Moving their business forward with a passion to help and tools that support an on-the-go team

Most people can agree that moving is one of the biggest life stressors. Packing, organizing, coordinating services, and lugging heavy boxes and furniture are fun for exactly no one. And the stress factor intensifies if it’s a move from a life-long homestead.

Cierra Olmsted and Paige Rabon, owners of A Move Handled With Care, understand the anxiety that comes with this major life change — especially for retirees. It’s why their company exists.

Based in Centennial, Colorado, A Move Handled With Care is a logistics company that specializes in downsized moves for the 55+ community. They offer a white-glove approach and loads of compassion to help their clients get through the moving process with as little stress as possible. 

“We help them [clients] answer all of the questions. What do I want to take and what should I actually take for this next phase of life? Where does everything go in the new house? What do I do with the things that I’m not taking? And then we handle everything for them and get their new home setup so that it feels like they have been living there for 50 years,” said Olmsted.

Olmsted purchased the business from its founders more than seven years ago and then added her business partner, Paige Rabon, about two years ago. Together, they’ve built a team of 12 full-time employees to help run a smooth operation. 

Olmsted and Rabon are living their passion — helping humans move to the next phase of life with ease and confidence. To ensure long-term success, they implemented an integrated and powerful technology ecosystem that includes QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Time, and QuickBooks Payments. 

Olmstead said she feels confident QuickBooks can fuel future business growth because the ecosystem provides her with deep insights into business financials, costs, and margins — all in real-time.

Building a culture of family

While Olmsted and Rabon make high-level decisions for the company, they work hard to create a “non-hierarchy” culture — one where people are empowered to improve processes, products, and customer service… as well as “do their thing.”

“We really want our team to operate independently, and we encourage staff to step into their gifts and roles. We encourage our staff to take charge and lead,” said Olmsted.

Rabon added: “We spend a lot of time celebrating the gifts that our employees have. We place [staff] in roles where they will be successful and that they flourish in.”

Building a positive, healthy culture is a life-long journey that takes time and intention. It also requires that team members have much-needed insight into company performance. All of this can take time to achieve. That is unless you have the power of technology on your side.

Olmsted leans on QuickBooks Online Advanced to help run an uber-efficient back office, freeing up time to spend on training and motivating employees to excel. Both she and Rabon also love the ease of sharing information with those who need access to specific features and business data.

“There is so much power in empowering employees with data. QBO and the custom user permissions [feature] empowered me to empower our people to take on more leadership so that I can focus on my business and not in my business. That’s how we grow,” Olmsted explained.

Advanced makes it easy for Olmsted and Rabon to grow by giving employees access to the data and features they need when they need them. This incentivizes and motivates employees to take part in the company’s success and further adds to a healthy work culture.

Rabon explained that you must work extra hard to maintain a connected feel when you run a business where people are scattered most of the time. “Where you are is where you work, and it is difficult for a culture to feel connected. QuickBooks has allowed us to connect staff in that way,” she said. “We all can see the same hub; we can see the same information that is appropriate for what you're doing. That’s been life-changing for us.”

The perfect solution for a team that’s always on the go

When you run an independent team that’s always on the go, it’s critical to have a system in place that is accessible at all times. Not to mention easy for everyone to use.

“QuickBooks Online Advanced really has changed our day-to-day operations,” said Olmsted. “Before, every single financial detail had to go through me.”

Olmsted explained that four or five times a day, multiple employees might ask: How much do we invoice? Can you run a credit card? Can you do this or that for me?

It was overwhelming and a big time suck. But Olmsted said QuickBooks boosted efficiency and drove time savings by allowing them to automate their processes. She could set appropriate permissions so that she could give her employees the right level of direct access to QuickBooks Online Advanced, thereby streamlining the process both in-house and in the field.

“I was able to give different access to people… so I wasn’t bombarded by phone calls every day, and our team members were able to take payments… able to send and receive estimates,” she said. 

The owners have set up an organized, tiered system within the company, giving the right level of access to the right people within the right solution. A Move Handled With Care uses QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Time, and QuickBooks Payments to support their on-the-go team.

QuickBooks Online Advanced

Team leads are in Advanced every day — creating and sending estimates, processing invoices, and running all other aspects of the accounting function. Olmsted explained that QuickBooks Online Advanced has not only improved operations but has also helped the company grow. 

Robust reporting provides owners with valuable insight into costs, time, and profitability, which has led to identifying new business opportunities. For example, with real-time data in hand, owners were able to create a new pricing package for moving services for retirement residents during COVID-19. They reached out to several retirement facilities and provided data-driven service package information. The facilities were then able to serve as sales channels for A Move Handled With Care. Eventually, this turned into a referral machine.

“The data gave us the confidence to approach these facilities with the idea to turn them into salespeople for us… to let them sell bundled packages for us that we don’t have to come and quote every time. And because of all the great data we had in QBO, we know that we can actually make money. It’s a huge win for us,” explained Rabon.

QuickBooks Time

The addition of QuickBooks Time has elevated operations to a new level. It provides employees with a hub where they can view client and project information, supporting highly productive and fluid moving gigs.

Rabon says even if a client lives elsewhere and in-person meetings aren’t possible, that’s not a blocker for getting work done efficiently. “If you’ve never met [the client], it doesn’t matter because all that information is in your QuickBooks Time entry for your job. [Data] tells them where the client lives, who the adult daughter is, what packing supplies you’re going to need, any specific notes to be aware of, and what time the truck’s going to arrive.”

When employees are informed and confident, it’s much easier to make the clients feel comfortable and at ease.

Further elevating productivity, employees can also input personal time off into the system. This provides everyone with a real-time view of staff availability and supports a culture of work flexibility.

“QuickBooks Time is the biggest game changer that we have had in our business in the past several years,” said Olmsted.

QuickBooks Payments

QuickBooks Payments has proven the ideal payment solution for the company. According to Olmsted, “It allows us to collect from clients so much quicker than in the past. In the past, we would have clients write a check and send it in.”

Today, invoices are sent out electronically and offer clients the ability to conveniently pay online. Payments are then immediately deposited in the company’s account. This not only helps accelerate accounts receivable but also allows clients to book and pay for services in a frictionless way. 

“This is huge because that way it [online payment] allows the client to reserve a spot on our calendar so we know, OK, they’ve paid and we can go ahead and book that move,” said Olmsted.

At the end of the move, employees can quickly convert estimates into an invoice with QuickBooks Time, provide the client with the final invoice, and allow the client to pay on the spot. 

Olmsted absolutely loves the power of QuickBooks Payments for all these reasons. “You can convert an estimate really easily into an invoice, change numbers if any numbers need to be changed, and then present it to the client. We don’t have to go back to an office or back to a desktop to get all of that done and then send an invoice… and then maybe they'll pay it a week later,” she said.

Death by a dozen apps… no more!

Olmsted and Rabon admit to having tested numerous apps over the years, always looking for ways to improve operations and overall efficiencies. However, the same issue kept surfacing: All those apps didn’t integrate.

“What we like about QuickBooks is that they [all solutions] interact,” said Rabon. “When you enter a client into QuickBooks Online Advanced, it syncs with QuickBooks Time. Payments into QuickBooks Payments sync back to Advanced. You don’t have to look [for data]… it’s just already there. We’ve never found anything better.”

“It syncs with Mailchimp too, so every month when we send out our newsletter, we don’t have to input email addresses,” Rabon explained. “No more death by multiple apps.”

When all apps are connected, not only does QuickBooks help automate data sync, but it also provides assurance of data security. Because every employee has a unique login, it supports client data confidentiality. The system requires a password, facial recognition, or thumbprint across devices.

“We know that if your phone is stolen, all that information is going to be protected,” said Rabon. “We can also set access limits per employee based on their needs in the system.”

It all goes back to having easy access to the data needed to perform work and run a highly efficient company. This is especially true for an on-the-go company like A Move Handled With Care. 

“Having access to QuickBooks Online on the go anytime, anywhere… that’s the key to our success. We don't have an office where people are centrally located. All of the information has to be stored online so that we can access it anywhere and anytime,” said Olmsted.

An on-the-go company that keeps going strong

There is no sign of slowing down according to A Move Handled With Care owners, Cierra Olmsted and Paige Rabon. As the team continues to evolve as the go-to and trusted vendor in their space, the company will only continue to expand. 

Having the QuickBooks ecosystem at the center of it all continues to help elevate efficiency to a new level, empower employees to take leadership roles, and support a healthy work culture. And with technology on their side, the business is well-positioned to scale.

“I don’t see anything that QuickBooks can’t handle as we grow. As we move into a large-scale company with 100-200 employees, QuickBooks can grow with us. The beauty of QBO is that whether you are just starting or you’re a multi-million dollar company, it can handle it and be with you every step of the way,” said Olmsted.

Even more important to Olmsted is running a business that allows her to focus on her true passion — helping people. Quickbooks has been instrumental in this respect as well.

“QBO takes the guesswork out of running my business so I can focus on my passion,” she said.

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