AgCountry® Farm Credit Services Takes Tax Compliance and Advisory Services to the Cloud with Wolters Kluwer

Integrated expert solutions increases staff and client satisfaction

The next feature in the Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting series showcasing future-ready tax and accounting businesses that are achieving peak performance by embracing digital transformation spotlights AgCountry® Farm Credit Services, a farmer-owned cooperative headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. With 37 locations throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, the cooperative offers tax, tax planning, accounting, advisory, and payroll services, as well as loans, insurance, and succession and retirement planning to more than 18,000 farmers and ranchers throughout the territory.

Experiencing steady growth over the past few years, AgCountry Farm Credit Services was looking to replace its legacy tax compliance software with a more flexible solution. One that could handle anticipated future growth while delivering the efficiencies the business needs to enable staff to focus on advisory services, now the largest part of its portfolio. The ability for staff across its offices to collaborate on engagements and strike the right work/life balance was another important requirement. And, the company’s management team also needed a platform that would help them get a top-level view of what is going on, where people’s workloads are, and how work may need to be shifted to ensure maximum productivity and the highest quality of client service.

CCH Axcess™ and CCH® ProSystem fx® prove a powerful combination

To address these requirements, AgCountry Farm Credit Services chose the cloud-based CCH Axcess™ platform, including the CCH Axcess™ Tax, CCH Axcess™ Document, CCH Axcess™ Practice, and CCH Axcess™ Workstream modules, together with the fully integrated CCH® ProSystem fx® Scan with AutoFlow Technology solution from Wolters Kluwer.

“My favorite thing about CCH Axcess is the Workstream module, just because it kind of ties everything together and you can make one click and it does four different things. It really connects everything together,” said Renee Fink, Vice President Tax at AgCountry Farm Credit Services. “Once we get fully into the CCH Axcess suite and past the learning curve, I expect us to save about 10 to 20 minutes on average per client per return.”

Cloud technology allows for better workload planning

By moving to the cloud, AgCountry Farm Credit Services can plan and allocate its resources based on projected workload, empower its staff to be more productive through a more collaborative work environment, attract and retain top talent, and focus on continuing to grow its advisory services. With CCH Axcess Workstream, they are now better able to track client engagements from beginning to end, always staying on top of work moving through the business. Their billing process has been greatly simplified with CCH Axcess Practice while CCH ProSystem fx Scan with AutoFlow Technology and CCH Axcess Document have worked in unison to help the firm reduce the amount of time spent organizing source documents and tracking down files.

“My advice to those that are still hesitant about digital transformation and the move to the cloud would be to not be scared of change and know that our world is changing every day. The sooner you can jump on board and know that you have a partner like Wolters Kluwer that’s willing to work with you and people that are going to be there for you, the more you just need to trust, let go, and enjoy the ride,” adds Fink.

“Today, clients across all sectors of the economy including agriculture expect to get more value from their tax and accounting professionals,” said Jim McGinnis, EVP and General Manager, US Professional Market, Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting North America. “Firms and businesses need to fully embrace digital transformation and modernize so they can continue to attract top talent, deliver modern client experiences, and build more efficient and collaborative workflows that will allow them to grow beyond traditional tax compliance work and into the advisory services their clients are increasingly expecting they provide.”

To view the full press release, click here.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2018 annual revenues of €4.3 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 18,600 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). 

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