Sarah Waldin
Date of interview: Mar 20, 2014
Sarah Waldin has been working in physiotherapy for a long time. Since 1997, she has been providing therapeutic solutions for people needing a helping hand to get back on top. But running a business for this long is bound to bring up some financial aches and pains of its own - question is, how does Sarah take care of her own financial health?
Learning how to run a business had a steep learning curve for Sarah, who wanted to be involved in the economic side of the operation to keep herself in the ongoing loop.
"I don't like that side of the business - it's my pet hate. It's a need and something that I have to do, but I appreciate doing it myself rather than getting someone else to do it externally because then I know where my business stands financially," said Sarah in an interview.
After initially using an accountant for two years, in 1999 she was introduced to the CashManager software by Accomplish. She was blown away with how easy it was to use, after being taught the ins and outs of the program in less than two hours by one of the accountants at the financial firm she worked with.
"I really was drawn to how easy it was to use. It was fantastic. And, you know, I don't have any great desire to get anything complex out of the system. I just needed it to do what I needed it to do, in terms of getting the information back to my accountant for our end of year reports, and giving me information to do GST," said Sarah.
And the support line?
"Utterly brilliant. My most recent call to the help desk was just before Christmas because our business operation grew. So we were updating our server to make sure it was all up to scratch. But something happened and we lost all of our data from the laptop.
"So when I was trying to fix it on the weekend, I figured I'd give the Accomplish people a try - just in case they can do something to help. So literally, I rang at 8:30 pm on a Sunday night, thinking I would just leave a message to get in contact tomorrow. And at 8:55 pm, I was phoned back by a saint who spent 10 minutes helping me reinstate the whole thing. It was pretty impressive, to be honest."
Remaining faithful to CashManager software is on the cards for Sarah and her business because of the simplicity and ease of use that comes with the program.
"I've had multiple people approach me over the last few years trying to get me to upgrade. But none of the features were really worth the upgrade, especially for what we use the software for and what my focus is. I just don't need those features," said Sarah.
"And I know CashManager. It's been fantastic. I've been using it since 1999 and I have never, ever, ever had a problem. Why would I put myself through the stress of learning something new when CashManager does everything I need?"