William Buck streamlines Xero disbursements across 765 clients with Rechargly

William Buck is a national accounting and advisory firm with offices across Australia and New Zealand. The Melbourne office relies on Xero, APS, and a range of cloud apps to support clients across business advisory, tax, audit, and specialist divisions.

As the firm grew, recovering software costs such as Xero subscriptions became increasingly difficult. Each office used slightly different processes, and the APS-based disbursement workflow created inconsistencies in billing, payment methods, and recoverability.

When the Melbourne team set out to improve efficiency and cost recovery, Rechargly became the catalyst for fixing a long-standing operational pain point.

The challenge: Manual APS workflows, inconsistent billing and missed recoveries

Before Rechargly, the Melbourne office used APS as their billing and disbursement engine. The process relied heavily on spreadsheets, CSV imports, and manual oversight from the finance team. Key issues included:

1. Fragmented billing rules: Clients were billed monthly, quarterly, ad hoc, or whenever staff remembered. There was no consistent policy across partners or divisions.
2. Manual reconciliation each month: The team downloaded invoices, matched client codes, manipulated CSVs, and imported data into APS. Some software provided client codes. Others didn’t, which meant additional spreadsheets and manual mapping.
3. Hundreds of individual invoices sent to clients: Most clients were paying individually instead of via direct debit, creating ongoing follow-ups and admin noise.
4. Lost revenue when clients left: According to Kat, “We almost never recoup the last month or two of software costs when a client leaves. Once they go, we stop charging, and the costs are written off.”
5. A single point of failure: If one team member was unavailable, disbursements were delayed. Exceptions were common. “It was just time-consuming and inconsistent,” Kat said. “Most of the time, we never recoup the last month or two of software costs when a client leaves.”

There was no single source of truth, no standard workflow and no clean way to scale as the firm grew.

The solution: Automating subscription billing with Rechargly

William Buck Melbourne adopted Rechargly ahead of a planned 1 July rollout, giving them the space to properly redesign the workflow.

The onboarding required more effort than first expected, but this turned out to be a positive: it exposed data quality issues, inconsistent billing arrangements, and missing contact information that had never been corrected in APS. With Rechargly, the team:

1. Created a clean client list for Xero: Because APS did not contain clear subscription relationships, the team manually selected only the clients impacted by software disbursements. This surfaced outdated contacts and inaccurate records, which were corrected during migration.
2. Imported 765 clients into Xero and connected them to Rechargly: Many records required cleaning, including contact emails, subscription owners, and missing entities.
3. Shifted clients to direct debit: Some clients signed up immediately. Others needed more hands-on communication. Many initial invitations went to spam or accounts inboxes, so the team supplemented with phone calls where needed.
4. Reduced exceptions each month: In month one, roughly 80–100 clients still needed manual disbursement through APS. This number now trends toward under 10, with remaining exceptions mostly tied to insolvency or restructuring files that are intentionally excluded.
5. Standardised invoice delivery: After testing multiple approaches, the team now sends invoices only to clients with paid agreements, avoiding confusion while ensuring documentation is available for those who want it.

Calling clients made the difference,” Kat said. “Every client who was ‘hard’ to convert signed up after a quick conversation.

The team also streamlined invoice delivery. After testing multiple approaches, they now send invoices only to clients with paid agreements, which reduced confusion and improved consistency.

The impact: Fewer exceptions, cleaner processes and less admin noise

Six months in, the new system is significantly more stable:

• Exceptions have dropped from 80–100 in month one to 30–40, and are on track for under 10 ongoing.
• Offboarding is dramatically simpler. “If someone cancels a file and they’re on Rechargly, I just cancel Xero. I don’t have to worry about APS, billing rules or reminding staff.”
• Data quality has improved across the board, as Rechargly exposed outdated contacts and inconsistent records.
• New clients now onboard smoothly, with clear communication and immediate sign-up.

The firm plans to run a 12-month analysis to measure reductions in write-offs for departing clients. Early expectations are positive. Kat also highlighted Rechargly’s support:

“The Rechargly chat has been amazing. Anytime we had questions, the team helped straight away.”

Practical advice for firms rolling out Rechargly

From Kat’s experience:

1. Get the client list right from the start: This is the hardest and most important piece. APS records didn’t always match who should receive software charges. Expect to clean data.

2. Don’t rely on one email: The team found that many initial invitations went to spam or were missed by accounts teams. Phone calls or direct partner communication helped get difficult clients across the line.

3. Explain the logic clearly to clients: When clients hesitated on direct debit, the team reminded them: if they held the subscription themselves, it would still be on direct debit with Xero. This removed friction.

4. Allocate internal time for follow-ups: The “harder” clients were converted with a quick phone call. Investing a few minutes upfront saved ongoing admin each month.

Still managing software billing manually?

Leading firms like William Buck now have consistent pricing, fewer exceptions and complete confidence that everything is billed correctly each month.

Switch to automated disbursements with Rechargly and give your practice a cleaner, more predictable workflow.

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