Amy Walker isn’t just your average accounting firm founder. After starting her career as a CPA with Price Waterhouse Cooper, Amy left to work for a fast-growing startup. It was there that she found a love for small businesses.
Later, Amy returned to public accounting by starting her own firm, one that focused on CAS services. While serving on the advisory councils for both Intuit and Gusto, Amy met her business partner, fellow hotshot Paul Glantz, CPA, and they formed Walker Glantz, a pioneering public accounting firm based in Texas.
Walker Glantz is now solidly at the forefront of transforming financial management for entrepreneurs and tech startups. Amy runs the CAS division, and Paul handles the tax side of things.
While Walker Glantz has a solid team that leverages a best-in-class tech stack to turbocharge its efficiency, it is always looking for ways to improve processes and get information to clients faster.
Overcoming Traditional Challenges
Before integrating LiveFlow, Amy and her team struggled with the time-consuming process of financial modeling for their client’s month-end close.
"We were building these Excel models where we could manually data dump from QuickBooks and then paste the data into our models," Amy explains.
The goal was always to deliver financial information to clients as swiftly as possible, but the manual processes were a bottleneck.
Walker Glantz deals with high-growth startups and fast-moving entrepreneurs, and Amy is always looking for ways to provide the freshest and sharpest insights to serve her firm’s clients.
“Every day after month-end that the clients don't have their information gets stale. It doesn't mean anything to them anymore,” Amy said. “So we set a goal to push our month-end close to get faster and faster for those clients who want more than month-end financial statements; we want to deliver current data in near real-time."
Cash Rules Everything Around Me
The financial packages Amy’s team was creating at month-end with a series of manual exports were good, but they began to notice that most of their clients were struggling with cash flow forecasting, an essential for businesses in their growth phase.
“So, we started building these 13-week cash flow forecasts, and we promised the clients, ‘We will update these for you every week so you can have fresh numbers,’” Amy said.
These cash flow forecasts were a game changer for Walker Glantz and empowered Amy and her team to have great advisory conversations with their clients about their financial health, but they were a time sink.
Updating cash flow forecasts for their major clients took up to two hours every Monday.
“I began to dread the updates because there was just too much room for error,” Amy said. “And if you had an update to the books, then you had to start over.”
Enter LiveFlow
Amy is unsure how she heard about LiveFlow, but she can’t imagine life without it.
“Maybe one of my colleagues said, ‘You need to check this out,’ because they were looking at one of the models I had built and thought, ‘This could save you a lot of time,’” Amy said.
After a product demo, Amy spent a weekend exploring all the possibilities in LiveFlow.
What happened next was serious time savings.
That two hours every Monday is literally three minutes,” Amy said. “I mean, we drag formulas over, pull in live data, spend some time analyzing our forecast, and then we're ready to talk to the client.”
Dramatic Results
The impact of LiveFlow on Amy and the team at Walker Glantz has been profound. Not only has it slashed the time required to prepare cash forecasts, but it also allows for real-time updates during client meetings. This change has led to more dynamic and productive discussions.
"We can work with a client over Zoom and see changes on the fly. What used to be follow-up work and sending updated reports via email now is done interactively during the meeting with the client," Amy said.
Currently, the firm maintains active cash flow forecasts for 20 out of its 100 CAS clients, and it plans to expand these services. LiveFlow's efficiency and accuracy have improved internal processes and significantly enhanced client satisfaction.
“LiveFlow levels up your offering. It makes you stand out,” Amy said. “You're not fumbling through papers, emailing adjustments, or amending Excel spreadsheets. It just levels up your whole offering and allows you to calm down and be an advisory partner to that client.”
Reporting: Turbocharged
Walker Glantz's journey with LiveFlow is a testament to how saving time on reporting and providing next-level dashboards can redefine the landscape of financial advisory services.
By reducing manual labor and increasing accuracy, LiveFlow has allowed Amy and her team to focus on what they do best—providing stellar financial advice.
As they continue to integrate LiveFlow into more aspects of their services, Walker Glantz is set on a path of continued growth and enhanced client service.
For financial firms looking to revolutionize their client services, Amy Walker's experience at Walker Glantz serves as an inspiring example of LiveFlow’s power.
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