This digital business advisory firm helped a local agri-food tech start-up get to the meat of the matter with cloud accounting

When founders Dr Ka Yi Ling and Dr Sandhya Sriram started Shiok Meats, a cultivated meat and seafood company, the duo spent a lot of time on manually processing their financial documents.

However as the business grew, they soon found that this way of working was inefficient, and that they needed better, more efficient systems and processes.

An associate introduced them to Sleek, an all-in-one digital business advisory that helps small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) register their business with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), and manage their governance, accounting and tax compliance online.

Sleek helped Shiok Meats to set up cloud-based accounting platform, Xero, and integrate it with its existing systems - creating a holistic solution that provides streamlined workflows and better visibility of how their business is tracking.

Digitalising Shiok Meats' manual processes has significantly reduced the time spent on monthly financial closing. In the past, they tabulated their expenses, for example by manually entering physical receipts into spreadsheets, which was both time-consuming and prone to error. Now, they simply take a photo of receipts and upload it to the Xero app.

Having all key financial metrics in their Xero dashboard means Shiok Meats has a comprehensive picture of their financial health and cash flow of the business. Thanks to Xero's data and analytics capabilities, Shiok Meats also receives quality data and financial insights that enable them to be strategic and intuitive with their business planning as well as more efficient and accurate monthly closings and reports.

"By leveraging Xero's cloud accounting platform and Sleek's suite of digital solutions to keep records tidy and run things smoothly, it leaves our client free to pursue their vision of a more sustainable tomorrow," says Sleek CEO and co-founder Julien Labruyere.

Since its establishment in 2017, Sleek has evolved from a home-grown corporate services company to a comprehensive, technology driven advisory firm that helps startups and SMEs with a full range of services, including accounting, taxation, chief finance officer (CFO) services, business insurance, and more.

Says Mr Labruyere: "We observed that many entrepreneurs often find themselves fretting over business compliance matters, instead of focusing on growing their business.

"We want to help business owners gain peace of mind and greater control over their finances by managing these tedious, yet crucial processes that are fundamental to the success of their business."

In addition to tapping on digital solutions like Xero to help clients automate repetitive bookkeeping tasks and save time and money, the firm's qualified accountants and business professionals also provide dedicated customer support and strategic advice.

The firm prides itself on its customer-centricity and its high Net Promoter Score (NPS). "We continuously gather customer feedback to identify new innovative ways of solving the pain points of business admin work," says Mr Labruyere.

In fact, many of Sleek's solutions over the years have come from listening to the needs of their customers.

For instance, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, many of Sleek's customers had difficulties getting multiple stakeholders to physically sign important documents, especially if they were based overseas. To solve this, Sleek developed its own legally binding digital signature tool SleekSign, enabling customers to get important documents signed wherever they may be.

According to Mr Labruyere, Xero has been Sleek's platform of choice since the beginning. The firm uses Xero for both its clients' and its own bookkeeping and accounting. Xero has also grown with the firm over the years through its expansion in four countries - Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

One huge benefit that Sleek and its clients have experienced from using Xero is seamless access to real-time information. "With Xero running in the cloud, business owners are empowered to make critical business decisions with accurate and up-to-date financial information on hand", added Mr Labruyere.

Xero's extensive ecosystem of connected apps also allows firms to access a wider range of business processes and latest tools through integrations with other cloud software. For example, clients can use the tools that suit them for various tasks and collaborate across the business, such as creating custom dashboards to view data from different sources including third-party apps, noted Mr Labruyere.

One such add-on app is Hubdoc - a bookkeeping automation with optical character recognition (OCR) and receipt and invoice data extraction. Mr Labruyere himself makes use of the app's auto-forward feature for emails with recurring bills, which are automatically sent out as soon as they arrive in his OCR mailbox. This automation helps free up time for him to focus on more value-added tasks and work more efficiently, he added.

As the Sleek team looks to continue their global expansion into new markets in the near future, Mr Labruyere says: "We want to further develop our product offerings to deliver even more value for our customers. Our goal has always been to help business owners simplify the day-to-day hassle of running a business, so that they can focus on what they do best - excelling in their passions and thriving in the long run."

For more information about Xero, click here.