Papin CPA: Automated Billing and Reduced Admin Time with Canopy

Profile

Founded in 2015, Papin CPA has established itself as a trusted partner, offering both accounting and legal services for small businesses and individuals.

As a CPA firm and a law firm, Papin CPA is able to provide unique advisory services to their clients. Papin CPA prioritizes long-term relationships, helping businesses navigate tax, accounting and business planning with expert guidance. 

Founded in 2015 by Christopher Papin, CPA and attorney, Papin CPA is an award-winning firm located in Edmond, Oklahoma. Uniquely positioned under the same roof as Papin Law, the firm provides integrated financial, tax, and legal services, simplifying complex challenges for small businesses and individuals.

Problem

Tech stack overload and excessive admin time

Before Canopy, Papin CPA struggled with inefficiencies that made their daily operations unnecessarily cumbersome. Their previous software required a lot of manual upkeep, leading to wasted admin hours. The lack of automation and workflow integration made even simple tasks feel disjointed, slowing down productivity across the firm.

Whitney Kisner, Director of Operations at Papin CPA, recognized the need for a more centralized, automated, and user-friendly solution. About her search Whitney said:

“We needed something that was going to assist our firm and support our team more than what we had. My main goal was to find answers for, how do we reduce admin time? How do we reduce that in-between time where we were just spinning our wheels?

I was looking for a product that was going to help support our team, that was going to make admin work easier for everybody.”

Solution

Automation, document management, and insights in an easy-to-use platform

Whitney was committed to finding the absolute best solution to drive Papin CPA forward. They needed a client relationship management (CRM) solution that would help them spend less time billing and wrangling client communication, and more time actually helping clients with their legal and accounting problems. 

She spent an entire year evaluating different practice management solutions before choosing Canopy, recognizing the value of an all-in-one CRM solution specifically designed for accounting firms.

Why Papin CPA Chose Canopy

Automated Billing

Whitney quickly embraced Canopy’s recurring billing feature, drastically reducing the time spent sending invoices and chasing down payments. 

“Canopy makes billing a set-it-and-forget-it situation. What used to take me 6 hours a month now takes 0.”

Task and Project Management

Task management tools centralized workflows, offering real-time insights into project status and progress. 

Whitney explained, “With Canopy, we can see exactly where we are at percentage-wise on each project, who’s assigned to what, and how much work remains. Resource allocation is so much easier.”

Document Management

Using Canopy’s document sharing, both the Papin CPA team and their clients now upload and access documents securely in one portal. 

The document management feature enhances collaboration without relying on email exchanges, and all details and documents are easily accessible. 

Insights and Reporting

Canopy Insights allowed the team at Papin CPA to analyze their data, giving them information about their performance as a firm and as individuals. 

The metrics allowed the team to track progress and optimize workload even throughout the busy season.

All-in-One System

One of the primary goals for implementing a new client relationship management system for Papin CPA was cutting down the large tech stack and centralizing their work into a single platform. Canopy fit the bill, successfully replacing multiple software projects with a single, integrated hub for client communication, task oversight, and administrative workflows. 

Even after the initial implementation, they continue to phase in more advanced features like automation to build out customized workflows. 

Result

Better workflows, more efficiency

Since adopting Canopy, Papin CPA has experienced significant improvements across the firm. 

The automated billing process eliminated 5+ hours of monthly work, resulting in a net time-saving of nearly 72 hours annually.  

Task entry and time tracking, once tedious for employees, are now seamlessly integrated into workflows. This automation has significantly reduced administrative time for all team members.

Now, employees can put their focus on solving complex client problems, addressing bottlenecks, and improving processes for Papin CPA. 

Real-time insights improved project tracking and time allocation across the board at Papin CPA. With this clearer picture of project progress, their team has been able to stay on top of deadlines and allocate work more effectively, so no one is overloaded with work while others are able to take on more.

Beyond task tracking, visibility enhances accountability. Team members and managers can quickly check assignments, update statuses, and collaborate on hiccups before they become larger problems. 

The email templates provided by Canopy have boosted confidence and efficiency among non-native English-speaking employees.

Document management and communication tools have made Papin CPA’s internal processes more cohesive and efficient, especially for those remote and offshore employees. 

More and more of their clients are utilizing the client portal for secure document uploads, reducing reliance on email and enhancing data security. 

“I love Canopy, it’s been such a huge change for us and in such a great way. It has really changed how we function for the better.” -Whitney Kisner