With over 40 years experience as Chartered Accountants, Registered Auditors and specialist Business Advisors to entrepreneurial startups to international businesses, Freedman Frankl & Taylor have an undisputed reputation for developing business efficiency and financial performance.
ANALYSIS
Freedman Frankl & Taylor were struggling with document storage issues. They had an abundance of paper files within the business. Some were stored in filing cabinets in their office and some were in storage in a building the company owned over half a mile away. As well as dealing with the financial and space implications of storing so much paperwork, FFT were also concerned with files being misplaced and paper deteriorating resulting in a loss of information.
With a growing business, FFT knew they had to gain control of their documents. They wanted a solution that would provide a secure and central repository for digital files, improved document access and filing, and help to increase efficiency throughout the business.
Peter Curt, Tax Manager at FFT explains, “We wanted to gain better control of our documents and reduce the number of lost, damaged or misplaced files, as well as improving our level of efficiency. We also wanted to cut the costs of storing paper files, in filing cabinets and off site, and free up some office space.”
“Invu has made my life so much easier, it’s unbelievable. And I would strongly recommend anybody in a similar position to ourselves, running a high document volume business, to look at the potential of the Invu solution, as provided and supported by YourDMS.”
Peter Curt, Tax Manager, Freedman Frankl & Taylor
YourDMS SOLUTION
An Invu Document Management system was the perfect choice to meet FFT’s needs by providing a secure, central location to store all business and customer documents. Some financial documents must be stored for 7 years, and storing them in a digital format would free up valuable space, whilst complying with industry regulations.
All files would be stored with indexes, and this, in conjunction with Invu’s powerful search options, would allow documents to be searched for and retrieved quickly and easily.
Permissions can be set for each document to ensure only the correct members of staff can open and edit it, providing a further level of security. In addition, an audit trail will be created to show who has performed which action on which document.
RESULT
All of FFT’s paperwork is now stored digitally within their Invu system. They don’t need very much storage space within the office and they no longer store any files off site. This has not only saved them money in storage costs, and eliminated lost or misfiled documents but has also increased efficiency by greatly reducing the time taken to search for the right files, allowing them to improve their customer experience.
Before using Invu, if a customer called the team with a query, they would always have to ring them back after they had located the paperwork they needed. Now, when a customer rings, it takes the consultant a matter of seconds to search for, retrieve and open the right file.
Peter is delighted with the solution and says, “The change in efficiency is probably 10 times what you might envisage it would be. It’s almost impossible to put a figure on how much time you are saving, and the cost of that time but it’s huge!”
Powerful Searching
Peter uses the intelligent search functions in Invu with great success. He notes, “I performed an OCR search using just two words and within a minute, Invu had found the right file from 2006 – it was unbelievable! Before we had Invu, if a document had been put in the wrong file, it would have been impossible to find it.”
Proactive Development
FFT have been using Invu since 2005, and YourDMS have worked closely with them in recent years, providing additional ‘add on’ solutions where appropriate, to enhance and improve the system, ensuring it continues to meet the needs of the business, now and in the future.
YourDMS developed an automated mailing solution to email monthly statements to FFT’s clients and then automatically file them in Invu. FFT had previously printed out their clients’ monthly statements and posted them. The new solution has resulted in an annual saving of around £2,000 in postage and stationery costs.
Peter is happy with YourDMS’s approach and comments, “If any solutions have not been to our requirements, YourDMS have accepted this and not pursued further. When we have been interested in their solutions, they have been proactive in helping us to decide the best way to implement within our structure.”
Having the vision to ‘go digital’ over 15 years ago, when HMRC’s Making Tax Digital initiative launched in April 2019, FFT were be able to manage all of their customers’ digital files with ease, and advise them on the benefits of Document Management.
“YourDMS are great to work with. They been proactive in sorting things out for us. The Invu product is so robust that we don’t need to talk to support very often, but when we do, the support we receive is great. YourDMS are excellent all round.”
Peter Curt, Tax Manager, Freedman Frankl & Taylor
