The first step to someone making better use of their time is understanding just what it is they're doing with their time in the first place. This becomes especially important when working in a profession like accounting that has historically based its fee structure on how long it takes to do something. But as anyone who's tried to do this knows, while tracking time and activity sounds like a simple thing, it can actually be quite complex.
This is where CloudCapcha comes in. Understanding the difficulties that come with time and activity tracking, CloudCapcha automatically tracks and analyzes what it calls a user's "digital journey" from within Microsoft Teams. This means that users not only have an accounting for their activities over a certain period of time, they also have insights based on those activities for making better use of time.
Founded in 2018, CloudCapcha–which has presence in both the US and UK–was developed in response to the frustrations and shortcomings of other time tracking software used by small and medium-size accounting firms, particularly where it concerns ease of use and accuracy of output.
Phil Lowe, CEO at CloudCapcha, discussed his company's product, its recent accomplishments and its future plans with Accounting Today.
How would you best describe what your company does?
Lowe: We recognize that traditional time tracking can be an inaccurate, painful, and time-consuming task that detracts from chargeable client work and may cause revenue leakage for the firm.
CloudCapcha is on a mission to reinvent time recording and give firms more control over their time by automatically tracking their digital journey right inside Microsoft Teams.
What is in your product line, and what is your flagship product?
Lowe: WorkCapcha is the only intelligent time and activity recording tool that sits inside Microsoft Teams, in the cloud.
It seamlessly integrates into a firm's existing practice management and billing systems to automatically track, convert, and analyze the user's digital journey. This enables firms' employees to focus on their clients and make every second count.
WorkCapcha provides users, and the business, with accurate insights to help them make informed decisions to boost their productivity and profitability through efficiency, not burnout.
Our smooth set-up process means firms can be up and running quickly without needing to change their Practice Management or billing routines.
What was the last big initiative or project your company completed?
Lowe: We've just worked on delivering some game-changing integrations for the accounting industry. WorkCapcha now integrates with numerous practice management systems including PE, CCH and APS. These new integrations will significantly enhance the time recording process for our clients with minimal disruption to their existing processes and we'll have more to announce soon.
What is the most exciting new thing you're working on?
Lowe: We are continuing to add further native integrations to our WorkCapcha solution. We recently announced our integration with document management solution Virtual Cabinet, and launched our DayBook API connector so that we can connect to any third-party accounting tool.
What differentiates your company from others similar to it? What makes you different? Unique, even?
Lowe: Our vision for WorkCapcha was to make it as easy as possible for accounting firms to use and seamlessly integrate into their existing working processes. There are two ways we do this that other solutions on the market fail to offer:
Integrations - WorkCapcha connects to a firm's existing practice management and billing systems, as well as several other applications that staff use on a daily basis, so there's minimal disruption.
Inside of Microsoft Teams - In recent years, the use of Microsoft Teams has become increasingly popular among accounting firms, as they have found it to be an effective tool for communication, collaboration, and project management that has grown in use since the rise of hybrid working. WorkCapcha can be found in a user's Microsoft Teams sidebar, so they can have easy access to our automated time recording solution without compromising on collaboration with their firm. Firms also find it easy to use as it's in a familiar Microsoft environment, with a similar look and feel and can access the application from their mobile Microsoft Teams application, on the go.
What is the biggest tech challenge facing accountants today?
Lowe: The war on talent is a major challenge for accounting firms as they face fierce competition to attract and retain skilled professionals in a highly competitive job market. Firms must look to new, innovative ways to attract and retain talent or they risk losing out on talented individuals to their competitors.
What is the biggest challenge with selling to this market? Of being a company whose customers are primarily accountants?
Lowe: When dealing with decision-makers at top accounting firms across the globe, they are understandably short on time. They have huge demands placed on them but inadequate time to meet these demands. Although this is a challenge, we're in the business of giving people back time. Once the benefits of automated time recording are revealed, and they can see how WorkCapcha can help them meet their demands, it's a much easier sell
CloudCapcha at a glance:
Location: UK & USA
Number of staff: 15
Number of offices: 0, Remote workforce
Website info: www.cloudcapcha.com
