How Melot Accounting Empowers Clients with Float and FreeAgent
Myriam Melot is the Managing Director of Melot Accounting Ltd, a firm that she started back in 2013. Melot Accounting provides friendly and efficient remote accounting solutions to limited companies, partnerships, and self-employed individuals.
Empowering clients
Myriam, a Finance Manager before starting the practice, knows how important it is to be connected to your own financial management systems.
“We want to work with the clients, not for them.”
In order to make financial management easier for their clients, Melot Accounting provides them with FreeAgent accounting software, which Myriam is a big advocate for.
“FreeAgent isn’t fussy or complicated. We wanted something really easy to use for our clients. That’s why we’ve stuck with it.”
Empowering clients is at the heart of everything Melot Accounting does. More than anything, it’s about helping clients understand their finances. FreeAgent helps them to do just that.
“Helping clients understand what’s coming in and out in order to plan, before problems arise, is exactly why I got into this business.” But doing this simply and efficiently is easier said than done.
The problem: understanding cash
Myriam knows that it can be difficult to understand the difference between cash and profit.
“A lot of people get confused between cash and profit. Cash flow is far more complicated to calculate. It can be pretty mind-blowing.”
Myriam knew that some clients were trying to forecast their cash by using spreadsheets. “I was aware that some clients were using spreadsheets to forecast their cash. Which, compared to creating a profit and loss, can be very confusing.”
Melot Accounting’s clients needed something to help streamline their forecasting process and understand the future of their business quickly and easily.
The answer: forecasting in the cloud
In order to help her clients move away from cash flow spreadsheets, and encourage those who didn’t yet forecast their cash, Myriam searched for a forecasting tool that integrated with FreeAgent.
Float stood out as the most intuitive tool.
“Float’s model of cash flow forecasting means that people can engage with it more easily and finally understand what their cash is doing and where it’s going.”
Because Melot Accounting works remotely with clients, it is imperative that they can oversee client accounts in the cloud. This, according to Myriam who is always keen to help, is invaluable to both herself and her customers.
“If a client has any problems then we can easily log in to see what the issue is and assist. Sometimes we set clients up with budgets and history but let them play around with the forecasts. Other clients do it all themselves.”
It’s Float’s visual graph that Myriam believes makes it so easy for the firm’s clients to use and understand. “People find it really easy to use.”
Melot Accounting’s clients often use the word ‘addictive’ when describing Float. Myriam explains, “I find that once the clients’ history has been synced from FreeAgent and they start putting in their forecasts, they’re hooked.”
How Float helps Melot Accounting’s clients
With clients happily set up on Float from their initial offering with Melot Accounting, Myriam says that many of them have since found planning for the future of their business far easier.
Myriam believes that knowledge is power. Knowing this, she was pleased to see how Float’s scenario feature could be used by some of her clients. Forecasting for a realistic scenario, as well as new projects, new hires, and blue sky thinking has helped her clients to plan effectively.
“One client, in particular, has a very stop-start business. He uses Float to help him better manage his cash. And he and uses scenarios to measure whether or not he’ll be okay cash-wise if new business doesn’t come in.”
How Float helps Melot Accounting at a Practice Level
Myriam says that “providing Float to clients gives me confidence that whatever they are doing, and wherever their business plans may take them, they are fully aware of the cash flow impact.”
With Float and FreeAgent, Melot Accounting’s clients are never flying blind. Myriam has confidence that her clients can work towards future plans whilst knowing the impact they may have on their cash flow.
“Knowing that our clients are being more mindful about potential plans, and providing the tools which allow them to make bold and confident plans, is one of the key objectives of the business.”
Integrating with cloud technology solutions like Float and FreeAgent, and always being on the look-out for further integrations which add value to the accounting related services they offer, is what differentiates Melot Accounting from its competition.
“For us,” Myriam attests, “it’s about not being stagnant. We want to move with the times and keep up with modern technology. Working with Float has been a big part of that.”
