HAS Case Study- Zen Techworks
How Zen Techworks Regained Financial Control with Hasenbank Accounting Services and MSP Finance Team
Most MSPs eventually outgrow whoever is doing their books. Zen Techworks hit that point with an added complication: their entire operation ran on Xero and Autotask, a stack that few US accounting firms know well, while the benchmarks they were measured against were distinctly American. Solving one side of that problem usually meant giving up the other. This is the story of how Hasenbank Accounting Services (HAS) and MSP Finance Team (MSPFT) combined their specialties to solve both at once.
Finding the Right Fit: A Referral Through FlexPoint
Zen Techworks came to the HAS and MSPFT partnership through FlexPoint, the MSP payment platform, in February 2026. As a member of Pax8 Academy, Mike Thomas and his leadership team were already benchmarking themselves against their peers and were aware that the numbers behind those comparisons were not holding up to scrutiny. What they needed was not simply an accountant. They needed a team fluent in their software and in the way US MSPs are measured.
The Challenge: Growing on Numbers They Could Not Trust
Zen Techworks was already working with an outsourced accounting provider when they reached out, but the arrangement was not keeping pace with the business. The issues compounded on each other:
Reconciliation delays. Accounts were consistently behind, which meant every downstream report started from an unfinished base.
Misclassified sales, services and COGS. Revenue and cost lines were not sorted the way an MSP needs them sorted, so margin by service line was effectively invisible.
Weak reporting. Leadership had statements, but not management accounts they could act on with confidence.
An overburdened founder. Financial questions kept landing back on the owner's desk, pulling attention away from running and growing the business.
Gaps in benchmark alignment. The chart of accounts did not map to industry benchmarking standards, which made peer group comparison unreliable at exactly the moment it mattered most.
None of these problems were unusual for a scaling MSP. What made them stubborn was the toolset. Xero and Autotask sit at the center of how Zen Techworks operates, and expertise in that combination is scarce among US accounting firms.
Why They Made the Switch: One Team That Knew All Three
Zen Techworks moved to HAS and MSPFT for a specific reason: it was the only option that covered all three requirements at once. Deep working knowledge of Xero. Real fluency in Autotask. And practical experience with how American MSPs run, report and benchmark. Individually, each of those is findable. Together, in one engagement, they are not.
The Partnership: Two Specialists, One Engagement
HAS and MSPFT structured the work so the client never had to manage the seam between two firms. Each side leads where it is strongest:
MSP Finance Team runs the back end. Based in the UK and built specifically around MSP accounting, MSPFT brings the day to day command of Xero and Autotask that the engagement depends on, handling transaction processing, reconciliation and the mechanics of the ledger.
Hasenbank Accounting Services brings the US MSP lens. HAS manages the client relationship and applies its experience with American MSP financial structure, service line classification and peer group benchmarking to make sure the numbers mean the right things to a US owner.
Zen Techworks knew about the arrangement from the beginning and chose it deliberately. For the client, it operates as a single accounting team with two areas of unusual depth rather than two vendors to coordinate.
The Solution: Cleanup First, Structure Second
The plan was agreed in the first meeting and deliberately sequenced. Trying to redesign the chart of accounts while the books were still behind would have meant building on sand.
Phase one: clean up and stabilize. The teams worked through a significant backlog and took over daily accounting, bringing reconciliation current and keeping it there. This alone changed the reporting picture, because for the first time the underlying data was complete.
Phase two: realign the chart of accounts. With daily accounting under control, HAS and MSPFT rebuilt the chart of accounts so revenue, services and COGS were classified the way an MSP should classify them. That realignment is what turned Zen Techworks' financials into something that could stand up to peer group benchmarking.
The engagement continues on that footing today, with HAS managing the relationship and MSPFT running the back end.
The Results: Control, Clarity and Confidence
The improvements Zen Techworks has seen are concrete:
Reconciliation under control. The backlog is cleared and the books stay current, so the month no longer starts with catching up.
Benchmark aligned monthly reporting. The realigned chart of accounts produces management accounts that map to industry benchmarking standards, making peer comparison meaningful instead of approximate.
Timely management accounts. Leadership gets reporting when it is still useful for decisions rather than as a record of what already happened.
Prompt supplier payments. Payables run on schedule, which protects vendor relationships and removes a recurring source of friction.
The qualitative shift has been just as significant. The founder is no longer the last line of defense on financial questions, which has returned focus to the business itself. Leadership reports peace of mind about the state of the books, greater confidence in decision making, and the kind of operational stability that makes planning possible.
"We had a real problem on our hands. Our whole business runs on Xero and Autotask, and finding anyone in the States who genuinely knew both of those and understood how an MSP is supposed to be measured felt impossible. HAS and MSP Finance Team together were the answer. They cleaned up a serious backlog, rebuilt our chart of accounts so the numbers actually tell us something, and now our reporting is on time and our suppliers get paid on time. I am not the one chasing the books anymore, and that has given me my focus back."
- Mike Thomas, Zen Techworks
Conclusion:
Specialization is usually a trade-off. Zen Techworks needed software depth and US MSP expertise at the same time, and the HAS and MSPFT partnership delivered both without asking the client to compromise on either. For MSPs running on platforms their accountant does not fully understand, or benchmarking against standards their books were never structured to support, that combination is worth knowing about.