Case Study: Internal Accounting Operations Platform for a Chartered Accounting Firm (South Africa)

We designed, optimised, and scaled a custom internal operations platform for a South Africa–based Chartered Accounting firm, handling the full lifecycle from legacy stabilisation to production-grade deployment.

The platform was built to support high-volume tax workflows, audit readiness, approvals, and compliance tracking, replacing fragmented manual processes with a single, reliable system.

Project Scope & Objectives

The firm required an internal tool to:

• Manage complex tax workflows and submissions
• Maintain clear audit trails for regulatory compliance
• Automate recurring processes that were error-prone
• Support multi-role approvals (clerks, partners, super partners)
• Improve reliability during peak filing periods

Legacy System Optimisation & Stabilisation

We began by refactoring and optimising the existing codebase:

• Reduced application load time by 50%
• Improved API and server response times by 60%
• Fixed long-running queries and inefficient dashboard loads
• Stabilised critical modules experiencing timeouts under load

This ensured the system could handle real-world accounting volumes reliably.

Core Modules Developed

1. Client & Entity Management Module

• Centralised client records and entities
• Prevented accidental data loss with history tracking
• Supported controlled field updates based on business rules

2. Tax Dashboard & Automation Engine

• Automated monthly tax entry creation

• Scheduled cron jobs to run reliably without manual intervention

• Built failure detection reports to confirm successful execution

• Introduced audit-style reports showing:

  • Client name
  • Tax type
  • Entry creation status
  • Creation timestamps

This directly addressed compliance and trust concerns raised by stakeholders.

3. Audit Trail & Error-Check Reporting

• Implemented transaction-level audit trails
• Generated historical reports for multi-month audits
• Enabled traceability for missing or failed tax entries
• Added mandatory reason capture for record deletions

This significantly improved internal audit readiness.

4. Approval Workflow & RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)

We implemented granular approval flows:

• Clerk → Partner → Super Partner
• Permissions varied by role and tax stage
• Prevented unauthorised status changes
• Supported controlled “rework required” loops

This reduced approval ambiguity and operational risk.

5. Quality Control (QC) & Review Modules

• QC dashboards with performance statistics
• Partner and Super Checker reports
• Filters for assigned clerks and date ranges
• Corrected edge cases where QC items were not appearing correctly

6. Correspondence & Objection Management

• Linked correspondence automatically to objections
• Reduced manual linking errors
• Improved visibility of document history
• Enhanced UI to make critical documents easier to locate

7. Reporting & Dashboards

• Date-type aware filters for accurate monthly reporting
• Partner deadline reports consolidated into single views
• Finalised-date tracking for assessments
• Downloadable statistics reports for management review

8. Notification & Email Optimisation

• Reduced redundant email notifications
• Improved subject-line clarity with financial year context
• Ensured notifications matched real workflow actions

Frontend & Backend Development

• Frontend: ReactJS for a responsive, role-aware UI
• Backend: Node.js for scalable business logic
• Focus on usability under real operational pressure
• Continuous UI fixes based on partner and staff feedback

Infrastructure, DevOps & Deployment

• Designed and managed Heroku-based environments:

  • Development
  • QA
  • Production

• Implemented CI/CD pipelines for safe deployments

• Handled live production fixes during critical deadlines

• Managed outages and dependency conflicts with minimal disruption

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Led talent onboarding and task coordination

• Acted as a bridge between:

  • Accounting partners
  • Internal staff
  • Development team

• Translated accounting-domain requirements into technical logic

• Provided real-time support during peak operational periods

Results & Impact

• Significant reduction in manual tax handling
• Improved confidence in system reliability and audit readiness
• Faster approvals with fewer workflow blockers
• Clear visibility into errors, failures, and corrective actions
• A stable internal platform capable of evolving with regulatory needs

Free Consultation. We Can Help.

From internal accounting tools to compliance-heavy workflow systems, we help professional services firms replace fragile processes with reliable, auditable software.

If your firm needs a custom internal platform built for real operational pressure, we can design and deliver it end to end.

Contact us today for a free consultation.