Kop of Munt Digitizes Invoicing and Time Tracking with Milestones
The stuffy image often associated with accounting firms doesn’t apply to Kop of Munt. At this financial services firm, located in the heart of Amsterdam, everything revolves around people and innovation. With a client base consisting of advertising agencies, website developers, film and commercial production companies, and online communications agencies, that’s not surprising. Internally, Kop of Munt—which has been focusing on the creative sector for over 15 years—is constantly seeking innovation.
One example of this is the switch to Milestones. Director Kees Leijs:
“We used to spend half a day on invoicing, but that’s a thing of the past.”
From UNIT4 to Milestones
Since January 1 of this year, Kop of Munt has been tracking and billing hours in Milestones. A key reason for the switch was the ability to set pricing agreements, allowing the firm to move away from UNIT4.
“In the creative sector, it’s common to work with fixed prices. With UNIT4, invoicing was a hassle. Milestones now makes it faster and easier. Ultimately, we even want to move away from billing by the hour entirely and work more with products and fixed prices. I think Milestones is a good tool to make that happen.”
Another factor was that UNIT4 did not fully meet the requirements at the time:
The time-tracking and billing module, including budgets and scheduling, was never further developed as intended.
Almost everything worked offline, while Kop of Munt actually wants to embrace the cloud.
“We still have a private cloud, but we’re increasingly moving toward a fully cloud-based setup. It’s a relief to know we no longer have to maintain it ourselves.”
Seamless integration with other systems
In addition to Milestones, Kop of Munt uses Exact for financial accounting and reporting, and Nmbrs for payroll. Kees:
“It’s great that I now only have to enter my name and address information in one place. When I click ‘Process’ in Milestones, the invoice also appears in Exact. Then I can email the invoice right away. That saves a ton of stationery, envelopes, and stamps.”
The firm is still exploring its options for a good CRM/DMS system, but aims to incorporate the best features from each package.
Initial Experiences with Milestones
Kees acknowledges that it takes some getting used to new software:
“Many processes are faster, and we have less red tape when it comes to invoicing. Is it completely perfect? No, there are still things that could be more convenient. We’ve only invoiced three times using Milestones so far. We’ll really start to see the benefits next year—for example, when we can transfer price agreements all at once at the start of the new year.”
By switching to Milestones, Kop of Munt saves time, works more efficiently, and can better focus on its clients in the creative sector.
