The Company
Rainforest Bookkeeping was born 01 September 2009. Why the name? When I think of a Rainforest, I think of sustainability, new growth and the possibility of something new. I also think of all the trees we can save by moving to the cloud and going as paperless as possible.
Rainforest Bookkeeping is a forward-thinking and paperless practice with a passion for clean books and effective processes. I absolutely love taking a complicated process and developing it in to a workable, streamlined task with no duplication.
Initially, using desktop software, it was all about data entry, paperwork and filing. Each client required 4-8 hours per week in the client’s office. Playing catch up was the norm instead of the exception. There was no time for value-adding services and advisory.
As a Bookkeeping practice, we now have complete transparency throughout the accounting process, one point of truth and we have everything at hand for year-end. The Bookkeeper – Accountant relationships have never been stronger. Rainforest Bookkeeping is 100% cloud-based with Xero. Having experience with many desktop software platforms has made the migration from desktop to the cloud has become a speciality.
The best part is our clients now know what’s happening in their businesses in real-time.
The Challenge
How many trade clients do you have? Do you specialise in this industry?
We specialise in trade and micro businesses. Over 20 trade clients.
The Process
How did you hear about NextMinute?
In 2019, I completely stumbled on NextMinute when looking for solutions for clients. I had a zoom call with Dave and Hayden and started a trial. I was also working on a series of presentations for HIA to teach builders how to move to digital. One session was on job management and I presented NextMinute to the builders.
Why did you decide to partner with NextMinute?
Simply put, responsiveness and local knowledge.
Responsiveness: There are many options out but we are constantly TOLD what we can have instead of being asked what we need for our clients businesses. NextMinute actually asked us what we need and what would make the processes work best for us. Taking the time to understand why two-way communication is so critical. Taking the time to understand why labour times need to feed into timesheets. Taking the time to understand and find a way to allow us to send supplier invoice to Dext once and have them go from Xero into NextMinute to be allocated to jobs mean fewer errors and the client being able to work in one place instead of going back and forth. We have worked so hard to train clients to upload into Dext so this process needs to stay easy.
Local Knowledge: Understanding the Australian market makes communicating easier.
Many clients are not savvy enough to understand what they need and what works best in their business. Trade businesses are not a one size fits all. Plumbers do things very differently to builders. Having local support means less time waiting for answers
Tell us about how your trade clients worked before NextMinute?
Great builders are not necessarily great managers or business people. They seemed to have lots of ball in the air and fewer hours on the jobs. The uncertainty of not knowing how a job is progressing or if you are actually making any money on a job is very stressful. Having to do timesheets outside a job management meant duplication and wasted time instead a streamlines process.
Was there a particular problem NextMinute helped solve for you or your client?
A few but most important to me was easy job costing using the Dext to Xero to NextMinute flow through. This ensures the clients sees all expenses without having go into Xero and ensure they get costed to a job or internal job. Secondly, the labour hours get allocated to the job automatically as the staff start their timers. Then flows easily through to Xero timesheets for processing.
Has NextMinute helped improve the working relationship with your client?
Yes, they see I speak their language and understand their businesses. My goal is to give them their time back, spend less time in administration and more time growing their businesses.
Conclusion
In my dealings with NextMinute, more often than not I hear “Wow we hadn’t though of that but that is a good idea. Let’s see what we can do.” This doesn’t mean every feature I ask for is developed but it is so much better than the answer we have been used to getting. No, our app doesn’t do that. You have to change your processes.” Thanks for listening Next Minute Team!
