Brwa Accounting: From Excel, WhatsApp and Separate Files to One System Built for the Practice
The Problem
Brwa Accounting is an independent UK accounting practice run by its director, Brwa Rashid, covering company accounts and confirmation statements, self assessment, VAT, payroll and business rates.
Before the CRM, the practice ran the way many small firms do. In Brwa’s words: “we mainly used Excel, emails, WhatsApp and separate files to manage clients, deadlines and tasks. It worked, but required a lot of manual checking and took up a lot of time.”
Nothing lived in one place. Finding a client’s details or checking where a job was up to took five to ten minutes, sometimes longer when it meant going through several files and message threads. Working across that many places, information got missed or mixed up a few times a month, and it took time to find the correct version again.
Then the practice grew: “As the practice grew and we took on more clients and staff, the manual system became too time-consuming. We needed one place to manage everything clearly and efficiently.”
Why a System Built for Them
Off-the-shelf practice software asks a firm to work its way. Brwa’s practice has its own way of working: how clients are chased, which steps a set of accounts goes through, who is allowed to change what. So the brief was the opposite of a package. The system had to fit the practice.
It was built in phases, so the team never had to stop and switch over in one go. The first version kept working from the spreadsheet the team already knew. Once they were working in the CRM every day, the client register moved into a proper database. It works alongside the practice’s accounting and payroll software rather than replacing it.
What We Built
A custom CRM that took clients, deadlines and tasks out of the spreadsheets and put the practice’s whole working year in one place:
One client register
Every client in one searchable table, with a detail panel that brings their contacts, deadlines, tasks, payments and notes together. A detail that used to take minutes to find is one click away.
Deadlines that keep themselves current
Accounts and confirmation statement due dates come from Companies House automatically. Each set of accounts moves through a step-by-step checklist, so everyone can see where every job is up to.
The rest of the practice's year
Self assessment, VAT returns, monthly payroll and business rates each have their own worklist. VAT periods roll forward on their own, and each month's payroll list is created automatically.
Tasks next to the clients
Work is assigned and tracked against the client it belongs to, instead of in a separate tool.
Getting paid
Outstanding fees are tracked per client, and clients can pay by Direct Debit or card from a secure link.
Reminders, only when the director says so
The CRM finds which clients are due a payment or accounts reminder. Nothing is emailed until the director ticks who it goes to: automation does the finding, a person makes the call.
An early warning from Companies House
A daily check flags any client company that receives a strike-off notice, so the practice hears about it in time to act.
Records the team can trust
Staff see and edit only what their role allows. Only the owner can delete a client, and one with work attached can't be removed without a second, explicit confirmation. Every change is logged with who made it and when.
The Results
All figures are the practice’s own, given in September 2026.
Client details in seconds
Down from 5–10 minutes of searching through files and messages
1–2 hours back every day
Admin time returned to the practice
3–4 tools replaced
Separate spreadsheets and tools for clients, deadlines and tasks
Room to grow
More clients taken on without taking on more staff — "Yes, clearly"
One place to look
Information that was missed or mixed up a few times a month now lives where the whole team keeps it up to date
“Definitely worth it. It saves a huge amount of time, keeps everything organised and makes managing the practice much easier.”— Brwa Rashid, Director, Brwa Accounting Ltd
On what made the difference, Brwa’s answer was that the system “fits the way we actually work, which makes it much easier for the team to use and saves us from adapting our process around the software.”
The biggest surprise, he said, was how much time it saved. The only challenge was getting used to a new system at the start, and that, in his words, “was very quick.”
On Working with IhsanOps
“Very easy to work with. They listened to how we actually run the practice and built the system around what we needed.”— Brwa Rashid, Director, Brwa Accounting Ltd
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