Case Study
Hoover & Associates Accounting
Owensboro, KY
28 Years Serving Owensboro — and Their “Client Login” Button Shows “This Workspace Has Been Deactivated.”
The homepage and navigation bar of hooveraccounting.com both feature a prominent “Client Login” button — the primary method for existing clients to access tax returns, documents, and year-round files. Clicking it routes to a Citrix ShareFile workspace that displays:
“This workspace has been deactivated. Please contact your administrator.”
ShareFile workspaces are deactivated when a firm cancels or downgrades their subscription. The entire client document portal is offline. Every current client of Hoover & Associates who tries to retrieve a tax return, share financial records, or access year-round documents through the published client login is told the system has been shut down.
The Firm
Hoover & Associates Accounting has been serving Owensboro and the surrounding area since 1998. Accounting, tax preparation, payroll, QuickBooks consulting, and business formation services — 28 years of Western Kentucky accounting relationships, many of them with the same clients the firm started with.
The firm invested in Citrix ShareFile to give clients a secure, professional way to exchange sensitive financial documents without faxes or in-person drop-offs. That investment was the right call. But a deactivated workspace tells every client who tries to use it that the investment has been abandoned — and leaves them with no obvious path forward.
What We Found
A deactivated client portal, sitewide navigation pointing to it, and no fallback for clients who hit the dead end.
ShareFile Deactivation Locks Out Existing Clients
Citrix ShareFile deactivates a workspace when the subscription lapses or is explicitly cancelled. The workspace doesn't show an expired message or a renewal prompt — it shows a hard stop: “deactivated, contact your administrator.” For a client who has been using this portal to submit their tax documents for years, this is a disorienting and frustrating failure with no self-service resolution.
Current clients are the most valuable clients this firm has. The portal failure is actively degrading service for every one of them who tries to use it.
The Button Is in the Main Navigation
The “Client Login” link isn't buried in a footer or a resources page. It is a primary navigation item — present on every page, at the top of every screen, the first click destination for any current client with a routine document need. A deactivated portal as a navigation item is like a locked front door with a sign that says “Contact your administrator” — unhelpful and alarming.
No Visible Fallback
The homepage and the deactivated portal page provide no alternative instructions. A client who hits the deactivation message and looks for “call us instead” or “email your documents to” finds nothing. The firm's phone number is not displayed on the portal error page. The client has to navigate back, find the Contact page, and try again — or they just give up.
What We'd Build
An Owensboro accounting firm website with a working client portal, a visible contact path, and a homepage that leads with 28 years of Western Kentucky expertise.
A Working Document Portal — or a Clear Alternative
Either a re-activated or replaced ShareFile/portal integration verified end-to-end, or a clearly communicated alternative: a secure email address for document submission, a Dropbox or Google Drive upload link, or a direct instruction for how clients should share sensitive files. No more dead ends.
“Owensboro's Accounting Partner Since 1998”
28 years in Owensboro means generational client relationships — business owners who came to Hoover as startups and are now planning succession. A hero section that leads with that history positions the firm against newer competitors before the first word of copy is read.
Service Pages for Western Kentucky Businesses
Accounting, tax preparation, payroll, QuickBooks consulting, and business formation — each described for the Owensboro client base: manufacturers, retailers, contractors, professional services firms, and family businesses in Western Kentucky.
Spec Redesign Deliverables
- ✓Client portal repaired or replaced — no deactivation errors, verified end-to-end
- ✓Visible fallback contact path on every page — phone and email where clients can reach someone
- ✓“Owensboro's Accounting Partner Since 1998” hero — 28 years as the opening line
- ✓Service pages for accounting, tax, payroll, and QuickBooks consulting
- ✓Free consultation CTA for new clients — converting prospects while serving existing ones
The Opportunity
Hoover & Associates has 28 years of Owensboro accounting work behind them — business formations, tax filings, payroll runs, and QuickBooks setups for Western Kentucky businesses that have grown alongside the firm. That history is an extraordinary asset.
A deactivated client portal tells existing clients their firm has stopped paying attention to its own infrastructure. It costs trust that took 28 years to build. And it's entirely fixable.
The firm's 4.5-star rating from 87 reviews tells the real story — Owensboro clients like working with Hoover & Associates. The website needs to support that relationship, not undermine it.
See what we'd fix on your site
We'll review your website top to bottom, record a 10-minute Loom walkthrough of exactly what's broken, and deliver a PDF report with prioritized fixes — in 48 hours.
No commitment. No pitch deck.