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Paperless practice case study: Milner Boardman achieves £60k payback

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18th Oct 2011
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Milner Boardman, an accountancy firm based in Altrincham, South Manchester, turned to paperless processes as it sought to expand its services, and reaped an estimated return of £60,000.

The practice offers compliance and planning services for a mixed client base and developed separate services lines for financial and HR advice.

The decision to move to a centralised document management system was based on the need to respond more quickly to clients and for staff to be able to work remotely. The firm estimated its people spent an average of 15-30 minutes a day each on filing, which equated to nearly £60,000 a year in lost chargeable fees.

After reviewing the options, Milner Boardman implemented an Invu document management system and digitised more than 7,000 client files to make them available across its network. With plans to expand the practice, the switch to less paper-intensive record-keeping released around 800 square feet of floor space taken up by filing cabinets. By making room for 6-8 fee earners, the paperless system could increase the firm’s bottom line by another £300,000 a year.

While those figures are speculative, the return on investment was driven in the shorter term by allowing the firm to negotiate a 50% reduction in its £16,000 annual print contract, due to the lower need for reproducing documents. Stationary costs were reduced by an estimated £10,000pa and the firm no longer needed to pay for a dedicated filing clerk, saving another £14,000.

“We have confirmed savings of over £30K a year without even considering any ‘softer’ efficiency savings,” said managing partner Tony Collier.

But the exercise was not just about financial savings. Service quality and compliance have benefited too. In annual compliance review, the reviewer praised Miller Boardman’s filing systems and structures as “excellent, easy to follow and 100% available”.

For a more detailed examination of these issues, download Charles Verrier's whitepaper for CCH, 'Realising the next wave of benefits'.

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