How KRW Accountants sustains 17% YoY growth and unlocks scalable onboarding
With the help of Ignition, KRW Accountants has sustained 17% annual revenue growth on average, improved cash flow, and streamlined client onboarding to scale more efficiently.
If I was to recommend one software to another practice owner, it genuinely would be Ignition. It was a game changer for us.
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
The challenge: manual processes limit scalability
As KRW Accountants grew, its internal processes struggled to keep up.
Before implementing Ignition, the firm relied on manual workflows for proposals, onboarding, and billing. This created significant inefficiencies across the business and limited the team’s ability to scale.
It was ridiculous. Almost a quarter of our firm was mired in administrative tasks day in, day out. They weren’t adding value to the business beyond simply ensuring forms were sent out, filled, and that payments came through.
Alex Beattie, Managing Director at KRW Accountants
Client onboarding, in particular, was time-intensive. KRW had a dedicated team member focused solely on onboarding new clients, yet capacity remained constrained.
“On a good day, she’d get three clients onboarded. That was all she was able to do.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director at KRW Accountants.
Billing and payment collection were also largely manual. Many clients paid via standing order, meaning KRW had little control over payment timing. Meanwhile price increases required significant administrative effort and often resulted in missed revenue opportunities.
This lack of automation across the firm also contributed to revenue leakage. Without clear visibility into scope, teams risked completing work that wasn’t being billed.
“Scope creep was an enormous problem before Ignition, mainly because of the lack of visibility on what’s actually included in the proposal.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
The solution: Sustaining revenue growth without the admin headache
KRW Accountants implemented Ignition to automate its proposals, billing, and payment collection processes, while standardizing pricing and improving visibility across the business.
Streamlining onboarding and unlocking capacity
With Ignition, KRW transformed its onboarding process from a manual bottleneck into a scalable workflow. As a result, it saw a 3x increase in its onboarding capacity.
“Now, if we wanted to, we could onboard 10 clients in a day… It’s so slick. It’s saved us a whole person and £20,000 in salary costs.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
By automating proposals and client agreements, the firm eliminated the need for a dedicated onboarding role.
This freed up team capacity and allowed staff to focus on higher-value work, without needing to increase headcount as the firm grew.
Automating billing and improving cash flow
Ignition enabled KRW to move away from manual payment processes and adopt automated billing and direct debit collection.
This shift significantly improved cash flow and reduced reliance on chasing payments.
“Cash flow’s definitely improved enormously. In the past, it was a nightmare trying to get clients to sign up for GoCardless. But now, we simply ask clients to add their payment details to the proposal. It takes them literally a minute, and from then on, payments are all sorted. It’s been a miracle.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
With predictable monthly collections, the business gained greater financial control and consistency.
“On the 8th or the 9th of each month, I feel the richest man in the world… when that money just automatically comes in, it’s brilliant.”
Easy price increases and eliminating scope creep
Ignition made it significantly easier for KRW to standardise pricing and implement price increases across its more than 3000-strong client base, removing the administrative burden that previously slowed the process.
“We average 17% revenue growth year-on-year. We’re able to maintain some of that growth through regular price increases, and Ignition is the tool that we use to implement that. Ignition removes that admin headache.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
By simplifying pricing updates and client communication, the team can confidently adjust fees and protect margins, which has played a key role in sustaining the firm’s growth.
Further, with clear, standardised service offerings built into Ignition, KRW reduced ambiguity around scope and empowered its team to bill accurately for all work.
“The team know if they start to do something, they can look in Ignition, see what we need to charge, and just bill it.”
Instant billing features allow the team to quickly charge for out-of-scope work, ensuring no revenue is missed.
“It’s taken the burden off… everything doesn’t have to funnel through the directors anymore.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
Gaining visibility into revenue and performance
Ignition also provided KRW with deeper insight into its business performance, particularly across different service lines.
“Before Ignition, we didn’t have any visibility of what we were earning from payroll, tax, bookkeeping… now I can run a report and see exactly what percentage of revenue that is. It’s given us such better transparency and better management information.”
Alex Beattie, Managing Director, KRW Accountants
This visibility enables more informed decision-making around pricing, resourcing, and profitability.
“I sometimes shudder thinking about how we did things before Ignition. All the time and energy that we wasted... Fortunately, that’s now all in the past.”