Childhood friends Rain Allikvee and Jaanus Lang developed work management software for accountants to simplify their mothers’ daily accounting work. It recently ranked them among the best start-ups in the Baltics. Their mothers are both accountants whose accounting work challenges inspired the creation of the accounting management software Uku.

Today, Jaanus and Rain are happiest that, according to their mothers, they:

• No longer take work worries home;
• Can relax more,
• Can enjoy more time with their grandchildren.

Rain Allikvee’s mother, Anu Allikvee, leads the accounting company AR Tähelend, which is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Jaanus Lang’s mother and sister are chief accountants, and Jaanus’s mother, Maia Lang, advises other accountants. 2009, Rain and Jaanus established a collaborative design and development studio, Artify. They innovated and digitized the work processes of different companies.

Although Rain and Jaanus joke that they created Uku to give their mothers more time to babysit their grandchildren, the first spark of the idea came from clients who repeatedly asked them for accounting work solutions. Soon, the tandem of friends realized that significantly revolutionising classical accounting is difficult but that great potential lies in the digitalisation of accountants’ task management.

Rain’s and Jaanus’s accountant mothers were Uku’s first and most demanding customers

“Over the years, several heads of accountancy offices and accountants came to us asking for software that would help them manage the work of both companies and accountants and, among other things, to monitor deadlines,” says Jaanus Lang.

“Accountants have a lot of responsibilities and managing work was a big problem. We saw how much chaos the offices really were in.

The accounting firm’s growth was figuratively limited by how many employees a manager could talk to daily. Each accountant had their own system, and the manager didn’t have an overview of the state of things.”

“When I learned that my mother also had similar worries in her accounting work, the light bulb lighted up,” adds Rain. Collaborating with accounting specialists, friends developed and designed the idea of task management software for accountants until Uku was born. “Seeing the spark in the eyes of accountants, we realized that we were moving in the right direction,” notes Rain.

AR Tähelend,  Rain’s mother’s accounting firm, tested Uku first, and the men got a lot of meaningful feedback. Rain Allikvee laughs that his mother is one of their most challenging clients: “Her big plus is that she is very little open to change, and something must be really good for her to use it.

Thanks to this, from the very beginning, Uku has been easy to use by a person with little computer experience.

Basically, Uku can be used by people of all ages and backgrounds.”

Uku gives the accounting firm manager peace of mind

Today, Uku has become a necessary helper for Rain’s and Jaanus’s mothers and many other accounting practice managers and accountants. The biggest change that Uku brings to its users is peace of mind.

“Uku is especially irreplaceable for those who do not like to micromanage other people.

Uku takes away a lot of complicated administration and control from accounting work. The manager can focus on management and be sure that everything is under control and things are moving,” explains Jaanus.

Rain says that if 5 years ago her mother hadn’t been able to hand over her office management, then today it’s possible: “I see that my mother’s office is much more successful with Uku. If she ever wants to retire, she can do so without selling the business.”

Thanks to Uku, managing the everyday life of the accounting office is less stressful – even a change of employees is not a disaster that could ruin the summer vacation for several people. The current state of accounting tasks is always recorded, and delegating tasks is easy. Jaanus’s mother, on the other hand, can work part-time from the cottage at her own pace and advise other accountants remotely – thanks to Uku.

“My mother has said that she now has fewer work worries and can now end her working day at normal times, have a real rest and be with her grandchildren. With this, we’ve achieved our goal,” Rain concludes.

We wish a happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!

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