CPA Elizabeth Bystrom boosts revenue by 72% while working less
Elizabeth Bystrom, CPA, works less and earns more with the help of Ignition. She achieved a better work-life balance by streamlining engagement, automating her billing, and focusing on high-value clients.
Elizabeth Bystrom, CPA’s playbook for business success
Discover how to run the smartest business.
Elizabeth Bystrom, CPA’s playbook for business success
“Ignition solves so many problems for me—ones I knew I had and ones I didn’t even know I had.”
Elizabeth Bystrom, CPA
The challenge: overwhelming administrative workload
Elizabeth Bystrom is a CPA and solo practitioner who values work-life balance and focuses on working only on things she truly enjoys. Before using Ignition, she struggled with time-consuming and unenjoyable tasks like preparing engagement letters, chasing client payments, and managing accounts receivables.
Manual (sometimes non-existent) client engagement workflows
Elizabeth wasn't a big fan of manually creating engagement letters. Before Ignition, she didn't have a standard process, which meant she had to create engagement letters in Microsoft Word and customize every letter for her clients. She also needed administrative support, so she hired a contractor to help her with the process.
"I was editing engagement letters in Word and then having my admin person send them out. We would then have to get e-signatures. I hated doing them," she says.
She found the task so frustrating that, in some cases, she and her clients would proceed without a formal engagement letter, which inevitably led to issues like an unclear scope of work.
The client engagement process was particularly tedious when Elizabeth had to introduce services or change the scope of work for multiple clients. She recalls an especially stressful time right after the pandemic when several clients urgently needed agreement adjustments.
"It was March, and I was on spring break with my daughter. But there I was, editing engagement letters in Word on the fly because clients needed ERC claim filings. On top of that, real-time changes were happening during tax season, and I realized they weren't included in my engagement letters."
A lengthy client invoicing process
Initially, Elizabeth billed clients by manually preparing invoices and waiting for clients to send checks. While upgrading to QuickBooks Online helped digitize her workflow, it was still cumbersome, and she required additional administrative support to handle the volume of invoices.
"I would prepare the invoice in QuickBooks; then an admin person would send them out because there would be too many of them to do myself."
In addition, the process was still slow and inefficient because it required clients to take action on payments, resulting in delays.
"I moved away from manual check payments when I switched to QuickBooks. But I still waited for the client to act on the invoice, which sometimes took a long time. I didn't have issues with collections, but I had issues with slow pay."
Dealing with accounts receivable
Those slow payments created accounts receivable, slowing down her cash flow.
"I often had AR that was 0 to 30 days old, but a handful of clients would stretch it to 30 to 60 days—simply because they missed some of my emails."
The solution: effortless automation with Ignition
Tired of the stress that came with tedious tasks, Elizabeth made the switch to Ignition and immediately saw positive results.
Effortless client engagement
With Ignition, Elizabeth no longer has to dread creating engagement letters. The platform allowed her to prepare them instantly, and clients could view the terms and sign everything from one easy interface—no more manual editing in Word and waiting for e-signatures.
Ignition streamlined client engagement so much that she didn't have to rely on external admin support to manage the process.
What's more, Elizabeth can quickly update her engagement terms across the board with just a few clicks.
"I don't do engagement letters in March anymore. But even if I had to, I could just edit my master template and boom—it's in every one of the engagement letters, instead of me editing them one by one."
By implementing a more efficient and robust engagement letter process in her first year using Ignition, Elizabeth grew her revenue by 72% while saving significant time and effort.
Streamlined invoicing and upfront payments
Ignition quickly transformed Elizabeth's invoicing workflows as well. Rather than using QuickBooks or paying others to handle the process, she used Ignition's client billing features to automate recurring payments and invoicing.
The process, which used to take 20 to 30 hours a month, was reduced to just 15 to 20 minutes a week, resulting in a 75% time savings.
Elizabeth Bystrom, CPA’s playbook for business success
Discover how to run the smartest business.
Elizabeth Bystrom, CPA’s playbook for business success
Better cash flow with automatic payments
Streamlined client billing also meant Elizabeth got paid faster. With Ignition's built-in payment capabilities, she could capture clients' banking or credit card information when they signed the proposal, allowing her to automate payments and eliminate the waiting game around collecting her fees.
"I made it mandatory for clients to put in a payment method when signing engagement letters, so there was no delay in processing payments," Elizabeth explains.
Because of this automation and upfront payment collection, she was able to bring her accounts receivable down to zero.
"I don't have any accounts receivable. I moved to Ignition and transitioned to automated payments, so I have zero AR."
Earning more while working less
Switching to Ignition paved the way for higher revenues while reducing stress for Elizabeth.
The platform's automated payments and recurring billing capabilities allowed her to start conversations with clients and transition them to a more consistent and profitable payment model.
"Ignition made it easier for me to approach a handful of high-value clients who would typically pay me a large invoice at the end of the year. I was able to say, 'Let's put you on a monthly recurring plan, and I'll just charge your credit card,' and they were fine with it. I couldn't have done that without Ignition."
Additionally, Ignition made it easier to raise fees, allowing Elizabeth to adjust her pricing without losing a big chunk of her client base.
"I was expecting a 30% drop in clients, but the actual drop was nowhere near that. The vast majority of clients signed on with the increased pricing."
This ability to retain clients while raising fees created sustainable growth for Elizabeth's practice.
"Ignition enables me to grow without adding clients or staff," she adds.