CaseWare Makes Fiscal Sense for IFG Financial International
The IFG International Trust and Corporate Services Division is part of IFG Group Plc, a specialised financial services company listed on the London and Dublin Stock Exchanges. The firm's 400+ professionals have a wide range of skills and are fully committed to their clients, with a distinct can-do approach. Staff work closely with clients and professional advisers to establish and administer a range of internationally structured solutions, including trusts, companies and foundations. The firm also provides fund administration services.
With a presence in seven jurisdictions, the firm is able to provide an extensive range of trust and corporate services as well as bespoke solutions to its clients.
When IFG International sought to streamline its accounts production tasks, a single solution caught its attention. CaseWare is the choice of IFG Financial Services.
An Purpose-Built Solution
"We implemented CaseWare Accounts Production, Working Papers and the Trust and Offshore templates in March of 2010," recalls Michael Nolan, Accounts Manager for IFG Financial Services. "Until then, we used spreadsheets to accomplish these tasks."
Nolan says the firm first considered using its own development team to design a proprietary system the firm could use. "Our offshore trust work is unique, and we didn't think we would find a packaged solution that could handle that aspect of our practice." However, when an employee who had used CaseWare before encouraged the management team to view a demonstration of the solution, the decision became clear. "CaseWare offered everything we were looking for," he says. "It made financial and logistical sense to go with a proven product."
Streamlined Implementation
The implementation of CaseWare proved to be a straightforward exercise. A team from CaseWare UK came to our site and hosted a two-day training course. The firm was able to export trial balance data from its accounting application and importe the data into CaseWare to speed the set up process. "We found that the wizard-system in CaseWare streamlined the implementation," says Nolan. "It is easy to use and helped us avoid overlooking anything."
Having a staff member who was already familiar with CaseWare has certainly benefitted the firm in its transition and Nolan says that thanks to the product's ease of use, little on-going support is needed. "I believe we have only had occasion to ask CaseWare for technical support four or five times."
A Competitive Advantage
Today, IFG Financial Services successfully processes more than 1,000 sets of accounts through CaseWare. The firm immediately noticed a signficant time-saving associated with its use of CaseWare. "We spend less time drafting and reviewing final accounts and by using Working Papers we can electronically scan and associate all variety of client documents with a file, saving the time and effort of tracking them manually," says Nolan. "And with the roll-over feature we will save even more during our second and subsequent years."
Nolan estimates that CaseWare cuts an average of 45 minutes from what was a six hour task. "That is a significant saving," he notes. "It frees our professionals' time to take on more projects." The time-saving adds up to a competitive advantage for IFG Financial Services. "With CaseWare we are able to complete our tasks faster," says Nolan. "This makes us more competitive as it enables us to pass that saving to our clients."