It was once said, "Time is the scarcity, and it's the commodity we can't create any more of." 

When we interview customers, we have to ask - what exactly does your time mean to you? And how would you put a dollar value on that (if you could)? 

For most, the cost-savings from invoice and payment automation is a clear-cut figure; the data's accurate and in real-time, it basically speaks to you.

For most, the stress associated with performing manual entry and other menial financial admin tasks only to run around in circles, again, is easy to deduce to a big fat ZERO now that it's all taken care of - 

But time? That's the hardest of them all.  

For most, answering how many hours you're now saving a month is calculable (and it's significant), but the question we really need to ask is - 

What does this reclaimed time enable you to do?

What we found, and continue to hear, is a universal appreciation amongst business owners; it's having the reclaimed time to better prioritize their energy into the parts of their business that can actually maximize revenue. 

What we haven't heard until now, is freeing time through automation to instead, give back to other Veterans; to give back to a community that needs it most.

Among a special league of business owners, comes this rare individual whose biggest 'P' in life is not profitability, it's not power - it's PURPOSE. 

Meet Kevin. 

In 2005, Kevin was made redundant from his role as an IT Manager at a large school district. That same year, Kevin knew he "needed" to open up his own business; he was passionate about IT, he knew about IT "but not everything" about all the other stuff. 

Kevin would need to find a solution to his "growing pains," which saw himself spending days on-end maneuvering between hands-on administrative tasks and scattering for the time to actually grow the business. 

Challenge

When starting out, Kevin implemented ConnectWise [Manage] as his PSA, together with the accounting package QuickBooks Online. Kevin fast recognized the need for an integrated solution to syncing his invoice data between platforms when he implemented a competitor; what he recalls as a "horrible" experience with all of his financial processes "still screwed up."

Amid his bold pursuit, Kevin continued to face PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other mental health issues from having served as a Veteran (1979-83); a culmination of personal circumstances that "really held [him] back from building the way [he] could have."

Solution

With years of growing pains, self-development, business findings and all the other nuts and bolts that come with being a start-up, Kevin hunted for the missing piece: He would need an integrated solution for invoice and payment automation - 

A solution that would inevitably put an end to his days spent entering manual scripts, running accrual and other reports, and collecting checks (now his customer base predominantly pays via credit card/ACH) - all of which, in turn, would also see a heavy reduction rate in errors and delays (see the detailed run-through of Kevin's business processes before and after automation) - 

In 2021, Kevin implemented Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay.

Today, Kevin's since catapulted his business to the point that no longer requires him to be so involved -

"I'm going at my own pace. I've gotten to the point now where I don't touch tickets, I don't add licensing, I don't go onsite, I don't do any of those things," says Kevin. 

Now, Kevin's numbers are up to speed and he knows exactly what's happening, while simultaneously turning what started as a part-time job during COVID into a full-time purpose; a purpose he plans to only amplify from here on out - 

Kevin's real-life experiences and empathy from having faced said internal battles, would later motivate his greatest purpose: To be able to understand and to help others in the same (if not, a similar) boat - 

On September 12 of this year, Kevin became a full-time Peer Support Specialist, where he continues to dedicate his reclaimed time from invoice and payment automation to now, aiding the mental health of veterans.

You can read more about Kevin's experience as a Veteran in his Q&A with ConnectWise here. 

Results

• CEO attains "more quality of life" with the reclaimed energy and resources to pursue a full-time role outside of his business;
• Slashed financial admin by 15+ hours each month;
• Expanded from a one-man band to a full-time team!
• "Taken off so much stress."

Feature Quote

"I'm dedicating my time to helping fellow veterans, as I understand what they're dealing with. I'm saving as much as fifteen hours a month and not having to chase me. 

The team that responds to me, is there for me - I feel like this is my team.

So I’ve been on this journey of trying to get things automated for a little over a year now. The process with Wise-Sync has gotten to be so smooth. I’m so confident with this product and all the other pieces that I’ve put in place, especially Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay, that I can literally say 'Alright, I’m going to be dedicating 8am-4:30pm Monday through Friday at the clinic,” and things are going to be alright - things will run.' "

Customer Journey

From having begun as a one-man band running just about every report imaginable on his own, to now, heading a company that he's able to partially remove himself from in order to fulfil his higher calling - 

Kevin Vaughn, CEO, A One Networks, proves that with learning, dedication and the right mindset, you can just about make anything work for you. 

Within the first seven years of starting his business, Kevin found himself facing a "horrible" process day-in day-out; one that would ultimately stunt his business' progress.

"In that first seven years, I was doing emails, Excel spreadsheets, manual entry, not even QuickBooks Online but the regular QuickBooks (i.e. QBD) -

Alright, so, we kind of added the components of ConnectWise Manage slowly, and they had an integration that was working but then some sort of API standard was going to go away so then maybe not work -

I was using a competitor of yours, and they just didn't help me. I would take my time to try and explain and really help them to understand why it doesn’t work that way -

And they still didn't get it. So, I went to find someone else."

Financial Admin: The Process Before VS Now

"I looked around the forums, and I found Wise-Sync, and it turned out to be an absolute perfect fit."  

After an unsuccessful run with a competitor, Kevin searched for a solution that would hopefully achieve exactly what he needed: End-to-end automation. 

"So, once I found you guys, I implemented Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay, and I killed that other payment processor - I haven’t looked back since." 

When the pandemic hit pretty hard, Kevin "bounced back and sold a bunch of hardware," where he admits, "I knew a little about IT but not everything, a lot of it was over my head but I said, you know what... I can do this!" 

Of all the results achieved for the business, Kevin shares the support he continues to receive from the Wise-Sync team makes all the difference, where he says, "your ninja avatars work for your company very well." 

With his newly acclaimed financial visibility, Kevin now feels empowered to make the right decisions for the business.

It's not really just those 10 or 15 hours, but it's taken off so much stress and saves me so much time, that I now have more quality of life - 

I can do other things more efficiently without having to worry about all that type of "180 days, what's happening here?!' "

From mainly receiving checks to mostly automatic payments 

Prior to unlocking end-to-end financial automation, Kevin was predominantly receiving checks from customers; a system that was heavily time-consuming and incapable of returning the up-to-the-minute data he needed; the time it would take Kevin to accept a check vastly affected his ability to understand where the business stood; having payments outstanding and/or yet to be received significantly hindered Kevin's financial foresight - 

"I was freaking getting these checks in the mail, opening them up, depositing, taking a picture, turning them over, scanning them, filing them there, writing down the ACH number - it was so time-consuming." 

Since A One Networks' implementation of Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay, customers are now set-up in the Wise-Pay portal; customers are predominantly paying via credit card/ACH - an instant and automatic process that has since enabled Kevin to free another significant portion of his time formerly spent on not only processing checks but managing all the paperwork that came with that. 

"A bigger part of this whole thing, is that I don’t spend time researching and pulling up stuff; giving it to customers, feeding it back to them… and I’m talking about the physical checks. When we received them, you had to rename them to the day you received them, all of this stuff...

Many of our customers are now set-up, and they're paying automatically. So, I think this whole system just keeps getting better and better -

And that's all through Wise-Pay! And that’s because of Wise-Pay, I mean, literally whatever QBO had; they had some version of this, I’m sure, but it didn’t look right to the customers - it was too complicated, or made them feel like they had to create an account; this somehow doesn’t feel that way, it’s like “Okay, this is apart of the relationship we have with A One,” and this becomes part of our customers’ process - that whole attitude of 'I’m able to participate or not participate but I do have to create the first step,' is what I’m now seeing with our customers - and that’s the best!"

Then there's the gift that keeps on giving...

While Kevin makes plans to "grow, grow, grow" without being so involved, he's able to instead dedicate his time to fulfilling a full-time role as a Certified Peer Support Specialist. 

On top of co-running A One Networks, Kevin works full-time in the mental health department of a smaller clinic at a local hospital where he provides both one-on-one and group classes. Here, Kevin specializes in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); the two are often interdependent and each plays a vital role in the individual's recovery -

"CBT is designed for those who are ready for change and want to change, while DBT, which was originally designed for suicide prevention, is intended for those who have more severe mental illnesses with a longer road to recovery ahead!

As a Peer Support Specialist, I can say, it’s all about veteran to veteran; talking to someone who actually understands what you’ve been through because they’ve been through something just like it. They found that veterans who see a guy like me, someone who's been through drug and/or alcohol-related issues, are four times more likely to return versus seeing a psychologist or some other professional who hasn't served or experienced these motions -

The thing most people don’t realize is that with every individual act that you do - it raises your self-esteem. It’s an instant gift back even though you’re not asking for a thing; you just want to help and make someone’s day and make it a little bit easier for them -

It’s an instant self-esteem boost, and a lot of people don’t realize I don’t do those things so I can boost my self-esteem… although, now that I think about it, next time I’m cranky, maybe I should go and do it; maybe bag someone’s groceries or something like that (laughs)!

And the other thing is, for your information bank, PTSD comes in all sorts of forms and manners and not necessarily combat. So, in my case, there was a bombing that went off in one of the officer’s buildings that had been on patrol, and it literally had just gotten down to the driveway -

And me and my partner, I mean, it was freaky; four of our officers’ clubs got blown up that night. And it kind of didn’t bother me for years and years and years, but then it started to, especially as I became more and more aware of the war and what was going on - Putin, Syria... all of it." 

When Kevin told us he was a veteran, the first thing we said is, "Thank you for your service," a response that seemed natural to us, without realizing that it does goes a long way for those who have served - 

And in commemoration of Veterans Day today, with a beholden heart across the team, we would like to thank all of those who have served. 

"When people say "Thank you for your service,' which we now do in the United States, I say “You’re welcome, and thank you for your acknowledgement.” I just need to thank them for the acknowledgement because I appreciate that I’m being acknowledged. I mean, it means so much -

It just means so much, I’ll leave it at that," says Kevin. 

So, what's next for you?  

"For my business, A One Networks, my fellow Co-Founder and I are both headed to a place where we’ll get to manage IT Support Services; we won’t be headed to sites, instead we want to provide more flexibility for our staff where even working three productive days a week equates to a full-time wage - 

"We’re really headed towards an end, which we don’t know when that’ll be exactly, where we see our business facing a smarter (not harder) future.

You absolutely want to do it, it's an absolute no-brainer!"

Read more about Kevin's experience as a Veteran in his recent Q&A with ConnectWise. 

Finally, for those considering Wise-Sync and Wise-Pay, Kevin Vaughn shares his final words: "You're responsible for your end of it; onboarding, processing, navigating it, and do it as best you can -

If you're ready to put your manual accounting tasks on autopilot and take back control of your finances, WisePay's here to make it happen: Get in touch with our friendly team today or book a demo to see how it all works.