Tech Consulting Firm Port & Starboard RevOps Goes “Full Speed Ahead” with Breadwinner for Xero

Breadwinner helps Port and Starboard increase account visibility and cut monthly invoicing time from 3 days to 3 hours per month by connecting Salesforce and Xero.

Port & Starboard helps businesses navigate technology challenges and find solutions that increase efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and lead to sustainable success. 

Port & Starboard Helps Growing Businesses Navigate the Shifting Seas of Technology

Business leaders today have something of a love-hate relationship with technology. Sure, technology can power growth, help you connect with customers, and make your team work smarter, not harder … but which technology? And how do you make it all work together?

There are tens of thousands of software companies – all claiming to be exactly the solution you need to make your business grow bigger and perform better. And it seems like there’s a new one every week. It’s enough to leave anyone feeling lost at sea.

Enter Port & Starboard!

Port & Starboard helps growing businesses navigate technology challenges and settle on solutions that really are just right. Customers rely on Port & Starboard’s team of technology experts for strategic advisory, Fractional CIO services, custom Salesforce solutions, and IT admin and development support.

Port & Starboard Charts A More Efficient Course with Breadwinner for Xero

Port & Starboard uses Salesforce for CRM and Sales Operations and Xero for all monthly billing, invoicing, and other financial operations. Back when they first started, Port & Starboard built a custom project management and timekeeping solution within Salesforce that houses all of the data required to bill their clients. It was a fairly simple manual process to create invoices in Xero using data from Salesforce reports when the company was small, but once they grew to more than 50 clients to invoice each month, the leadership team was spending way too much time creating invoices.

Since there was no link between Salesforce and Xero, this involved manual data extraction from Salesforce followed by manual entry into Xero before creating and sending the invoices. Once the invoices were sent, the rest of the team had no visibility on clients’ payment status in Salesforce.

The process required 3 days and a whole lot of frustration every month – just to create invoices!

In 2022, Port & Starboard’s leadership team decided it was time for a course correction and assigned newly-certified Salesforce Consultant Sandy Bachik to look into ways to streamline the invoicing process while keeping all the finances in Xero.

Armed with a vague reference to Breadwinner based on a LinkedIn post someone on the team had seen, Bachik began her search for a solution. She briefly considered attempting a complete DIY solution (Port & Starboard is a technology company after all), before realizing Breadwinner had all the features the team needed without the need to start from scratch.

The Port & Starboard team was excited by the prospect of a quick solution to their invoicing woes and by the seamless way Breadwinner was able to integrate with the custom Salesforce reporting tools they had already built.

Port & Starboard Cuts Monthly Invoicing Time by 88% Thanks to Xero & Salesforce Integration

Port & Starboard’s partnership with Breadwinner started strong from Day 1. “The integration was easy, and we had no issues with the installation even though I was new to Salesforce at the time,” said Sandy Bachik. 

Now, over a year later, Port & Starboard is delighted with the results of their partnership with Breadwinner. Data sharing between Xero and Salesforce has transformed their invoicing processes by eliminating the need for manual data extraction and re-entry. 

The invoice creation process that used to take multiple people 3 days to complete now requires just 3 hours per month. That’s an 88% time reduction!

And that’s not all. Adopting Breadwinner for Xero may have started as an invoicing efficiency initiative, but the benefits extend well beyond faster invoices.

Thanks to Breadwinner for Xero, team members can push a button in Salesforce to generate an invoice in Xero. They can also view invoices and invoice status in Salesforce and receive notifications if there are issues such as late payments.

This means Project Managers now have full visibility to client accounts within Salesforce, allowing them to follow up on account performance and distribute client hours and billable work appropriately, such as slowing down or stopping work if invoices haven’t been paid.

Managing Partners no longer have to personally handle all invoice creation or intervene when issues arise. They can focus on client work and business growth while others take care of invoice creation and follow-up.

It’s safe to say that Breadwinner for Xero has become a vital part of RevOps at Port & Starboard. Port & Starboard is thrilled with the results so far and will continue to look for more ways to customize their Breadwinner integration. Also on the agenda: exploring how Breadwinner products like Breadwinner Payments could benefit the businesses on Port & Starboard’s client list.

For more information about Port & Starboard, visit portstbd.com

Want to learn more about integrating Salesforce and Xero? 

Book a free demo to set up a discussion with our friendly product team.

< BACK TO CUSTOMER STORIES