Practice Management for Accounting Firms that use Xero

Before adopting Link, the team relied heavily on a disjointed combination of XPM, internal Excel spreadsheets and numerous external platforms. While XPM presented a solid foundation, it could not deliver the level of scheduling visibility the firm required and as the practice continued to grow, these disconnected systems began creating more friction than clarity. Commenting on life before Link, Partner Tyler Rice states “In one word, inefficient. We had no visibility of our runway and whether we had the team resources available to execute on the work we agreed to deliver” Without clear forward visibility, the firm found itself operating reactively rather than proactively. There was limited insight into future workload, no accurate measurement of the team’s capacity, and no reliable way to confidently plan for growth while maintaining operational control. When describing their journey towards working with Link, Tyler highlights “The experience and knowledge conveyed by the team from Link gave us complete confidence Link Reporting would extract precisely what we needed from XPM and more…and when we learned that Link Capacity was in development, we requested access at the earliest opportunity." In commenting about the onboarding experience, they said, "Like any system implementation, there was a process and learning curve involved, but the attention afforded by the Link team far exceeded our expectations." With Link in place, the shift in day-to-day operations has been significant. Tyler describes the shift: “Team scheduling, client onboarding, and overall visibility of team and client deliverables have shifted from catching to pitching.” Instead of reacting to incoming work, Rice & Company LLP now operates with a structured and effective approach, confident they have the capacity to deliver on their client’s work. With strategic workflow and accurate team capacity measured in Link Practice, Rice & Co has scaled its growth 3x since implementing Link whilst maintaining operational integrity. Commenting on the firm’s deliverables, Tyler stated, “Our organisation’s growth, scheduling visibility, and client/team satisfaction can be attributed to working with Link.” For Rice&Co, Link continues to provide the clarity, structure, and confidence required to support sustainable growth, transforming their operation from chaotic to a future-ready practice.

Like most modern practices, Ake Accounting was short on time and in need of data clarity. When Director Matthew Davis was recommended to Link by several industry peers, the firm was able to unlock the insights needed to improve their business. “...reporting out of XPM wasn't sufficient for an accounting firm. With Link being built for accounting firms, it was bang on with the information we needed to improve our business” Life before Link was riddled with shortfalls ”we lacked the visibility we needed to make important decisions. Accountants all lack time, Link removes this barrier and instead provides the information you need to focus…accurate reports on WIP, team productivity and ROI, to name a few, all helped to significantly decrease our write-offs. With Link, we were able to develop the right strategies to tackle all of the key KPI's of our business” Link isn’t ‘just-another-app’, there’s a business behind the platform committed to delivering a service that extends well beyond the technology they provide. “The team at Link is amazing and the support we get is far superior to any other software we use”. Since amalgamating Link into Ake Accounting’s operations “The stress associated with running an accounting firm has reduced as we get a snapshot of what is happening with just a few key reports” cements Matthew. Operationally, Link delivers the data in an understandable format to make daily decisions, supporting practices like Ake Accounting to nail the fundamentals, which continues to deliver returns over time “Link was the biggest driver of reducing our write-offs and developing strategies to reduce these. At our worst we had high write-offs of around 30% in some years. This has now been reduced to effectively nil and we continue to utilise Link to monitor the progress we have made”. With Link, Ake Accounting has eliminated the previous time-spent on simply trying to understand their data and unlocked continued growth and greater results.

A stalwart practice in Pukekohe, Hunter Withers has been delivering accounting and business advisory services to a wide range of clients, locally and across New Zealand, for over four decades. In April 2025, after juggling an internal spreadsheet and struggling with another provider in an attempt to streamline workflow for their team of 15+, Director Brigette Fulton and Senior Accountant Sarah Slater - while researching alternative tools - settled on Link to manage their firm’s capacity and workflow. “What stood out with Link? We were looking for a tool that could simplify our capacity planning, give us forward visibility, and integrate seamlessly with all of our existing systems,” Sarah shares. Adopting Link was quick and simple. Sarah mentions, “Our onboarding experience was very smooth. The Link team were knowledgeable, responsive, and the process was really easy. They were very helpful with all of our ongoing questions, and they made sure we were comfortable and knew what we were doing before going live with the platform.” Delving deeper on some of the core issues the firm experienced prior to adopting Link, Brigette details, “With our previous provider, there was low visibility across the firm’s future capacity, hindering our ability to plan ahead. We were using a manual spreadsheet to record incoming work…we were making constant status updates on the spreadsheet as work was allocated to our team, which we then updated again and again…our staff had no real ‘one system approach’ where they could gain insight into their work coming in the months ahead". ”Link eliminates the hassle of messy workflow spreadsheets by integrating with Xero Practice Manager, providing direct insight to a practice’s capacity, down to an individual team member level, while simultaneously streamlining workflow processes and driving faster job turnaround". Brigette elaborates further on the benefits Hunter Wither’s has seen, “Since working with Link, our day-to-day operations are incredibly less stressful. We have a great capacity-planning system with Link, and our team finds the system simple and easy to navigate". ”Link not only measures capacity - through intuitive, team-specific viewpoints, Link delivers insights tailored to each individual and their role, removing workflow friction commonly experienced in accounting practices". Brigette continues, “Our team members now know exactly what work lies ahead of them, reducing uncertainty. And with the added ability to timesheet in the platform, Link is a fantastic one-stop shop for managing our firm’s capacity.”