Chase Vowell and Flux Accounting: How to increase firm bandwidth by 50% with LiveFlow and QuickBooks

Chase Vowell is founder and CEO of Flux Accounting, a high-growth accounting firm in San Diego, Calif.

Specializing in accounting services for scaling businesses, Chase and his team work with more than150 clients, many of whom are franchisees of a major grocery store chain in California.

In its more than six years of business, Flux Accounting has embraced technology as a cornerstone of its operations, notably through integrating QuickBooks Online and LiveFlow to improve efficiency and scale its accounting bandwidth. This case study explores how these tools have revolutionized Flux Accounting’s processes, fostering growth and vastly improving their team's bandwidth.

Choosing QuickBooks

For Chase Vowell, being a QuickBooks-only shop was a no-brainer.

“We just think it's the premier solution for small- to mid-sized businesses, and nobody else is even close,” said Chase.

As QuickBooks power users, Chase and his team love the robust features, flexibility, and ease of use that QuickBooks Online provides for his clients.

“We introduced QuickBooks Online to this niche. So now most of our clients are on it, but about 10 to 20 percent still prefer QuickBooks Desktop," he said. "We're slowly but surely dwindling that down to zero and 100 percent QuickBooks Online."

When asked why he’s such a fan of QuickBooks, he praised Intuit for its commitment to innovation and improving the platform, making his job easier and more productive.

Integrating LiveFlow

Chase and his team also love QuickBooks Online for its library of third-party integrations, which they can leverage to make an excellent accounting platform even better.

That’s where LiveFlow came in.

As a high-growth firm owner looking to maximize its tech stack, Chase was familiar with many of the data connectors on the market—but wanted something more.

He heard about a disruptive financial planning and analysis FP&platform called LiveFlow, and spoke with founders Anita Koimur and Lasse Kalkar about their product. It sounded promising, but he needed to find out more.

“We were one of the first customers to start working with LiveFlow when it was still a very conceptual idea,” said Chase. “We believed in Anita and Lasse, and what we had seen them developing, but we needed to know more.”

Their problem was standard for LiveFlow customers: They needed to export QuickBooks reports from QuickBooks Online into spreadsheets to create impactful reporting for their niche clients, but manual exports took too long. After all, when you have 150 clients to service with monthly reporting, every second counts.

“We loved the concept of getting QuickBooks data live into a spreadsheet, and then we could manipulate it for whatever needs we would have after that,” said Chase.

However, the real potential of LiveFlow for scaling their business didn’t set in until they automated a client’s monthly financial compilation. It was a true “aha!” moment.

Impact

Integrating QuickBooks Online with LiveFlow has been a game-changer for Chase Vowell and Flux Accounting, significantly reducing the time and effort required for monthly and quarterly reporting. 

A true force multiplier, using LiveFlow has allowed Flux’s accountants to scale their bandwidth for servicing clients due to the ease of generating monthly and quarterly reports.

“Monthly bookkeeping is our core service and takes up the most time,” said Chase. "Generating financial statements and reports for the clients is the last step of that process every month, so we have staff members assigned to a group of clients to take them through that process. So when we can shave 10 minutes off per client per month, not only are we saving our client partners time, but they also save brain power and emotional energy to do more for their clients. 

”The average client partner served 20 clients a month, and now they serve 30 clients monthly," he added. "That’s a 50% bandwidth boost. So not only can they take on more clients, but they can also focus on higher-level service items and less on manual repetitive tasks.”

In addition, at the end of the quarter, Flux Accounting reviews tax estimates for each client. That process used to take 40 hours total and is now down to just two.

Future plans

Looking forward, Chase Vowell is enthusiastic about continuing to use QuickBooks Online and LiveFlow. He believes both platforms will support the firm’s further expansion and innovation goals. 

An enterprising firm owner, Vowell is also keen on exploring new features and integrations offered by QuickBooks and LiveFlow. He is constantly looking for ways to expand his firm’s capabilities and grow his business.

“If we're at 150 clients, we're planning for 200," he said. "How do we get to 300 clients? LiveFlow will be essential for that. As we scale, it gets more valuable.”

As far as his commitment to QuickBooks and LiveFlow, Chase is rock solid on it.

“We plan on LiveFlow and QuickBooks Online being part of our tech stack as far into the future as we can see.”

Chase Vowell and Flux Accounting’s experience with QuickBooks Online and LiveFlow illustrates the raw power of third-party integrations, maximizing the potential of an already excellent accounting platform.

Through strategic tool selection, Flux Accounting has enhanced its operational efficiency and scale, but has also positioned itself for further growth moving into the future.

For firms looking to scale and improve efficiency, Flux’s model serves as a compelling blueprint for success.