Founded in the South Island of New Zealand back in 2006, Sidekick’s accounting firm has since advanced both in business growth and use of technology.
Their vision was to offer a product of accounting that optimises predictable and powerful software in order to take charge of accounting in a more efficient way.
“Our tech stack enabled us to grow
When Sidekick was founded back in 2006, at the time, accounting practices weren’t much different to 100 years before. Only some were using tech, but perhaps being begrudgingly dragged into the new era of 'Cloud Accounting’ – which we envisioned as the backbone of accounting.
Our mission was to offer tech-enabled accounting, and this mission was a success.
Since 2010 we have opened up a number of practices across New Zealand and overseas, and now operate optimising an amazing accounting tech stack; including Xero, Workflow Max, Hubspot, reporting apps, and now Aider.”
– Ric Thorpe, Sidekick
Just like at Aider, there is an ingenious and personal human intelligence behind the artificial intelligence at Sidekick. It is a combination of both that makes the most successful advisory.
Everyone must be a SWAN:
The Sidekick team swear by this approach, and apply it internally and externally. They believe that partnering with and working with intelligent, ambitious people that are not only hard-workers but are genuinely kind, is just as important as the tech they stand behind.
“At Sidekick, we’re ingenious, agile and innovative. We apply our strengths and connect our clients with the best solutions. And we deliver on our brand promise: to help our SMB customers be more successful.
We optimise cutting-edge tech to help SMBs find their personal version of success.
Whether this be a boat, a beach and a beamer, or Friday’s off – whatever it is, we support our customers in their mission and apply accounting technology to help them succeed.”
– Ric Thorpe, Sidekick
Sidekick’s Advisor, Ric Thorpe, first heard of Aider at a fintech conference, where he discussed the platform over a few beers with Aider’s CEO and Founder, Brendan Roberts.
At the time, Aider’s Advisory Intelligence Platform was still in the early stages of development, but instantly, he was intrigued.
“I mentioned to Brendan that I was searching for a platform that syncs with Xero and pre-analyses data for me, and he said ‘I think I’ve already created it’.
I demoed Aider back in the early stages, and have stayed in contact with them ever since.
Now that Aider’s Advisory Intelligence Platform is ready, I have an optimistic and rosy view of the platform, and how it will help Sidekick in the near future, in enabling us to be profoundly proactive with our clients.”
– Ric Thorpe, Sidekick
From Aider’s triaged dashboard, to real-time GST reconciliation: Aider helps Sidekick “deliver on their brand promises”
Here at Aider, we’re super excited to see our Advisory Intelligence Platform entering the market and starting to make a difference for advisors and their SMB clients.
It has been our mission since day one to help businesses embrace technology to advance accounting and advisory, so we’re over-the-moon to see this optimism within Sidekick’s firm.
“The Aider dashboard enables us to see who needs our help and how”
“I like how Aider’s dashboard triages our clients’ finances, and provides us with alerts in real-time. With Aider, we can see real-time GST reconciliation, large spikes in growth or decline, and any other potential surprises our SMB clients may experience.
It provides us with a clear view of all of our clients’ information in one place, at little cost.
With Aider, we feel comforted by the fact that we know that everything is organised, and that we can bring any financial urgencies to our customers' attention ahead of time.”
– Ric Thorpe, Sidekick
