The company
Founded in 1986 by Randy Jenkins, RLJ Financial Services provides bookkeeping, payroll and tax services, as well as financial advice to clients primarily in the agriculture, healthcare and service sectors. RLJ is based in Ceres, California.
The challenge
Like many firms, RLJ faced challenges with file management. Manual processes were slow and time consuming.
“You can have the best file-management system, but if you have to do it manually, who cares?” says Caleb Jenkins, leader of client accounting services for RLJ. “I don’t care about having the most beautiful system if it doesn’t save me time.”
RLJ needed a solution that would enable the firm to manage client files quickly and easily. It also needed to integrate file management with its existing technology stack, particularly Lacerte Tax software and QuickBooks® Online. An early adopter of cloud hosting through Rightworks, the firm also needed a file-management application that would run in the cloud.
The solution
Three years ago, the firm turned to SmartVault Accounting Pro. With SmartVault, RLJ can use a single customer list to quickly and easily e-file returns, as well as store and back up clients’ tax information.
“With the same customer list across applications, we can batch select everyone and e-file all of those returns,” Jenkins says. “We can batch-select those same people and check the box to print to SmartVault, and we’re done. We don’t touch that again. We used to have to print individual files or name individual files and give them to customers. SmartVault saves us a tremendous amount of time.”
Why SmartVault and Rightworks?
Integration was critical for RLJ’s adoption of SmartVault Accounting Pro. It works with Lacerte and is “embedded in the Intuit world,” Jenkins notes. SmartVault has a partnership with Rightworks, which enables Accounting Pro to run natively in the cloud with no need for special implementation or integration processes.
The impact
The ease of use and integration of SmartVault Accounting Pro, combined with the security and reliability of the cloud with Rightworks, have delivered tangible benefits for RLJ. SmartVault and Rightworks have come together to offer the firm a rare but critical combination—the assurance of enterprise-class cybersecurity with quick and easy data access.
“Stringent processes for security data are key, but we also need to easily access our data,” Jenkins says. “You think of either security or convenience being possible, but there’s an easy way to do both. Combine software together in a cloud environment. You can access data conveniently and simply but in a secure manner.”