Hello, I'm Anke Fitzhenry of Anke Fitzhenry Accounting. I am based in Aberdeen and I serve the majority of farming clients, the agric- agricultural sector.
Tell me a bit about um how things were for you before moving to Fintura and what kind of made you make that decision.
Firstly, before Fintura, it was a bit chaotic. I used Excel spreadsheets and I used other accounting software or practice management software where I yeah, but actually paid quite a lot of money for what I used. I only used it for tracking whose VAT needs to be done when and financial statements and how many outstanding IRP6s there are and all of those. So, that's actually all I used it as as for a checklist. So, I actually paid a lot of money. I could have just done it on an Excel. I have a friend and we kind of work together. We both have our different firms, but we do all our big management decisions with yeah, we we discuss it and we follow it. And then we came to a point because he doesn't have employees and I didn't have employees. We we came at a point where we were like it's just not working. We overload. It's stressful. It's just not working. And then one day he just mentioned oh, he had a discussion with his people and he saw that they used this um he's going to talk more to them, but they do use this programme Fintura, which is a lot like what we use. Then I was like oh, Fintura, went Googled it. I'm like okay, I'll like and then I think I booked a demo like a week in advance or whatever. The demo came up and I forgot about the demo that I booked with Reece. I'm just going to do this demo just to get it over with. I'm yeah, I'll find out the prices and that's it. Like I'm I'm not going to even use this programme cuz I'm not I'm I don't have the energy to switch from one to another. And then, I did the Oh, yeah, I did the walkthrough and demo with Reece. And just the more we talked, I just like I need this programme. I need it. I need it. And we had Yeah, we had It was such a lovely like demo and I just call Yeah, it was just so fun. And then, immediately after I spoke to Reece, I phoned her, my friend. And I'm like, "Listen, you have to book a demo. We have We have to move to these people um or to this company. It's amazing. And it's a all-in-one that we spoke about cuz a a few years ago, we said we just want a programme that can do it all. Like, why do you have to go into CIPC and trusts? And it's just too much. And yeah, then I'm like, "We have to do it." And I remember that night cuz I wasn't too happy with my company. And the stress of being overload. And then, that night when I told my husband about the programme and what it can do, I just did like a happy dance in the the kitchen. I was like, "Oh, this is going to be amazing. It's going to save time." And honestly, since I've subscribed to Fintura, it's been just fun. It's just been not stressful. And I'm enjoying my work again. I want to continue with my work, which I didn't want to do before.
How did you find the actual move to Fintura? Like, doing the migration from one platform to another. How was that whole experience for you?
I was very stressed about it, to be honest, because when I went from Excel to my first programme, it did take time. It really took time to get everything sorted. But honestly, it was like I think I did everything in like a few hours. Not not even a few hours. It was I sent it the night I have to say this as well. I was so surprised with Reece cuz I think he like mailed me like at night like at after 5:00. He's like, "Listen, send us your list. We'll do it for you." And then I was like, "Okay, these people mean business. I like this." It was user-friendly. That was a big thing for me with the with the setting up. It you press on the button, you click the deadlines, done. It's not go here to do that one, go here to do that one. It was just You just click on deadlines, you boom, boom, boom, done. No hassles.
Can you walk me through something that you recently used on Fintura or use daily on Fintura, like a process or a feature with in Fintura that you just love how it runs?
The time tracking is amazing because you can start and you can pause. And yeah, you can I don't know how to explain, but it goes to you can choose your client, your task, everything. So, it's very neatly put out. And your beneficial ownership the diagram, it's just so pretty. Like you can give that to a client and be like, "Listen, look at this. This is presentable." And they'll be like, "Yo, this is neat." I think the thing that I love the most is the e-signatures. Especially for me working with farmers, they are in the veld from 5:00 until 6:00 at night. So, for me to send a beneficial ownership mandate to them, they have to print it out, you know, sign it, scan it in. It probably takes sometimes like 2 weeks, probably sometimes months. Not months, but like a month. Me nagging clients, "Listen, please remember send me the document. Please remember." Now, I send it to them via Fintura with the e-signature. And I I call them. I'm like, "Listen, you can open this on your phone. You literally just type in the place it's signed and you type your signature and it's done. And since then it takes like 10 minutes or 5 minutes to do that and that has made a very very big difference in for me is the e-signatures with everything with the beneficial mandates the share certificates the registrations everything and that that thing Yeah, I love it. I really love it.
So if we took that one off the system you'd fight us for it.
I'd fight you for it. Fight you for it.
But also if you take anything off Fintura away I'm going to close.
I won't go back to the olden days of of other Excels and scans.
If you had to put a number on it, how has Fintura helped you in specific ways within your company?
The first thing that really stands out for me is the COIDA registration. I had a client and we've been waiting about 2 years for his COIDA registration to go through. Nothing happened. Did it through Fintura now I think a few weeks ago. If I'm correct, I think it was done within a week. It was It wasn't longer than 2 weeks and I could that I could not believe. The other thing that was amazing was the UIF registration. That took about 6 weeks and I know it sounds long but for my other clients I had to send in the document three times because UIF never came back and said listen put the postal code in this one day or whatever was wrong on the first one. So I just had to resend the documents. Also that took like a year because you don't follow up every week with them. So those two are winners for me. And then, since using Fintura, it has made my workload a lot less. So, since using Fintura, I've been able to take on 10% more clients, and I know I have the capacity and will be able to take on another 10 to 15% of clients because of the workflow being less and easier and organised and manageable.
What is one thing about your practice that you're the most proud of now since you've moved to Fintura?
The turnaround time for clients, like whether it's COIDA or UIF or just the if like just everything's like annual returns, they're on date, they're never late cuz sometimes it happened that you're late because you have all of these clients, and then you know my pay the penalty fee cuz you can't expect the client to pay it. And I haven't missed one deadline since moving to Fintura, and about that, I'm very proud. Not that I was very disorganised before, it was but there was one or two that I missed. Um and now I haven't missed anything.
Let's say we currently have someone who is um thinking about moving over to Fintura, and we give them your number and say, "Please, will you talk to them?" What would What advice or what would you give them basically or say to them to to help them make the decision?
If they call me, I'll say, "Listen, firstly, just move. Don't even think about it. Just move. It's gonna make your life so much easier. Your stress is gonna be less. You're gonna have more time for your husband and your kids or your wife and your kids or just playing golf if you want to." And then, I would also tell them, "You I promise you in this company, you will not feel like a number. you will feel like a person. Because the people know you by name, they know your your like your industry, your client base. They really care about you. You get WhatsApps, you get emails. Keith phones you. He's like, "Listen, how is it going? Are you happy? If there's something, please let us know." You let them know. He's like, "Okay, we're on it. We're going to change this thing to adapt to you. Um you Yeah, it's like a little family. You You feel appreciate or you felt you feel like you've They look after you. They really care about you. I feel like part of the family. And yeah, it just made everything so much easier. And no, just move. Don't Don't overthink it. Just move. I promise you're going to save money and time. And yeah, your health is going to be better as well. I feel a bit emotional. No, I really I I really love you guys. I really love you guys. Like I mean, they respond so quickly. Like it's just that's what we want. We want quick and efficient. And yeah, we we get that here. So, I would just tell them just I promise you I'll I'll tell them I promise you you will not regret it.
Can you describe Fintura in one sentence from your perspective?
Fintura is going places. That's how I feel. Like I know probably need to describe Fintura, but Fintura I just see If I see Fintura, I just see like sparks and beautifulness Not beautifulness, but like big things are coming. Like that. Yes. Fintura, big things are coming.
I like that one. I really like that one.
I can just say thank you to you, all of you, that make this amazing programme work. Now, just thank you for everything. Just I love it. I love the programme.
Anke FitzhenryCA(SA), Anke Fitzhenry Accounting
