Ana Streamlined Her Franchise’s Books and Saved 100 Hours a Year Using FreshBooks

Company: Wellnessnews Canada, Inc.

Industry: Health & Wellness

Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Problem:

Lack of financial oversight over franchisees

Solution:

Bird's-eye view into franchisee accounts using FreshBooks Select

Results:

Saving ~100 hours/year on franchise financial reporting

Anna Luinenburg has always been an entrepreneur at heart, having already run her own advertising and media buying agency before founding her current company, Wellnessnews Canada, Inc.

Her inspiration was born from countless visits to the doctor’s office with her elderly father.

“I observed too many people sitting…waiting for that “solution” to their own health problems. I wondered if they knew about acupuncture, reiki, or how ozone therapy has helped so many people with health issues.”

Anna recognized that there was a need to help educate these patients on the local, natural, and alternative solutions available to help them improve their health and well-being.

In 2013, she launched Wellnessnews Choices for Healthy Living®, a multi-media publishing platform that includes print, online and social media. It aims to connect local health professionals to the right people at the right time for the right reason.

Anna has set her sights high and is aiming to become the world’s leading health community platform. She has already begun franchising Wellnessnews Choices for Healthy Living®, with locations across Western Canada and the United States.

In Pursuit of an All-in-One Solution

With her business growing rapidly and more and more franchise locations popping up, Anna knew she required an “all-in-one solution.”

Whatever solution she chose, it needed to help her manage her franchise partners and provide her with financial oversight of reporting and operations.

Furthermore, the solution had to be an easy, streamlined solution for her franchise partners.

Anna needed to make sure that whatever platform she chose was easy for her franchisees to use, even those less tech-savvy.

Finally, Anna needed the solution to integrate a recurring invoice system with advanced payment features so that her franchisees could automatically charge credit cards for subscription fees.

Anna found that all-in-one solution in FreshBooks Select.

Simple Implementation and Standardization with FreshBooks Select

The transition to FreshBooks Select has been easy for Anna. She recently completed the transfer of all her Canadian franchisees. Anna explains the benefits of moving to FreshBooks Select:

“FreshBooks has become an integral part of how we manage our internal processes. It was important for us to offer our franchise partners an automated accounting software platform, that was very straightforward, intuitive, and easy to use. The implementation was tailored to our needs and was very streamlined that ensured easy standardization. The professionalism of the support team is always topnotch—an amazing, valuable partnership.”

The Search for Financial Efficiencies: Enter Virtual Bookkeeping

During the consideration period for FreshBooks Select, Anna realized that she was spending way too much on one area of her business: Bookkeeping.

Anna used to work with a bookkeeper on a part-time basis. The process wasn’t easy and it didn’t feel like a true partnership. Especially since Anna had to pay for every question she asked. Not to mention, the meetings to get the bookkeeper up to speed each month took a lot of time out of her day.

She was excited at the prospect of trying out the FreshBooks recommended bookkeeping service to help take this expensive and time-consuming task off her plate once and for all.

As of October 1, 2018, Anna moved to virtual bookkeeping with FreshBooks partner, Bookkeeping Express. The benefit? It’s way more cost-effective since she doesn’t need to bring in an expensive by-the-hour bookkeeper. And her time spent in bookkeeping meetings can now be used to grow her business.

Plus, she loves the fact that virtual bookkeeping integrates seamlessly with her FreshBooks Select account, so everything is now in one place.

Invest in your initial growth. Use your financing and funding to invest in a tool that is proven.

The Key to Robust Reporting: Trusting Your Data

One of the best outcomes for Anna after switching her and her franchisees to FreshBooks Select is increased financial oversight.

In the past, Anna used to spend at least an entire day of every month on financial reporting. That almost amounts to 100 hours per year.

Since moving to FreshBooks Select, Anna can now easily pull reports in a matter of seconds from every one of her franchise partners.

With all her franchisee accounts connected to her master FreshBooks Select account, Anna can trust her financial data more than ever before. She has a true top-down view of everything she needs to stay on top of her finances for her entire franchise operation.

Now she can keep meticulous track of any inefficient spending that could throw her profitability off course.

The Next Steps for a Growing Franchise

As Anna continues to grow Wellnessnews Canada, Inc., she realizes that having the right tools available to her helped make scaling her business less daunting.

Anna urges other small business owners to: “Invest in your initial growth. Use your financing and funding to invest in a tool that is proven.”

With FreshBooks Select, Anna knew she was not just getting a tool, but a partner that was tried and true. And that FreshBooks would be there to support her in managing a growing business more economically and efficiently.