Rebecca Blaevoet
Date of interview: Sep 2, 2013
Three years ago, Rebecca Blaevoet and her husband founded Valleys WordWorks to provide braille and tactile translations of documents for those with vision impairments. After originally opening in Britain, the couple have since moved to Canada to assume control of another, similar style of business.
However, prior to discovering Accomplish's CashManager software, Rebecca had relied on more complicated means of bookkeeping.
"Before using CashManager, I had devised an elaborate Excel spreadsheet with countless formulas and historical precedents, tying 24 spreadsheets together for each fiscal year, linking income sheets with expenditure sheets and finally a bank reconciliation sheet as number 25."
While she was extremely proud of the formulas and system she had created, the lack of streamlining meant that invoices, quotes, stocktake and keeping record of bank transactions was spread across a number of different Word and Excel documents.
Not only does CashManager provide all the streamlined functionality needed for up-to-date, successful bookkeeping, but it is also accessible for screen readers - software that interprets what is displayed on a computer screen, and represents that through an audio or braille output system.
"Not only does it automate some processes, but it has a budgeting mechanism, helpful for home accounting as well; and it provides handy reporting features, so one can examine specific aspects of home or business spending.
"Furthermore, 95 per cent of what the software does is accessible [to screen-reading software]. It speaks when the cursor moves over an item. If CashManager would like me to help isolate the 5 per cent that isn't accessible, I would be happy to do this."
When asked if she would recommend CashManager software to others, her response was glowing.
"Yes. I like the streamlined character of CashManager; it really is half the price of other commercial software and I think the support it provides would be helpful for anyone, regardless of accessibility needs. The support team is extremely helpful, and it's a wonderful service to work with."