Building ProfitsClient accounting and controllership firm in Reno, Nevada, serving businesses across the US
Before Vinyl, what Building Profits knew about its clients lived in the head of whoever ran each meeting, and a satisfaction survey sent to about 50 clients came back with 4 replies. Now the Reno, Nevada accounting firm records almost every client meeting with Vinyl and keeps the notes in Karbon. Owner and CEO Tracy Brantingham uses them to read how each client is feeling across a team split between the US, the Philippines and Canada.
At-a-glance stats
- Firm
- Building Profits, a bookkeeping, client accounting and controllership firm in Reno, Nevada
- Team
- 4 in the Reno office, 4 in the Philippines and a senior accountant in Canada
- Before Vinyl
- a generic AI notetaker used inconsistently, plus some Zoom recordings
- Practice management
- Karbon, with meeting prep added to each client's timeline
- Adoption
- the whole team, on almost every meeting, including in-person meetings on the Vinyl mobile app
- Client feedback
- a survey to about 50 clients drew 4 replies changed to client sentiment read from every recorded meeting
- Advisory
- service packages now shaped by what clients ask for in meetings
Before: what life looked like pre-change
Context
Building Profits runs bookkeeping, payroll, reporting and controllership for growing businesses, with a focus on construction, healthcare practices and non-profits. Tracy Brantingham is Owner and CEO. The firm doesn’t do tax work, so its value rests on the monthly client relationship.
The team has changed shape over the past two years. When Building Profits moved into its current office, 12 people worked there. Today there are 4 in the office, 4 teammates in the Philippines and a senior accountant in Canada.
Regular monthly client meetings are also fairly new: the firm began holding them about a year and a half ago.
Old workflow and tools
- A generic AI notetaker that some of the team used and others ignored
- Zoom recordings for some meetings, with no notes attached
- Client context passed on in conversation, or not at all
- An emailed survey as the only formal way to gauge how clients felt
Where things broke
- Knowledge stayed with one person. Whoever met the client held the context. Nobody else on the team could see it.
- Client sentiment was guesswork. The firm had no reliable, ongoing signal of how clients felt about the service.
“Prior to Vinyl, our information was all in my head or in whoever met with the client’s head. That information was not getting translated to anyone else on the team.”
Tracy Brantingham, Owner and CEO, Building Profits
The trigger
Two things raised the stakes. The firm was moving to a regular monthly meeting rhythm with every client, and the team was spreading across three countries. Tracy wanted to know how clients were feeling, and the survey she sent to find out showed the limits of asking directly.
“We attempted to send out a survey. I think I had 50 clients. We got 4 responses… The feedback that we got was good. We just didn’t get enough of it.”
Tracy Brantingham
During: how Building Profits made the change
What they looked for
Why Vinyl
Unlike the general-purpose AI notetaker the firm had tried, Vinyl is built for accounting work and connects to the tools the firm already runs on. The Karbon integration is “a big one” for Tracy. This is how she describes Vinyl to other accountants:
“It’s our note-taker. But it’s awesome in that it has the ability specifically for our field, and it has the ability to learn so much information about what’s going on.”
Tracy Brantingham
Implementation
Tracy found Vinyl easy to use from the start. The one early snag was several notetakers joining when more than one team member was on a call; now a single Vinyl notetaker joins. For unscheduled calls in Microsoft Teams, a Philippines teammate worked out how to send Vinyl into the meeting.
The new playbook
- Vinyl joins client meetings on Teams. In-person meetings are recorded on the Vinyl mobile app.
- Meeting notes are filed against the client in Karbon.
- After her senior accountants’ monthly meetings, Tracy opens each one in Ask Vinyl and asks the same set of questions. How is the client feeling? Are they asking FP&A or CFO-level questions? What could the senior do to be better prepared next time? What personal detail should come up first at the next meeting?
- She adds the answers to the client’s Karbon timeline, so the senior has them when prepping for the next call.
- The firm’s internal meeting agendas are applied to past recordings to plan what comes next.
- New team members in the Philippines go back to recordings to write their own SOPs and reminders.
After: results and proof
What changed (before → after)
| Area | Before | With Vinyl |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting capture | Generic notetaker used by some, plus a few Zoom recordings | Vinyl on almost every client meeting, online and in person |
| Where client knowledge lived | In the head of whoever ran the meeting | In Karbon, on the client’s timeline |
| Client sentiment | A survey to about 50 clients that drew 4 replies | Read from every recorded meeting |
| Senior prep | Based on memory | Prep notes from Tracy’s Ask Vinyl questions, on the Karbon timeline |
| Defining advisory | “A very generic term” | Services shaped by what clients ask for in meetings |
| Training offshore staff | Live training sessions | Live sessions plus recordings the team revisits to build their own SOPs |
Day-to-day impact
Tracy knows how clients feel without sitting in on every call. Client sentiment is her favourite part of Vinyl. Instead of chasing survey replies, she reads it from the meetings themselves.Client sentiment is her favorite part of Vinyl. Instead of chasing survey replies, she reads it from the meetings themselves.
“It’s really understanding how the client’s feeling without having to sit on the phone and talk to every single client myself… [having] my finger on the pulse without actually looking at everything, watching everything.”
Tracy Brantingham
Seniors walk in with questions they wouldn’t have thought to ask. Tracy’s notes on the Karbon timeline give her seniors a second view of each client, including the personal touch to open with next time. The team has responded well.
“They’re finding it helpful for them to go back and read it, because I’m asking a question that they may not ask.”
Tracy Brantingham
Advisory finally has a definition. Building Profits wanted to move further into advisory but found the term too vague to act on. Reviewing what clients ask for, such as FP&A and CFO-style questions, is helping the firm decide what its advisory work should be.
“Internally we needed to figure out what advisory means for us. And then Vinyl’s been helpful in that, and now we can use that to create services and create what that service package looks like based on what the clients are asking for.”
Tracy Brantingham
Offshore teammates learn from the source. Tracy is training four people on four different client portfolios at once. Her Philippines team uses the recordings to learn the work and write their own processes, alongside the workflows the firm already keeps in Karbon.
“They’re using it and going back and referring to it and helping them develop SOPs for themselves, or setting up their own reminders, even though we have Karbon and we have steps and processes.”
Tracy Brantingham
Business impact
- Client feedback from every meeting, replacing a survey that 4 of about 50 clients answered
- Whole-team adoption across the US office, the Philippines and Canada
- Advisory services built from client demand, a common sticking point when scaling advisory
- Leadership visibility without the owner joining every call
Bottom line
For Building Profits, the biggest change is visibility. Tracy can see how every client is feeling, and what they are asking for, across a team in three countries without joining each call.
For firms moving to regular client meetings with a distributed team, the lesson is that a meeting record only pays off when everyone uses it and it lives where the work happens. Building Profits gets both by pairing Vinyl with Karbon. OnPoint Accounting found the same kind of leadership visibility. Next, Tracy plans to do more with Vinyl’s agenda features and try its follow-up emails, because, as she puts it, “the more that Vinyl can do for us, the better.”
“It just does a lot without me having to be in the room. To know what’s happening without me needing to be in the room.”
Tracy Brantingham, Owner and CEO, Building Profits
Frequently asked questions
What did Building Profits use before Vinyl?
Building Profits had tried a generic AI notetaker that the team didn’t use consistently, plus some Zoom recordings. Most client knowledge stayed with whoever ran the meeting.
Does Vinyl integrate with Karbon?
Yes. Vinyl syncs with Karbon both ways. Building Profits files meeting notes into Karbon, and Tracy Brantingham adds prep notes to each client’s Karbon timeline so senior accountants have them before the next meeting.
How does Building Profits measure client sentiment?
Building Profits reads client sentiment from recorded meetings in Vinyl rather than surveys. An earlier survey sent to about 50 clients drew 4 replies. Tracy now asks Vinyl how each client is feeling after their monthly meeting.
How does Vinyl help a distributed accounting team?
At Building Profits, staff in Reno, the Philippines and Canada work from the same meeting records. Seniors prep from notes on the Karbon timeline, and offshore staff learn client work from recordings.
