How Cashroom is committed to Staff Training

At Cashroom, we are committed to staff training and development. One way we achieve this is through our very own Cashroom Academy, dedicated to training and nurturing our staff.

From day one

The academy acts as a independent training department for Cashroom and is utilised by all members staff. Allowing staff members to further develop skills and gain requirements for career progression.

In addition to day to day training, our Academy hosts workshops, training courses and facilitates external training. All our employees are enrolled into the Academy from the 1st day of their employment. New employees will spend the first few days going through our induction process in the academy before joining their respective teams. Helping new staff members to feel up to speed and confident for their first day ‘on the job’.

Continuous development

We provide our staff the freedom to choose which courses they would like to study. This is a great way for staff to progress within their roles and enhance their career whilst increasing their confidence and skill set.

Staff will also receive practical on-the-job training with their colleagues learning specific client processes and procedures in addition to learning the many different practice management systems that we use.

Their training is ongoing throughout their employment and contributes towards their regular Personal Development Plans from which they have regular review meetings with their respective line managers. This is a chance for staff and managers to discuss progression, set targets and give feedback, all with the aim of developing and progressing through their roles.

ILFM Program

Last year Cashroom also launched an official program with the ILFM (Institute of Legal Finance and Management) for staff to begin studying the ILFM Diploma. Once completed, staff will gain an industry recognised qualification. The course includes structured training and allows our staff to gain all increased knowledge of Legal Cashiering protocols and requirements.

Staff will study this in work time and ILFM host online classroom sessions to add further support, in addition to dedicated tutor support.

The ILFM Diploma focuses specifically on Legal Cashiering and Accounting and differs from other accounting qualifications. The course particularly covers client ledgers, VAT (Value Added Tax) specific to the legal sector and subjects such as disbursements and recharges. If you are in accounting or considering accounting in the legal profession, then the ILFM is more tailored to this than other qualifications.

Ensure Compliance and Increase Efficiency

Working with Cashroom means clients can be sure their firm’s accounts are in safe hands. To become a legal cashier, there is generally no specific qualification required which can be a risk to firms. Cashroom’s expertise and dedication to regular training means we are always ahead of the game when it comes to new regulations and compliance, providing peace of mind for our clients.

Our commitment to our staff allows us to deliver an exceptional service to our clients from experienced, qualified, and dedicated cashiers and accountants.

Andrew Lowe, Cashroom Manager – Training & Development

Cashroom are currently recruiting, if you or anyone you know may be interested, please contact:

Heather Slater, HR & Facilities Manager

Email: heather.slater@thecashroom.co.uk

Phone: 01695 550950

About Cashroom

Cashroom provides expert outsourced accounting services for Law Firms including Legal CashieringManagement 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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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How Cashroom Technology is Revolutionising Legal Accounting

Cashroom recently won the Legal Technology Award at the Scottish Legal Awards.

It has been amazing to see our team get the recognition they deserve for the technology that has been developed and built at Cashroom. We have to thank the combined expert knowledge of our legal cashiers with the incredible skills of our technical team.

“The Legal Awards is always one of the best nights in the legal industry calendar and this year was no exception. The level of talent and quality of the nominees in the room always serves as a reminder to Cashroom of why we provide the services we do to support law firms all over the UK. Our Cashroom portal and its development has been transformative over the last 5 years in the way our service teams delivery a quality, efficient and compliant accounting service and to be recognised as the winner of the technology award gave us the opportunity to step back and appreciate what we have achieved so far.” – Steven O’Day, Head of Operations

Why does your legal accounting team need technology?

Our portal provides an encrypted means of communication between Cashroom and our clients. Developing a highly secure portal with reduced risk, enhanced efficiency and ensuring compliance is a constant priority for our technology development team. Our award confirms our Cashroom portal is excellent.

Our clients can reduce duplication of data entry, reduce risk by minimising the potential for human error and save time.  The portal currently has integrations into four of the leading practice management systems – LEAP, Clio, Denovo and Klyant.  Cashroom are system agnostic and the Cashroom portal has been built with integration at the forefront of its development and we welcome conversations with other system providers to work together to create the best product. Working with these systems means that we are able to help firms optimise clients’ processes for their own system use, help with data flow, task management, accuracy of data and efficiency, all as part of our standard way of working with law firms.

Clients of Cashroom won’t have to worry about cyber security risks. The Cashroom portal ensures that law firms have 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. Cashroom also obtain Cyber Essentials Plus annually. Read more in our recent blog ‘Providing data security to law firms’.

We are always looking for ways to push our technology further

We continue to develop new products and services to extend our support to law firms. Cashroom has plans to add more integrations between our Cashroom portal and other practice management systems throughout the next few years.

The opinions of our clients are extremely important to us too. Our technology development team want to hear clients’ needs and wants. We have a ‘suggest feedback’ button within our portal for easy access and we send out monthly client surveys to check in, so clients can give us their own feedback. Our team is always working hand in hand with clients to deliver continuous improvements and developments in our technology so we can continue to lead the way in legal accounting.

“Winning this award is great recognition of not only the hard work of the technology team, but also the wider organisation in embracing change and new technology available. We encourage a culture of continuous development and improvement at Cashroom, and are always looking at how we can do things better. We have barely begun to scratch the surface of the open banking technology we have available and are working hard to improve our practice management system integrations. We love to hear feedback from clients to allow us to adapt and improve our portal to deliver the best legal accounting service possible. Our growing technology team at Cashroom work hand in hand with our accounting experts and law firm clients as we continue to revolutionise legal accounting!” – Paul O’Day, Head of Product Development

The online portal we have built together helps to support our teams and clients as we continue to revolutionise legal accounting.

If you would like to hear more about how Cashroom’s technology can benefit your law firm, please email Daniel.jones@thecashroom.co.uk or call 07949 177 952.

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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What a Week for the Scottish Legal Community!

Cashroom teams have been lucky enough to attend both the Law Society of Scotland Technology Conference and the Scottish Legal Awards – both in the wonderful city of Glasgow. 

First up was The Law Society of Scotland Technology Conference. We were delighted to support the Law Society in sponsoring the event and exhibiting to talk about Cashroom to those who wanted to hear about legal accounting as a service.  

Over the last 12 years, it has been amazing to see the change in how start-up firms are approaching the beginning of their businesses but also how the more ‘traditional’ firms now discuss solutions for their firms – everyone really is innovating! 

It was a great opportunity to catch up with 2 of our integration partners, Clio and Denovo, as well as hear the key themes that came out of the day.  

There was no disputing that legal technology is now part of our everyday lives but there were queries around how we know what technology to use and also if using a form of tech is always worth it. Here are some key points from the day: 

  • Be prepared to put in the time when adding any new technology to your business, it isn’t a quick fix 
  • Don’t assume that adding a tech solution is what your clients want – ask them first 
  • Understand what the actual benefit is from using the technology and get value from it. You likely already have access to a lot of technology you don’t use fully 
  • There are a lot of free resources to help you out there – Youtube is your friend! 

Scotland is overflowing with legal talent and innovation and the law tech conference proved that. Even though there are a lot out there who feel they are not ‘tech savvy’ yet, they are willing to learn, ask questions and find out more on the solutions that are available to help them work smarter and ultimately better. 

The Scottish legal awards is always one of the best nights in the diary – I’m just not sure there is anyone else who knows quite how to celebrate like the Scots! Partying aside, the sheer volume of talent in the room can take your breath away. Listening to the nominations really was a humbling experience. The team spirit visible around each table was fantastic. Whether it was one person or the whole firm up for an award you could really feel how strong some of the teams in the room were in their support of each other and how they got along.  

The icing on the cake was Cashroom won Legal Technology Award. All our tech is created, used, and implemented with the optimal experience for our clients in mind – it has been created specifically and only for lawyers and how they work. We were delighted to be recognised for this. 

“So proud of our team winning the Legal Technology Award, it is a great recognition of the hard work of our full team and the drive to innovate and constantly develop the technology we use and build to support our teams and clients as we continue our drive to Revolutionise Legal Accounting.” – Chris O’Day – CEO, Cashroom 

Congratulations to all of the winners, life in the legal industry can be non-stop and is constantly fast-paced, it’s crucial we all take moments to reflect and celebrate and that’s what these awards are all about for us.  

Cheers to the Scottish Legal Industry! 

Emma O’Day – Head of Marketing and Communications, Cashroom

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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Cashroom has become Xero Gold Partners

Cashroom are pleased to announce we have become gold partners with Xero. This partnership means better integration and service for our clients and increased support and training for our accountants and legal cashiers, ultimately allowing us to continue to provide the best possible legal cashiering service to our clients.

Xero was founded in 2006 and now has over 3 million subscribers utilising their cloud accounting service globally. Xero help businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers to automate, collaborate and grow. Xero’s specialist accounting services provide data insights, sophisticated account management and file storage to make accountants jobs easier and more manageable.

We share many values with Xero as a company such as innovation which made it an easy decision to become a gold partner.

Xero’s experienced board and leadership team work to ensure Xero focuses on innovation and performance for their customers. The same way innovation is at the forefront of Cashroom’s values, providing our clients with innovative, secure, and unique platforms to make their day-to-day roles and communication with teams a smoother process.

Partnering with Xero allows us to ensure more efficient workflows and collaboration with automation software to support compliance as well as opening the door for Cashroom to utilise Xero’s other products such as Xero HQ and Xero Tax for a more centralised workflow for our teams of legal cashiers and accountants.

At Cashroom, we value our employees and support their personal development within the business.

Partnering with Xero means our accountants and cashiers will have further access to tools to develop their careers and skill set through Xero’s training programs. Developing and nurturing our staff means that we can provide the best possible service to our clients and keep up to date with new innovations and workflows to make our services as efficient as possible.

‘We are delighted to announce we have become Gold Partners with Xero. We have developed a great working relationship with Xero since we began using their software. Their sophisticated software allows our accountants and cashiers to provide services for our clients more efficiently. We are excited to be part of the Xero community and look forward to working with the team.’

Chris O’Day, CEO, Cashroom

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

Providing data security to law firms

Cashroom has renewed our Cyber Essential Plus status. This achievement is another reason why Cashroom is the leading supplier of outsourced legal finance and highlights the sophistication and robustness of our revolutionary web-based client portal. Cashroom communication is protected from the insecurities of email and our clients are safer than those who don’t use Cashroom from the rising threat of fraudulent payments.  

Cashroom’s Head of Technology, Steven O’Day

“Security is at the forefront of our minds at Cashroom. These accreditations prove that we are leading the way in providing data security to clients. The team will also continue to have regular training and updates to react to the ongoing risk of cybercrime.” 

Cyber Essentials acknowledges the highest levels of competency and performance. Therefore, Cyber Essential Plus has been awarded as a result of an external audit of Cashroom systems. This proves it was doing everything, and more, to meet the government’s standard for cyber security and protect law firms and their finances. 

Creating an even more secure service with further reduced risk payment methods for firms is a massive priority for our full-time technology development team. 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 important in all our technology development.   

Cashroom works alongside legal firms managing their finance including cyber security measures. Our experts in legal finance work seamlessly in the background as part of the team taking a pro-active approach to keep everything up to date rather than being called in to react when things go wrong. 

The Cashroom approach means our law firm clients can focus on their business. In addition, they can save money and they can pass this peace of mind on to their own customers with the help of our outsourced legal cashiering, management accounting and other accounting services. 

“We’ve been with Cashroom for a while now, and I couldn’t be more pleased with my decision. The transition process was smooth, my cashiers are first rate, and the peace of mind it gives me, knowing everything is in order, is invaluable. My day-to-day interaction with Cashroom is managed via their proprietary web portal. It’s easy to use and ensures secure communication, and prompt responses. I’ve recommended Cashroom to several colleagues in the profession.”  

Mark Gawor, Founder/Senior Partner, Gawor & Co

With integrations into some of the leading Practice Management systems and the banking network, Cashroom makes law firms tools work better by integrating with industry leading software and custom applications right into our Cashroom Portal. Our portal is secure and provides an encrypted means of communication between Cashroom and our clients. Our software can reduce duplication of data entry, reduce risk by minimising the potential for human error and save time. 

Firms understand the importance of cyber security and they want the best processes and legal accounting service possible looking after their law firm’s finances – that’s Cashroom! 

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

The Busy ‘Conference Period’

I’m sure all of you Business Development Guru’s out there, like me, are prepping for a very busy upcoming conference period. How do we cope? Being on the road can be difficult but the hotel ‘break’ for an evening (or two), talking to leaders of the industry and the amazing venues we visit most definitely helps.

Conferences are a very new thing for me. Whilst I’m very much used to being on the road visiting clients for most part of the working weeks, they are very different. There seems to be a buzz around being in a room with hundreds of people from the industry, opening their eyes to how our service helps them ‘stay compliant, minimise risk and increase efficiency’ – I’m sure some of you will hear me say that line over the next few months! ITS TRUE!

But as a newbie to them, I’m certainly seeing the same trend.

Everyone loves a freebie! Especially Lionel, our special little piggy bank who’s been fortunate to travel not only around the UK, but now to the US! And then our wonderful little pens…. I’m not trying to sell you our merchandise, honest!

All jokes aside. I’ve only been to a couple conferences since my return to the Cashroom and I’ve learned so much from each:

  • How much effort the organisers need to go through to make sure they run ‘smoothly’ and give each attendee the intended benefits.
  • How fantastic some of the speakers are, the experiences that they’ve been through (even those not strictly legal related), but how it makes them forward-thinking and game changers.
  • And, just how amazing some of the suppliers and exhibitors are. The tech that is in place, and how much each and every one of them help support the industry.
As the title of the blog says – The busy ‘Conference Period’. That’s exactly what it is.

Whilst I won’t be attending all of them, we’ll have at least one Cashroom ‘Business Development Guru’ at The Solicitors Group (Cardiff), LegalEx, Legal Futures, Legal Geek, National Legal Alliance, Lawshare, LEAP Modern Law Conveyancing Awards and The Scottish Legal Awards. (To name a few!)

We’re very much looking forward to seeing some of you there. We’ll have the freebies ready and we’d love to talk to you about how we can help your firm.

Daniel Jones

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

Enhancing knowledge within a virtual classroom

Developing new skills

Cashroom has recently launched an in-house academy, primarily to support our expert cashiers with their qualifications and enhancing their skill set. Cashroom launched their partnership with ILFM as a training resource for client facing staff last year. The academy compliments this as well as providing a better onboarding process and training for all staff. Cashroom also support their accounts teams in AAT and CIMA qualifications. Having the academy on hand to support staff through their qualifications means Cashroom can increase their service offering and provide additional resource to clients.

You can always learn more

I am a firm believer that there is something new to learn every day. As someone who has only worked within the legal industry for 2 years now, there is still a lot to learn. That’s why I was keen as soon as the Academy was launched to get on board and book onto the courses.

As a marketing professional, it is important to know as much as possible about the product and service your business provides. Product knowledge enhances your marketing skills through more in-depth content writing and fully understanding the customers journey and what struggles they may face that you can help resolve. This knowledge allows us marketers to create more engaging content that really resonates with consumers. I found the courses at the academy enhanced my knowledge specifically around the intricate details of how our clients communicate with our service team through our unique and secure portal and a better understanding of the overall customer journey.

A virtual Classroom

Not only is the academy a positive for the business by increasing our service team’s skill set, it also provides an hour where teams get together to learn. In the new working from home and hybrid culture, we can sometimes be left feeling disconnected, the academy also acts as a communication tool, staff members who wouldn’t usually be on meetings together are in the same ‘virtual’ room. The courses are also made interactive with quizzes and questions which creates a virtual learning environment which mirrors that of an actual classroom.

The academy shows Cashroom’s commitment to employees and clients. Providing in-house training and support allows Cashroom to deliver the best possible service to clients.

Natasha Langley

See our job vacancies here.

If you are interested in finding out more about our services get in touch.

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
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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

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.

Book a demo

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
Sharon Needle
Managing Partner, Needle Partners
Sign Up to our Monthly Newsletter

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