AccountKit Case Study: HTA Advisory

HTA is an award-winning accounting, business advisory, wealth management and finance broking firm based in Melbourne. The firm’s focus is on ‘Delivering Actionable Insight’ to support clients’ long-term development and success.

Since signing up to AccountKit in 2016 – making them the third subscriber ever – HTA has seen significant growth. Today, both HTA’s headcount and the business’ overall performance are more than double what they were just five years ago.

“It’s been an emotional experience at times, but very rewarding as well,” Co-Founder Troy Townley explains.

What initially drew Troy and the team to AccountKit was its ability to provide a central database for client information.

“One of the issues we had was keeping track of client groups,” Troy says. “We couldn’t update in bulk, and that’s something AccountKit allowed us to do immediately.”

“We had seven or eight different systems that did different things, but no single source of truth. Based on where AccountKit was at the time, and their roadmap, we saw it as a database that we could use day in, day out.”

Parallel growth journeys

Since those early days, AccountKit has been on a journey of continual improvement – which Troy says he has played a part in.

“Paul and his team have been really receptive to taking on ideas we’ve had. They would either put something into place relatively quickly or build it into their longer-term development roadmap. I like to think we’ve helped them build a better product, and they’ve certainly helped us get more out of AccountKit.”

Nowadays, the HTA team relies on AccountKit to track and manage everything from meeting and file notes to professional development, client structures and equipment finance schedules.

“We use the Mail Register for all our inbound and outbound correspondence,” Troy explains. “Some of the recent additions that have been built in, like templates for meeting notes and file notes, have been really useful. We also use the Professional Development Register to track our CPD for our entire team, which means we don’t have to update a separate spreadsheet.”

“The client map tool is one we use a lot – we update it for every client group and get a lot of positive feedback on it. I jumped in to do a structure diagram a few weeks ago and the updated functionality is a big improvement. It’s a lot more automated, quick and easy.”

When it comes to the tools the HTA team doesn’t currently use, Troy says it’s only a matter of time until they’re brought into the mix.

“There’s a couple of tools we don’t use at the moment but we’ll be looking to take them on board fairly soon. The Division 7A tool is one Paul showed us when we last caught up and that will plug a lot of gaps we’ve got now, so we’ll be rolling that out in the next few weeks.”

Built by accountants, for accountants

For Troy, what sets AccountKit apart from other solutions on the market is that it’s been built by people who genuinely understand users’ needs and offer support at every step of the way.

“AccountKit has been built by accountants, so they live and breathe it every day. They’re not just another software vendor thinking they know how to plug a gap. They’re really focused on the pain points of small-to-medium-sized accounting practices.”

“The support has been outstanding. We’ve had a few AccountKit ‘champions’ in our business over the years and the support team has been really good about spending that extra bit of time with them to show them the system and explain how it all works.”

“We have a number of subscriptions we use in our business and it’s a big cost. With AccountKit, I know we get a lot of value for money.”

Curious to see if AccountKit is right for your business? Try it free for 14 days (no credit card required) or get a live demonstration of AccountKit’s tools.