Manual processes and disconnected digital tools often lead to accounting and bookkeeping mistakes that can cost money, time, and clients. Markoff & Malatesta CPAs PLLC use ShareFile and Podio to help maintain their clients files and organize, track, and prioritize their clients projects. The tools help them receive and deliver client information and returns seamlessly and electronically, which leads to both high management and customer satisfaction. They can now offer a customized experience without increasing complexity for the team or for the client.

With ShareFile and Podio, Markoff & Malatesta CPAs PLLC: 

• Transitioned to become completely paperless, reducing the burden on clients and staff 
   
• Increased efficiency and reduced human errors by using Podio automation instead of spreadsheets
   
• Effectively scaled the business while maintaining high client satisfaction, simplifying onboarding, and maintaining a high retention rate

“I now have a product that is as simple or as complex as I want it to be.” 
 

Matthew Markoff

Founder and Tax Partner, Markoff & Malatesta CPAs PLLC

Putting the client first, always

Matthew Markoff CPA founded Markoff & Malatesta CPAs PLLC with a focus on putting clients first and correcting their previous CPAs’ accounting and bookkeeping mistakes.  At the time of this article, Matthew has gotten back over $1.5 million for his clients just by amending their prior year’s tax returns that were prepared by other tax professionals. Many firms struggle with pairing manual processes with multiple, disconnected software platforms, which can make data gathering and organization difficult, leading to errors and projects slipping through the cracks. Matthew, who has implemented both ShareFile and Podio, used this normal CPA firm gap to his advantage.

Matthew starts his work with clients by sending them an engagement letter for e-signature via ShareFile and Podio’s email integration. By using an existing template, he and his team can quickly send out onboarding documents to launch work. When onboarding a new client, they efficiently create a client portal and grant access to internal and external parties for document collection. Further, they use the client portal settings to restrict the ability of clients (and lower level staff) to delete files in the portal, leading to fewer mistakes in data collection on both sides. And returning clients can conveniently access their custom portal from previous years whenever they want, so they can get a copy of their prior year tax returns at a moment’s notice and without having to email or call the office.

Matthew’s team uses the notifications capability available for each folder to monitor when clients upload documents so they know when they can begin tax prep and filing.

“It’s drag and drop, which is fantastic,” Matthew said. “ShareFile couldn’t be any easier for a client. Even my mother can do it, and that’s saying a lot!”

When the return is complete, he uploads it quickly and easily to ShareFile which instantly notifies the client that it’s available to view in their own secure portal, which keeps all activity in one place. He has the ShareFile for Windows as well, which makes uploading things even quicker and more seamless for him and his staff.

Managing growth with technology

When he started the firm, Matthew used a spreadsheet for client and process management. But as business grew and he went from managing 15 clients to 500 clients, it became overwhelming.

“There was no good way of managing things effectively at that point,” Matthew said. “Realistically, it wasn’t going to cut it. We needed something where we could understand at a glance, what was going on at any point, what was being worked on, by whom, since when, how many things were in each person’s queue, and with timestamps.”

That’s when he turned to Podio.

Podio was exactly what Matthew and his team needed. He imported all clients into a Podio app that served as the single source of truth for projects across his workspaces. He rolled over all projects directly into a new app for each tax year that showed all the projects for that year, and all in one place. Each entry includes key information like client name and number, return difficulty, priority, person-in-charge, return/project type and status.

With the reference function in Podio, he could connect the firm’s current work for a client back to that client’s previous returns, creating a seamless client management system. The team also created a note field to make it easy to view irregularities or important facts about specific returns.

“It’s incredibly cool,” Matthew said. “You can easily see the status of your clients, what projects are being worked on, and can reference past projects. Podio makes it so easy.”

Matthew added a priority button to the template to take advantage of the workflows in Podio. If a client needed extra attention or to be moved to the top of the queue, pressing the button in the template would alert the team to focus on that project.

Centralizing project and client management

Podio became the centralized project and client management tool throughout all client work – and it made a huge difference. Matthew and team no longer had to spend hours trying to figure out if something was completed or which stage a client was in. It was all one click away.

“You can go into a project and it links right to the client. If one of us is working on a client and needs a refresher, we can with a single click and see everything that’s ever happened with that client, organized exactly how we need. It’s all in one place. My favorite thing about Podio though, is how it does only what I need it to do and nothing more and nothing less.  If I want it to do more, I can set it up to do that in less than a minute. I hated using other software’s at other firms that had so many bells and whistles that you couldn’t just see what you wanted and nothing else.  When it’s tax season, I don’t have to flip around in different reports or screens to see what’s going on.”

Now, Matthew can go into Podio any time and see how his team is doing, along with timestamps for each action. And if he needs to do any analysis, he can pull a report when he wants, with only the information he wants.

Maintaining high client satisfaction without complexity

Matthew is proud to have such high client satisfaction with so few tools. Avoiding complexity is paying dividends for his clients and his team. And having the right software in place helps him and his team focus on providing a customized experience to each client. After all, that’s why Matthew started the firm in the first place.

Learn how Markoff & Malatesta CPAs PLLC has saved millions for clients since 2021 and how ShareFile and Podio can move your company forward.