Temporary cashiering cover becomes permanent fixture for Crisp & Co

When Crisp & Co Solicitors was left in the lurch by the sudden departure of its cashier earlier this year, Michele Crisp, Managing & Client Care Partner, began recruiting for a replacement candidate in earnest.

The challenge:

“There was no warning signs that our in-house cashier would have to leave at such short notice”, explains Michele.  “We were completely unprepared when she left.  It was all so quick.  Luckily, we found someone ideal for the post.  Unfortunately, her existing contract of employment stipulated a 3-month notice period.  While we’d managed to resolve the issue in the long term, the short term still posed a problem.”

As experts in family law, Crisp & Co’s entire clientele is self-funded.  Additionally, with solicitors operating from many locations, the practice represents an extensive client base.  From a cashiering perspective, this equates to a large volume of transactions.

“We’re an average-sized business but, because our customers pay individually, often in instalments where finances may be stretched, we undertake a huge quantity of postings”, adds Michele.  “We simply couldn’t manage the accounts function ourselves without a dedicated cashier assuming the responsibility.  With a 3-month shortfall of cashiering cover and insufficient time to source a temporary stand-in, we rang our software supplier, Quill Pinpoint, to help us out.  We already knew about the Pinpoint outsourced legal accounting service.  Thankfully, Quill agreed to support us for a few weeks while we awaited our cashier’s arrival.”

The solution:

Crisp & Co are long-time users of Quill Pinpoint’s cloud-hosted Interactive legal accounts system.  By choosing Pinpoint, Crisp & Co’s designated cashier was able to begin work instantly simply by accessing Interactive to manage historical and current financial data.

“Quill’s service ran so smoothly”, continues Michele.  “We were assigned a named member of the Pinpoint team, Eleanor, and she began working on our accounts straightaway.  It turned out our accounts were in need of some serious tidying up.  Everything was stored on our nominal ledger which meant our supplier records were scattered.  Also, our anticipated and paid disbursements weren’t logged consistently.  Once Eleanor spotted the discrepancies, she corrected these immediately.  We now have full purchase ledger accounts and our bills show accurate disbursement costs.”

The future:

Michele was so pleased with Quill’s cashiering service that she decided to make it a permanent fixture.

“By the time our new cashier, Jackie, joined our firm, we were so delighted with Pinpoint that we made some last-minute staffing adjustments”, states Michele.  “Instead of being our in-house cashier, Jackie’s our on-site Finance Manager who looks after the credit control and financial management side of things, with Eleanor at Quill continuing to maintain our accounts and cashiering functions.

“It’s a perfect arrangement because it allows Jackie to analyse our figures for considered feedback to our partners.  Rather than just presenting raw figures, Jackie can identify trends and opportunities for discussion at high level.”

In her concluding statement, Michele comments: “I’d definitely recommend Pinpoint to other firms.  It’s done wonders for our accounts and greatly assisted us through what was a troublesome situation.  A major advantage of the service is continuous provision.  If Eleanor’s on holiday or sick, there’s alternative cover.  If she’s busy, her colleagues step in.  After our recent experiences, this is a blessing and provides great peace of mind.”