Flow is proud to announce the launch of the SaveTaxLegally website, which assists users to optimise their tax refunds – and save thousands, even tens of thousands, of rands annually.
SaveTaxLegally is the brainchild of veteran chartered accountant and property developer Oswald Büchner, who believes that as the taxman tightens up all kinds of ways to secure refunds, the only meaningful (and legal) opportunities left are for people with travel or car allowances – but most of us have no clue how to make the most of them.
Enter SaveTaxLegally, which encompasses a suite of web apps that allows you to figure out which is best for you – a car allowance or travel allowance; work out how to optimise your allowance; and easily keep a travel logbook (required by SARS, but a major pain and the reason why many people miss out on tax benefits). An additional, free web app gives you a quick tax check-up.
Büchner came to Flow with the apps’ functionality, which had been developed elsewhere, in a website design that simply didn’t cut it. Time was also tight: each month that goes by represents lost opportunities to get users on board before the next tax deadline. We were essentially given a month to design and build a new website (which we christened SaveTaxLegally), and develop mailer content to market it.
Flow’s team, led by sales development manager Roy Barford and project manager Gail Cameron, and comprising developer Alison Weir-Smith, designer Clement Nkoko and senior writer Willem Steenkamp, leapt into action. Within days a new site had been created and populated with content; the heavy lifting was done by Alison, who had to give life to Clement’s design and integrate the web apps into the new site.
“A little bit of UX (user experience) testing really came in handy when deciding what needed working on with the redesign of this website. We got such great feedback from participants that we are confident that the new site will be a hit with its target market,” says Alison.
Clement adds: “The challenge with the original website was that it looked like a ‘black hat’ website, and we had to redesign and reposition it from its old look and feel and into a space that can be trusted by its users. We wanted to get away from this perception, so much so that we amended the name to SaveTaxLegally.
“This was done by establishing a bold, modern look and feel, with a controlled colour palette and imagery that the user could identify with, in an aspirational way. It was important to establish new information architecture and hierarchy. We believe that this will better serve the content and present information that is easier to consume, to further give the user confidence in the product.
“I foresee this as an evolving website with marketing milestones set in upcoming phases ... We had close interaction with the client throughout the entire process.”
And the working relationship with Büchner has been a remarkable one, comments Willem: “I’ve rarely come across a client such as Oswald Büchner. He knows what he wants and is clear about it, which is unusual in itself, but he also gave us carte blanche in terms of how we meet his expectations. That’s almost unheard of.
“It’s so refreshing for us to be allowed – indeed, encouraged – to do what we do best, and it’s consequently been a great pleasure working with Oswald.”
In response, Büchner says: “Flow needs to be congratulated on the efficient and helpful manner in which Roy, Willem, Clement and Gail, but particularly Alison, went out of their way to meet my marketing objectives.
“Given the fact that we address a real need in the marketplace, I look forward to continued co-operation that will result in us reaching many more hilltops together.”
Concludes Roy: “It’s been such an honour to work with Oswald Büchner – he’s been in business for more than 60 years, but still has incredible enthusiasm and still looks for opportunities to learn new things every day.
“He’s come up with products that can save South African taxpayers thousands of rands, legally and conveniently, so it’s a pleasure helping him launch these.”
