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Automating Financial Consulting
From Legacy Code to an AI Platform for US Government Reports
Puerto Rico is often unofficially referred to as the 51st US state. While the territory falls entirely under American economic jurisdiction, its corporate tax structure is radically different. While the mainland US federal corporate tax rate is a flat 21%, Puerto Rico operates under the special Act 60, which reduces the rate to 4% for eligible businesses.
Additionally, the local government incentivizes innovation through the R&D Tax Credit program, offering businesses a tax credit of up to 50% of their qualifying research and development investments made during the taxable year.
Our client is DECA – an analytics, advisory and tax firm operating in the B2B segment with enterprise clients and in B2C with private entrepreneurs. They help American corporations to conduct financial and accounting audits of expenses on the island, and issue official certificates used by the government to disburse grants.
Having navigated the journey from emergency bug fixes in September to a full beta release in January, the team prepared the system for its final launch in late spring. Today, the system is successfully operating in test mode (10 clients, ~230 sessions per month), and we are already recording tangible results:
- Reduced Frustration: 10% drop thanks to micro-features (like the field copy button).
- Improved Navigation: The backtracking rate (returning to a previous step due to confusion) fell from 16% to 5-6% following the implementation of user-friendly "wizards."
- Operational Speed: The time required to navigate a page was cut in half – from nearly 2 minutes to just 1 minute.
The client approached our team (Linkup ST) with a critical issue. A previous agency had developed an internal system for them that was unstable, riddled with bugs (legacy code), and effectively paralyzing the company's operations.
Operational processes were fragmented: Monday.com was used as the primary task board, Google Drive for file storage, and communications were getting lost in email threads. The objective was not merely to fix bugs, but to build a comprehensive internal CRM and financial platform to fully automate the cycle: from lead acquisition to the generation of final government reports.
Our Vision
Developing enterprise-level software for financial consulting goes beyond merely writing code. It is a complete business transformation. We firmly believe that to successfully implement such solutions, a team must possess hybrid expertise, blending technical skills with a deep understanding of financial formulas and the legal space.
"You aren't just building a system where people 'push buttons.' You need to understand how these formulas work and how the government submission process happens. You operate in two dimensions: the software dimension and the legal dimension, working alongside the client’s COO to identify gaps in their processes and bridge them with IT solutions," notes the project's Team Lead.
Ecosystem and Architecture Overview
To avoid disrupting the client's business, we adopted a two-phase approach. First, we conducted emergency "firefighting" to fix critical bugs, and later, we completely rewrote the platform from scratch, eliminating the outdated structure.
By leveraging AI (specifically Claude) to write code, development speed increased exponentially. Tasks that previously took months were completed by three developers in a single two-week sprint.
The immediate priority was to unify fragmented communications during the presale stage.
Prior to the platform's implementation, the client was losing potential leads due to the lack of a single control point. Emails ended up in spam, managers were unaware of document signing statuses, and interaction histories were scattered across Monday.com and email.
The team developed a prospects module (one-way lead generation). Now, managers have a unified dashboard displaying every step of the client's journey (e.g., whether an NDA is signed or a questionnaire is completed).
Internal integration with Gmail allows staff to conduct correspondence directly from the client’s card in the CRM – ensuring every employee can view the entire communication history.
Financial Processes Transformation and UX Optimization
The workflows of the administrators and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) were bogged down by routine tasks. The CFO performed highly complex audit calculations in a massive Excel file that was prone to desynchronization.
Meanwhile, administrators struggled with a clunky interface, wasting time on "dead clicks" and constantly switching between accounts.
Solution Examples:
- We transformed complex Excel spreadsheets into a secure web interface within the organization's card. Now, changing a single digit automatically updates the data everywhere.
- Analytics (Hotjar, Clarity) revealed that admins were constantly highlighting text with their mice to copy it, generating dead clicks. Adding a simple "copy field" button instantly resolved this issue.
- We added a direct redirect button that allows a manager to instantly view a form through the client’s eyes to provide immediate support.
- We also relied on an informal feedback loop: a trusted person on the client's side gathered information in casual conversations – which highlighted real employee pain points.
The primary goal of implementing this platform is to reduce the full document processing cycle from 51 to 35 days.
Thanks to a well-thought-out follow-up system and deep automation, this will enable the client to process nearly 50% more applications. This comprehensive approach to development has proven that true digitalization is impossible without a deep understanding of business logic.
Ultimately, DECA is receiving more than just a CRM; they are gaining a powerful tool for significantly scaling their operations — consigning fragmented spreadsheets and routine grunt work to the past.
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