How GWCPA Went from Six Figures in Outstanding AR to Near-Zero Collections with Anchor

01 · The Challenge

For years, the firm sent proposals from Word, followed up on outstanding balances informally, and relied on check runs to the bank. It was a patchwork that worked well enough under the firm’s traditional model but created growing problems as partners retired and receivables accumulated.

The most visible symptom was a six-figure accounts receivable balance. It had accumulated because no one was systematically following up. Some of the firm’s previous partners operated on the assumption that long-standing clients would eventually catch up on balances, and in some cases that assumption held. In others it did not.

Barrett describes one case that captures how serious the situation had become. A client owed the firm for two separate tax returns spanning two and three prior years. The firm was about to deliver a third return before anyone noticed the outstanding balance. Other elderly clients presented a specific risk: if a client passed before paying, the firm had limited recourse on those old balances.

One client inherited from a predecessor owed roughly $4,000 and was paying approximately $25 every few months. At that pace, Barrett calculated it would take more than a decade to clear the balance on a client who was no longer even using the firm.

The proposal process created its own friction. Building proposals in Word, managing three-tier service packages with custom formatting and line-item pricing, translating those proposals into invoices, closing WIP in the Practice Management system, and then hoping a client would eventually mail a check, added up to hours of manual work with no reliable path to payment. A prior attempt to integrate Stripe directly into the firm’s website and tax return delivery process failed: broken links, cards being declined after clients had already signed, clients who paid a portion and mailed a check anyway, and no single source of truth for what had been paid and what had not been.

The firm tried a dedicated proposal software platform for payroll services. The vendor billed quarterly under a year-long contract. Attempts to pass the proposal generation process to the admin did not work out, and the firm ended up paying for four quarters of an unused seat. Another platform offered attractive drag-and-drop features but had a library that fell out of date unless someone manually maintained it, and the cost was difficult to justify at scale.

“We had no one chasing it down. We would just continue working for that client. Before we knew it, we would have two, three, four months that hadn’t been paid.”
Barrett Young, Tax Managing Partner, GWCPA

02 · The SolutionWhy Anchor

Barrett first encountered Anchor at Deeper Weekend, Jason Blumer’s industry event, in October 2024. He brought the platform back to his partner with a question that will resonate with any firm owner who has tried to time a software transition: should they really onboard a new engagement letter and payment system a month before sending out their tax season agreements?

They pushed through that concern and made it happen. The reasons were clear. Anchor integrated the proposal, agreement, and payment collection into one continuous workflow. When a client signs an agreement, they link a payment method before work begins, and subsequent invoices are automatically collected from that pre-approved method. That structural change removed the core failure mode the firm had experienced with every prior approach: clients who signed but never paid, or who paid inconsistently by check with no connection to the invoice it was meant to cover.

Two other factors mattered. First, the ability to pass credit card processing fees to clients who prefer to use a card, while keeping ACH free, gave clients a reason to choose ACH and reduced the firm’s exposure to processing costs. Second, Anchor does not lock firms into annual contracts. Barrett could commit to a tax season and evaluate from there.

“The integration of the proposal software with the payment is the biggest selling point for us. The simplicity of converting it from a proposal to an agreement, and knowing I’ll get paid today, on the first of June, on the first of July, all in the same agreement, makes a big difference.”
Barrett Young, Tax Managing Partner, GWCPA

Implementation

The firm went all in from the start rather than piloting with a handful of clients. Their reasoning was grounded in hard-won experience: prior attempts at mixing payment methods had produced more complexity, not less. Adding Anchor as one more option alongside checks, cash, card, and Stripe links would have made the problem worse. The only path forward was a single process for the entire firm.

The first tax season included a learning curve specific to the firm’s client mix. Some clients, particularly those associated with trusts, did not have personal checking accounts and required guidance on how to use the trustee’s personal card and seek reimbursement. A small percentage of clients still mailed checks despite having signed an agreement that authorized an Anchor draft. The firm developed a response to those cases: process the check once, then use Anchor to send a small verification deposit to that account so future drafts can come directly from the same source.

One feature Barrett flagged as particularly useful was Anchor’s live service library. When a service description is updated, the change flows through to all existing draft agreements automatically. The team no longer has to manually rebuild templates or worry about outdated language appearing in proposals.

“We had tried a piecemeal process the year prior and it had failed miserably. We already knew we had to have one process for the firm in order for this to move forward.”
Barrett Young, Tax Managing Partner, GWCPA

03 · The Results
Direct Saving

The firm’s six-figure AR balance fell to near zero over roughly one year. The first six months addressed the majority of outstanding accounts by volume and roughly half of the dollar balance, based on Barrett’s own assessment. The remaining balances required direct conversations with clients; in some cases, establishing explicit payment plans added as line items in their next Anchor agreement: a service called “Prior Period AR” spread the outstanding amount across monthly installments, making it visible to the client and trackable within the same system handling current-year billing.

A small number of clients walked away without paying. Others complied with aggressive payment timelines once the firm made it clear that future services would depend on clearing the balance. The combination of Anchor’s automated invoicing and the firm’s more assertive collections posture brought the balance to near-zero within about a year.

The operational shift has been equally significant. Weekly check runs to the bank have been eliminated. Manual matching of check payments to invoices, which previously required staff time and introduced reconciliation errors, is no longer a routine part of the billing cycle. Barrett estimates that 1% to 2% of clients still occasionally send paper checks, and the firm has developed a consistent process for converting those clients to ACH over time.

Perhaps the most telling result is what the proposal and onboarding workflow looks like today. A 25-year-old admin who joined the firm as an intern four years ago now manages the full proposal process: building the proposal, flagging it for Barrett’s review, sending it to the client, following up, and walking clients through the signing and payment setup by phone when needed. Barrett’s involvement has been reduced to a brief review before the proposal goes out.

She has also built out the firm’s service library using AI to write more thorough service descriptions than the partners would have produced themselves, covering what is and is not included in each service package. That library now serves as the foundation for every proposal the firm sends. Results vary by firm size, client mix, and prior billing setup.

“All of that is out of my hands now after one and a half years of using Anchor. And that’s pretty amazing.”
Barrett Young, Tax Managing Partner, GWCPA