Cornerstone Bookkeeping is changing it's name to iKeep as the next stage of its continual improvement process.

1. What's in a Name?

2. Over the past 18 months, Cornerstone Group
Australasia Pty Ltd has gone through a significant
amount of change. The business is now 8 years old,
things that worked well 8 years ago were due for
review to make sure we operating at 'best practice'. We
have reviewed every piece of software that we use to
ensure that it is the best in it's class, we have reviewed
every process to ensure that it is both efficient and
effective; we have assessed every team member for
skills and competency and their passion to help the
businesses that we work with.

3. The next step in this process of change is the name.
The name Cornerstone Group Australasia says nothing
about what we do (and the URL on our email is
ridiculously long), so we have come up with the name
iKeep.
We will formally be changing the business name on
the 31st October 2019.
Our ABN, and all other company details are remaining
the same.
It can be viewed as a play on words: "I keep your books
and records up to date", "I keep you compliant", or it
can be viewed as a statement of what we do iKeep is
short for "I do bookkeeping".

4. Our new icon has been designed to be a folded receipt,
in the shape of a 'K'. You'll see this across our social
media platforms and other locations where a square
icon is appropriate to be displayed.
What's important in this journey of change is the
lessons that we have learned along the way...

5. Understanding what matters to our customers
Our customers want a bookkeeper they can trust. Trust
in our industry means that you can expect to be chased
when a deadline is approaching, trust that transactions
are recorded correctly, and financial reports that can be
used to make decisions on.
Measure what matters
We needed to figure out what the key metrics for
success were in our business. What were the things
that we needed to do that would ensure our customers
were always happy and our business was running
smoothly. Some of the metrics we identified were:

6. • On-Time Lodgements. We have regular lodgement
deadlines with BAS, IAS. Whilst there are a few of our
customers that are hard to contact, for the most part
we have control over this metric, and it's an
important one. We can't lodge unless bank
reconciliations are up to date and we are confident
that the numbers in the reports are correct.

7. • Management Reports out by the 15th. Some of our
clients have quarterly BAS lodgements - but it's our
philosophy that management accounts should be
circulated by the 15th of each month. Yes, we believe
in the real-time dashboards in Xero, and all of our
clients have their Receivables and Payables records
updated daily, but the rigorous month end process is
still necessary to ensure that all the accounts are
showing the right numbers.

8. • A sub-set of the above is being able to report on
which of our customers have received their
management report. Previously, the business was
setup to use Asana for task management and this
sort of report was not available. We made the move
to KarbonHQ and this level of reporting is available at
our finger-tips, and LIVE!

9. Consistent quality
Figuring out how to deliver consistent quality product is
fundamental in what we do. Quality of work has a large
affect on reputation, which is directly correlated to our
growth. Here are some insights that we learned along
the way...

10. • Automate anything that is repetitive. Most
businesses have regular transactions every month,
whether is rent, the phone bill, wages - all of these
transactions should have a rule setup that codes
them to the same account, with the same GST
treatment every single month so that it takes no time
to process.

11. Monthly two-step reviews. Before any reports are sent
to our customers, they go through our two-step review
process. This includes a peer review, because it's handy
to have a fresh set of eyes review the work that you've
been closely involved in, as well as a managerial review
for the high-level assessment of "does this look right?"
If you have any questions about the change, don't
hesitate to reach out and speak with us.