Client & Firm Profile
About Clayton and Associates
Clayton and Associates is a boutique CPA firm led by Rob Clayton, CPA, Owner and President. The firm specializes in outsourced Chief Financial Officer services for small businesses — giving owners access to senior-level financial guidance and QuickBooks-based reporting without the cost of a full-time in-house CFO. Rather than running a general tax-and-bookkeeping practice, Clayton and Associates focuses specifically on the ongoing financial leadership small business owners need to make informed decisions: cash flow oversight, financial reporting, and strategic planning built on top of a properly maintained QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop environment. The firm supports roughly two dozen users and clients, reflecting a practice built for close, hands-on client relationships rather than high-volume transactional work. Rob has led the firm's technology decisions around QuickBooks hosting since 2012.
The Challenge
Clayton and Associates is a boutique CPA firm built around a specific, high-touch service: outsourced CFO work for small businesses. That kind of work depends on the full depth of QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop — the reporting, the customization, the feature set built up over decades of desktop development.
Rob put the industry-wide version of this challenge simply: the browser-based alternative doesn't cut it for firms doing serious client accounting work. As he puts it, it's a near-universal opinion among the CPAs he talks to. The firm needed the full Desktop product, but with the remote access, multi-user reliability, and infrastructure a modern multi-client practice actually runs on.
The Solution
Clayton and Associates has hosted QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop with Sagenext since December 2012 — supporting roughly two dozen users and clients across multiple dedicated Sagenext servers as the firm has grown.
The setup lets Rob and his team work in the full QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop environment they rely on for outsourced CFO engagements, while getting it delivered as a hosted, remotely accessible service rather than something tied to a single office machine.
The Result
14 years and counting
Clayton and Associates has been a continuous Sagenext client since 2012 — through the full evolution of the QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop debate, without needing to migrate off the platform his practice was built on.
Every issue traced back to local internet, not Sagenext
In Rob's own words, the only difficulty he's ever run into wasn't a Sagenext problem at all — it was his own office's internet connection. Nothing on Sagenext's end.
Support rated A+
When issues have come up, Rob describes Sagenext's customer service as consistently responsive and competent — with no complaints about how the product or the service is supported.
Ready to Run QuickBooks Enterprise the Way Your Firm Actually Works?
Join CPA firms like Clayton and Associates who've stayed on QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop — hosted, secure, and accessible from anywhere — instead of switching to QuickBooks Online.
