How The Tax Shop Wellington stopped retyping SARS returns with Fintura

I'm Daphne Gianello. I'm part of the bigger group, the Tax Shop. Um, and I am the Tax Shop of Wellington, but work from Paarl and have clients um all over South Africa. Um and the type of clients I have is small um small companies um individuals and I manage some trusts as well.

How many clients do you have more or less and um how many staff do you have on your team?

So I have about probably 15 small companies um 100 plus individuals and probably around 10 trusts. So, it's um me, myself, and I until probably a few months back where I just hired someone part-time to help me do the admin on the bookkeeping and the bank reconciliation for my small companies.

Okay.

Um but um yeah, that's it. So, it's me and someone part time part time.

Tell me how your firm started.

So, I started about um two years ago. um the time exactly where I moved from Johannesburg to Paarl. I had a business in Johannesburg and I was not going to be able to bring it here to Paarl. So I sold it and I thought what am I going to do next and um I went back to um what I do the best which is finance which I've been working in big corporates for most of my career and then I came along the Tax Shop which was um a good start for me because I wasn't part of any governing body or anything. Um and I took over the Tax Shop Wellington franchise and uh yeah it's been about two years since then I am now part of SAIPA as the governing body I could registered with them.

What would you say makes your practice different to another practice in the space in this area?

I think what my practice uh makes it different to any other I would say is um the service I give to my clients. Um I think they've never I mean when clients shift to me from another accountant and then start dealing with me in the first few weeks they like never have received responses from their accountants as quickly as I do. Um so yeah I would say I'm I'm I'm fast. I'm responsive and um I think the quality of my service is also probably very much appreciated. Yeah, my KPIs don't leave more than 24 hours between an email that gets received and get response. Even if it's just I'm working on it for me, it's just critical. Communication is key.

Yeah.

Uh with clients and I think that's all people want and need, it's just communication. Even if you tell them it will be done in 3 weeks, at least you told them.

Yeah. So before Fintura, how did you manage your practice management? Which tools did you use to do that?

The way I was managing my practice was very manual actually. There was not much tools which is um the reason why I was actually looking for one. I wasn't like actively looking yet. I thought let me just manage it like through my emails, through my phone calendar with all my tasks and through my Outlook and little notes here and there basically. Um and then I came along Fintura through one of the other Tax Shop franchise who um uh presented it to us I think at the time and I thought well this is meant to be I mean it's time for me to find a tool because my client base is basically expanding and I'm losing track on some things which is yeah the worst. Um and so that's where I jumped into it. So I wasn't really using much before. Um and that's been for me I mean the practice management just have um everything like a clean list of all your CL clients just with the contact just that already was like amazing for me.

What was a task that you dreaded doing before Fintura?

The task that was the most painful probably for me. But I'm going to jump into more the Fintura task uh the Fintura Tax. Um was definitely the EMP201 um maybe also the VAT201. uh it it couldn't I couldn't understand why having to go on to eFiling and manually put every single month my details my practice um practitioner tax practitioner number and then putting the I almost forgot that I did that because I'm not doing it anymore but uh putting those numbers manually into eFiling typing the numbers that for me was just um yeah that was for me the probably the worst task I I I could do on a monthly basis. Errors can happen and errors have happened because everything was manually etc. So thank God for now um Fintura coming along into that space.

What did you expect um to be difficult when moving to Fintura?

Um, so I had what I expected to be difficult when I moved is, um, I already had quite a bit of a list of clients and I was like, flip, I'm going to have to now put everything into it manually. Um, all the tasks that I had created on my on my little calendar, reput that everything. And actually, it was very smooth because once there's I think there's like an Excel import, so I could um, literally export a lot of my contacts, I think from Xero as well. and then import them into Fintura with all the details or I mean just managing it in Excel is so much more easier than having to do it one by one. And then when it was to actually manage deadlines, you actually can also do a bulk with your with all your clients just a few clicks and then you tell basically Fintura what are your clients deadlines and then Fintura puts it immediately into a calendar for you. So, um I thought it what was going to take me hours to start off probably took me maybe 1 hour.

Since moving to Fintura, um how much time has it saved you on either specific task or a specific client or anything really that that you do?

The time it saved me. Um, I could maybe give an indication probably per week. I would say probably a good um a good three to four hours per week. I would say if I had to like mix everything together and give like cuz it's it's small tasks that looks like nothing

And you say, "Okay, I can quickly I quickly do it like like the example I gave with the EMP201." um filing it in eFiling. Yes, it doesn't take long technically to put all your details etc. So we're maybe talking about I was taking um maybe seven minutes to do an EMP201 in eFiling but now it's done in one. So um it's small minutes but it's it's it's a the number of small minutes that you end up gaining becomes becomes big basically. I can't tell you how I was doing engagement letter today. It literally takes me one minute. Um, before I had a PDF, you had to change, you know, your so um engagement letters you do that once maybe like once a week or so. Um and the and the draining factor as well of like having to do when a new client used to come with me and like okay let's go and let's do this and then I'm like gh now I have to do the engagement letter and and and now in Fintura I mean it's done so quickly and so easily that it's it's not even a burden or a question in your mind saying oh I still have to do that engage it just it's just done. So it's also all these features I find helps with as well the mental um kind of load of things. Um nothing seems difficult anymore if I can make it like that or draining or um or a waste of time where you would go in a PDF and have to manually change anything in a click of a button and it's no it's amazing. It's now enjoyable. It's actually enjoyable to do some tasks I must say. Um so yeah.

Have your clients said anything that they've maybe noticed since you've moved to Fintura?

Um, I haven't noticed anything that my my clients haven't like deliberately said anything about it, but I know that everything Fintura offers also makes me look much more professional if I can put it that way. Um, we took the example earlier of the engagement letter. I mean, it's something very structured that pulls out electronically. It's um they can sign it electronically. Um so that makes your practice look like okay they I mean they use the right tools. They're on top of things. Um when it gets like for um a VAT approval as well through the Fintura Tax now you can send it to your clients via platform where they can approve it. It everything is tracked. So I was putting me in my client's shoes in the past and if I had to receive an engagement letter like the one I was sending before I would have thought but no this is not right. this is not how things would be and I felt horrible when I was sending that engagement letter like this is not the way things should not in 2026 this is not the way things should go

Finish the sentence for me is

So Fintura is for me um an amazing practice management tools plus plus plus um with so much more features for me Fintura is um the tool you need to be able to manage um your accounting small, medium, or bigger practice. Um it's um it has so much features that still today I haven't tapped into and that I'm excited to discover every day. Um that I realise that um everything can be done through Fintura um and not through a million different softwares and tools all around. Um, and it makes my day and my life and my job not only quicker but so much more pleasant as well.

Do you feel like Fintura is suitable for a firm like yours of your size um or even bigger?

Yes, 100%. I think Fintura is um totally um the perfect tool for the firm for my size firm and I don't see myself working without it even when I grow. Um, so for me, um, you you can have as many staff as you want into the system, which is the way I'm going to grow forward at some point is get more staff. And, um, there's no limits in the number of clients you can take on. And everything is really in in that tool. So, I don't I don't feel right now. Maybe I'm not aware of something because my my size practice is maybe smallish but at the moment I don't see why I could not use Fintura in any bigger any bigger accounting practice.

Um what advice would you give to another firm um who is in a position where they are kind of on the fence of moving to Fintura or looking for something to to replace their manual processes.

Um I would give uh these firms the advice to just um start using Fintura from tomorrow because the onboarding is very quick and they will thank everyone around them for um for that proposal because um I mean the time saving and and the neatness of everything and the way it's organised and everything is is just amazing. So I mean they must just um Yeah. Yeah. And if they have if if a firm has any doubts on the practice management tool they are using right now. I think just stop the doubts and change and go over to Fintura. You won't I don't think anyone will ever regret it. So Fintura is probably um quite a new company. Um and what I love as well about it and probably a smallerish company is the access to the people that are behind Fintura. if it's you or Bernice or Reece or Keith or anyone, super accessible, super responsive. Um, I mean, the few features that I've put like online to like this would be good to have has been implemented like super quickly. I mean, nowhere on earth do you find um a tool like that where you put something forward in a few weeks later or days or hours it's done. Um so that I must say and I hope that never goes away is um the way we can reach out to the people that are behind Fintura and the team and um is amazing I must say. So that must also never go away and I know you guys are probably working very hard and you are way too much behind your computers and your emails and your WhatsApps. Um but it is you must I must tell you that on the other side it it really is a game changer. um not only the response we get but the the people I mean um it's very it's like super nice to have a conversation with you guys and um always open to hear improvements and um and yeah and um the efficiency and um how quickly things get done and sorted out is very impressive. So that I just wanted to add that that's one also of the main features and the main reason why I would just advocate for it because um it is really really nice to work with you guys.

Thank you.

I must say I'm definitely taking that back to the team. I'll let them know.

Oh and it's really true. I must say um yeah it makes a big difference when you feel you are heard. Yeah.

Um I mean compared to if I Xero is just way too big but um you can't you can't reach to the to the back office there. You can't reach the people who are um building the platform further and um and I feel sometimes they don't always understand what is really important and what are we saying that we you the people who are using the tools um yeah you can't get through them. uh you takes 48 hours before getting a response when you log a case and those kind of things. So yes, the tool is amazing. You shouldn't be logging a lot of case but when you do it's a pain and um yeah and and and that's and tools that do not have such a big back office and everything makes it makes a difference.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we're very I mean we're very proud of the support that we give our users and we want to keep that because that's so important to them. Awesome. Thank you, Daffy. Appreciate it.