Three Steps to Take Towards a Bright New Way of Working
                     Three Steps to Take 
Towards a Bright New 
Way of Working
At iKeep, making the decision to shift our entire 
bookkeeping services and client base to cloud based 
accounting was monumental for many reasons.
We knew it was going to make a hugely positive impact 
on our productivity, operational costs and the way we 
worked as a company. Best of all? The cloud approach 
meant we were servicing our clients faster, better, 
stronger. Relationships strengthened as our clients and 
us became streamlined in our processes and practices.
It was a win win. Eventually.
But it did take work to convince ourselves and then our 
clients that this was the way of the future. If you’re still 
weighing up your options around leaving desktop 
accounting behind for the efficiency of cloud 
accounting, here are three steps you can take to get 
you started on your own cloud based accounting 
journey.
1. Research
As a company, we are always looking to stay up-to-date 
on what is changing in the market. For the industry we 
are in, that change is cloud accounting. So we put our 
research hats on and asked ourselves these questions:
• How can cloud accounting benefit iKeep?
• How can it benefit our clients and the way we do 
business with them?
• Who are the key providers in the market?
• What features does the offering provide? Should I 
choose one provider or is there a couple of offerings 
in the market that would suit iKeep
• Who is offering a pure and real cloud solution? Can I 
really sit on my iPad at the airport and access current 
data in real time?
We discovered the answers to these questions from 
speaking with our customers, other companies that had 
already made the switch and a number of providers. 
We spoke to one of the cloud accounting experts, Intuit 
QuickBooks, to make sure this was the right move for 
us then decided to take the next step.
2. Dip your toe in
Cloud accounting programs offer varying degrees of 
service levels. You can start with the basics and as your 
employees and clients get more used to doing business 
‘out there’, add functionalities right up to full financial 
management.
Or you can do what we did. iKeep made the decision to 
move our practice to the cloud before we moved our 
clients across. This gave us valuable firsthand 
experience. We adjusted internal processes as required 
and by the time we introduced it to our clients, we 
were living and breathing this new way of working. Yes, 
we dipped our toe in but the toe we dipped in was 
definitely on the front foot.
This decision allowed us to be proactive with the 
education of our clients and the way we managed 
change with them.
Most importantly it allowed is to ensure a high level 
and continuity of service.
3. Leap right in
Yes, we did our research and discovered that Intuit 
QuickBooks was one of the key platforms for us. Then 
we dipped our toes in and went on our own discovery 
journey of this new way of working. After that, we leapt 
right in.
We knew our clients were looking to us to be their 
thought leaders and knowledge bank around cloud 
based accounting. The only way we could do this was to 
commit to the change, live it, breathe it and own it.
We took advantage of the ongoing support, training 
and development Intuit QuickBooks provide and as a 
result, client uptake was quick and relatively painless.
We then made a clear delineation around what we do. 
iKeep use the latest cloud accounting software and add-
ons to streamline clients’ bookkeeping.
I love the saying “Do what you do best and delegate the 
rest”. We focus on cloud accounting so we can provide 
a better offering. Cloud accounting was the logical step 
forward in terms of internal and external processes to 
keep our clients happy.
The shift from desktop accounting to cloud based 
accounting required change around process but also 
around mindset. As soon as the team made that 
psychological shift, the productivity shift followed 
closely behind.
And THAT is when client satisfaction and internal 
efficiency propelled itself into a whole new 
stratosphere.