All Things Sorted
“I set it up once, and now I don’t have to touch it – it happens automatically, automatically paid and reconciled.”
Heike Northey - Owner, All Things Sorted
About
Bookkeeping and BAS Services
Integration
Office locations
Payer locations
All Things Sorted is a bookkeeping firm based in Queensland, Australia, with clients along the Gold Coast and in Sydney. They specialise in bookkeeping, BAS service provision and organising the back-end of the client’s business.
We chatted with Heike Northey, owner and founder of the firm, about how the automatic reconciliation and matching in GoCardless for Xero has turned around her payment admin time.
Bringing organisation to clients’ numbers
Heike comes from a business background, having worked in a variety of roles outside of bookkeeping – and she brings this knowledge and expertise to her business clients.
“Clients appreciate my ability to organise and streamline their processes, and that’s central to the value we add."
Alongside fixed-fee bookkeeping services, Heike offers paid-for training that is more ad-hoc. Being able to take recurring and ad-hoc payment was a key reason for moving to GoCardless for Xero, but Heike had some other challenges with her previous payment provider.
“I was using Ezidebit to take payments, but GoCardless is much cheaper than Ezidebit. I followed the initial online instructions and the ease of the set-up is brilliant – it’s also brilliant how it interacts with Xero online accounting.”
Before, I never knew who was paying and who wasn’t! With everything reconciled and allocated by GoCardless for Xero I can see exactly who’s paid.
Moving clients over to Direct Debit
Getting clients on board with GoCardless for Xero is part of Heike’s ongoing plan, so she has all the time-saving and automation benefits across all client payments and invoicing.
“Direct Debit is great for clients on monthly subscriptions. They know how much to pay each month for their bookkeeping, payroll and support – and that’s better for the client. With my training clients, they have the option to pay by GoCardless for Xero too, if they choose.”
More time: better client relationships
As a small business owner, Heike knows the value of building close, trusted relationships with her customers. GoCardless for Xero helps her maintain those relationships, as she explains.
“I like that GC doesn’t automatically keep trying to debit a client if a payment fails – unless you set it up that way. With some clients, failed payments mean they’ll get hit with a $15 fee from the bank. As a small firm, relationships are very important, so I want to be able to manage these cases personally.”
It’s also important for me to spend time with clients and GoCardless for Xero has allowed me to do that, by reducing the time I spend on admin. You set it up once, and now I don’t have to touch it – it happens automatically: automatically paid and reconciled.
A payment solution that adds up
Heike has ambitious plans to grow All Things Sorted and says Xero and GoCardless give her the solid foundations she needs.
“With GoCardless for Xero looking after my payments, I save around an hour a week that was previously spent reconciling transactions and invoices. It takes me 30 seconds to allocate everything straight off in the invoice and after that I don’t have to do anything. That adds up!
“All Things Sorted is still small, but we’re growing and I hope to be three times the size. And, as we grow, scaling is important – and that means systemising our processes.
GoCardless for Xero gives us that ability to reduce the admin and scale up without worrying about payment.
Joining up to the GoCardless Accountants Program
The GoCardless Accountants Program is a way for accountants and bookkeepers to become certified in setting up and using GoCardless, and to pass on this added value to their business clients – something Heike was keen to sign up for.
My clients look to me for this kind of advice around payment and productivity. So this is an area where I need to be up to speed with what payment options and software tools are out there in the market.