PBS Accounting & Tax Solutions Ended Manual Capacity Planning with Levvy
Why one accounting firm replaced Karbon, QuickBooks Time and spreadsheets with one workflow tool
Samantha Hallburn runs a boutique accounting firm that keeps its client base intentionally small to focus on high-value services.
Internally, however, her team was juggling disconnected tools. They used Karbon for task management, QuickBooks Time to log hours, and Slack for communication.
Even profitability tracking required a monthly export from QuickBooks Time, followed by a manual spreadsheet process.
“We were spending at least two hours a month pulling data out of QuickBooks Time, putting it in a spreadsheet, sorting and filtering, and then giving me the result that I asked for,” Samantha said.
“So I mean, that's $60, $70 a month in labour, just to calculate something that could be automated.”
As a small team without a full-time IT person, the cost was not just time. It also reduced focus and created unnecessary complexity that slowed down the team.
Time tracking and capacity planning were disconnected
Before switching to Levvy, Samantha’s team relied on spreadsheets and QuickBooks Time to manage time and estimate capacity.
But those systems were not linked. Every month, Melissa, the firm’s operations manager, had to manually export hours and calculate profitability and team workload. The process was inefficient, error-prone and reactive.
They had also tried using Karbon’s built-in time tracking but found it hard to use.
“There was something clunky about it,” Samantha said. “When we initially thought, we're all in on IPM, that was something we wanted to use and it wasn’t working.”
Over time, the team found themselves maintaining multiple systems to do what they believed should have been possible in one.
Passwords were stored in Google Sheets, task comments were hard to find, and monthly reports required manual intervention. It was becoming harder to keep a clear view of performance.
Finding a better system
Samantha first discovered Levvy at QuickBooks Connect. “I was sitting at a table with Penny Breslin and Jeanne, from Levvy walked up. They were talking about the demo, and I was eavesdropping.
Then I walked onto the floor and watched the demo. I just went, oh my God. This is like everything in one freaking place.”
What stood out was how Levvy connected task management, time tracking and documentation into a single, unified system. For her team, this meant no more switching between tabs to find information or track progress.
“We moved to Levvy because it has allowed us to not have as many tabs. The efficiency of having a place where it’s all happening simultaneously is great,” she said.
Linking time tracking to tasks and team members
One of the biggest benefits Samantha saw was how time tracking worked in Levvy. Rather than using a separate tool, time is logged inside each task and automatically connected to the team member and client.
“The aha for me was the capacity and budgeting tracking within each workflow and each employee — being able to see cost per hour by employee, cost per hour by customer, see at a glance who was at capacity.”
This gave the leadership team a clear view of current workload and profitability without extra work. It also helped identify where the firm might be under- or over-servicing specific clients.
Samantha can now monitor whether tasks are being completed and quickly spot where workflows are getting stuck.
“I can see where Lauren is, where Melissa is, what the bookkeepers are working on. And I can also see when they’re not using it because things from three weeks ago haven’t been marked completed. So it’s allowing me to do more task management that is visually easy.” Samantha stated.
Managing meetings and actions in one place
Another improvement came from Levvy’s meeting functionality. Samantha can now prepare agendas, take notes and assign follow-up tasks all within the same platform. This removed the need for separate documents or notebooks and helped make meetings more actionable.
“I love the meetings. I can go to next week or the week after and put future agenda notes from this meeting into those meetings. I can take notes during my meeting, and then I can do my tasks from the notes. It’s all organised in one place.”
For a small team where everyone wears multiple hats, having meetings, documentation and actions connected helps prevent details from being lost or overlooked.
Reducing overhead and improving transparency
By consolidating tools and removing manual processes, Samantha’s team has reduced costs and improved visibility. The firm no longer uses five or six separate tools just to run basic operations. There is no more exporting data to calculate profitability or chasing task updates in Slack.
“We were able to get rid of a whole set of emails, and Levvy was less expensive than Karbon. So in switching to Levvy, we’re saving money to the firm, bottom line, every month in multiple ways.”
More importantly, the leadership team can now see what is happening without constant follow-up. Time is tracked in real time. Capacity is visible. Tasks are completed in a central place. The firm operates with more control and fewer interruptions.
A simpler way to manage the entire firm
Samantha’s team has replaced manual spreadsheets, disconnected apps and workflow gaps with a single tool that tracks work, time and team performance.
They have removed unnecessary admin, improved client profitability tracking and made it easier to lead the business with confidence.
For a small, high-performing accounting team, this has made a clear difference. The firm runs more smoothly, serves clients more consistently and saves money doing it.
