Significant order from Florida’s largest independent accounting firm
Kaufman, Rossin & Co., Florida’s largest independent accounting firm, has awarded a contract to professional accountancy and business management specialists, Star Computers, for installation of its Star Practice Management solution.
The new system will run across the entire Kaufman, Rossin & Co. operation, which maintains offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Ft Myers, Naples and the Cayman Islands. The firm has represented Florida businesses for more than 40 years, and serves international clients in over two-dozen countries.
Blain Heckaman, Principal with Kaufman, Rossin, explained that the order was initially borne out of a desire to find a tool to assist with budgeting and staff scheduling for client engagements.
“We wanted a system that would enable us to more effectively manage calculation of budgets and allocation of staff to client jobs. We could not find a suitable product on the US market so when we discovered Star Computers’ job and resource management software we asked for a demonstration. We really liked what we saw. But it was obvious that to gain maximum benefit, the new software would need to work with the time and billing, and other computer systems that were already in use within Kaufman, Rossin. Integration was a major factor that had to be taken into account,” Blain Heckaman recalls.
Blain and his colleagues decided to take a radical approach – phasing out the CPA Software system and positioning Star at the heart of Kaufman, Rossin’s practice management functions. This was certainly not the expected outcome when the firm first set out to improve its client budgeting and staff scheduling process.
“Work is now underway to import data into the time and billing module, with a go live target of 1st October,” Blain Heckaman says. “This will be followed by budgeting and scheduling, email alerts, and the Star Practice Dashboard module. There will be some additional integration, such as with the practice’s Sage Accpac accounting system and tax software package, and Star Practice Management will also be linked into Microsoft Outlook.
“The new system will help all of Kaufman, Rossin’s people – principals, managers and staff – to do their day to day jobs better. We anticipate benefiting from a more efficient and effective process for client engagement budgeting and staff scheduling, and greater productivity, as well as improved management tools.”
The Star Practice Dashboard, for example, which brings together a wealth of information in a single screen view, will be used by everyone, whatever their level. This will help them to monitor work in progress, debtors, billing and cash collection against targets, performance – including efficiency and profitability and so on – with the option to drill down from the high level data to the underlying information.
In addition, the Star Practice Dashboard integrates with document management to locate and retrieve client-related documents, as well as generating and auto-filing letters and emails.
David Blechner, Managing Director of Star Computers Limited, commented that the Kaufman, Rossin contract was a significant order for the company. “Star Computers is very well established in the professional accountancy sector – over 1,000 firms of all sizes, including the ‘Big Four’ international accountancy practices use our practice management solutions – and we are keen to grow an equally strong customer base in North America. We are delighted that such a prestigious CPA firm as Kaufman, Rossin & Co. has chosen to work with us.”
“We are thrilled with Star Computers’ attention and service – which is living up to expectations gained from customer reference calls we made to practices in Canada and Europe – and are very confident that installation will go smoothly,” Blain Heckaman concludes.
Kaufman, Rossin & Co., Florida's largest independent accounting firm, maintains offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Ft. Myers, Naples and the Cayman Islands. The firm has represented Florida businesses for more than 40 years, and serves international clients in more than two-dozen countries. It offers a complete array of traditional accounting services, as well as consulting services specially tailored to clients' needs. With more than 200 members, the firm is large enough to provide versatility, but able to render the personal service upon which its reputation is based. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. has been voted as the ‘Best Place to Work’ and ‘Business of the Year’ in South Florida for the second year running, by the South Florida Business Journal.
