Growing revenue by 140% with a connected app stack

When Jim Leeves co-founded UK-based accounting firm Shapes in 2023, the vision was clear: deliver accounting, systems implementation, and marketing services – all from one firm. With a six-person team running 15 to 20 client meetings a week, Shapes needed to punch well above its weight. The question was how to scale without sacrificing the personal, human touch that set the firm apart.

The answer came down to building the right tech stack – with Xero at the centre.

The meeting notes problem

Like many growing firms, Shapes hit a wall with meeting admin. Notes were inconsistent. Some got typed up in Google Drive folders, others were scribbled in whatever notebook was closest. Follow-up actions slipped through the cracks.

“Not only can I not be across everything, but I got  to the point where it’s  unhelpful to be across everything as well,” says Jim.

The team was losing an estimated four to five hours a day collectively – time spent writing up notes, chasing missed actions, and trying to reconstruct conversations after the fact. Worse, the inconsistency made it impossible to open any client record and see a clear picture of what had been discussed and agreed upon.

For a firm with growth ambitions, it was a bottleneck they couldn’t afford.

Building a connected app stack

Shapes made a deliberate choice: build everything around Xero and its connected app ecosystem.

The firm moved its practice management to Karbon, giving them a single place to manage client workflows alongside their Xero data. Then they added Vinyl, an AI meeting assistant that automatically records, transcribes, and summarises client meetings – and pushes those summaries directly into Karbon via a native integration.

That integration was a deciding factor. Jim and the team had looked at other transcription tools, but none offered the same seamless connection into their practice management system.

“If we’re going to have all of our client information in Karbon anyway, and we’ve got an integration that the others definitely wouldn’t have provided, that’s going to work really well for us,” Jim explains.

Within a week of trialling Vinyl, Shapes turned on automatic recording for every meeting.

140% revenue growth, 30 hours saved per week

The results have been significant. In the 12 months after building out their connected app stack, Shapes grew turnover by 140% year-on-year – with a similar-sized team.

Jim estimates that Vinyl alone saves each team member around an hour a day on meeting admin. Across the team, that’s roughly 30 hours a week freed up for client-facing work, business development, and delivery.

“Our turnover last year was 140% on the year before with a similar-sized team,” says Jim. “That kind of growth doesn’t happen easily, but it is possible with the right clients and the right tools that support all of that.”

Beyond the numbers, the quality of client interactions has improved too. Without the pressure to scribble notes during conversations, the team listens better, asks sharper questions, and closes meetings with clear, documented actions.

Clients notice the difference

Adoption of the apps was immediate. Not a single client pushed back on meetings being recorded by Vinyl. When Shapes frames it as a way to capture actions and next steps more accurately, the response is universally positive.

“Clients know they’re being listened to and they know that the Shapes team care about what they’ve got to say,” says Jim.

Several clients have even asked what the tool is and how they can get it themselves – a sign that the approach positions Shapes as a forward-thinking, tech-led firm in the eyes of the businesses they serve.

Advice for other firms

For Jim, the confidence to keep growing comes from knowing the systems are in place to support it. As Shapes prepares to expand the team in 2026, the foundations – Xero, Karbon, and Vinyl working together – mean new hires can get up to speed fast by reviewing meeting histories and client records from day one.

His advice to other firms considering a similar approach?

“You won’t be disappointed. You’ll regret that you’ve waited this long.”

Learn more about Karbon, Vinyl and other practice management apps that integrate with Xero in the Xero App Store.