At Forwardly, our Certified Partners are some of the most forward-thinking accounting and bookkeeping professionals in the industry. The Forwardly Partner Spotlight series gives them a chance to share their story: how they built their firms, how they think about technology, and what they have learned along the way. 

Jackie Anthony didn't plan to start a bookkeeping firm in Southern California. She came to the US from England with an accounting degree, a CIMA membership, and a job that didn't work out. Rather than pack up and go home, she applied for an investor visa and built something of her own. AllCents Consulting signed its first client on January 15, 2017. That client is still with them today.

An expert generalist with a high bar

AllCents doesn't niche by industry. Jackie calls the firm an "expert generalist," and her sweet spot is businesses pushing from $1M toward $5M and beyond. What her clients share isn't a sector; it's ambition and a readiness to use technology to scale.

That positioning came partly from what she kept seeing in the market. New clients were showing up having been ghosted by previous bookkeepers, or receiving reports three months late and assuming that was just how it worked.

"I found myself apologizing to these clients on behalf of our profession for the poor service they had received from other bookkeepers."

Her response was to build a firm that demonstrated what great actually looks like. Her approach to technology follows the same logic: every tool has to earn its place.

"I don't have shiny new toy syndrome. I grew out of that a few years ago. I look at every new piece of tech in terms of how it's going to improve the service delivery we give to our clients."

Why AllCents Consulting switched to Forwardly

Before Forwardly, Jackie had tried a few payment solutions and found them all lacking. One added fees over time and slowed collections. Another took six weeks to process a single payment during a trial run. A third was too complicated for clients to get comfortable with.

She found Forwardly at Scaling New Heights and saw something different straight away.

"It seemed to be one of the closest things to a European banking structure that I had come across. Banking here in the USA is so antiquated."

She gave it a try. Her clients adopted it without complaint, which she considers the clearest sign that something works.

"Now it's just like, I know when my money's going to come in. And I'm paying next to nothing for it. Two years later, I'm still here."

The conversation with her clients often starts with fees. Business owners paying per-invoice charges through other platforms feel it is a tax on revenue they already earned.

"I delivered a service. That is my money. I worked hard to do that. Why should I have 3% of that taken away just so someone can pay me?"

Forwardly gives her a direct answer to that frustration. One recent example is a client who was processing hundreds of thousands per year in invoicing through QuickBooks Payments, who has since made the switch. Jackie expects more to follow. Her standard pitch to any client generating invoices is simple: Have you looked at Forwardly?

She also points to the support behind the product as a genuine differentiator. Having someone available to jump on a demo and address client objections directly has made adoption far easier.

"Whatever questions my clients might have, I might not be able to answer them. But having that expert there to address any objection or challenge a client would raise; that's a real bonus point for Forwardly."

What's next for AllCents

"I want to get to a million dollars. That's a definite."

Jackie is leaning into AI to get there. She recently completed a Claude cohort and built a custom cash flow forecasting app with no prior coding experience. The goal is to move clients off spreadsheets entirely and deliver a premium advisory service built around tools like that.

"The world is changing so fast. I want to spend more time with my clients helping their business move faster and faster, and I think the technology we use is enabling us to do that."

The thread running through all of it is the same one that's driven AllCents from the beginning: use technology intentionally, never let your clients settle for less than they deserve, and get your life back from manual tasks.

You can get in touch with Jackie and AllCents Consulting at allcents.co.

Want to be featured in a future spotlight? Forwardly Certified Partners are eligible to be profiled in this series, with their story share__d across our blog and social channels. Certification is free and comes with enhanced referral rewards, a public digital badge, and the kind of visibility that helps great firms get noticed.

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