are located and what kind of community might they benefit from?

What position do you want to be in your community?

Find groups or people in areas specific to you that know others who would be interested in your brand, and ask about local events that may be relevant for you to attend. When you attend these events, remember to let others lead the conversation – find out their interests and what it is they need. Hunting for relevant influencers who could give you a shout out or paid promotion would also help with increasing your brand awareness.

It’s especially important to consider how you want your business to be perceived within your community. Thought leaders? Humorous? Friendly? Professional? Make sure all the content you are creating for your brand work together within a theme that represents your company appropriately. Some examples of this could be creating podcasts or blogs with distinct topics. These could be about your business, personal life or professional activities depending on how you want your brand to be seen.

So, in summary, when planning your brands visibility and a community always consider – research, consistency and visibility.

Research who your target audience is, what they need from you, where they may be located and what events they attend. Be consistent with your meetings and online groups whether it is monthly or weekly and having consistent branding. Ensure visibility by attending events yourself, having conversations with potential leads and producing content for your social media.

You will be building your own community and seeing the benefits of it before you know it!

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Does your firm have a plan for the future?

Spring and early summer are often times for reflection, and I have been reflecting on my time in practice as a solicitor, and the fact that I never came across many deliberate and detailed plans for career development. Sure, there were appraisals and performance reviews which set goals, identified areas for improvement, but they were concerned more with performing better in your current role, rather than planning and preparing for future roles, and areas of interest.

This is something we spend a lot of time on at Amiqus, and I know from experience that Cashroom does too, through their extensive training programmes for their ‘Rising Stars’ and ‘Future Leaders’.

This initiative is aimed at identifying key people for the future success of the business, and to start developing them to ensure they can perform and thrive when the time comes to step up the ladder.

At Amiqus, our benefits package includes 12 Development Days a year, where staff are encouraged to spend time on their own career development interests and requirements. We are each allocated an annual budget for that, so that we can get proper training, attend events, or purchase things we may need. We also have different career pathways within the business, so that individuals do not have to necessarily go down a route of managing other people in order to progress their career. Not everyone has the right skills to manage other people, but we believe that shouldn’t prevent career progression. There will no doubt be senior roles within your business that do not require a person to manage others to be successful.

We also have many opportunities to receive leadership training, to try new things, and other initiatives to help people progress and develop the skills they may need or want to use in the future. This all helps to develop our people so that they want to stay with the business, that they feel they are progressing in a direction that is of interest to them, and that we have staff ready to step up to help the business thrive as opportunities arise.

Have a think for a moment – does your firm have a plan for developing its key people for the future?

Law firms must plan for the future ownership of the business via the next batch of partners, it is crucial that you plan for key staff, and older partners too. The partnership agreement may provide a set retirement age but retaining people as consultants or ambassadors for the firm beyond that may be crucial for retaining certain longstanding clients who have worked with that person for many years. Equally, Paralegals or support staff may have the deepest understanding of certain clients or may be the ones who are in regular contact with them on an ongoing basis.

When developing these key people for the future, is it also crucial to find out what they want and aim for in their working lives. When was the last time you asked your staff what their career aspirations are? There are many reasons to do so – for starters, if you can’t offer what they are aiming for, they will leave at some point, and you need to know that. Secondly, the future wellbeing of your firm will need people to take care of the different areas of the business – not just practice law – so you need to find out if you have people who have an interest in being, for example, ‘Business Development Partner/Manager/Director’, ‘Client Relations/Complaints Partner’, ‘Cashroom Manager/COLP/COFA’, or ‘Managing Partner’. It is important to find and develop these people over a period of time, and also to think about these role specifications clearly so you are not setting people up for a fall. All too often, particularly the role of Managing Partner, is given to somebody without enough regard for whether they are the best person for the role, what the firm expects of them by way of splitting their time between fee earning and management commitments and, crucially, any sort of plan as to how they would return to a full-time fee earning partner thereafter.

So, perhaps there is some food for thought here for discussion at your next Partners meeting. Do you have the same people in mind to take over the reins, and how are you going to equip them with the skills to do so?

I would suggest putting a realistic plan together, with clear and achievable objectives, put in to practice as soon as possible, and keep in regular dialogue with the people involved. They will likely be motivated by the opportunity, bringing better engagement immediately, and more seamless business continuity and succession into the future.

Gregor Angus, Senior Business Development Manager at Amiqus (www.amiqus.co)

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Cashroom’s new way of developing skills and keeping connected

Last month our Cashroom teams met in the office, in real life, face to face, for the first time in over two years. Cashroom have adopted a ‘work where you want’ policy, which works extremely well for our staff and allows them the freedom in which they would not have if they were still working and commuting to our offices each day. This policy has also allowed Cashroom to employ staff members who live further afield but are the perfect fit for the company, another benefit of working from home.

Keeping Connected

However, it can be difficult to keep the team spirit high when working from home and ensure the team is connected, just as they would be in an office. Cashroom overcome this in a few ways, we have our portal interface which as well as added benefits to clients such as increased security, enhanced compliance and PMS integrations, there is also a homepage for our internal communications. This allows staff to share news and updates and keep everyone connected, like a Facebook homepage but for our Cashroom team.

Cashroom Academy is Launched

When we launched our Cashroom Academy last month, we decided to open the offices to those staff members who wanted to come in, we had a dominoes lunch and even went to the pub afterwards. Something we haven’t been able to do in a long time. For those who couldn’t make it or live too far away, they were able to join virtually. We ensured the presentation would work for hybrid working too, so everyone, whether in the office or at home could participate.

Be in control

Having an academy allows staff members to be in control of their own personal development at Cashroom. There are courses to suit everyone, whether you are looking to learn something new or need a recap on a specific subject, the academy is there to support all staff members to ultimately, achieve their goals.

A virtual classroom

Our academy classes take place online and are a great way for staff members to meet new people from other departments they may not work with day to day, as well as having an hour in your day to speak to people and join in activities together throughout the course. Investing in our staff this way allows us to ensure we are delivering the best possible service to our clients with highly trained staff, keeping their knowledge up to date and current.

‘Since the academy launched, we have seen a great up take in courses and have really good feedback from our teams. It is great to be able to do this virtually through video call as it still feels like we are in the classroom, video calls allows us to engage with staff members and encourage group activities the same as we would do face to face but with less resource required. We are now working on the next set of courses to release to the academy and further support development of staff skills.’

Andrew Lowe – Training Manager, Cashroom

‘Having the Academy accessible online whilst working from home is perfect for me, it has allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of the work our cashiers do in delivering the services we provide at Cashroom. The courses have boosted my confidence and I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in them with the rest of the team.’

Natasha Langley – Digital Marketing Manager, Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

One less thing to worry about as a business owner

Having spent the past 12 years within the legal sector, in various roles from Finance Manager through to Managing Director, I made the decision in April of this year to join Cashroom to lead their Professional Services team.

Cashroom provides outsourced legal cashiering to over 250 firms.

We also provide credit control and payroll services alongside management accounts, statutory accounts, and compliance checks. My first month of employment has shown how important technology is within the business. My eyes have also been opened to the fact that accounting services, when outsourced, can be improved in terms of efficiency and cost, in comparison to traditional cashiering, which has changed little over the time I have worked within the sector.

Those who remain “within practice” may ask why leave?

Whilst Covid and “the great resignation” played a part in my decision the answer is quite simple! There has always been a shortage of experienced finance and management staff within the sector, with many Financial and Managing Directors remaining with their current employers for many years. Many firms and Partners are caught in a “catch 22” situation in that they are aware that support is required but are not able to employ someone on a full-time basis (or able to find the right person).

This is where I believe Cashroom can be of great benefit, and I would ask yourself the following questions:

Are you spending too much time on non-Fee Earning tasks?
Do you produce reporting packs to analyze monthly performance?
Do you produce Management Accounts and Cashflows to measure profitability and liquidity?
In the capacity of COLP or COFA are you meeting your audit requirements and comfortable that you would pass an SRA audit?

The Cashroom accounting team can provide relevant financial reporting and information from an “in house” point of view, whereas say your external accountants are likely to produce from an accounting or audit point of view (speaking as an Accountant myself)! With many of our services being offered on a fixed fee basis you can be assured that the expenditure being incurred can be measured against the output provided, which results in one less thing to worry about as a business owner.

Should you wish to discuss any of the above in further detail then please contact my colleague daniel.jones@thecashroom.co.uk.

Adam Wilson

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Helping Cashroom, and you, in the legal profession

Hello World.

This is the reassuringly gentle, innocuous phrase that most geeks use when allowing their code, company, or indeed themselves to step out into public consciousness for the first time. In my case, it is allowing myself the indulgence of introducing myself to the hallowed legal world as one of the most recent “joiners” to the Cashroom team.

My background is varied – coming initially from medicine and then into the internet and datacentre market for 20 odd years. Now, I navigate between growing companies like the Cashroom, early high tech start-ups and pushing forward the throttle on a single-engined turbine aircraft around Europe.

I would argue there are two key factors that join the dots between my past and present. Firstly, they are highly technical, well regulated, and detail-oriented endeavours. Second, regardless of all of that, success relies on what airline pilots are taught are “human factors”. This is what brought me to Cashroom.

Not only have they successfully built and grown a straightforward idea – that of simplifying and improving the quality of cash room and accounting for legal firms in the UK – but they are doing it through the integration of great technology and even better people. Helping them to take the business to the next stage by continuing to build on that culture is what some would call “my wheelhouse”.

That covers the good stuff. Now for the “not so good”.

One could argue we are about to enter the most challenging of times. Inflation. Risk of recession. Tight labour markets, and ever-increasing regulatory pressures. Whilst these are things that we, as all responsible businesses, are working to mitigate and plan for, these are the very challenges that have historically brought to the fore the advantages of outsourcing.

When one looks back to the last major recession in 2008/9, major firms like Cisco and “big pharma” managed the downturn through reducing internal headcount, outsourcing where other partners had scale and capability to help them succeed.

Hence my excitement about Cashroom.

They have a proven track record in this space, building great technology to integrate with the market leading practice management systems, banks, and other tools, but they also know what it takes to operate services with best practice, motivating great people to deliver for all their customers daily. They are well placed to help legal firms navigate the coming macro stresses and accommodate the labour market tightening – capacity and capability.

The legal industry in the UK and other Anglophone economies are still in the “early adoption” phase of outsourcing elements of backoffice such as cashroom, or professionalising their business information and analytics through better management accounting – less than 10% . Which shows there is still plenty of work to do to help the industry see the benefits to both bottom line and quality of their operations. And as history shows, it sometimes takes the shock of volatile times to motivate management (or in this case, firm partners) to revisit not just what they are doing, but how they do it.

As I hope you can see, I am excited and proud to have been invited to join the team, and look forward to helping be a small part of the journey – helping them and you in the legal profession in the coming years.

Aydin Kurt-Elli

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

No distractions, no chores, just 6 days to ourselves

Catherine O’Day recently walked a challenging 186,415 steps over 6 days and achieved the Portuguese Camino certificate! She discussed with us her journey through Spanish vineyards, country lanes and little Spanish villages…

What made you decide to take part in the Portuguese Camino?

A good friend sadly lost her husband just before covid and had to spend initial lockdown on her own grieving which was a very difficult time for her. She decided she wanted to do The Camino to take time to reflect on last 2 years and to think about where her life goes now. I decided to keep her company.

Did you do anything to prepare?

We were both avid walkers and regularly walked 5km to 7km 3 to 4 times a week. In preparation we increased the length of our walks to 10k to 12km and increased how often we walked.

How many kilometres did you walk and how long did it take?

We walked a total of 124.33km over 6 days (186,415 steps!) You need to complete 100k to get official Camino certificate.

Which route did you take?

We walked the final part of the Portuguese Way starting in Tui which is a small town in Spain at the Portuguese/Spanish border. Our route was Tui, Porrino, Redondela, Pontevedra, Caldas de Reis, Padron, Santiago de Compostela.

What were the highlights for you?

Highlight has to be arriving in main square in Santiago de Compostela, seeing the magnificent Cathedral with hundreds of other pilgrims arriving from all directions.

Walking through beautiful Spanish countryside and through little Spanish villages with locals calling out ‘Bon Camino’.

Also loved getting up every morning knowing that all we had to do that day was walk! No other distractions, no chores, just 6 whole days all to ourselves.

How many hours of walking did you do each day?

We started at 8.30am every morning, walked about 6 hours each day averaging about 20/21km per day with a few coffee stops along the way, usually arriving at our destination around 2/2.30pm. This gave us time to see a little bit of each of the towns we stayed in.

How did you feel when you finished?

We felt exhilarated and a great sense of achievement. A bit emotional too!

Would you recommend the experience and why?

Absolutely. The whole experience was amazing. The route was so clearly marked and there were so many other pilgims or to give then the Spanish title ‘pellegrinos’ sharing the route with us, we just couldn’t get lost. Over the 6 days we met people from all round the world walking the Way with us, all going the same way to the same destination but taking different periods of time to get there. We were also very fortunate with the weather.

Do you have anything similar you would like to do next?

Yes, we plan to The West Highland Way next year and maybe someday do part of the Spanish or French Way.

What sights did you see along the way?

As above mainly lovely Spanish countryside, through vineyards and along country lanes and pathways, and through quant little Spanish villages. Very little of the route was along side of busy roads which was great.

Catherine O’Day

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Coffee Machines have really progressed over the last few years, haven’t they?

When I was first working in an office at Slater Heelis in Manchester it was regularly my job as an articled clerk (Trainee in modern terms) to make the drinks for my colleagues. It was a pretty onerous task to be honest. Gather up the mugs, head to the ‘kitchen’ (a pokey cupboard-like room with a small sink, a not very safe sideboard and a kettle). Wash the mugs out, boil the kettle, add the instant coffee, and try to remember who takes sugar. Deliver the coffees. Sit back down and then get sent back to add sugar to the one you had inevitably forgotten about.

Over the years things improved. Health and safety became a thing. Hot water urns meant there was a ready supply of boiling water. The posher places I worked had a percolator which made a nice large jug of coffee which would last for a few hours.

And how about now?

We’ve just had a day in the office where our normal daily activities were coupled with an all staff update so we had around 20 people in – the most staff we’ve had in one place for over two years! And what was the biggest issue?

Not the Wi-Fi.

Not the desk space.

Oh no – it was the fact that there were only three mugs, no milk and (the horror!) only instant decaff coffee.

Rebellion was in the air. Mutiny. Until the dynamic duo of Katie and Dan headed to the local superstore and returned with one of those fancy coffee pod machines. We now have self-service high-quality coffee at the touch of a button, and no need to go to the kitchen to make it.

You might think that this is the point at which I will make a tenuous link between the progress in coffee making and the progress we’ve been making as a business.

And you’d be right!

Aside from now providing cutting edge caffeine delivery systems, we have been working to optimise our processes as we have faced increasing demand for our services. I firmly believe we are becoming the default option for firms looking to improve the efficiency, risk profile and compliance of their finance function. We are receiving double the number of new enquiries when compared to a year ago and we are constantly recruiting to add to our amazing staff.

However, simply adding bodies would be the equivalent of adding another kettle. It wouldn’t be efficient or cost effective and it could be risky!

Instead we have invested heavily in the growth of our tech team who have been designing and implementing some incredible developments to our secure communication portal which improve our clients’ experience and help our teams to deliver services with increasing speed and efficiency. We’ve added to this with a programme of constant process improvement.

The point is that even the most simple and run of the mill activity can be reimagined. Something that has always been done in one way isn’t always the best method. Dare to change your approach, and joy equivalent to a caffeine high (but longer lasting and with fewer health problems) could be yours.

Alex Holt

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Big changes and new beginnings

Before Cashroom

Prior to starting at Cashroom I had not long finished high school and was looking into various careers that I wanted to pursue. I had worked in part time retail positions at both TJ Hughes and B&M but was looking to gain a position with a company that would give me career prospects to fulfill my eagerness to learn.

A big change

When I got the Job at Cashroom I was nervous as this was a big change. It was such a different job than what I was used to. When I began, COVID literally arrived, and I had to begin the job working from home. Any nerves I had were put at ease immediately when I started, the team were all very helpful and always willing to help. Almost immediately after starting I soon realised this was the career for me. I have enjoyed gaining a clearer understanding of what being a cashier entails and gaining and developing relationships with clients. Working from home hasn’t stunted my training, Cashroom has adjusted to new ways of learning and the whole team have been supportive in helping me achieve my goals.

This has been a surreal opportunity for me that I thought I would never get. I was amazed when I got the job but soon realised this is the job where I want to go further and succeed more and more as time goes on.

How Cashroom supported me through a tough time

Cashroom has been such a supportive employer. A short while after I started working at Cashroom my partner gave birth to a baby boy who was born with a rare condition known as CDH. It was a very difficult time with things getting harder by the day for a while. Cashroom supported me through this with regular meetings to discuss not only my baby’s health but the mental state of myself and my partner to see if they could offer any additional support. I cannot thank the Cashroom enough for all the support through all the tough times we faced and even now with myself back at work, Cashroom are supporting me to progress further in my career. I am looking forward to seeing that the future holds for me here at Cashroom.

Adam Hill

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Are you making these six dangerous accounting mistakes?

As a legal business, do you update your “books” manually or rely on accounting software?

DIY accounting might save you the immediate expense of a professional accountant or bookkeeper, but could be costing your business more in the long run.

Accounts, including those produced by software, are only as accurate as the figures fed into them. Without professional guidance, you risk overpaying tax, incurring penalties, disrupting your cash flow and misinterpreting your business’s financial health. Here we look at six common accounting mistakes that could be costing your law practice!.

If you are currently taking the “DIY” approach to your legal accounts, contact us today to find out how we could save you time, money and worry.

1. Using your accounting software wrongly or using the wrong software

Accounting software can seem like the perfect solution to your accounting woes. Unfortunately, your software cannot stop you from entering incorrect data, using the wrong settings or misunderstanding the information it provides. When used correctly it can be a useful financial tool, but used incorrectly may put your business at risk!

The first question you should be asking yourself is “does your current accounting programmeet your needs?”. Creating workarounds to compensate for missing features increases the risk of mistakes being made more likely, and errors can compound over time. Unpicking complicated problems further down the line is likely can require professional input and considerable expense.

Remember, software cannot replace an actual accountant. At a minimum, you should ask a professional to review the accounts created using software to make sure everything is in order. They can also give you additional money-saving insights specific to your legal business that your software cannot provide.

2. Not recording cash expenses

It is vital to record your cash expenses meticulously. Otherwise, you may forget to account for them when it comes to filing your return(s). Not only will you be liable for additional tax than you should be, but you will also have an incorrect picture as to your company’s cash flow and future position

Be systematic with your recording of cash expenses. Many business owners like to take a quick snap on their mobile phone straight away. Accounting programs often let you match the image with the transaction immediately.

If you do not record your cash expenses immediately then you should ensure that you have a secure place to store all your receipts. Once a week, take photos or scanned copies and upload them to your expenses folder or accounting program. That way, you remember to record them, and you have evidence of your expenses for HMRC.

3. Reconciling receivables late

When you receive a payment, you should reconcile it against its receivable promptly. If you do not, your revenue account can quickly become difficult to reconcile. This could lead to expensive mistakes, such as overlooking unpaid invoices.

Unreconciled payments make it impossible to view your finances clearly. Without a clear sense of your cash flow, you could make decisions that damage your business’s health, such as the delay of paying a supplier, not investing in new equipment when it is needed or accumulating unnecessary interest on a loan by not paying it back as soon as you could.

Moreover, when you come to tidy things up, wading through old invoices and payments is time-consuming. You could also make mistakes reconciling payments made a long time before. Save yourself time and a headache by reconciling receivables on time.

4. Blurring business and personal finances

If you own or run a legal business , you must clearly delineate your business and personal finances. You should have a separate business account, and any money you take out of the business or put into this account must be recorded properly.

For instance, if you loan money to the business from your personal account, it should be appropriately documented and a repayment plan put in place. If you put a business expense on a personal credit card, it should be recorded and evidenced.

Overlapping your business and personal finances increases the risk of mistakes in your accounting process. Moreover, a tax audit or other type of financial investigation might decide to probe your accounts more deeply, in case there is fraud to be uncovered.

Investigations are stressful, and could reveal other accounting issues or errors that you will be expected to explain.

All in all, it is best to keep your business and personal finances separate. Where this is difficult, for example, start-ups, ensure you keep thorough records and have a professional check them over.

5. Not using business reports properly, or at all

Accounting software can generate a host of useful reports offering valuable insights into your business. They can help you to make sense of your business’s financial health and facilitate accurate predictions about sustainability, growth and investment plans. This information can help you to prepare for financial blows, such as a market downturn or the loss of a major client, as well as the abvility to seize development opportunities.

However, if you produce or interpret reports incorrectly, you could create a skewed picture of your position. Relying on misinformation could cost your company dearly. Likewise, if you do not use reports at all, you are leading your company without sufficient financial direction, possibly toward disaster.

When used correctly, reports are powerful tools for making better business decisions. Make sure you are getting the most out of them by reviewing software-generated reports with a professional accountant or by asking an accountant to produce reports for you. Regular reports – weekly, monthly and annually – will give you a comprehensive picture of your position.

6. Relying on generic advice

Every business’s accounting needs are unique. As a legal business, your requirements will be specific to your field, client base, location, size, employee circumstances and more. Just like law, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to an individual accounting situation.

It is too risky to rely on generic advice. Whilst quick fixes and a little help from Google might seem to get you by, you could be creating serious problems for yourself down the line. If you have taken this approach so far, talk to a professional as soon as possible. They can implement the correct processes and procedures urgently, ensuring your business is fully compliant and positioning you to take real control of your company finances.

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Sometimes it’s good to get out of your comfort zone – I did it by attending NLP training!

It’s been 2 weeks now since I completed Tricres’ 7-day Neuro-Linguistic Programming course and I finally feel ready to sit down and write about it. It was exhausting, exhilarating and I’m going to put my neck out here and say life changing. I had a literal stop and look up moment, I have engaged my brain in a way I just wasn’t doing before.

Firstly, I was skeptical.

Anyone I spoke to that had done this sort of training said it was brilliant, but nobody could really describe it to me or say what I would get out of it. I also had a fear I was going to have to go and talk about my feelings all week. Dare I say it I was worried it was all just a bit fluffy and I’d not get a lot out of it. After day 1 I still wasn’t totally convinced but thanks to various moments throughout the days – HANDS UP, I couldn’t have been more wrong if I tried.

There were so many reasons not to go for it (7 days away from my desk, over a bank holiday weekend when my husband was away with friends and I had 3 children to juggle to name a few) but there was something in my gut telling me to do it and I am so glad I did. In-fact something Rebecca shared with us that week was that we do all have brain cells in our gut and it’s important to listen to them!

We covered so much.

Linguistics, communications and behaviours, anchoring, deletions and visualisation. I can’t share any of the secrets to NLP here – literally I cannot. It would be impossible in a blog and I’m a novice, but my mind was blown wide open during the 7 days on the programme and sharing some snippets may be useful to others.

Life is busy, life is fast moving, we spend so much time on phones and tiny screens, people hurt your feelings and we all create our own narrative around situations without stopping and using our brains. Stop. Everything I just wrote there I now think about completely differently. Confused yet? I told you I cannot share the details!

1 easy to use nugget I want to share with you is use all your senses in as many moments as possible.

You have multiple senses – use them! At least once a day on a walk, on the train, talking with a loved one try and use all your senses in the moment. Open up your eyes wider and look at the wider view, feel the wind on your face or reach out or concentrate on your feet on the ground, listen to the noises, really listen to everything around you, are there any tastes? I can’t explain how doing this frequently will benefit your experiences. In the office talking to a colleague do this, it’s harder on zoom but still possible – be present in the moment and concentrate on everything in it, it’s amazing how much more focused you will be in situations.

My week wouldn’t have been such a success if it weren’t for the cherry-picked group of people that I joined on the course. A group from all sorts of businesses came together from South Carolina, Switzerland, Edinburgh and more. A group of individuals went in and came out firm friends – we were all very different characters and yet respect and trust was built in those 7 days that normally would take years. We practiced our new skills on each other constantly, laughed together (the MOST fun group, right Tammy?) and there may have been a couple of tears together too.

Rebecca and Nick – What a week packed full of knowledge; you literally altered my brain! You threw me completely out of my comfort zone and yet made me feel at ease. You were respectful, scientific, and relatable in all teaching. These are not one stop skills you have given me, it’s techniques to use within my whole life. I have a clarity and brightness that I didn’t realise was missing!

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Make the best of your firm’s online presence

In today’s digital world, all eyes are locked onto a brand’s every move. All businesses want to stand out. Unless you take your time and fully think through your digital ideas and plans, you may not be using your online presence to your best advantage or even worse, you may stand out for the wrong reasons!

Does your firm have a plan to target the correct audience, increase your communications and gain brand credibility?

Creating a physical plan is a great place to start. Not planning your social media content, using irrelevant hashtags, reusing the same content on all your social media channels, and creating too much content and noise are some of the easy mistakes when marketing your brand on social media.

Take time to consider your target audience e.g., their generation, gen z, millennial etc. Think about how you want your brand’s text to read. Whether it should be friendly, funny or professional and what kind of content may appeal to your target audience. Educational videos, graphic designs discussing your services, testimonials, blogs, podcasts, posts targeting your client’s pain points are all options to consider when making a monthly or weekly content plan.

The SOSTAC system can help you plan your content.

Situation Analysis – Where are we now? Asses your current KPI’S, performance, analyse competitors and market trends.

Objectives – Where do we want to be? Use the 5 S’s. Sell, serve, sizzle, speak and save.

Strategy – How do we get there? Consider target markets, objectives, your sales sequence and integrations with other businesses.

Tactics – How exactly do we get there? Who you will communicate with, your content plan and contact plan.

Actions – The details of the tactics. This will include responsibilities and structures, processes and systems, internal resources and skills and external agencies to help with content creation.

Control – How do we monitor performance? Use KPI’s and website analytics, user experience reviews, conversion rate optimisation and consider your process of reporting statistics.

Does your website represent your firm well?

A good website helps to establish your brand by letting the audience know who you are and what services you can provide. A website provides reliable information to potential clients, which helps set your firm apart from competitors.

A poor website can cause potential clients to leave quickly and not fully read what services you offer; they may even avoid contacting you. Having noticeable buttons on your website such as “Contact Us” or “Sign Up” makes it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. Having options to submit forms, social media share buttons, event promotions or read more’s are all examples of Call to Actions that can be used throughout a website.

A slow website can cause people to leave before the page even loads. GTmetrix and Pingdom Tools are some tool options you could use or give to your web developer to test the speed of your website and make sure it’s working well.

It’s also important to ensure all the information on your website is up to date and current including contact information, services you provide, testimonials and any facts and figures about your firm.

Show off your up-to-date website! PPC (Pay Per Click) ads are a useful tool for bringing new visitors.

PPC ads are when you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. They are affordable, they effectively drive traffic to your site, increase conversions and could help grow your firm. You want to make sure your adverts are directing to your homepage or services page. If your PPC advert lands a potential client on a confusing landing page, then it will be a waste of money for your firm and visitors will leave quickly. It’s important to track your spending on your PPC ads and take advantage of negative keywords so your ads do not show to the wrong audience, wasting more of your money.

There are so many ways you and your firm can optimise your digital presence. Remember you don’t have to do it all – plan and think about where you target market is going to look for you -. A good website and consistent social media content is a great place for you to start…what are you waiting for?!?

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Dinner Suit diary

The dinner suit is getting far more use over the last month or two than it has for ages. I had to dust it down and there was of course the fear that pandemic pounds would have made me unable to get into it any more.

Cashroom was at the Modern Law Awards and we had decided to go mob handed. We were glad to be sharing a table with Amy Bell, Lara Squires and Louise Gilbert who helped us to do justice to the wine on the table.

For any event at all, but even more when the cost is not minor, our CEO Chris O’Day is keen to understand the Return On Investment. We had taken the decision to sponsor the champagne reception and with that and the hotels and travel costs this was always going to be one of the biggest single events in our calendar.

As far as ROI is concerned I’m sure that the brand building and networking will bear fruit.

However I’d say that one of the most valuable elements of this event was in fact the rekindling of relationships. Teams, Zoom etc- they’re great and have no doubt permanently altered how people will approach meetings and engagement. But the joyous energy that buzzed around the venue at this event was testament to the fact that human face to face contact is still valuable. In fact it’s essential in my view. While some of the talk was about business (the value of particular networking groups, system choices, tech developments and innovation) far more time was spent laughing, small-talking, dancing and generally engaging with each other in a way that solidifies existing friendships and alliances and begins to create new ones.

So, having the Cashroom logo painted on my face may seem frivolous but I’m sure there will be ROI to come…

Alex Holt, Director of Business Development

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

Green shoots or frazzled ends?

The skies are blue, the temperatures are slowly rising and I’m already behind with my veggie growing plans for the year. Spring is a beautiful, reinvigorating time, unless of course, you’re experiencing symptoms of burnout in which case it’s more likely to all feel like a bit of a cruel joke.

Whilst everyone and everything around you suddenly gets it’s green shoots and cute lambs and bunny rabbit energy on, you feel more like a leftover crepe from pancake day. It’s really easy for symptoms of burnout to coalesce with feelings of missing out, being behind and completely exhausted and overwhelmed.

But what if it isn’t just you… what if you’re not alone and there’s something very real going on?

Burnout is an occupational phenomenon that is caused by chronic workplace stress that isn’t successfully managed – everything from the everyday pressures of high volume workloads, inadequate resources to offer full support, being unable to switch off for weekends, evenings and holidays to the vicarious trauma of dealing with difficult work or stressed out clients. In a distress purchase industry like law, chronic workplace stressors abound.

Burnout has three key components that show up; exhaustion and depletion, reduced professional efficacy and negativity, cynicism or increased mental distance from one’s job. Essentially if you’re always tired, struggling to keep up with your work and wondering why you’re bothering or feeling unable to make an impact, you could well be experiencing burnout.

And honestly, you’d be far from the only one.

Gallup polls taken immediately prior to the pandemic found a rapidly increasing section of the population experiencing symptoms of burnout all the time or sometimes – between two thirds and three quarters of workers, and LawCare’s Life in the Law study found that the average lawyer is at high risk of burnout – whether you’re a lawyer or in the world surrounding them the likelihood is that you’re drawn into this.

Burnout is also a highly contagious condition – if I’m experiencing burnout and you work closely or in proximity to me, the likelihood is that you will feel the impact, whether it’s because of my reduced efficacy and presenteeism affecting the distribution and demand of a team workload or because of my ‘emotional leakage’ (I know, what a phrase, but if you’ve ever worked with a ‘raise your voice and slam a file on the desk to punctuate’ kind of a manager then you know exactly what I’m talking about!). We all operate within systems, whether that’s our teams, departments, businesses or the wider industry, or at home our friends and family members experiencing these pressures. Where they struggle, we will most likely try to fill the gap.

It piles up, and it’s exhausting.

So how to cope if you’re feeling less than fresh and left ever-further behind the springing shoots of growth around you?

The first thing is to understand what is going on here. Understand what burnout is, and is not, and get appropriate support. Whether that’s checking everything is ok at the doctors, speaking honestly with friends about what’s going on for you instead of flipping your hair and telling them you’re ‘busy’ and ‘fine’ when you’re actually struggling, or working with a coach or therapist to get deeper into why this is happening for you and creating sustainable solutions. Sometimes just understanding that burnout is something that affects the majority of us at some time or another and that it only affects people who care deeply about doing a good job and who give a lot of themselves for their work and loved ones, is enough to start making change.

From there, start critically analysing what you do and why.

Where are you offering to do work you don’t enjoy, just to help other people? Where are you soaking up the stress and tension for other people, trying to make their lives better at detriment to your own? Over the past 6 years I have worked with hundreds of individuals and every single one of them has fallen into the trap of forgetting themselves in the balance. Have regard for yourself at the point of decisions being made, consider whether you want to do it/need to do it/are doing it out of obligation and a need to be seen as nice, rather than doing it because it’s the best use of your time, energy and resources. Start saying no, not because you’re selfish, but because you know your time and energy is best served elsewhere and you can’t be all things to all people.

Finally, make rest, switching off, creativity and play absolutely vital parts of your life.

They are the first thing to go when we’re tired, overwhelmed and trying to catch up but they are non-negotiables. You can’t function well or at all without adequate sleep, active and passive rest and recharge moments with the things and people that make the work worthwhile.

Protecting yourself and striving for sustainability is a goal worth pursuing; we need you to do your brilliant work as well and for as long as possible. So, take care of yourself – for the benefit of everyone around you, even if not yourself.

Small shifts, even just recouping small wins like a couple of extra items off your desk or one less project to manage, could just shift you from scorched earth to the start of new growth.

About Searching for Serenity

Leah Steele is a coach, mentor and trainer, and the founder of www.searchingforserenity.co.uk A former lawyer who experienced burnout herself, Leah now works with individuals and law firms to understand issues of burnout, how they show up, affect our work, productivity and profitability, and she helps create resilient, sustainable solutions to make work less exhausting and more rewarding for all.

About Cashroom

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Sharon Needle

Managing Partner, Needle Partners

The legal sector is buzzing!

There are some events that just grab your attention. A meeting of some of the leading conveyancing firms along with many of the main players from the world of estate agency was always going to be fascinating.

The event was superbly run at a great venue – the Grosvenor Hotel in London. There is still a buzz around face to face events, as people get that thrill of networking again. Seeing old friends and making new ones. It’s basically the sort of thing I live for!

For those of us with an interest in the conveyancing world, the first point of note was to see whether the two ‘factions’ could play nicely together.

I’m delighted to say they could! Rob Hailstone and Ian McKenzie set the tone with their head to head chat. They exemplified the whole event for me- There was some good natured verbal sparring, but the overall atmosphere was collaborative. In the end, it suits all parties if property transactions can move more speedily and efficiently.

There was spirited debate about the place of technology within the whole process, with many solutions that were discussed rightly looking at tech that interweaves the estate agency process and the legal process. The clever use of data flows and communication tools.

Two of the talks were stand-outs for me. The first was Dan Salmons of Coadjute who delivered a fascinating and highly polished presentation on the opportunity for collaboration. His background with the world of contactless payments lent huge credibility to his subject matter.

The other talk that stood out was the one that dragged the elephant in the room into the light. Do estate agents and conveyancing lawyers respect each other?

A great line up of people from both sides of the divide led to a sparky and informative debate where I believe the answer to the question posed was “Yes, but in some cases grudgingly”.

As always some of the best discussions happened outside the conference room, and for me there was an overall sense that the industry realises that the challenges coming over fees and resourcing will all mean that a change in approach is vital. The caveat is that one person I spoke with, who had last been at one of these events two years before, made a point that others echoed. “Let’s hope that there really is action on these points now, rather than just talk”.

Alex Holt, Business Development Director

Spring Clean your IT security

It’s that time of year again where the spring flowers are blooming and the spring clean is being negotiated. You may not have considered a spring clean of your IT security knowledge or corporate network security. So, we have put together a few quick tips to help you remain safe online and tidy up your corporate access.

Leavers Process

It’s easy to get lost in a checklist when someone leaves your organisation. So much of our day to day lives are now online. Individuals will have accounts and sign in credentials for numerous websites, portals, and systems. With the rise in working from home knowing where your equipment is and what it is being used for is eve more important.

Are you certain that all the credentials relating to your previous employees have been disabled?
Is their email address still active?
If you use The Cashroom can the leaver still access the Cashroom Portal?
Can they still access your CMS/Bank accounts/other software remotely?
Do you have an accurate asset register, so you know what equipment is in people’s homes?
Are you able to remotely manage your devices in case of theft or other mishap?

Cyber Attacks

Cyber-attacks are getting increasingly complex, and fraudsters are always developing new strategies to try and separate you from your sensitive information. It is important that you don’t succumb to paranoia, but everyone should always try to remain vigilant when it comes to IT security.

Be wary of spam and suspicious emails – this includes emails that look like they are from someone you normally communicate with, but the content may be asking for something out of the ordinary.
Only open an email attachment or click on a link if you’re 100% certain of its source & you were expecting it. If you’re unsure, don’t open it.
Look out for changes to phone numbers, email addresses and bank account/payment numbers etc. Don’t be afraid to double check any changes with the email sender but call them at a number you know exists or begin a new email chain from scratch. Don’t click reply or use the details in the suspicious email – you may end up “verifying” the change of details with the fraudster!
When accessing the internet, check the web address has “https” in front of the address (sometimes shown with a padlock icon). The “s” means that the site is secure. Also check that the address is spelt correctly and is the usual web address that you use for that site.
We are always told never to reuse or write down our passwords. Have you considered investing in a password management software, which can securely store and remember your passwords so that you can always have a unique and complex password every time you need one?

Social Engineering

Social engineering is an increasingly common type of confidence trick for information gathering, fraud, or system access. Fraudsters know we are savvier when it comes to dodgy looking email attachments. They are now playing on our personalities and common human foibles. They will rely on humans wanting to help each other out or taking advantage of our natural intrigue.

Examples of social engineering tricks can include a fraudster sending an official-looking announcement to the company that says the number for the help desk has changed – when employees call for help the individual asks them for their passwords and IDs thereby gaining the ability to access the company’s private information.
Another example of social engineering would be a hacker leaving a USB stick on the floor in or around your office, possibly titled “cute puppy pictures”, “2022 promotions” or “payroll data”, hoping someone will pick it up to see what is stored on it. Malware would often then be automatically downloaded to the computer and the wider network.

Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication is recommended by the Nation Cyber Security Centre for use on important accounts and email. Utilising two-factor authentication makes it harder for cyber criminals to access your online accounts. It also adds extra security to your accounts.

Two factor authentication can be done through authenticator apps where the app will give you a unique code each time to log in.
You can use your phone number where the account will send you a text code or ring you to verify it is you.
Using two-factor (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) also helps your firm achieve compliance with guidelines such as GDPR. This is particularly important as law firms are subject to strengthened confidentiality regulations due to the data held.
Software providers and companies are increasingly asking customers to use multi factor authentication (MFA). Do any of your systems allow this?

Backup

Law firms of any size hold valuable and sensitive information that can be exploited by cyber criminals. You should ensure you are backing up your firm’s data to secure servers. This includes all firm data such as client and case data.

A common way to back up firm data is through the cloud. This is where a copy of all data is sent to the cloud. Either in real time, or periodically as files are uploaded. This provides extra security and protection of your data.

Reviews

Conduct and plan regular reviews of your IT security and ensure everyone in the firm is aware of your policy.

We hope that this “spring clean” list is of some use. Obviously, this isn’t intended just for springtime. You should use these tips throughout the year to ensure that your systems are constantly reviewed. Check your IT security is working well for you and your business.

For more information on cyber-attacks, social engineering and how to keep your firm secure, pleased contact your IT provider.

For all Cashroom clients with leavers please contact your Cashroom representative if you have any staff that need removing from the portal. If you would like more information on how to do this yourselves, please refer to the portal help icon. In the Help Centre, you will find articles on how to add a new user and how to disable a user.

Rachel Faris, IT and Data Protection Administrator at The Cashroom Ltd

How Cashroom are innovating to revolutionise legal accounting

Accounting and technology may not naturally appear to go hand in hand, but Cashroom is committed to utilising technology to improve efficiency and security beyond the capability of many law firms.

Our unique, secure portal

Cashroom’s portal is a web-based, secure, and encrypted means of communication between us and our clients. The portal was initially developed to remove communication from the insecurities of email, and to protect our clients from the rising threat of fraudulent payments by using authorisation workflows. Requests are made in prescribed forms with certain mandatory fields. This ensures all necessary information is provided, in compliance with the Solicitors Accounts Rules.

Our platform is being constantly developed to become so much more than a secure communication tool, providing clear audit trails of all communications, which are searchable, allowing transparency of requests made, and their progress through to completion. Clients can access and view the progress of their requests in a visual format. In a way that emails or manual, paper-based ways of working simply cannot.

Continuous innovative development

This year we have further developed our Cashroom portal with sophisticated integrated open banking technology and integrations into four of the leading practice management systems. Creating an even more secure and risk-free payments method for firms. We committed to the importance of our expert service being delivered by good technology by investing in a full-time technology development team within the business.

Having an in-house technology team that is on hand working hand in hand with clients to deliver continuous improvements and developments in our technology is something that no other legal accounting provider is giving the legal industry.

Integrations

In June 2021 we launched our first set of Practice Management integrations where our Cashroom portal will link directly into your PMS. Client matters will be updated automatically, and fee earners can easily go between client ledgers and setting up payments with clear visibility of their matters. We have successfully integrated with Clio, LEAP, Denovo and Klyant. Prior to this we collaborated with test client groups throughout our beta testing phases. Client feedback was listened to and taken on at every stage of development.

Our expertise on numerous practice management systems, means that we are able to help firms optimise their processes for their own system use, helping with data flow, accuracy of data and efficiency, all as part of our standard way of working with our clients.

Allowing law firms to use Cashroom services alongside the system of their choice gives firms the benefit of our industry best processes and efficiencies, along with using the best system for the firm.

We listen to our clients

Here at Cashroom we consistently ask our clients for feedback and ideas for further advances to our client portal. We have a ‘suggest feedback’ button within our portal for easy access. We send out monthly client surveys to check in and get feedback and we also have client relationship calls where we ask for any feedback. Listening to what our clients need and want is of the utmost importance in all of our technology developments.

With some of the very large pure play volume start up legal firms, we have worked with the client to design the right automations and system processes, which we then support with our teams to enable huge volumes of work to be processed efficiently, compliantly and removing risk.

Supporting the Legal sector

Following the most difficult and challenging year in 2020, the market (and particularly Conveyancers) experienced its busiest months ever in March and June 2021. During that month of March alone, Cashroom successfully processed over £1.3billion pounds of client money payments through our portal. In June we surpassed this with over £1.6billion pounds of clients money processed through our portal. With over 230 law firms as clients, March and June were the busiest months we have ever experienced at Cashroom. Our cashiers were under the same pressures the industry was under. However, they had the tools available to them to protect their clients. Our expert cashiers processed payments using secure open banking technology integrated in our Cashroom portal.

With integrations into the leading banking platforms, Cashroom can significantly reduce the risk of human error and save time when initiating payments and checking for incoming funds. We have combined the expert knowledge of our legal cashiers and accountants with the master capabilities of our technical team. Last year could be viewed as our biggest test yet on our people and technology. We are delighted that our clients benefited from our sophisticated technology and expert cashiering services. Combined with our expert service, our technology enables us to provide the best support possible to the industry that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

Our standard processes also protect our clients against the rising threat of fraudulent payments through the authorisation workflows we have developed, and the segregation of duties our service provides. Using our service ensures that the law firm has a payment process that protects not only against external fraud, but also internal collusion and single point fraud, where a hacker only requires to obtain one set of login details.

We can deliver this industry ‘best practice’ service to a huge range of firms, who have the ability to scale their requirements up and down as required. We work with firms of all sizes. From sole practitioners to large, full-service top 200 firms. Geographically, our client base extends to all corners of the country. Our team continues to develop new products and services to extend the support. W have plans to add integrations between our Cashroom portal and more practice management systems throughout the next few years.

Taking care of our employees

We work hard to provide an industry leading level of service. This includes regular training and development of staff across all areas of the business. This year we have also focused on the well being of our staff – encouraging daily miles, regular emotional check ins using a helter-skelter scale, value awards and other initiatives ran by a dedicated culture group – we place importance of our staff who in turn value our clients and provide the best support to the industry possible.

We have continued to grow as a business to support the industry. At the start of the pandemic Cashroom had 80 employees and now we have over 110. We have been a completely remote non-office-based business throughout the pandemic and have a new ‘work where you want policy’. This offers staff the flexibility of an office or remote working.

Cashroom team performance since the start of the pandemic has been exceptional. This has been proven by the levels of client money transferred in March and June 2021. Through innovation, expertise, and professionalism Cashroom have supported the industry through a turbulent time.

What some of our lovely clients have to say about Cashroom

“The Cashroom offer an invaluable service for any solicitor’s firm. Their approach is efficient, professional, and responsive. They have allowed us to deal with rapid growth by taking on all accounts functionality.

The staff at The Cashroom are highly skilled and can deal with all aspects of SAR. They are competitively priced relative to an in-house solution and have been a pleasure to deal with from the start.”

Alexis Brassey, Managing Partner and Notary Public, Cavendish Legal Group

“We set up Cheval Legal from scratch as a specialist litigation firm, specialising in financial mis-selling claims.

From the outset we knew we would process a high volumes of claims. We had to design our systems with efficiency and compliance at their core. Cashroom needed a finance function that was flexible, resilient, and scalable. We did not think that traditional in-house function would work, so we approached Cashroom.

From the outset they demonstrated their knowledge and expertise in designing law firm financial systems. They listened to what we wanted. They designed the system to fit our needs, and integrated it with their own internal processes. Throughout they were responsive, innovative, and willing to listen and adapt. This collaborative approach was key in designing exactly what we wanted.

As a result, we can now grow our business at a faster pace, with the knowledge that our finance function is in safe hands.”

Phil Ryan, Director, Cheval Legal

Read more of our clients’ testimonials

Change is inevitable

Change is inevitable, and in business, it’s an essential part of the process. Whether you like it or not!

At Tricres we have a model known as The Change House. It outlines the various feelings, emotions, and thoughts that as a business owner you experience at various stages in your business timeline. We break down the House into four rooms that you cycle through as you process change.

And this cycle doesn’t have a set starting or endpoint. Indeed you may experience the cycle numerous times over the course of your business’s existence. What is interesting is that the amount of time you spend in each segment of this cycle will vary from person to person and from each organisation to organisation. No two cases are identical.

If you’re in a great place, savour it! If it isn’t a great place to be stuck into you need to take action to move on from sitting there. The reality is taking a clear and honest stock of where you are in the cycle in order to get to a phase that is happier and more productive.

Change is inevitable and it happens. Resisting change is usually not an advisable tack, as those who avoid it so often get left behind.

So what is this cycle of change we speak of? And where are you in this model? All an excellent exercise in understanding where your leadership has brought your business to at this very stage of its existence.

THE CYCLE OF CHANGE

First, let us note that you can only move within this model in one direction. Be prepared, we will start in the darkest place in The Change House!

THE ROOM OF DENIAL

Let’s face it, change is usually scary!

Many companies go here when change is suddenly imminent. You may not have realised just how dire your situation is or acknowledged the reality of your business status. And that may be exactly why changes are needed in the first place.

If you stay in this room too long you may drop down to the Cellar of Despair where everything seems impossible or too big to manage.

The Cellar of Despair is no place to be for long, although there is only one way to go, which is back up to the Room of Denial. Make sure you get back up there in order to move to the next room…

THE ROOM OF CONFUSION

As we truly believe at Tricres, after confusion comes clarity. This room is filled with uncertainty and chaos. But once your move into this phase you can rest assured that clarity is on the horizon.

There is no point in avoiding this phase, it’s a necessary step to reaching the decision making that will take you in the right direction. Sometimes business leaders try to avoid this phase and walk out the ‘Wrong Door’, which isn’t going to solve your issues with the changes needed.

We suggest avoiding making decisions when you’re hungry, tired, or angry as you will likely make the wrong choice. Better to observe your situation like a distant bystander casually taking notes and then seeing what needs to be done with a calm and collected demeanour.

THE ROOM OF RENEWAL

This is a great place to be as once confusion has passed it gives your business that warm and fuzzy feeling. When your company colleagues can embrace and welcome the changes happening your business should feel refreshed, revitalised, and ready to make these changes happen.

As a business leader, establishing a healthy culture that welcomes change is certainly positive and assists in avoiding any wasted time in those less functional rooms of the change cycle. Acceptance of change when required that can cycle quickly through this Change House model will help your business move forward with ease.

THE ROOM OF CONTENTMENT

No changes on the horizon? Content with the status quo? While this room is a great place to be it can be hazardous if you head out onto the Sun Deck and hang out resting on your laurels!

Many industries have seen epic shifts in the last few years and those businesses that failed to make relevant changes got left behind in spectacular fashion.

Embracing change and making essential changes are key to staying relevant in whatever industry you’re in.

Assessing where you are in this model can help highlight if you are possibly a little too comfortable with the way things are. Are you in denial that change is needed? It could be time to move into that uncomfortable space to bring your business up to speed with what you need to be doing now, not after all of your competition has done the legwork.

Rebecca Bonnington

Tricres have a host of tools and techniques that can help coach and consult your ambitious SME business to achieve scalable success. We have an array of partners with expertise in every sector waiting for you to get in touch.

Find our partners here at: https://tricres.com/our-partners/

Open Banking Questions with Cashroom and Armalytix

January marked Open Banking’s fourth birthday, but it is still a foreign concept for many, including the legal sector. Questions as to what Open Banking even is, and how it can be applied, remain unanswered.
To help shed some light on this, Open Banking experts, Cashroom and Armalytix, tackled some key questions around the applications of Open Banking for the legal sector in the following Q&A.

What is Open Banking and what are its current application?

Cashroom:

“At a top level, Open Banking provides a standard and secure method to connect businesses with banks to enable sharing of data and access to banks services such as setting up payments, with the overall aim of providing greater financial transparency and making the lives of businesses and their customers much simpler. Created during the implementation of PSD2 in 2018, its mission is three-fold: to make consumers better informed and engaged in financial services, to enable numerous payment choices for customers, and to create an enhanced client experiences through increased competition and product innovation. It is this final point on creating an innovative ecosystem with new products where open banking is having its main impact on the legal sector. For us this has meant being able to develop the capability to set up lawyers payments using a straight through process.”

Armalytix:

“For us, Open Banking has meant that conveyancing firms can improve their analysis of source of funds, making buying a house faster and more secure. Firms can automate their data collection and gain the information that they need via Open Banking which analyses data from different sources, including personal and business bank accounts.”

What are some core challenges the legal sector faces?

Armalytix:

“Tedious manual processes, lengthy forms and paper chains that underpin the legal sector have made the sector a playground for fraudsters. Add in tired and overworked employees, who have to fill in forms by hand – the opportunities for fraudsters and challenges for the legal sector are numerous. The successful value of successful frauds of property sales more than tripled – from £7m in 2013 to £25m in 2017, and this number has only continued to rise. According to the Law Society of England and Wales, 2021 proved to be one of the worst years for fraud in property sales, especially APP fraud (Authorised Push Payments) – as the removal of Stamp Duty put people under additional time pressure to execute on their house sales, opening the door for criminals to impersonate clients’ lawyers and convincing them to send their hard owned money to the wrong account.”

Cashroom:

“Another core challenge that we are seeing from within the legal sector is the increased digitisation of both businesses and society. People live their lives through their electronic devices, and this has resulted in a higher expectation from both clients on their law firm and employees within the law firm to deliver a digital offering, similar to online banking. This has only increased the pressure placed on legal firms to modernise their reliance on paper and outdated technology by replacing some of their existing processes with ones which are more efficient and digital first.

How can Open Banking address these challenges and make the legal sector more efficient?

Cashroom:

“Open Banking is providing lots of opportunities for suppliers to the legal sector to help build automated end to end processes, making it easier and more secure for the required data to flow from the clients through to the many complicated back-office processes that happen within the legal sector. Additionally using the same principles as Open Banking is promoting within other areas of the legal technology is going to continue to drive the efficiencies that many firms are looking for to help provide the best service they can for their clients.”

Armalytix:

“For our Source of Funds analysis, the time saved from using Open Banking cannot be understated. In terms of the benefits for clients, using Open Banking could save companies 50% of the time spent analysing manual source of funds checks.

“The anti-fraud benefit that open banking brings is critical and is a key reason as to why we have implemented it. It creates a digital register and audit trail, uploaded, and maintained without the input of employees. This helps to prevent fraudsters and criminals, who like to target weak processes, with a heavy human input, as this allows them to slip between the cracks without being noticed, which is the case for the current state of the property market. Historic cases indicate that criminals won’t engage with robust technology, as they realise that the value isn’t there for them.”

How do you (Armalytix / Cashroom) use or apply open banking?

Armalytix:

“Open Banking helps us access up-to-date and accurate numbers. We can then analyse the data and clearly present it to help the conveyancer assess the client’s Source of Funds more efficiently. By being able to confirm that the payees are who they say they are, we can help to prevent fraud and money laundering. Open Banking provides a very simple, digital journey for both the law firm and their clients, enabling them to provide and access the data in only a few clicks, and provide a clear picture for conveyancing firms to make their decisions.”

Cashroom:

“We use Open Banking to initiate payments required by a law firm to provide straight through processing of payments removing the need to rekey bank account details and making it easy for the lawyers to authorise the payments that need to be made.”

What are your predictions for open banking in 3-5 years?

Armalytix:

“The recent ruling from the FCA states that users no longer need to re-authenticate their connected accounts every 90 days. In our opinion, this is a step in the right direction for Open Banking to become mainstream in the legal sector and shows that the government is committed to innovation and improving outdated products. Open Banking will continue to develop worldwide, and 2022 is shaping up to be a bumper year globally, with the UK and the EU set to follow Brazil’s lead in the move to Open Finance. People are beginning to see the massive benefits of Open Banking, and how it makes the lives of everyone easier and more secure through creating a better client experience. Across the next couple of years, we expect Open Banking to become a key tool in many businesses’ armouries, opening up a path for a form free future.”

Cashroom:

“This demand internationally for Open Finance initiatives will continue to expand, and the requirements for regulation, fraud and financial crime checks will rise sharply with it. Whilst everyone will become more comfortable using Open Banking and enabling the required flow of financial data to make their interactions with sectors like the legal sector easier. They will also be more aware of what data they have and be aware of the risks associated with sharing this data so will expect a secure digital journey to be provided to enable this sharing of data. Open Finance will continue to open up more capabilities within suppliers to the sector, such as banks and other financial institutions, which will provide greater opportunities to make processes more efficient, by removing the need for most manual inputting of data and securely sharing of data across the processes, all leading to a better and safer world.”

Find out more about Armalytix at https://armalytix.com/

A Lot can Happen in 10 years

It’s hard to believe, but I joined Cashroom full time just over 10 years ago. I was a non-exec director before then, but my first day sitting at a desk with a job of work to do, was in January 2012.

I was employee 13, we had 22 clients, and turned over £330k in the previous year. My mother (!) was horrified I had given up my career as a solicitor (“but David, what will I tell people you do now?”), and we were still crawling out of the great financial crisis.

This week we had an “all hands” meeting and more than 100 people logged into the Teams call, we act for over 220 clients across the UK, and last year we turned over almost £3.5m.

And my mother still has no idea what I do!

People often ask me if I miss being a solicitor. Often the question is asked by other solicitors.
Some are genuinely curious, but others I feel want (need?) me to say I don’t miss being a solicitor. I confess my answer is occasionally tailored to suit the questioner.

I believe passionately that the legal profession is a crucial part of any society. Without a legal system, and an independent and fearless professional, prepared to fight for their clients (whether against government, or against their fellow citizens), western democracy as we know it could not function.

However, it is easy to lose sight of this while fighting in the trenches. The great privileged I have at Cashroom is seeing over 220 firms and hundreds of solicitors fight that fight every day. So rather than focusing on my muddy boots, and the rats and the damp, and worry about the snipers (!)I get to see the best of the profession. I get to see all of you build your business and fight for your clients – and I get to play a small part in helping you do it.

So, while I do, on occasion miss being a solicitor, I don’t regret the decision I made for a second.

Looking forward to the next 10 years.

David Calder

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