Key Takeaway: By consolidating four tools into Firm360, CB Accounting reduced administrative work by 42%, lowered software costs by 35%, and shortened employee onboarding from three months to two weeks. The result was more capacity to serve clients across five offices without adding administrative overhead.
Customer Overview
CB Accounting is a growing accounting firm with five offices across North Dakota and neighboring states. The firm serves a diverse client base and employs between 25 and 35 team members depending on the season. As Regional Account Director, Rebecca Skager oversees operations, team management, client communications, and workflow across the firm’s offices.
Challenge
As CB Accounting expanded across multiple offices, managing client communication and internal workflows became increasingly difficult.
The firm relied on several disconnected systems for client management, project tracking, HR, and email. Employees spent significant time manually downloading documents, uploading PDFs, searching through email inboxes, and tracking project status across different applications. If an employee was unavailable, locating client information often required digging through individual email accounts.
“We estimated around sixty percent of our staff’s time was spent on admin tasks prior to Firm360,” — Rebecca Skager, Regional Accounting Director, CB Accounting LLC
The firm’s previous client portal also created friction for clients. With a customer base ranging from teenagers to clients over 100 years old, ease of use was critical. Many clients struggled to navigate the previous platform, creating additional work for staff.
As the firm continued to grow, leadership recognized the need for a single system that could simplify operations, improve client communication, and reduce administrative overhead without sacrificing flexibility across five offices.
Solution
After evaluating several practice management platforms, CB Accounting selected Firm360 because of its intuitive client experience, integrated workflows, and responsive implementation team.
Today, Firm360 serves as the operational hub for client communication, project management, document sharing, and workflow management.
The ability for clients to access the portal from their phones immediately stood out, along with positive customer reviews and a smooth product demonstration.
During implementation, Firm360 worked closely with the team to migrate client data, integrate Outlook, connect tax software, Ultra Tax CS, and configure workflows for multiple offices with different operational needs.
Throughout the implementation, the Firm360 team responded quickly to questions and helped CB Accounting tailor workflows to meet the needs of each office.
“Within an hour or two, we got answers back from the Firm360 team. The success team there helped us understand how to make our ideas happen in the system.” — Rebecca Skager, Regional Accounting Director, CB Accounting LLC
The firm consolidated approximately four separate systems, including Onvio, SwipeClock, Google Workspace, and project management processes spread across multiple applications, into a single platform.
Results
Since implementing Firm360, CB Accounting has significantly improved operational efficiency while supporting continued growth.
Administrative work dropped by 42%, with the team expecting to reduce it even further as additional workflows are automated.
Replacing multiple software systems reduced overall software costs by 35%, while integrated email, document management, and automated workflows eliminated hours of manual work. Rebecca estimates that Outlook integration alone saved roughly 10% of employee time by eliminating manual PDF downloads and uploads.
Automated client reminders have also transformed tax season. Instead of manually following up with clients, the team can schedule recurring reminders until documents are received, saving hours of administrative work.
“The automated client reminders have probably saved us two seasonal employees.” — Rebecca Skager, Regional Accounting Director, CB Accounting LLC
With streamlined workflows, CB Accounting has been able to support more client work while operating with fewer seasonal employees. During tax season, staffing requirements dropped from approximately 45 employees to 35, even as the firm’s client base continued to grow.
Training new employees has become dramatically faster. Instead of requiring roughly three months to become productive, new hires are now operational in approximately two weeks, thanks to standardized project templates and clearly defined workflows inside Firm360.
The transition has been just as successful for clients. CB Accounting has seen strong adoption of the client portal and overwhelmingly positive feedback throughout its client base.
“I’ve had very good feedback from our clients. They absolutely love it.” — Rebecca Skager, Regional Accounting Director, CB Accounting LLC
For Rebecca, the biggest change is that Firm360 has become the center of the firm’s daily operations.
“Firm360 is our home. It is where we live.” — Rebecca Skager, Regional Accounting Director, CB Accounting LLC
About Rebecca Skager
Rebecca Skager is the Regional Account Director for CB Accounting, a five-office accounting firm serving clients across North Dakota and neighboring states. She oversees firm operations, team management, client communications, onboarding, and workflow optimization across multiple locations. With hands-on responsibility for evaluating, implementing, and managing practice management technology, Rebecca brings first-hand experience helping accounting firms improve operational efficiency, streamline client service, and support growth through better processes.