How Mage found a smarter finance management solution with OFX

Who are Mage?

Founded by Ashley Garrone and Michael Garrone, Mage is a specialist accounting, tax and legal advisory firm focused on solving complex issues for their clients. With a small but expert team of eight, Mage works closely with businesses and professional advisers to help simplify the hard stuff and create great outcomes for client

Along the way, the same issues kept appearing, traditional banking user admin was time consuming, overly complex and clunky. Payment and expense management with approval workflows suitable for SME’s was non-existent.

That’s when Ashley came across OFX. 

“I stumbled across OFX when I was looking for expense management solutions and virtual cards, and I got quite excited about its offering.”
– Ashley Garrone – Principal, Mage

Wasting time and dealing with outdated systems

Before finding OFX, Ashley experienced firsthand how inefficient financial administration can drain productivity, especially during her tenure in large corporate environments.

“Endless hours were lost navigating bank forms, chasing expense approvals, and managing unreliable card systems. Had OFX been available then, it would have transformed my workflow entirely.”

Even at Mage, a smaller firm, the same pain points lingered. Too much manual work, messy expense processes, and limited visibility across their two legal entities. 

Ashley tested other platforms, even one with glowing reviews, but found them “glitchy, underdeveloped, and prohibitively expensive.”

Why OFX made the cut

Ashley wasn’t impressed by flashy marketing or overpromised features. She just wanted something reliable, flexible, and easy to scale.

“I nearly committed to a UK-based platform, but it failed to meet the specific needs of our Australian business. Then I discovered OFX. It met   our requirements and exceeded expectations.”

What set OFX apart? Virtual cards, efficient spend management, and seamless integrations with accounting software. Additionally, OFX’s responsive and knowledgeable customer support was a decisive factor.

“Finally, I experienced genuine, effective support, something my previous platform sorely lacked.”

Pain relief in action

Once Mage joined OFX, Ashley and her team felt the shift straight away. Her team now oversees client finances with confidence, supported by OFX’s intuitive dashboards and comprehensive reporting capabilities.

“Our team manages cash flow, accounts payable, payroll, and spend tracking, all consolidated within a single platform,” Ashley notes. “The efficiency gains have been significant.”

And the integration with Xero? “The synchronisation is precise, and the OCR functionality for invoices operates flawlessly, streamlining processes considerably.”

The OCR functionality in the OFX platform is a standout feature that delivers significant value, especially for businesses with high volumes of transactions. It goes well beyond what native platforms like Xero offer, providing a much more efficient and streamlined way to manage documents and accounts payable. 

By automatically extracting and processing data from invoices and financial documents, it eliminates the need for manual data entry, turning what used to be a time-consuming task into a simple review process. 

For businesses managing cash flow, the visibility OFX provides through OCR is a game-changer. Teams can easily track commitments, view upcoming payments, and understand their financial position at a glance. 

More time, more clarity

Ashley estimates that OFX saves her four to five hours a week, time she now spends on client engagement, team leadership, and strategic planning.

“That’s a significant return of time, allowing me to focus on what truly matters.”

But it’s not just about time. With OFX, Mage, and the clients they support, are now running with greater efficiency, agility, and confidence.

Mage primarily supports accounting firms, helping them simplify complex financial workflows and enhance service delivery to their own clients. Approximately 70% of Mage’s work involves partnerships with accounting firms, either as a behind-the-scenes advisor or through direct collaboration, providing expertise in areas such as specialist tax advice, payroll tax, and software implementation.

As experienced financial professionals, the team at Mage brings a practical, problem-solving mindset to each engagement, drawing on their deep expertise as financial professionals. They use OFX not only within their own internal operations but also as a powerful tool to address specific pain points for their clients. 

Whether it’s helping a small business manage high volumes of FX payments or implementing efficient accounts payable systems for resource-constrained teams, Mage applies OFX in flexible ways that suit the varied needs of different industries and business structures. This multi-layered approach ensures that their clients, and the clients of those clients, benefit from more streamlined, scalable financial operations.

“It’s a brilliant tool. A proper one-stop shop. Honestly, if businesses aren’t using it yet, I don’t know what they’re waiting for.”
– Ashley Garrone, Principal, Mage.

One platform. Many wins.

From growing the team to onboarding a bookkeeper or helping clients with international payments, OFX has become a key part of Mage’s toolkit.

“For our business, even with small requirements, OFX makes us quicker, faster, better.”