Customer Stories

We sit down with Jamie O’Kane, Principal of Abundant Beans Tax & Accounting, to ask about their journey to using Practice Protect at the firm.

Abundant Beans are a small distributed virtual firm who do advanced tax planning for women-owned dental and veterinary practices and compliance. Jamie acknowledges that even with ‘only’ a team of four, their firm users a long list of apps.

What was the driver for their firm to implement a cloud security solution?

“Security has always been a big issue, especially for a small firm like ours,” says Jamie. “I had a little server that was doing everything and being virtually on a server and security issues was just, it was keeping me up at night, quite honestly. So I started digging into, what do we do, who can help us, what needs to happen, do I need a virtual server? Like, what needs to happen?”

“It really came down to, most of our apps are web-based, and so I started looking at single sign-on solutions, and then I found Practice Protect.”

What was it about Practice Protect that interested you?

“Most of the solutions I talked to didn’t know who Karbon was,” Jamie explains. Karbon is Abundant Beans’ CRM, and, in Jamie’s words, Karbon is the lifeblood of the firm. Like any tried and trusted CRMs, it’s how they keep everything figured out and how they get all their clients to interact with them.

“(Karbon) is integral to our firm, so it was really important that whatever we decided to do integrated with Karbon,” says Jamie. She also mentions that because Practice Protect work with accounting firms, it was easy for her to articulate to the Practice Protect team what they need to do, who they work with, and their security issues.

“It was just a great fit for us,” she says.

How did Practice Protect help your team and yourself?

Jamie doesn’t hesitate as she answers. “A single sign-on solution, where we don’t need to go in into LastPass and be constantly looking for our passwords, has been a huge game changer for me. It’s extremely changed our productivity and the ability to get into any app we need at any time and to share apps. So if I have an app I need to add, I can just add it to whatever users need it, and they don’t have to worry about the logins, they just can click on it and they have the access they need.”

She emphasizes the fact that it’s helped with security and peace of mind. “It’s helped with my security, with me being up in the middle of the night, worried about our client data and things like that. I don’t do that anymore because it’s all securely behind that Single Sign-On.”

“You guys, I’m a huge fan,” Jamie says, laughing. “Anytime we need anything, the customer service has been awesome.”

“It’s just been a great solution for our firm,” Jamie concludes.

We sat down with Joseph Councilman, COO for The Minerva Group. An accounting firm based in Denver, Colorado, the firm has 14 remote team members spread across six states in the United States. “We do everything from basic bookkeeping all the way through tax services and payroll, as well as advisory services,” Joseph told us.

What are the main applications they use in the firm?

QuickBooks Online is one of the biggest applications they use. When it comes to client services, they use Bill.com and various bank accounts and state payroll accounts.

What was the driver for them to start looking for a cybersecurity solution?

When Joseph started working at the Minerva Group, there were only three people on staff. While they were still working remote, The Minerva Group was much smaller in 2017 compared to its 14-member staff now.

There wasn’t a lot of concern around cybersecurity back then. However, when they started growing exponentially, Joseph said they realized something. “We started realizing that there’s way too many people with their hands on (client) information. And there’s way too many opportunities for risk involved.”

As they kept hearing about ransomware and data breaches happening because of team members clicking on phishing links, The Minerva Group started looking for a solution and found Practice Protect.

How has Practice Protect helped The Minerva Group since they came onboard?

Having everything in a secure, central location was the primary advantage that Practice Protect brought to their firm, Joseph stated. “Not having to worry about whether somebody has to have access to a specific password and all that information that they really shouldn’t have… that’s one way that Practice Protect helped us with.”

What’s the support like with Practice Protect?

Joseph shared his experience with the Onboarding and Support teams, expressing how the techs walked him through any challenges during onboarding.

As for support, “It’s always been quick, responsive,” Joseph told us. “(I know) that when I log a ticket, I’m going to get an almost immediate email telling me, ‘Hey, we’ve got you. We’re going to take care of you. We’re going to assign it to somebody.’ Then once it’s assigned to somebody, I know when that happens.”

“I’ve never had a case that was open for more than a day or so, which has been fantastic.”

What would you say to any firms that are considering having more cybersecurity in place?

Joseph draws from conferences he’s been to and industry professionals he’s spoken to. “As we have learned multiple times with all the conferences we attend, it’s not a matter of if you get broken into or something happens to your firm, it’s about when it’s going to happen.”

“Having the systems in place to protect yourself and protect your clients is paramount,” he told us. “For us, that was the key, knowing that Practice Protect is there to keep our data safe for our clients and for us.”

We got the chance to catch up with Cameron Williams, owner of Kynli Accounting and CCK Consulting based in Atlanta, GA.

What prompted them to first look at Practice Protect?

Cameron said he was already thinking about security issues, having had an employee who moved across the country and was working remotely.

He recalls hearing about Practice Protect and thinking, “Man, that would be perfect.”

How has it been using Practice Protect?

“I love Practice Protect,” Cameron says. “With my second company, CCK Consulting, we literally teach other accounting and bookkeeping firms how to use it, and that’s part of our tech stack.”

Cameron uses his experience with Practice Protect and the team when telling other firms about Practice Protect.

“There’s multiple reasons (for using Practice Protect),” Cameron says. The first reason he enumerates is the customer service. “They made it very smooth,” he says, referring to the onboarding process. “They took their time to say ‘Hey, this is what we’re trying to do.”

Which Practice Protect features would you highlight?

With an employee working remotely, Cameron naturally gravitates to the geo-lock feature as one that adds a lot of value. “I think the geolock feature is amazing because that way it keeps me safe. I think it’s necessary in today’s time.”

He also refers to the user interface. “I love the tiles because now I don’t have to try to remember every client’s bank passwords, and where they’re saved. It’s all in one place.”

“I’m literally clicking a button, and it takes me there,” he says.

Lastly, he mentions the audit log. “(The audit log) protects me in case clients have fraud on their accounts.” He recounts that they’ve seen this happening before.

“It’s always good to be able to say, ‘No, it wasn’t our team. The last time we went in was on this date and at this time.”

What would you say to accounting firms that are considering a security solution?

Cameron emphasizes the importance of a security solution. “You should be doing it because, A, it helps me to funnel my employee and get him in good habits. He can’t save anybody’s bank passwords on his computer because all he sees is 16 stars.”

He also highlights the efficiency aspect of using Practice Protect. “I love it because, again, I’m very big on building systems and workflows. So to be able to see everything in one place and literally just click it versus trying to find, “Hey, they got Chase, and they got Bank of America,” but it’s different names. And to me, that’s just not efficient. And we all know that time is money. And especially for somebody like me, who has a young family, if I can be efficient and it saves me 30 minutes, an hour, and you stack that up over time, then that’s awesome for me.”

On that note, Cameron advises, “If you have a team, if you have over, heck, five clients, especially in a 10, 15, 20, and up range, you really shouldn’t be hesitating. They’re going to walk you through it. And I think you’ll get a great service.”

Any last comments about us?

“I love it. It makes (security) easy for the team, for the firm.”

Edin Dogic is an accountant at Star Advisers, a small boutique firm located in Perth Australia.

What are the main applications your firm uses?

Xero, MYOB, ATO, Ignition, and various internal links to SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 are the main applications Star Advisers use in their day to day activities.

Did you have any cybersecurity solution before going onboard with Practice Protect?

They had the antivirus solution AVG, but, according to Edin, it wasn’t a good fit for their firm. “The use of multiple apps and passwords was difficult to track and monitor,” he tells us.

How did you hear about Practice Protect?

Looking for a solution to replace AVG for their firm, Edin did his own research on what they could use as a replacement to secure Star Advisers. In his search, other people in the industry recommended password management apps, and it got him looking at similar applications.

“Once we had our demo with Practice Protect, we were sure that it would be the best option for us,” Edin said.

How did Practice Protect help the team?

Of the plethora of features, Edin mentioned his top picks. “Single log-in and password management for all the apps our firm uses, as well as the simple and easy user management are just a few features that help us.”

The land and catch feature also got an honourable mention, for its ability to seamlessly add credentials to the Star Adviser team members’ portals.

What do Star Advisers like about Practice Protect?

Edin said that they liked how Practice Protect is easy to use. As well, the ability to manage user access to applications was a major plus for them

He added, “Technical support is always there when and if needed,”

It’s easy to use, secure, user friendly, user management ability, adding apps, land and catch ability. And not to forget to mention technical support is always there when and if needed.

How has your experience with the support team been?

Absolutely terrific. Always there when and if needed and always going above and beyond to have the issue rectified in a timely and professional manner. Thank you support team.

What would you say to other firms that are currently reviewing their cyber security?

I would recommend using Practice Protect because we as a user have not looked back since we started to use it.