Case Study: Harshman Phillips achieves paperless, secure cloud document management with SmartVault

Checking In With Bruce Phillips On His Transition To The Cloud

Harshman Phillips, a boutique tax and accounting firm in Atlanta led by CPA Bruce Phillips, set out in late 2010 to move its practice to the Cloud and needed a secure, scalable way to manage high volumes of client documents during tax season. The firm’s challenge was proving a web-based system could handle multi-entity files, be easy for staff to adopt, and persuade clients and banks to stop using paper and insecure email.

They implemented SmartVault as a firm-wide online document storage and sharing solution, with vendor support helping design file structures and client-sharing workflows. The system handled 300–400 tax documents with minimal issues, staff were productive within minutes, nearly all clients shifted to portals, banks gained fast secure access, and SmartVault even became a referral and client-acquisition tool — delivering a smooth transition and measurable efficiency and relationship benefits.

Harshman Phillips

Bruce Phillips

Chief Financial Officer