How PKF found a way to keep the power and flexibility of Excel while gaining the automation and data connectivity of modern cloud platforms — without compromise.

Stacie Shaw Partner, PKF | 20+ Years at PKF | ~99% Client coverage

01 — BACKGROUND

Stacie Shaw has been with PKF for over 20 years and was part of the original team that transitioned the firm from paper-based workpapers to Excel back in 2006. As the internal technology lead responsible for evaluating the firm's practice management stack, she had a rare vantage point: knowing their history, the IP, and the gaps and pain points better than almost anyone.

With her Partners asking her to find a way to make PKF's workpaper process even more efficient, and bring in the advantages that browser-based solutions were touting, Stacie didn't guess. She went to market and tested everything.

02 — THE PROBLEM — NOTHING WAS GOOD ENOUGH

PKF evaluated every available solution — cloud-based workpaper platforms, browser-native tools, and alternatives to their existing Excel templates. Each had genuine strengths. But none of them solved the whole problem.

MANUAL DATA ENTRY — UP TO 7× OVER ATO data from activity statements had to be re-entered across the GST workpaper, provision for tax, wages rec, payroll tax check, and more. The same number, entered up to seven times — each a new opportunity for a typo.

REVIEWERS HUNTING ERRORS, NOT DOING ACCOUNTING Partners and managers couldn't trust the numbers before they started reviewing. Time was spent confirming no transposition errors and typos rather than applying accounting judgement to real problems.

SCATTERED DOCUMENTS, NO SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH Browser-based tools still required supporting schedules and PDFs to be created separately — ending up on desktops, scattered through document management systems, or wherever someone happened to save them. No structure. No consistency.

INCONSISTENCY ACROSS PREPARERS Without a consistent starting template, each preparer built their own workpaper from scratch. Quality control became a guessing game. Coverage of balance sheet and P&L items was left to individual discretion.

PER-CLIENT PRICING THAT DIDN'T SCALE Per-client or per-user pricing models made costs unpredictable at firm scale. The value proposition eroded as client and/or employee numbers grew — the very moment you needed it most.

NO SINGLE-GLANCE REVIEW CONFIDENCE Reviewers had no way to confirm everything reconciled before diving into commentary. Every review started with a shadow of doubt built in.

"You'd be spending time going, has someone made a typo — did they pick up the original BAS instead of the amended; did they pick up June last year's numbers instead of this year? You couldn't go straight to the accounting problem."

03 — WHY RADIUSCORE WON THE EVALUATION

After going to market and testing every available option, PKF doubled down on Excel with RadiusCore built in.

Cloud-based platforms offered automation and connectivity. But they stripped away the flexibility and IP control that PKF had built over two decades. Excel preserved that, but without data connectivity, it was still a manual process at its core.

RadiusCore sits inside Excel. It adds data connectivity, auto-population, and workflow intelligence to the templates PKF already owns. The firm's 20 years of IP stays intact. The team's Excel fluency stays intact. The automation gets switched on.

"We've got the IP, the templates, the technical content — the consistency and quality control, people not having to reinvent the wheel. And now we also have the benefits of the browser-based world: the lead sheets, the GL, sub-ledger and ATO data connections. You're not rekeying. Accountants can apply their knowledge to find real mistakes — not check for typos." STACIE SHAW — PARTNER, PKF

04 — KEY OUTCOMES

Accountants doing accounting The shortage of accountants in Australia is real. RadiusCore ensures the ones you have spend their time on accounting work — not admin, data entry, or error-checking.

One-glance review confidence The traffic-light index page means Managers and Partners confirm everything reconciles before reviewing a single number. Reviews start with certainty and efficiency, not doubt.

One-click data import Sub-ledger reports, trial balance, ATO data — pulled in with a click. No context-switching. No re-entry. No stale numbers because someone forgot to refresh.

"In the past you'd open the debtors workpaper, enter the number from the trial balance, run the subledger report, screenshot it, add it in, enter the balance from that, confirm it reconciles, then do the checks — context switching the whole way. Now you just click a button in the RadiusCore Excel file. That's it."

05 — IMPLEMENTATION — VIRTUALLY NO CHANGE MANAGEMENT

For a firm the size of PKF, rolling out new technology is rarely simple. But RadiusCore was the exception. Because it lives inside Excel, software the entire team already uses daily, the learning curve was almost non-existent.

PKF's approach was straightforward: "Here are some new buttons. Use them or don't. You'll either be as fast as before, or faster." The team chose to use them — every time.

"It's in Excel, everyone knows Excel — it's just new functions in Excel. Other accounting firms say the same thing. They just start using them." STACIE SHAW — PARTNER, PKF

06 — THE ECONOMICS — AN OBVIOUS ROI

When one of PKF's partners reviewed the pricing, the reaction was immediate: 'I waste more money than that on a monthly basis, let alone annually. This is just a no-brainer.'

It also became immediately clear, with even starker maths, the cost of a single Manager spending time to update workpaper templates annually alone, at their charge rate, far exceeds the annual cost of RadiusCore. And that's before factoring in productivity gains across the team for the rest of the year, on every single client file.

07 — BEYOND WORKPAPERS — MORE USE CASES

RadiusCore has existed long before the Australian workpaper set, the same underlying capability applies across a wide range of financial reporting and analysis workflows. Stacie's team, and many other firms, have extended it well beyond compliance.

Family office consolidated reporting: A CFO overseeing multiple entities and investment vehicles needed quarterly snapshots of free cash, profitability, asset values, and equity position — across businesses using different accounting software. RadiusCore powers the consolidation without leaving Excel.

Divisional consolidated reporting: A group of trading entities with multiple divisions uses RadiusCore for ongoing group-level P&L and balance sheet reporting across all entities.

Bookkeeping teams & monthly reconciliations: The same workflow principles apply at the bookkeeping layer — pulling live data, reducing manual reconciliation steps, and keeping everything inside a structured Excel environment.

08 — IS IT RIGHT FOR YOUR FIRM?

"You skip the hard part. You don't have to spend the time building out your own Excel templates — that's there for you. This is the right workflow for taking your workpapers electronic and automated."

READY TO SEE IT IN ACTION?

Talk to the RadiusCore team

Stacie is also open to speaking directly with firms who want peer-level social proof before making the call. Ask us about connecting you.