How J Evans Money Management Is Putting Client Engagement in the Palm of Their Hands

Jackie Evans has run J Evans Money Management for close to twenty years. Her clients are construction companies, small restaurants, and real estate investors in a handful of growing rural towns, and many of them have been with her since she started. She has about sixty clients. Twenty of them are on Digits, and every one of those twenty, except one, uses the Digits app on their phone (the one exception is because Digits is not yet on Android).

Her unreachable clients are now her most responsive

For years, Jackie had worked to get these clients onto a client portal. Most of them were wary of technology for technology’s sake. When she finally got them there, the engagement went about as far as uploading a receipt. They were not reading their reports. Questions from the firm sat in a queue waiting for answers that came slowly or not at all.

Then the same clients got the Digits app. Clients who previously struggled to communicate began actively responding, answering questions, and reviewing their reports.

"Now, they’re looking at their reports. They’re answering questions as they come through because it’s like a text message. They go in there, they answer it, or they upload a receipt right there. I would say the app is beyond 100% user-friendly.”

— Jackie Evans, Owner, J Evans Money Management

Why a phone did what a portal could not

A portal asks the client to come to the firm. They have to find the link, remember the login, and set aside time. The app goes to the client. A question from the firm shows up on the phone like a message. Face ID opens it. The client taps, answers, snaps the receipt, and is done. Jackie’s clients see what is happening in their books in real time, and when something needs an answer, they answer it on the spot.

As clients notice new items coming in, they can tag the transaction directly, specify what it is for, and attach the receipt immediately, so nobody has to chase down documentation or answers later.

The clients did not become more technical. The technology met them on the device they were already holding.

Digits is now available for iPhone Duo. Explore Digits for iPhone.

“Device-forward” is a service decision, not an IT decision

It is tempting to file “mobile app” under tooling. What Jackie’s firm shows is that the phone is part of the service itself. When the client answers in ten seconds instead of ten days, the books stay current, and everything downstream changes.

All twenty of her Digits clients are closed within the first week of the following month. Reconciliation that used to take a couple of weeks now takes seconds per account. She estimates the firm saves at least ten to fifteen hours in the process. Her team checks Digits for about an hour a day, and the rest of the day belongs to the client.

The time went somewhere specific. Jackie has pulled herself out of review. Her staff spend more time training clients to read their own reports, and the clients are more confident talking about their numbers. She is back in the field meeting clients and building advisory work. The firm works Monday through Thursday, nine to three.

“Now, as the owner, it has given me the ability to back out. I’m not the bottleneck.”

— Jackie Evans, Owner, J Evans Money Management

None of that starts with the firm. It starts with the client picking up the phone, seeing a question, and answering it. The business owner drives the technology. The firm that builds its service around the device the client already uses gets the engagement, and the engagement is what frees the time.

By the numbers

• About 60 clients; 20 on Digits; 19 of those 20 on the Digits iPhone app

• All 20 Digits clients closed within the first week of the following month

• Reconciliation: from a couple of weeks to seconds per account

• At least 10-15 hours saved in the close process

• About one hour a day in Digits; the rest of the day with clients

• Firm schedule: Monday through Thursday, nine to three

Jackie’s advice to firms still deciding

“Give it 30 days. Try one or two clients, and after that, you’ll wanna move everybody possible.”

— Jackie Evans, Owner, J Evans Money Management

For another firm run the same way, read the Blazr Accounting story.

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See how Digits can help your firm spend less time on manual bookkeeping and more time building meaningful client relationships. With AI-powered accounting and the Digits iPhone app, your clients can review reports, answer questions, and upload receipts wherever they are.

Digits is now available on iPhone Duo, making it even easier to keep your clients connected to their finances.