120H+ Saved Through Automation: LedgerZ’s Secret to Scaling Bookkeeping Without Hiring

When your business has multiple revenue streams and locations, accounting can turn into a headache fast. Each additional platform, each new point of sale adds another layer of friction. Manual reconciliation becomes a time sink, reports lose consistency, and when systems like Square and QuickBooks Online don’t speak the same language, it’s easy for errors to slip through unnoticed. It’s no surprise that 62% of finance leaders cite integration issues as a core obstacle to reliable reporting.

Christina Testolin, founder of the LedgerZ Bookkeeping accounting firm, lived that reality firsthand. Running a solo practice, she supported a fast-growing portfolio of clients, from hospitality startups to bustling ecommerce operations, all of them operating across multiple locations and through various revenue streams. With no team to back her up, she was juggling a flood of transactions, complex reports, and nonstop data chaos day in, day out.

Rather than scaling through new hires, Christina turned to automation. Synder became the backbone of her operations, allowing her to streamline data syncs, automate categorization, and gain clear, accurate reporting across all her clients’ income streams. What began as a search for efficiency quickly evolved into a smarter, more scalable way to serve complex businesses with precision.

The challenge: Complexity without resources

LedgerZ Bookkeeping was growing fast, but so were its clients, and the stakes were rising just as quickly. In less than two years, Christina found herself handling books for businesses with multiple locations, complex income streams, and relentless transaction volume. These weren’t mom-and-pop accounts. They demanded real-time reporting, with zero room for error. The challenge was that Christina was on her own, trying to meet rising demands with no extra hands and no scalable infrastructure in place.

Many clients operated with systems that didn’t integrate cleanly, forcing Christina to spend over 10 hours every month just on manually reconciling data. The more the clients grew, the more time it took to keep everything aligned. With no budget yet for additional staff, she needed a solution that could deliver enterprise-grade accuracy without adding complexity or overhead. 

Why other tools fell short

First Christina explored other automation options to lighten her workload. One of the first tools she tried was a platform that promised to streamline accounting tasks. While it showed initial promise, it quickly hit a wall when it came to meeting her client’s more nuanced needs.

‘The other system was okay, but they only create journal entries, and for my clients, that wasn’t going to be good enough, we needed granular reporting‘ she explained.

Her clients expected more than just summarized financial data. They relied on detailed sales receipts to track inventory in real time–something journal entries simply couldn’t support. The lack of transactional granularity meant critical data was missing, and manual workarounds would’ve defeated the purpose of automation.

It quickly became clear that if Christina was going to automate, she needed a solution that delivered full visibility into each transaction, down to the SKU.

Christina found herself trapped in a constant loop of overwhelming manual work. Her previous tools couldn’t keep up with the demands of advanced accounting, lacking the flexibility for detailed inventory tracking or dynamic categorization. Every client-side change added hours of cleanup, draining time and energy, and there was simply no bandwidth to scale. 

Enter Synder—multi-location clarity, automated

That’s when Synder stepped in, automating complex workflows and restoring clarity to the books.

Real-time, automated data sync across multiple platforms

What truly set Synder apart was the Per Transaction Sync mode, which allowed Christina to capture and sync every transaction in real time with QuickBooks Online. Instead of generic journal entries, Synder generated detailed sales receipts that retained all available data, like items sold, taxes, discounts, fees, payment methods, and customer details. This level of granularity was key for LedgerZ Bookkeeping’s clients who depended on precise inventory tracking and detailed financial insights.

For one client with operations spread across three separate locations and multiple revenue streams, this functionality was a real breakthrough. With Synder, Christina was able to sync Square transactions directly into QuickBooks Online, automatically categorizing sales by location and revenue stream. 

‘Synder really changed the way we work. It automatically syncs transactions across all our platforms and channels, saving us hours of manual reconciliation. Now, what used to take so much time is done in just a few clicks, and it’s always accurate and in real-time.‘

Christina Testolin, founder of the LedgerZ Bookkeeping

Synder’s Square-to-QuickBooks Online integration delivered the clarity LedgerZ Bookkeeping’s clients had been missing, especially those with multiple locations and intricate revenue streams. With clean, dependable financial data at her fingertips, she was able to deliver the kind of timely, strategic reporting her clients needed to make confident decisions. And with the manual work out of the way, she could finally focus on driving real impact instead of cleaning up data.

Smart Rules that scale

Another major breakthrough for Christina came with Synder’s Smart Rules—an automatic categorization feature that allowed her to build customized workflows using the simple “if-then” logic. Instead of manually categorizing transactions, she could set rules that automatically assigned them to the right accounts or classes based on specific details, like the location of the sale, the type of product sold, or the service provided. This meant she could ensure that every dollar was routed exactly where it needed to go—automatically, and without second-guessing.

‘Synder’s Smart Rules is a great solution for my multi-location clients. Each transaction gets automatically classified depending on the location and product type. Synder brings structure into the chaos and helps keep everything organized for accurate reporting.‘

Christina Testolin, founder of the LedgerZ Bookkeeping

What began as a simple time-saver soon became the backbone of Christina’s workflow. Like setting a compass in a storm of numbers, Smart Rules brought structure to tangled income streams and made it possible to deliver clear, segmented insights by location. The process became smoother, and the data cleaner. With fewer errors to chase down, Christina could move quickly and offer her clients a level of financial visibility they hadn’t had before.

Automated fee management and accuracy at scale

One of the trickier parts of Christina’s job was keeping track of platform fees—things like Square’s transaction charges that often got buried in daily batches or hidden inside net payouts. Before Synder, pulling those numbers meant digging through multiple systems, pulling line items apart, and trying to make sense of it all by hand. It was slow, repetitive work, and even a small mistake could throw off the books.

Synder changed that. By automatically identifying and categorizing platform fees at the transaction level, Synder ensured every charge was properly mapped and recorded in real time. This automation dramatically reduced the risk of discrepancies and eliminated the need for manual cleanup at month’s end.

‘Fee tracking used to be one of those nagging tasks that slipped through the cracks,’ Christina explained. ‘Now, I know everything is captured and categorized automatically—it’s a huge relief.’

The impact went deeper than just reclaiming hours. With precise records and transparent audit trails, Christina equipped her clients with a sharper understanding of their true costs. Instead of second-guessing where fees were eating into margins, they could see the full picture and act on it. Clean books became more than a compliance checkbox. They became a tool for strategic growth and better financial conversations.

The results: 120h+ saved and countless errors avoided

Synder didn’t just give Christina hours back, it gave her peace of mind. She estimates saving over 10 hours a month on just one client alone, thanks to automation and clean categorization. More importantly, the accuracy Synder provides means less time spent double-checking and fixing mistakes.

‘Synder saves me at least 120 hours every year just on manual data entry and reconciliation. It gives me the ability to manage multiple income streams and separate clearing accounts for different locations, making month-end close so much easier and more accurate. It’s 100% worth the money.’

Christina Testolin, founder of the LedgerZ Bookkeeping

For firms like LedgerZ Bookkeeping, and for larger ones with even more at stake, Synder offers more than efficiency. It offers confidence in the numbers.

A scalable solution for larger teams

LedgerZ Bookkeeping’s story is proof that powerful automation doesn’t require a large team to make a big impact.

For larger firms grappling with even more complexity, the takeaway is clear: if one bookkeeper can unlock this much clarity and control with Synder, imagine the scale of insight an entire accounting team could achieve. 

As businesses expand, the volume of data, the number of revenue streams, and the pace of operations all increase, often leading to fragmented workflows and inconsistent reporting. Synder closes those gaps. It scales with your operations, keeps your data unified, and gives finance teams a single, accurate source of truth they can rely on to move faster, report smarter, and lead with confidence.

Looking for a smarter way to manage multi-location accounting?

LedgerZ Bookkeeping saved over 120 hours thanks to Synder’s powerful automation. Imagine what your team could accomplish with that kind of time back. Sign up for Synder’s 15-day free trial or join our Weekly Public Demo to see how Synder can work for you.