Chartered accountant, Jonathan Khalfa, joined Cecca in 2014, becoming a partner in 2017. He introduced Beeye to the firm in 2021. Two years later, he speaks of his experiences.
Cecca: very much a multi-service firm
Cecca is a multi-service accounting firm with more than 100 employees, spread over 3 sites in the Ile-de-France region. In line with its motto of “Booster for entrepreneurs”, Cecca has developed for its (national) clientele, which ranges from local traders to large SMEs, a whole ecosystem of subsidiaries in various complementary fields of activity: asset management, HR, financing, innovation companies, marketing and communication. The Cecca team also includes a number of sector-specific specialists (hospitality, opticians, self-employed, startups, pharmacies, etc.)
Cecca has been awarded the ENVOL environmental label and is also a member of the Communauté du Coq vert community of business leaders who make commitments in favor of the climate.
Rapid growth and the problems that go with it
The way the firm was organized previously was fairly classic, with each manager being given a portfolio of clients. It was then up to the manager to allocate each client to a member of staff, who would handle it alone or in tandem with a colleague. One manager managed between 3 and 10 staffers. And all appeared to be going along without any problems… but the dynamics of the firm meant that the cards were becoming reshuffled.
Cecca has experienced strong growth in the past four years, expanding at between 15 and 35% a year. This development came essentially from the inside, i.e. without the firm making any acquisitions. Which all sounds well and good, of course. But this growth has not been without its consequences: “We felt that our organization was beginning to deteriorate. The portfolio of employees was constantly changing. As partners and managers, we no longer had a clear view of who was doing what – and staff were telling us about problems associated with the situation. To sum up, this growth meant we were struggling, because there was a lack of planning structure.”
As the profession changes, so do planning requirements
Up until two years ago, the firm had no collaborative work organization tools. Everyone did their best with to-do lists or working with tools such as Outlook. No one filled in timesheets, which were thought to be of no value since most assignments were billed on a fixed-fee basis.
“But our profession is changing,” explains Jonathan Khalfa. “Clients need much more than just a well-prepared balance sheet – and that’s what our extensive service offering is all about. Our core business for the future is consultancy. And there is no need to wait: this transformation will speed up, with electronic invoicing and e-reporting becoming more widespread, ultimately aiming for a CA3 VAT form that has already been pre-filled by the tax authorities. Thanks to the increasingly comprehensive dematerialization of data flows (including banking flows with PSD2), we will spend less time on merely cranking out information and much more time on consulting.”
This means that the type of exchanges with clients will evolve very quickly, while the nature of the assignments themselves, which will become more diverse and less regular, will be less predictable than with traditional auditing and accounting production. With all this going on, notes Khalfa, “It’s easy to forget something: there are so many different jobs to be done! A valuation here, a dissolution there, a search for finance, etc. – all these tasks that used to be exceptional for us are now becoming more and more common. Which means that without a work planning tool, you’re dead.”
Choosing and implementing Beeye
The firm wanted a constant overview of its business: who’s working on what, how much time is actually being spent per case, per client, per employee, etc.
“We went for Beeye because it offers the perfect fit with auditing and accounting.”
Cecca has its own in-house pilot group that tests tools and it assessed Beeye for a year. When the results were revealed, the firm decided to roll Beeye out. A manager presented the tool and handled its deployment while working closely with the publisher’s team as well. The rollout and learning process was easy: “With such an intuitive tool, you’d have to do it on purpose not to know how to use it,” jokes Jonathan Khalfa. Beeye handled the recovery of data, while the CSM (customer success manager) carried out complete on-boarding for employees and managers, as well as partners.
Immediate benefits – with others to come
Cecca has found Beeye invaluable for its core accounting business: better visibility at every level, better organization – and the kind of response that suits the realities of the profession. The firm also likes the gateway to the outside: “The tool abolishes distances and makes it possible to manage employees who are working from home, or in a third location or even offshore. It’s as if we’re all under the same roof.”
As a result, planning is now under control. The next step, made possible by the sheer power of the tool and its suitability for handling the firm’s business, will be calculating the profitability of each case and the potential revision of the corresponding letters of engagement. “There may be some surprises in store!”
Jonathan Khalfa concludes: “I am delighted with Beeye – as are my teams. It has changed our lives… or nearly! In any event, it is perfectly aligned with our needs of today – such as the scheduling of submitting tax returns or interim orders – and tomorrow. Beeye enables us to manage the transition to a model where consultancy will be the primary contributor to the firm.” All that remains now is for Cecca’s employees to be supported as part of the change. “The difference will be in consultancy, which currently is usually provided by the partners and managers, but which tomorrow needs to be extended to all our employees. It’s our duty to train them to become business managers in their own right, capable of advising their clients in their day-to-day management.”
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