Building a high growth firm on clarity, visibility and connectivity

M Squared was around three people strong when it made the move to TaxCalc. The firm's pricing plan meant that as the client base grew, costs didn't spiral in the way they might have with a per-client pricing model. That gave M Squared the room to grow the business without growing its software costs at the same rate.

New team members joining from other firms consistently tell Michael the same thing: TaxCalc is one of the easiest, most efficient systems they've used, which matters for a firm that's added people in fast-growing bursts as client demand has increased. TaxCalc's launch of charity accounts support, something Michael had been waiting on for around five years, was a welcome recent addition too.

Practice management was a similar story. M Squared ran on an Excel spreadsheet for its early years, workable with a handful of staff, but never built to scale. Michael tried and moved on from other practice management tools before Engager delivered what he'd been looking for all along: not just a record of the work that had been booked in, but a live picture of the work still ahead.

“Engager has managed to deliver everything I was looking for, which was not just what you've booked in for the work you have to do, but the work that was ahead of you. That's been crucial to get an eye on the workflow.”

For Michael, sitting at the top of a growing firm, that visibility is the crunch point. Engager doesn't just show what people are doing, it surfaces where work has stalled, so the firm can step in before a bottleneck becomes a deadline problem.

“It's not just checking on people, It's trying to figure out have we got blockages, where work is sitting at any one point in time. One of my team prepares a report to say this has been stuck for X amount of time. Having that in front of you allows you to find out why, where something's sitting hidden under a desk.”

That oversight now shapes how Michael manages his team day to day: spotting when someone is overloaded, moving work to colleagues with more capacity, and reviewing workloads before staff go on holiday to make sure nothing slips through the gaps.

Perhaps the most significant shift Engager has brought to M Squared is in how the firm plans for the future. Historically, growth had come reactively, adding people in response to workload that had already arrived. With a clearer, longer view of work in the pipeline, Michael can now resource ahead of demand rather than behind it.

“Right now we're resourced fine, but looking ahead for the next twelve months and where we're growing, we're in the process of adding three [staff] now, not for today, but for the work we'll be doing in the future.”

Engager's timesheet functionality, introduced around eighteen months ago, has added a further layer of day-to-day clarity that spreadsheets never could. It's a small addition that Michael says has made a noticeable difference to how the firm understands where its time actually goes.

One connected system, not a chain of separate apps

M Squared has deliberately built its core processes around connected systems, rather than staff moving between disconnected tools for a single job. That's what made the integration between TaxCalc and Engager particularly welcome when it arrived.

“We wanted things to connect. When Engager and TaxCalc got together, that was some of the best news we got, we're now connecting all the way through, and you're not doubling up your time. One push of a button should flow through nicely, and it certainly appears to be working for us.”

Automating client communication, without losing the personal touch

One of the most immediate, measurable wins for M Squared has come from Engager's automation of client communications and its client portal. Where the firm previously requested tax information from clients individually, it can now send information out to its whole client base in one coordinated exercise.

“We were able to send out letters with the information we've pulled together, and you were not sending that individually out to clients it’s all done in one fell swoop. That would have been probably one of the huge time savers, and that was something we hadn't done previously.”

Michael's advice to other firms

For firms weighing up a similar move, Michael's advice is simple: see it in action before you commit.

“I would say get on a webinar, get on a training session. If you go to any of the accounting shows, pop along and watch it in action, there's plenty on YouTube that you can see. When a new accountancy firm reaches out to ask for a steer on where to go, I point them to TaxCalc every single time.”

 NB: Names of competitor software vendors have been redacted at their request.