My CAS Tech Stack

Author

Luke Templin
March 15, 2023

Read Time: 3:14 minutes

✋Welcome to The CAS Cache, a newsletter designed to help accounting firms grow their CAS offerings. Each issue will feature my insights on a topic.

In addition, perspectives from gurus on the topic that I am listening to 👂, reading 📚, or watching 👀 and one thing I am talking 🗣 to my clients about in my firm newsletter. Please feel free to R&D (rip off and duplicate) the Client Cache.

Last issue, I talked about how I select apps to use in my firm. Here is some background on my firm for perspective.  

Now on to my tech stack based on my client's journey. Some links below give me a few extra peanuts, and some give you a deal too. 

Intake and Scheduling

I use Calendly for an intake form, booking discovery calls, and scheduling. You can learn more about my discovery process here.

I plan to move my intake form to Jotform shortly because it has more robust routing logic than Calendly and Microsoft Forms. 

Proposal/Engagement Letter/Invoicing/Accounting

I use the OG, PowerPoint, for pitch decks. I have not found anything as simple and clean. Below is an example. You can R&D my assessment template by clicking here.

Once a client verbally picks a package, I send an engagement letter via Ignition. Ignition also captures their ACH information and creates recurring invoices in QuickBooks Online.

Banking/Bill Pay

The ACH payments are all deposited in Relay. I also use Relay to pay my overseas contractor, pay bills, and streamline Profit First allocations. Relay is by far the most user-friendly bank I have worked with in my career. 

Issue Sponsor 😎

Relay is a no-fee, online business banking and money management platform that helps small businesses take control of their cash flow and get crystal clear on what they’re earning, spending and saving.

Project Management

At my core, I am a best-of-breed person vs. an all-in-one solution, but it is hard to ignore Microsoft ("MS") 365. 

I use Tasks by Planner and To Do in MS Teams for project management. I set up a team for each client with process documentation and recurring tasks. I would not recommend this setup if you plan to scale and perform many repetitive tasks, such as bookkeeping. 

Most of my processes are documented using Loom. Loom makes it super easy to record procedures and share links for contractors to refer back to when performing the work. I also use Loom to give review notes to my contractors and walk through things with my clients. 

Client Facing Tools

I keep this pretty simple because the core of my business is meeting one-on-one to strategize with clients. 

  • I use FinDaily.io for automated weekly short-term cash flow. This is one of my clients' favorite reports

  • Fathom is my forecasting and reporting tool of choice. I have used three and demoed a few in my career. Fathom is by far the most user-friendly and robust.

  • MS Teams for document sharing when needed

I will recommend a few apps to clients, but I caution you on doing this unless you want to support the app. In my experience, the client will expect you to support the app regardless of your clarity on the scope.

Here are the few I will recommend: Gusto, Ignition, and Relay. I am impartial on QBO vs. Xero, but most clients are on QBO.

Marketing

Beehiiv for this newsletter and my firm newsletter.

Wix for blog and website. 

Hypefury for social media content scheduling. 

There is one theme to my tech stack. Keep it simple stupid (I am stupid, not you). I do not add to my stack unless I have a major pain point.

Next issue, I will go over a few real-world use cases on my process.

Choose Your Own Adventure 🚶‍♂️🗺

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🙏 Thanks again, Alex Ostrov, Daniel Skipworth, John Sanchez, Matt Chiappetta, and Josh Thompson, for your feedback and support.

Guru Cache 👂📚👀

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🧘‍♂️📚 Is buying happiness possible? Maybe according to this article, buying more time has been found to lead to more happiness than buying any material items.

Click here to read about buying happiness.

Thanks for reading, Luke Templin!

P.S. There are 3 ways I can help you grow your CAS offerings when you are ready: