McGowan Accountancy Services currently uses Bright’s payroll solution, BrightPay, in addition to Bright’s accounting solutions, Dext Prepare, BrightBooks, and BrightAccountsProduction. This case study explores their experience as a Bright customer and their use of these products.
McGowan Accountancy Services was set up in 2013 by Nuala McGowan. Based in Co. Roscommon, McGowan Accountancy Services pride themselves on being a personal, friendly and approachable practice.
They provide a wide range of accounting services, including payroll management, bookkeeping, accounts production and tax returns. To fulfill their client responsibilities efficiently, McGowan Accountancy Services relies on Bright’s comprehensive suite of solutions: BrightPay for payroll, and Dext Prepare, BrightBooks, and BrightAccountsProduction for accounting.
In this case study, we dive into McGowan Accountancy Services’ life as a Bright customer, along with Nuala’s experience of our payroll and accounting products.
Life as a Bright customer
Nuala began by expressing her satisfaction with Bright as her practice’s software provider.
“I’m very happy to be a Bright customer and I find it very convenient to have the same provider for my practice’s payroll and accounting tools.”
Next, she shared her thoughts on the customer support provided by Bright, highlighting her interactions with our support agents.
“Any of the support team I have dealt with have been great, but I’d like to give a particular mention to Shona. I’ve dealt with Shona for a number of years, and she has been vital in stopping me pulling out my hair whenever I’ve had any issues arise, always helping me get to bottom of it and through to the other side. She is a star.”
At Bright, we take great pride in our customer service, so it was great to hear Nuala acknowledge that as Bright continues to grow and evolve, the customer experience is consistently improving through more efficient support.
“I feel that the customer service has improved quite a bit over the last year, which I am delighted to see as it makes things smooth for busy practices like McGowan Accountancy Services.“
After gathering Nuala’s thoughts on her overall experience as a Bright customer, we explored McGowan Accountancy Services’ use of our payroll and accounting products. We began with Nuala’s experience with BrightPay, and then discussed her use of Dext Prepare, BrightBooks, and BrightAccountsProduction.
McGowan Accountancy Services’ experience with BrightPay
Before adopting BrightPay in her practice, McGowan Accountancy Services used Thesaurus Payroll Manager, a legacy payroll product in the Bright family. In 2012, Bright used the heart and experience of Thesaurus Payroll Manager to create BrightPay as a payroll solution designed for the modern payroll processor, adding a slick, easy-to-use interface and additional features and functionalities.
Discussing McGowan Accountancy Services’ migration process from Thesaurus Payroll Manager to BrightPay, Nuala stated:
“There was very little pain moving from Thesaurus to BrightPay. In fact, I would say it was an easy step. There were a few little teething issues as you expect when moving software, but nothing that your team wasn’t able to sort out quickly.”
We then asked Nuala about her opinion on BrightPay’s features and functionalities. She responded that it was difficult to pinpoint a single favorite feature because of the overall positive functionality of BrightPay.
“I don’t have a favourite feature that I could say, really, I find all the functions of BrightPay are very, very good – they’re excellent!”
McGowan Accountancy Services’ experience with Bright’s accounting solutions
We asked Nuala to describe how McGowan Accountancy Services uses Bright’s accounting solutions – Dext Prepare, BrightBooks, and BrightAccountsProduction – to handle her clients’ accounting responsibilities. In response, Nuala explained that her practice employs these solutions as an integrated end-to-end solution: first capturing the data in Dext, then transferring it seamlessly into the bookkeeping software BrightBooks, and finally using BrightAccountsProduction to produce and finalise her clients’ accounts.
“I use the three systems together. With Dext, I’m able to extract the data from my clients’ receipts, invoices and bank statements. Then, I use the integration with BrightBooks to send this data into the system, where I complete my bookkeeping responsibilities, before opening up BrightAccountsProduction to create and finalise the set of accounts.”
Next, we wanted to understand McGowan Accountancy Services’ specific experience with these three solutions. To achieve this, we delved into each product individually, following the sequence in which Nuala uses them in her accounting process.
Phase 1: Dext Prepare
Speaking on Dext Prepare, Nuala praised how easy the system makes her day-to-day, describing the system as valuable as an extra team member.
“Dext makes my life much easier, and as a matter of fact, I even say that this software is the equivalent of employing somebody, because it takes away so much of your workload through the automation available, it feels like you have another body there to complete your manual work.”
Reiterating this point, Nuala stated that she believes accountants can reduce the number of staff they require by using Dext Prepare.
“I really believe using Dext can decrease the number of staff that accountants require now and in the future.”
Ultimately, the purpose of all software is to make the process of providing your services quicker, easier, and more profitable. It was apparent that by implementing Dext within her practice, Nuala had seen this become a reality by reducing her overall workload.
“Being able to point customers toward the Dext app to add the receipts and documents is a great help. And my clients do like that they can do this themselves. Another area would be in relation to the automation of bank statements and invoices, particularly doing the being able to set the rules – again, I’d say this is a great help for me, I find it brilliant.”
To conclude our discussion around Dext, Nuala praised the product, noting how it helps McGowan Accountancy Services save time and improve accuracy.
“Dext has saved me lots of time, definitely. It’s great for bank reconciliation, you can reconcile a year of reconciliation rather than going back every few months, it allows you to edit stuff – really, I find my life is so much easier since I’ve started using Dext’s automation.”
Phase 2: BrightBooks
Before using BrightBooks, McGowan Accountancy Services used Thesaurus Accounts, which, like Thesaurus Payroll Manager, is a legacy product in the Bright family. Since making the switch, Nuala praised the improved functionality and overall customer experience of BrightBooks.
“BrightBooks is a fantastic product – I really like it. I think it’s very customer focused. It can generate reports very easily and the VAT reports are fantastic.”
Nuala also mentioned the pivotal role BrightBooks played in helping her achieve her quality assurance.
“Not only did I get Certified Public Accountant (CPA) status, but I passed my quality assurance in relation to CPA because as you know, you won’t get CPA recognition unless you get your quality insurance. Using BrightBooks and BrightAccountsProduction helped me get this accreditation – there’s no doubt about it.”
As evidenced by her usage of Dext, Nuala’s clients are using the software. By getting the software in the hands of her clients, Nuala finds efficiencies in service delivery and reduces any unnecessary back-and-forth with clients. Nuala explained how McGowan Accountancy Services saves time by giving clients access to the ‘Dashboards’ module within BrightBooks to view and run reports themselves.
“Giving my clients access to the dashboards definitely saves time. This way, when they want to run a quick report or check some key figures, they’re able to do it themselves. It means they’re taking up less of my time with requests by giving them the ability to go in at get information themselves.”
Before moving on to BrightAccountsProduction, Nuala also mentioned how McGowan Accountancy Services’ clients use BrightBooks for their invoicing needs.
“A couple of my clients use the software for invoicing their customers. Previously, they would have used excel for this so getting BrightBooks made a huge difference for them. They can create their invoices quickly, print them off easily, email them – they’re very, very impressed with all they can do with the system, and they’re really surprised how quickly things can be done.”
Phase 3: BrightAccountsProduction
Bright welcomes two-way relationships with clients. We want our customers to feel they can approach us and that their feedback will be listened to. When discussing BrightAccountsProduction, Nuala praised the Bright team for developing the product by adding the letter of engagement and letter of representation functionality following her recommendation.
“The engagement letter and representation letter are very important steps for accountants, so it was great to see these features added to BrightAccountsProduction after my requests.”
Next, Nuala expressed McGowan Accountancy Services’ satisfaction with BrightAccountsProduction and her delight to have the product in her practice’s toolkit.
“It’s a great system. It’s fully compliant and gets the adjustments done quickly. I think the product is a great asset. With the amount of compliance and regulations these days, knowing BrightAccountsProduction has me 100% covered is a weight off my shoulders.”
Nuala also commented on the quality of the accounts produced by BrightAccountsProduction, specifically the level of detail they provide.
“I find the set of accounts are very professional and that the banks love them. I had one client last year, and when I issued the set of accounts for a large amount of money, the bank stated they didn’t have any questions, which they said was a very rare occasion. They said the set of accounts were so detailed that they had no queries. I was amazed by this. It really shows how detailed the accounts BrightAccountsProduction create are.”
Next, Nuala discussed the e-signing functionality in BrightAccountsProduction, stating that she prefers to meet clients and get the accounts signed in person. However, McGowan Accountancy Services does have a client based overseas who values this functionality.
“I prefer to have my clients sign their accounts in person – it’s just how I do things. But I have one client who is based in America with some business in Ireland. He likes being able to sign his accounts online, and I like it too.”
Nuala then explained the benefits McGowan Accountancy Services receives from BrightAccountsProduction.
“Compliance is #1, definitely. Being able to just know I’m always compliant, not needing to keep checking and reading through websites to make sure – it’s great peace of mind. I also find the accounts are very easy to read and they are very highly nominated and recommended by CPA when I was going through my quality assurance.”
And to conclude our discussion on BrightAccountsProduction, Nuala commented on the time-saving abilities of BrightAccountsProduction:
“Yes, big time. BrightAccountsProduction saves me a lot of time.”
Final thoughts
From our perspective at Bright, it’s delightful to hear about Nuala’s positive experience. This is precisely the impact we aim to have on our customers’ businesses. Nuala’s perception of Bright reflects our commitment to continuous improvement — our customer support is getting better, our products are evolving, and she is excited about the future possibilities. We look forward to continuing to support Nuala and McGowan Accountancy Services.
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