Case Studies » Greg Schuricht
REI Bookkeepers achieves a 90% response rate through Keeper’s Client Portal
“We were getting lost in a sea of emails. I needed a central portal that I could communicate with everyone through.”
- Greg Schuricht
- Owner/CEO
“I was managing over 100 QuickBooks files and struggled to keep up with the sheer volume of demand. The administrative burdens and delayed responses to our valued clients necessitated a change.”
Running a firm, managing client expectations, and building out new standard operating procedures (SOPs) for a team is a lot of work on its own. Now add managing multiple disconnected systems on top of it all.
That’s when REI Bookkeepers turned to Keeper. The transformation not only streamlined workflows and communication, but also increased efficiency.
Eliminating spreadsheets and prioritizing the Client Portal for communication
REI Bookkeepers provides accounting and bookkeeping services to real estate professionals (investors, property owners, landlords).
In 2020, Greg discovered a company called REI Bookkeepers. After connecting with former owner Dave Rice, the two immediately hit it off.
“When I started working with Dave, it was clear that the firm was lacking automation. Our communication methods were Google Sheets and a convoluted email system.”
Greg found that REI Bookkeepers was using a different email inbox for each client. And, Google Sheets was the primary method for managing and communicating uncategorized transactions. It all added up to a lot of manual tasks, too many email threads, and deliverables falling through the cracks.
REI Bookkeepers needed a tool to improve client communication. Greg’s first attempt to introduce new software resulted in client friction and a low adoption rate. “We used a system before Keeper, but getting adoption from our clients was difficult,” said Greg. A few bookkeepers on Dave’s team offered their input after hearing a talk from Ben Stein, CEO/Founder of Keeper. “My bookkeepers nudged us to learn more about Keeper, and we ended up scheduling a demo call, ” said Greg.
“We were getting lost in a sea of emails. I needed a central portal that I could communicate with everyone through.”
Embracing Keeper’s Client Portal
“We introduced Keeper to our clients and they were extremely receptive. We had 90% of our clients using Keeper’s Client Portal immediately.” With support from the bookkeepers, Dave was bought in. “I started to love Keeper, and we decided to go all in.”
Steering clients away from email and onto Keeper has been the number one priority for Greg and the team. “After I took over the practice, I needed to stabilize our workload, and Keeper has been able to help with that.” Greg found Keeper’s Client Portal easy and straightforward to use – and his clients loved it. “We’ve seen higher response rates from clients and no one misses the old ways of using Google Sheets and sorting through email inboxes.”
Keeper has become the single source of truth for Greg and the team. Beyond the overall benefit that the Client Portal provides from a communication standpoint, Greg’s team also relies on the many review tools that Keeper offers.
One of the favorites amongst the team is the uncategorized transaction report. Greg no longer has to go through the effort of downloading uncategorized transactions into Excel, tidying up the file, and sending the questions via email. Keeper’s two-way integration with QuickBooks gives Greg’s team the ability to mark and edit transactions in Keeper and add any questions or comments straight to the Client Portal for his clients to review. “Keeper makes it easy for me to work where I review my work, said Greg.
“I would not be able to manage this workload as well as I do without it. Paying to have Keeper on our team is a no-brainer.”
What the future holds for REI Bookkeepers
Fully transitioned into the CEO role, Greg recognizes that he has only scratched the surface with Keeper. The next research project is to explore the reporting packages that Keeper offers. “We still send manual reports out of QuickBooks to do reviews. I am well aware that using Keeper will make our reporting that much more valuable to our clients.”