Before switching to Ignition in 2023, Dawn manually created and processed invoices. These time-consuming and error-prone tasks led to missed payments and financial stress.

For starters, sending proposals and collecting payments were a source of stress and anxiety.

"I was exhausted from worrying about money," Dawn says. "I would bill clients by the hour, send them the invoice, and pray that they paid by Friday so I could make payroll."

The process, which involved manually creating invoices and sending them to QuickBooks, was time-consuming at best and error-prone at worst, resulting in missed payments. 

"I had to send the invoice to QuickBooks. Then, I had to process the invoice in QuickBooks by pushing buttons and entering credit card or ACH information. So it was a whole administrative accounts receivable process for me," she recalls.

Not only that, but manually charging clients sometimes led to overlooked charges. At one point, she says she missed around $6,000 in payments because of manual processes.

But Dawn's concerns went a whole lot deeper than just the financial part. For her, having enough money meant she wouldn't have to worry about taking a trip to see her daughter or spending time on her passion projects, such as coaching college softball.

Dawn knew there was a better way and found the solution in Igntion's client engagement and billing platform. 

Ignition streamlined Dawn's workflows. The platform's digital proposal features and templates allow her to send proposals faster. Not only that, but she can do it in a more personalized way thanks to Ignition's video capabilities.

"I could communicate with video, which I think is important. I want that personal touch of sending the proposal and explaining my process,” Dawn explains.

Ignition also enabled Dawn to move away from hourly billing and collect payments upfront. According to her, the transition to advance payments was easy and stress-free because Ignition digitized the entire workflow. 

Because clients could make a payment once they've accepted a proposal, Dawn didn't have to worry about manually charging their accounts, which meant money flowed more seamlessly into her business. 

“Today, we got $120,000 in the bank account. I've never, ever, had more than $20,000 at one given time. That’s a huge win.”

Ignition's integration with QuickBooks is also seamless and efficient. Previously, Dawn had to switch between QuickBooks and other solutions to manually enter data, but after making the switch, the process was exponentially faster. 

Dawn says, "Now, I just click, require payment upfront, and bam. That thing goes out in 10 seconds. And I don't think about it. I don't manage accounts receivable or handle payments; Ignition has totally changed that for me."

Ignition serves as an all-in-one solution for Dawn to manage engagement letters, proposals, client billing, and payments from one place, significantly reducing her firm's administrative load.

Previously, Dawn used a separate quoting software to send proposals, but the tool didn't offer payment features. This gap meant she had to collect payments manually—a task that felt stressful and time-consuming.

But thanks to Ignition, everything is integrated, simplifying both the proposal and payment processes.

"You need to find where the middle ground is to take the emotion out of proposals, and Ignition helped with that."

Ignition has also enabled Dawn to move away from the intense, deadline-driven culture of tax season and embrace a more strategic, proactive approach to advising clients year-round. 

In addition, Dawn has saved a tremendous amount of time with Ignition. She estimates that the platform frees up at least three weeks for her and her team. 

“I don't bill people by the hour. I don't take on work that requires hourly billing. So, if you think about it, I've already saved two weeks just in my billing process."

She concludes "Manually processing payments in QuickBooks took at least another week of time. So I basically get three weeks off because Ignition just handles everything."