How Kramerica reached peace-of-mind with the right tech

Change is inevitable. In business and life—just about everything. And when it comes to clients’ businesses, Kramerica are experts in preparing them for whatever is on the horizon.

Candy Bellau, Founder and Director, understands that a strong firm looks out for everyone involved. She places huge importance on her team’s happiness, flexibility, and goals, while they are delivering spectacular results for clients.

Building the right environment for success

A culture that champions balance, responsibility, and team spirit is the heart of what they’ve built at Kramerica. Candy knows her team can’t help clients effectively unless they, themselves, feel valued and supported.

“It is important for me to be able to do the things I want to in life. I want the freedom to say yes or no, and I want my whole team to have that same freedom and choice”, Candy says. “We talk a lot about personal goals: what we want to do and what we want to achieve. I keep telling them, this company can be whatever we want it to be.”

Candy thinks shared aims and motivations are the best way for everyone to get what they need from the company. “I stopped setting my own goals, and focused on setting team goals… I am growing my firm based on what works for all of us.”

Navigating the big moments

Kramerica’s specialty is getting small businesses ready for significant, transitory changes. 

“Our sweet-spot is with businesses about to go through an audit or an acquisition, trying to bring in investors, or get loans. We get everything completely air-tight and act as liaison between the audit teams or investing groups, speaking their language and communicating with the business owner and team. We try to make it easy and streamlined.”  

And for Kramerica, clear communication with clients is essential in giving them peace-of-mind that everything is being handled the right way.

Harnessing technology for communication

Solid client communication is just one half of the equation. Internal communication is crucial for the Kramerica team, which is scattered across Louisiana and Texas. Finding a practice management solution that keeps them connected was essential.

That was what first brought Karbon onto Candy’s radar. She knew things were being missed in her email inbox and the team’s efficiency was taking a hit.

“Communication was an issue between us as a team—knowing what was going on and where we were at. It was difficult to see exactly what needed to be done. I was carrying so much in my head and that’s not a long term solution.”

Being able to comment and discuss work in a shared space linked to the client within Karbon has proved to be a major time-saver for Kramerica. Now, everyone can see all the correspondence without having to send separate emails. 

“I feel safe that I can go into Karbon and see where I am, find things, check things. I hate the stress of not being able to find things, and I have so much less of that in my life now.”

« Karbon is relaxing. It gives me peace-of-mind. »

Eliminating out-of-scope work

Using Karbon’s Work Items, it became much easier for Candy to quantify the jobs they were doing for each client to make sure they were billing correctly. 

Often, she found team members working outside of the agreed scope, so bringing that under control helped Kramerica improve their bottom line and stay informed as to what is being done for which clients.

Making time for the important things

One of the biggest positives the team have experienced since implementing Karbon has been time savings.

That time saved is given back to the clients, but in more useful ways: more time to study financial reports and give feedback, for example.

It also gives flexibility to the team. If someone needs a day off, or has a sick child that needs looking after, those initial time savings pay dividends. Without sacrificing efficiency at work, the team can pay attention to the truly valuable things: family, health, and leading a happy life. 

« I want my team to be there for their families. Karbon frees up time for the things that are important. »

Working and growing together

At Kramerica, their systems are built around collaboration and working toward united goals. Both the clients and the employees are happy, which bodes well for Candy as she continues to grow her business.

It’s easy for people to commit in the long-term to a firm like Kramerica. Because when a firm works well for everybody, everybody works well for the firm.

Key results:

• Improved billing practices by identifying out-of-scope work

• Time saved time chasing client information and documents

• Achieved email peace-of-mind knowing that nothing is being missed