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How Rowland put four business units on one way of working
Rowland's four business units each ran client work in their own way, and one finance team put month end together by hand. Rowland moved every project into DAY ONE, put every team on the same process and kept Xero for accounting.
- Firm
- PR, digital marketing, communications and training
- Before
- Workflow Max, spreadsheets, Word, email and Xero
- Kept
- Xero for accounting
- Live since
- July 2024
- Role
- DAY ONE's seed customer
Four business units, four ways of working
Each unit ran its client work its own way, and finance picked up the pieces. The change was one system and one process for all four.
| Before DAY ONE | With DAY ONE | |
|---|---|---|
| Ways of working | Four business units, four ways of working. | One system, and every team working the same way. |
| Projects | Held in Workflow Max, spreadsheets and documents, unit by unit. | All projects migrated into DAY ONE. |
| Month end | One finance team put it together by hand, taking 10 to 15 days from the start of the month to close the books. Reported by Rowland. | End-of-month processing streamlined. Billing is managed in DAY ONE and accounting stays in Xero. |
What changed at month end
Closing the books used to take 10 to 15 days from the start of the month. Every team now works the same way, and Rowland reports these results.
Reported by RowlandRowland reported a 2.5 percentage-point improvement in margin and a 3.1-month payback including Quickstart and licence costs. Results relate to this customer and are not typical or guaranteed outcomes for other firms.
Discuss how DAY ONE could handle your retainer-to-invoice workflow.
Rowland as DAY ONE's seed customer
Rowland was the first firm to run its client work on DAY ONE. We worked through each business unit's process with its team, migrated its projects from Workflow Max into one shared DAY ONE workflow, and went live in July 2024, keeping Xero for accounting. What the real work showed us went back into the product that other firms now start from. It is one firm's project, not an endorsement of every feature.
“DAY ONE is driving significant efficiencies, benefiting our cash flow and output quality.”
What another firm can take from this
Getting four business units to work the same way was the real project, more than replacing one tool.
Questions about the story
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What did Rowland replace?
Rowland retired Workflow Max as its practice-management system and migrated all its projects into DAY ONE. It kept Xero for accounting.
Did every part of the business move to DAY ONE?
Rowland united its business units in one system, migrated all its projects in and moved every team onto the same way of working. Xero stays for accounting. We have not published a unit-by-unit breakdown.
What results does Rowland report?
Rowland reports 29% faster time to cash, 46% less admin time, a 2.5 percentage-point margin improvement and a 3.1-month payback including Quickstart and licence costs. Before DAY ONE, closing the books took 10 to 15 days from the start of the month. These are one firm's reported results, not a promise for another, and we have not published a new close time.
Will DAY ONE give my firm the same result?
Results depend on your systems, team and how the work is implemented. Rowland's result is one firm's and is not a promise for another.
How long did Rowland take from start to go-live?
Rowland reports it was operational in 4 weeks, with full team adoption within 8. Results depend on your systems, team and implementation.
Talk through how your business units work today
Tell us how your teams run retainers through to the invoice today, and where finance steps in to pull it together.