Tax & Accounting

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. Improves Firm Efficiency by More Than 10 Percent with CCH Axcess™ Tax

Case Study:Digital Tax Workflow

When you have to be right

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. Improves Firm Efficiency by More Than 10 Percent with CCH Axcess™ Tax2

Challenge: As business grew, Trisha Crombie, President and Founder of Trisha Crombie & Associates Inc., realized that she needed superior software to better serve her international clients as well as work faster and more efficiently.

Solution: Crombie migrated to CCH Axcess Tax, Wolters Kluwer’s cloud-based software solution, to save time and to work from anywhere.

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. is a tax advisory consulting firm — with offices in Naples, Florida and Harrison City, Pennsylvania — that specializes in international taxes, such as helping clients with IRS offshore disclosures. Crombie started her business in 2010 as a second, part-time endeavor and began using a software package from DrakeSoftware®, a small accounting software company.

In January 2015, she migrated to CCH Axcess Tax, Wolters Kluwer’s cloud-based tax software, because she had used Wolters Kluwer software before and knew its reputation and strengths.

“For 15 years, I worked

at an international

law firm that used

CCH® ProSystem fx® Tax,

the on-premise desktop

software solution, and

was familiar with the

time savings possible with

Wolters Kluwer. I chose

Wolters Kluwer because

the software works right

out of the gate and does

what I need it to do.”

— Trisha Crombie, President and Founder,

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc.

Trisha Crombie, CPA, MBAPresident and FounderTrisha Crombie & Associates, Inc.Naples, Florida

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. Improves Firm Efficiency by More Than 10 Percent with CCH Axcess™ Tax 3

Major Efficiency Gains, Client Service and Staff Recruitment Benefits with Wolters KluwerSpecifically, Crombie moved to Wolters Kluwer and CCH Axcess Tax in order to:

1. Serve clients from anywhere. With offices in multiple cities, as well as a home office, it’s important to Crombie that she can access data and the software from any location.

“CCH Axcess Tax is ideal

for having access to clients’

information wherever I am.

I want to be able to work

and access client data from

anywhere I’m working.”

As she has used the software, she has been pleased that it has allowed her to provide even better customer service than expected.

“I can pull up client’s

returns anywhere, which is

impressive when I’m visiting

clients at their homes, and

I can answer any client

questions quickly, often

while they’re still on

the phone with me.”

This helps meets clients’ expectations for immediate service.

2. Allow staff to work remotely. Crombie’s remote contract workers need to be able to log on from their home offices and work just as productively as they would on a desktop application.

“Staff members can work

from their home office if they

prefer. I like that. They like

that. It’s hard to put a value

on that flexibility.”

3. Attract quality staff. Superior software provides Crombie with a competitive advantage when she’s hiring.

“It’s so hard to find good help.

Because I can offer potential

hires a seamless software

experience, higher-caliber

people are more likely to

come on board because they

benefit from spending less

time doing data entry and

more time doing high-level

tax work.”

“I had two people last tax

season who had never used

Wolters Kluwer software

before, and they picked it

up right away. It’s easier to

learn than any of the other

tax software I’ve worked

with over the many years

I’ve been in the industry.”

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. Improves Firm Efficiency by More Than 10 Percent with CCH Axcess™ Tax4

4. Retain staff. Additionally, Crombie says, new staff can quickly get up to speed on CCH Axcess Tax with little training required.

“We work so many hours

during tax season. If people

want to work in the office

and then go home and have

dinner and then work again

in the evening from home

because of the cloud, that’s

a win-win for them and for

me. It helps us all stay more

productive and prevents

burn out.”

5. Rest easy knowing that all data is backed up and secure. The reliability of CCH Axcess Tax together with on-call Wolters Kluwer support were significant factors in Crombie’s decision to move to the cloud, and it paid off in a major way when she lost data during the height of tax season.

“The importance of having

backed up data was really

driven home last season

when I lost some data, and

Wolters Kluwer restored it. It

would have taken me hours

to reproduce the work—and

I don’t know if I could have.

I was absolutely panicked

before Wolters Kluwer

Support helped me out.”

Additionally, by being in the cloud, Crombie does not have to pay for servers and server maintenance, nor manually make software updates to computers or pay an outsourced IT provider to do so. Based on industry averages for a 10-person firm, the estimated savings on this alone is $8,000 to $10,000 over three years because the firm doesn’t have to purchase/add any new servers for CCH Axcess Tax, or maintain and/or update a server.

Impressive Time Savings

After the software rollout, Crombie estimates that she has improved efficiency by more than 10 percent over the first few years of using it. That’s a number that significantly impacts her firm’s bottom line and her ability to compete with other firms.

The efficiencies come from the software’s ease of use and sophistication, its accuracy and its automation. She expects to gain even more productivity this upcoming tax season with a more stable staff.

And, just recently, Crombie took the next step in improving her digital tax workflow by adding the CCH Axcess™ Practice module.

The time and billing software allows firms to capture time and expenses with pinpoint accuracy through a one-screen time entry system, an easy invoicing creation platform and integrated reporting.

She plans to also add CCH Axcess™ Portal in the near future to provide secure file exchanges which clients can access 24/7. It’s fully integrated with the CCH Axcess™ modules so firms can publish documents straight to Portal, as well as invoices and other communications.

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. Improves Firm Efficiency by More Than 10 Percent with CCH Axcess™ Tax 5

6. Gain access to all international tax forms. CCH Axcess Tax has both the domestic and international compliance forms that some of the smaller software companies don’t.

“Those forms are critical to

my business niche, as many

of my customers require the

newest and most complex

forms. Wolters Kluwer has

all of them and keeps up to

date with all of the changes

made to the forms.”

7. Provide a higher quality tax service. One of the most important reasons that she chose Wolters Kluwer is accuracy. There can be no mistakes in the work she does for clients, and with Wolters Kluwer, she can trust that there won’t be any.

“I trust Wolters Kluwer’s

trusted name and the

research behind the software.

Although some smaller

software companies might

have saved me money,

they could not provide me

with the level of accuracy

that I must have in this

complicated profession.”

Establishing a Niche

Crombie’s international expertise goes back 18 to 20 years starting when she worked for a company with subsidiaries in Europe, and then when she worked for an international law firm before launching her business.

“The specialty focus lends

itself well with my research,

experience, interest and

knowledge in this area.”

She encourages other small tax firms to develop their own specialties based on experience, interest and knowledge, too.

“It provides a competitive

differentiator, and it pays

to follow your passion.”

Trisha Crombie & Associates, Inc. Improves Firm Efficiency by More Than 10 Percent with CCH Axcess™ Tax6

“CCH Axcess is a superior system to everything else I’ve tried

out there. It’s easy to import the information directly into

the forms. It’s intuitive and makes more sense than software

from the other accounting software companies.”

When you have to be right

5/16 2016-0014-10 © 2016 CCH Incorporated and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Please visit CCHGroup.com/Axcess for more information.

Contact information:Wolters Kluwer2700 Lake Cook RoadRiverwoods, IL 60015United States800-739-9998