Background
CBIZ/MHM (Mayer Hoffman McCann) is ranked by Accounting Today as one of the top national accounting providers in the country, ranking #10 in 2016. Over 6,000 associates work from 140 offices across the United States. They are considered a strong alternative to the Big Four.
CBIZ, formerly Century Business Services provides a wide range of accounting and management services to individuals and small to mid sized companies.
MHM is an independent CPA firm offering audit and financial reporting services.
The Goal
MHM set a goal to streamline their audit process by building and automating their proprietary audit methodology. They believed not only that their methodology was significantly better than the off the shelf, one size fits all, solution; but also it would become a major differentiator for the firm in the market.
The Current State
Similar to most firms, MHM was using a mix of technologies and solutions. They had an off the shelf audit solution combined with multiple Excel workbooks and many manual systems and processes. As is typical in these environments, efficiency was a prime driver for looking for a new solution.
At the top of their wish list were the following:
- A web based solution to facilitate collaboration and minimize technology infrastructure support needs.
- A logic driven solution to ensure the audit process was efficient and thorough.
- A configurable solution that would allow for MHM’s audit methodology to be completely deployed in the platform.
The Solution
After evaluating several products, it was determined that Amelio was the only solution that fulfilled four of the firm’s five requirements: logic-driven, centrally managed, accommodates MHM’s proprietary methodology, and is web-based. MHM was able to work with HKMP Technologies to build the fifth requirement — reporting functionality — into Amelio. MHM staff required only a simple user guide and virtually no training to begin using Amelio, and employees easily adapted to the new system.
The Results
Amelio has enabled MHM to establish a consistent audit, review and compilation methodology across its nationwide practice and among all of the industries that its associates serve. The platform has been utilized for multiple years and continues to add exceptional value to the firm.
After seeing how Amelio benefited MHM, the CBIZ team recognized that Amelio offered most of the features it was trying to build into a proprietary tool to manage their sophisticated client/engagement acceptance process. The CBIZ team consulted with HKMP Technologies to add some features to amelio and then adopted the platform for managing the client engagement piece of the business.
With Amelio, CBIZ users can take advantage of workflow features such as role-based task assignments, notifications, and due dates and milestones for each project. CBIZ now uses Amelio not only for client acceptance, but also to approve changes to client accounts. Those changes feed into several integrated processes, including the company’s time and billing software, Practice Engine and CRM platform, Salesforce.
For CBIZ-MHM, Amelio started out as the right solution for its general audit practice and has turned out to be a powerful tool to address its wide-ranging and ever-changing needs.