William Buck streamlines Xero disbursements across 765 clients with Rechargly

Before: What life looked like pre-change

Context

William Buck Melbourne is part of the William Buck advisory network, providing tax, advisory and audit services. The business advisory and tax divisions manage a large number of client software subscriptions, including Xero and other applications used in client work.

The firm had already built scale in terms of clients and subscriptions. However, the billing structure for those subscriptions had not evolved alongside that growth. Recovering software costs from clients required multiple systems and a significant amount of manual work.

Old workflow

The firm managed subscription billing through APS, its practice management and billing system. Each month the process looked like this:

• Software vendor invoices arrived with the finance team
• If the vendor allowed it, client codes were embedded in the invoice
• If not, allocations were tracked through internal spreadsheets
• Invoice data was exported via CSV files
• The CSV data was then imported into APS
• Staff responsible for billing created invoices for each client
  

Billing schedules also varied across the firm. Some clients were billed monthly, others quarterly or ad-hoc depending on partner preference.

“There wasn’t a real rule across the board. It depended on the partner and the client.”— Katica Buccheri, Process Optimisation Manager, William Buck Melbourne

Where the process broke down

Fragmented subscription tracking

The structure worked when volumes were smaller, but it became difficult to maintain as the number of subscriptions grew. Client subscription allocations were not maintained in a single system. Instead, responsibility for tracking subscriptions was spread across multiple places:

• Vendor invoices were sent to different email addresses
• Internal spreadsheets were required to consolidate charges
• APS was used for billing through WIP

Because information lived across different tools, it became difficult to maintain a consistent view of which client was responsible for each subscription.

Manual billing at scale

As the firm expanded, the administrative burden increased significantly.Tracking more than 1,000 vendor charges every month required continuous manual handling. Each invoice needed to be:

1. Allocated to the correct client
2. Exported or recorded in spreadsheets
3. Imported into the APS system
4. Invoiced to the client through the billing workflow

Revenue leakage when clients left

A particularly common issue occurred when a client disengaged from the firm. If a subscription invoice arrived after the client had already left, the cost often went unrecovered.

“When clients leave, majority of the time we don’t recoup the last month plus of costs.”— Katica Buccheri, Process Optimisation Manager, William Buck Melbourne

The trigger

The shift wasn’t caused by a single failure in the process. Instead, the firm was continually reviewing operational efficiency and looking for ways to improve internal workflows.

When Rechargly appeared as a potential solution, it offered a way to standardise subscription billing and remove several of the manual steps. Leadership quickly recognised the opportunity to modernise the system.

During: How the firm made the change

Implementation

The team aimed for a 1 July rollout, but implementation required more preparation than initially expected.

Rechargly integrates through Xero, while the firm’s core system is APS. This meant the firm first needed to build a reliable client structure inside Xero before subscriptions could be automated.

Instead of exporting their entire client database, the team needed to:

• Identify which clients actually had subscription costs
• Select those clients individually
• Import them into Xero

“We had to actually select which clients we wanted. We couldn’t just dump everything into Xero.”— Katica Buccheri, Process Optimisation Manager, William Buck Melbourne

Data cleanup

The onboarding process quickly revealed several inconsistencies in the firm’s client records. During setup the team discovered:

• Outdated billing contacts
• Incorrect client email addresses
• Multiple entities tied to single contacts

Correcting these records became part of the rollout process. In total, 100+ legacy files were cleaned up during onboarding.

Client adoption

Clients received communication explaining the new system and were asked to set up direct debit through Rechargly. Most clients transitioned smoothly. Others required additional reminders or a quick phone call to explain the change.

“The harder ones we’ve managed to get across the line with literally just a phone call.”— Katica Buccheri, Process Optimisation Manager, William Buck Melbourne

Five months into rollout, the firm has achieved 95.9% adoption.

The new playbook

The updated workflow is far simpler. Subscription billing now runs through Rechargly, with payments collected via direct debit. The new process works as follows:

• Subscriptions are tracked in Xero
• Rechargly manages the billing and payment collection
• Clients pay via direct debit
• New subscriptions are added as clients are onboarded

The impact is most noticeable when clients cancel subscriptions. Previously this required coordination across multiple systems. Now it involves a single action.

“If someone says cancel this file and they’re on Rechargly, all I have to do is cancel Xero.”— Katica Buccheri, Process Optimisation Manager, William Buck Melbourne

After: Results + proof

What changed (Before → After)

Day-to-day impact

The finance team now spends far less time managing subscription allocations and billing adjustments.The biggest operational improvement appears when clients leave the firm. Instead of chasing outstanding subscription charges or writing them off, subscriptions can simply be cancelled. Month-end processes are also cleaner because subscription billing no longer requires manual CSV imports and invoice creation.

Business impact

The firm plans to analyse the full financial impact after 12 months, particularly to measure how much subscription write-off has been reduced. However, early indicators show clear improvements:

• Subscription billing is more predictable
• Administrative workload is reduced
• Client onboarding for subscriptions is faster
• The risk of missed software charges is lower

New clients now adopt the system from the start, which helps maintain consistency going forward.

Bottom line

William Buck Melbourne’s rollout exposed gaps in client records, improved data quality across more than 100 files, and replaced a fragmented manual process with a scalable billing system. By centralising subscription management and introducing direct debit payments, the firm transformed a time-consuming monthly task into a predictable workflow capable of supporting 1,000+ vendor charges every month.