Phidra Accountants & Advisors has been one of the first firms to join Liquid as an accountancy partner since 2023. In this case study, we talk to Bob Jong and Lars Cramer, both partners at Phidra, about their office and the choice for Liquid.

Let's get to know you

How would you describe Phidra as an office?

Bob: “Next year, we're celebrating our 20th anniversary, so we've been around for a while now, but it doesn't feel like that at all [laughs]. We now have around fifty people spread across the branches in Alkmaar, Haarlem and recently Middenbeemster. In a few key words: short communication lines, clear agreements, reliability and high-quality expertise.”

Lars adds: “Bob was there from the start, I started in 2008 myself and have also been one of the partners since 2020. Over the years, we have increasingly established ourselves as an all-round consultancy firm where customers know in advance what they pay and can expect. That's where we made the early switch from clockwork to fixed service packages.” Bob: “Customers know what they have to offer us. This creates peace of mind in the relationship and ensures that the cooperation remains good. That's hard work, but it's rewarded with customer loyalty.”

What kind of customers do you serve and what services do you offer in doing so?

Lars: “Actually, that's a fairly wide range of companies. Of course, most entrepreneurs come from the region (North Holland), although we also have customers elsewhere in the country. In terms of sector, it is really diverse, and that is also reflected in the services. We relieve customers with the administration and financial statements, have a tax department, we can take care of payroll administration and then, of course, there is the advisory work that goes through everything.”

Bob: “Of course, you can see a difference between customers. Some entrepreneurs need more regular contact, a sparring partner. With others, you notice that this is not the case, or that they fill that need in a different way. For us, we can go counterclockwise or clockwise.”

Lars: “Nevertheless, we are slowly noticing a change. The role of the accountant is slowly changing. New customers, especially the younger generation, come in with different expectations than before. That also forces us to keep innovating”.

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Choosing Liquid

What was the reason for starting Liquid?

Lars: “We already started a pilot with Liquid in 2023 within our consulting practice, specifically for forecasting. We are increasingly being asked by customers to help us prepare forecasts. Especially when it comes to liquidity planning, you notice that this has become very topical since the corona crisis, and remains up to date with the current economic uncertainty.”

Why did you choose Liquid specifically?

Bob: “A tool like Liquid fits our vision as an office. By working from fixed service packages, we make space to sit next to the entrepreneur and go through the numbers together. In recent years, we have invested a lot in process-based software, for example the transition to robotic accounting. In terms of software, Liquid is the missing piece of the puzzle to properly advise the customer.”

Lars: “We also found Liquid to be the best solution for drawing up a good liquidity budget. Most reporting tools have a limited budget module but are unable to fully calculate cash flow. For example, we also use PowerBI, but you can't really build a forecast here.” Lars continues: “In addition, an advantage of Liquid was that the software was created to be used by the entrepreneur himself. In doing so, we offer the customer a tool to get started with forecasting themselves.”

Experiences with Liquid

How did you implement Liquid?

Lars: “We were one of the first offices to join a pilot. The supplier set up an implementation phase. Over approximately six weeks, we had several work sessions. Internally, we had a leading group of three people who had to make the tool their own. Two accountants and a relationship manager. We then started with a handful of customers where there were concrete forecasting issues.”

‍Bob: “It's important to make a few people responsible within your team. We also see this with other software that we use. Everyone is busy and we face the same labour shortages as elsewhere. In addition, as accountants, we often have the habit of continuing to do things in the old, familiar way.”

‍Lars: “That is definitely a challenge. We saw that some colleagues then tried to make a liquidity forecast in Excel after all, and put a lot of time into it. With such an internal front group, it's easier for colleagues to teach each other how to work with new tools.”

What are customer experiences?

Bob: “We get a lot of positive reactions to the switch to Liquid. Customers like the fact that they have their own login and can always access their current figures themselves. This gives them insight into both their interim figures and the forecast.”

Lars adds: “For customers whose forecasts are important, the rolling forecast is particularly useful. This way, they see their forecast alongside the realization and thus see where the differences lie compared to the expectations. The fact that the liquidity planning is automatically updated based on current bank positions also provides peace of mind and overview.”

How do you use Liquid in relation to the customer?

Lars: “That varies from customer to customer. We have a number of customers who really fully manage and update the forecast themselves. These are customers who are already good at their numbers anyway. For many customers, it's mainly about working together: we draw up the first forecast, with input from the customer, and then fine-tune together.” Bob: “The ideal situation for us is that we periodically have our regular contact moments with the customer. Monthly or quarterly. At such a moment, you then grab Liquid and have a chat piece: you can look at the company's situation together on the basis of Liquid. We're doing this more and more often.”

Lars: “Actually, this is the transition that you naturally want to make as an office. Everyone in this industry says they want more advice, but finding a way to do that is another thing. We do notice that it's easier for customers who run on Liquid.”

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Future plans

What's in store for Phidra Accountants this year?

Bob: “Last year it was very busy. In addition to a growth in the customer base, we have also taken over another office in the region and are moving to a new building in Alkmaar. We have also completed the migration to a new scan & recognize software solution. That was a drastic process. We're mainly hoping to take a step back this year [laughs].”

Lars: “Of course, we also have trouble finding staff. That will remain the case this year. You can partly solve this by looking at your way of recruiting and optimizing your internal processes. You actually want to reduce the peak load (the financial statements, the returns) and ensure that the workload is better distributed over the year. In concrete terms, that means further automation and even more focus on expanding the consulting practice.”

And finally: what role does Liquid play in your plans for the future?

Lars: “I can answer that question concretely. We have decided to roll out Liquid much more widely among a large number of our customers. This mainly concerns Liquid Starter, one of the accountancy versions of the tool focused on interim figures (not forecasts).”

Bob adds: “We actually want as many of our customers as possible on the same software street. This is now the case in terms of administrative work, but it is still very fragmented for the consulting practice: some customers are running PowerBI, others have their own Twinfield login, others periodically receive a printout from us, or an older reporting tool is still running.”

Bob continues: “And don't forget: this fragmentation also takes time. You always have to look at how the data provision for that customer was also arranged for each customer. Liquid can serve a very large part of the customer's needs when it comes to viewing numbers, so it makes sense for us to take this step. In the coming months, we will roll this out in steps.”

‍Lars: “Not every customer needs a forecast or rolling forecast. But a lot of customers need interim figures. It's nice that we can now do one and one with Liquid: Liquid Starter for the bulk and Liquid Insight and Pro for the subgroup that benefits from it. I also expect that more customers will slowly move to the forecast packages. Then, of course, it's nice for us that they can stay in the same tool.”

Bob and Lars, thank you so much for your time!