Portrait of an accountant as an impressionist artist
We know that technology is automating compliance accounts production at an ever increasing rate. Does that mean that accountants are automatically going to go out of business? No.
This is simply a time to reinvent those skills with numbers. Let’s take a look at a very different industry at a very different time. Until the 19th century, if you were an artist, you were in very high demand.
The only way you could preserve an image of your baby, children, family, grandma was by commissioning an artist to paint or draw a picture for you.
Invention of the camera
If you wanted to brighten the house with a nice picture of the landscape you’d buy one from an artist or commission one. There were a great many artists, all paid to paint like-for-like – exactly as you see it. The invention of the camera was seen as a huge threat to most of those artists.
Price wise, it was still expensive to approach a photographer who had invested in a camera and it’s related equipment. But in those early days it was better to pay a premium and stand still for a minute or two than to stay still for hours for an artist.
The typical artist, who painted and drew like-for-like images felt that their career in artistry was over. Their regular income depleted and many retired or found alternative work literally wasting their skills.
Innovate and become liberated
However, about a third of those artists saw the opportunity to become truly liberated. Finally, they were free to express themselves. It was so limiting to paint like-for-like to them. They wanted to do more.
This was the birth of Impressionism. Artists were painting images in very different ways. Ways that portrayed how what they were painting made them feel. Their interpretation.
And the people who bought those painting felt the same way. They were moved not by the accuracy of the painting but by the way the painting made them feel.
Differentiating through personality
Each artist differentiated themselves by expressing their personality and their individuality in their paintings.
No longer were all artists the same. Pricing competitively, undercutting each other to effectively produce the same thing. Each produced work that would only appeal to a minority – their ideal client. The ones who ‘got it’.
This meant that their work was better appreciated by those few, rather than trying to please the masses. Better appreciated, better valued, better income.
It’s time now for accountants to do the same
Not all accountants will ‘let go’ of producing compliance work – the equivalent of the like-for-like paintings – that some accountants see as mundane.
Many, though, are allowing the technology to liberate them from producing that work. And they’re using the outcome, the produced compliance work, to breath life into the numbers.
They take time to talk to their clients in more detail about those numbers. They ask them questions and provide their interpretation of the numbers - and how different the business would be if those numbers were different even by just small amounts.
Shane will be delivering his "How to create a £1m practice on a 3 day week" session at Accountex London on May 23 at 10.15am in the How To theatre.
Software's a super-procurement solution
Intense competition means companies often struggle to remain profitable and push for sustainable growth. Cost-cutting can be effective. But it's also a dangerous exercise. Cut the budgets in the wrong place and you could be jeopardising product or service quality... not to mention team morale.
So where can you then shave unnecessary expenses in a reasonable and safe way? Welcome to the super-procurement officer.
These skilful professionals are masters of negotiation, are aware of the status of every order at any stage of the buying process and know exactly how much has been spent. And with which suppliers, and on what terms. They can even give board members a breakdown by specific item.
This person is already working for you
You may be wondering, where can you find someone who could do this much for your business... But the interesting thing is that this person is already working with you.
Any procurement officer (PO) should have fine negotiating skills. They'll be able to communicate effectively with suppliers, maintain strong supplier relationships and be results oriented. And, of course, they have the ability to collate and analyse data to ensure they’re meeting their objectives.
However, as much as most professionals in the position have these skills, it's manual processes with disjointed and outdated information, as well as clumsy internal communication, that get in the way.
Key stakeholders
A robust tool for procurement is eCompleatP2P. It enables POs and key stakeholders across the company to raise, approve, comment on, edit and process purchase orders.
This automated platform, which can also direct the approval to whoever needs to sign off the orders and invoices, collects information along the way to provide a full audit trail and granularity over the company’s spend.
All this business intelligence can then be visualised, in real-time through any of Compleat’s standard reports and dashboards.
Compleat Software will be exhibiting at Accountex London on May 23-24, stand 460.
Why accountants can’t ignore LinkedIn!
I feel privileged to be speaking at Accountex this year. As an accountant who has made the transition from finance to a different sector, I’ll be sharing some of my story and advice on how to advance your career or business using LinkedIn. Because nowadays LinkedIn is no longer an option, it’s an absolute must!
In 2008 I set up my first business specialising in financial recruitment, just as the financial crisis hit. It was a difficult time and at the beginning without a website or a long list of contacts to call, it was LinkedIn that served me well. It was my quickest route to reach target clients, to build relationships, and ultimately to secure new business.
Right skills and abilities
LinkedIn was also one of the reasons I decided to leave the recruitment sector (and my own business) in 2013. To circumvent job boards and recruiters to directly find the talent they’re looking for, Employers now often use LinkedIn. It’s also their route to find passive candidates (those not actively looking or registered with recruitment companies) with the right skills and abilities.
This means that, whether you’re in business looking to win new clients or a candidate looking to advance your career, you have to be not only visible, but also active on LinkedIn.
Trust is hugely important in any business or career transaction and cultivating an active LinkedIn profile and nurturing relationships over time on the platform is a great way to build it.
Living, breathing extension of you
Many make the mistake of creating a LinkedIn profile for themselves, instead of thinking about their intended audience, and then rely on their profile to work for them with no further input.
LinkedIn is a living, breathing extension of you, your business, and all you have to offer. It has to be worked at daily and used proactively to identify and nurture relationships before ever capitalising on them.
With about 500million users on the platform (a number that increases daily), as a finance professional you have to be in the arena to take part in the games. Once there, to stand out, you have to continually work at your profile and activity to make sure you’re the one who is found and ultimately hired, and not your competition.
In my session, I’ll be sharing some of the key principles you need to adopt to find success on LinkedIn, case studies illustrating best practice, and sharing my top tips to make your profile stand out. Time permitting I’ll be very happy to answer any questions too.
Simon's Accountex 2018 session will be at 1pm on Wednesday May 23.
GDPR challenges payroll professionals
Payroll offices will need to review and update their data protection policies by May 25, deadline day for GDPR. Any updated GDPR policies should be clearly communicated to all employees.
So check with current software providers, data processors and contractors to see what they are doing to comply with the new legislation. You will likely need to update or amend certain contracts you have with your third-party contractors or vendors.
The GDPR makes every business (payroll client) responsible for any third parties (payroll bureaus) who process personal data on their behalf. Under the terms of GDPR, bureaus will need to manage and store their client’s information in a more secure environment. It will also be important to keep a record of how you are storing this information and for what purpose should you ever be audited or reported.
Contract between payroll bureaus and payroll clients
If a bureau is audited, they may need to provide certain information to prove their GDPR compliance such as:
Agreed Contract: There needs to be a written contract or letter of engagement in place between payroll bureaus and the client that covers GDPR. This contract would outline that employee’s personal data will be provided to the bureau to process the payroll for the business. This does not mean a payroll client can simply hand over their employee’s personal data to a bureau and then cast a blind eye. The payroll client must ensure the bureau is also compliant with the GDPR.
Fulfilling the Contract: To fulfil the contract, payroll bureaus will hold certain business information, such as their employer PAYE reference number and their bank account details, which is all legitimately viable under GDPR. Payroll bureaus need to hold this personal information in order to fulfil the agreed contract of processing the client's payroll.
Legitimate Reason: Every business needs to provide a legitimate reason as to why they hold an individual's personal details. Payroll bureaus are deemed as processors as they process their client’s and their employee’s personal data. Payroll bureaus hold client and employee payroll information to complete the payroll, such as employee National Insurance numbers, tax codes, dates of birth, employee salaries and employer national insurance details. Under the GDPR legislation, this is classified as a valid and legitimate reason to hold this kind of personal payroll information.
Payroll data and GDPR free guide
What you need to know about consent, emailing payslips, and your legal obligation
Payroll bureaus are legally obliged to protect payroll information on behalf of their clients. The guide will uncover the ins and outs of the impact of GDPR on your payroll processing, highlighting the biggest areas of concern including emailing payslips, employee consent and your legal obligation.
Free CPD Webinar: GDPR for Payroll Bureaus
Payroll bureaus process large amounts of personal data, not least in relation to their customers, their customers’ employees, and their own employees. Consequently, the GDPR will impact most if not all areas of the business and the impact it will have cannot be overstated. In this CPD accredited webinar, we will peel back the legislation to outline clearly:
Agenda
- What is GDPR and why is it being implemented?
- Why employers need to take it seriously
- How it will impact payroll bureaus
- How to prepare for GDPR
- How we are working to help you
BrightPay will be at Accountex 2018 on May 23-24, stand 430.
11 easy solutions to business development mistakes
Most accountants understand that business development is essential to growing their practices. Yet they make basic errors. So, here are 11 simple solutions to the most common mistakes.
1. Planning is the key to success
The Mistake: I've seen many professionals who build great business development activities but do not see tangible results. They participate in events and conferences. They join professional networks. They organise special events for prospective clients. But they fail to discuss the business opportunities in depth. There is a lack of planning.
The Sol
ution: Plan every business development activity, in advance. I make weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual plans. The reason is that more information is disclosed to me over time and it needs to be taken into account. I suggest you use a two-steps process: One, think about what you want to accomplish in the specific activity for yourself and your practice. Then two, decide how you’ll judge whether it’s a success, almost a success or a failure. Only then you can correct your actions and refine them.
2. Select your potential clients carefully
The Mistake: As a believer in building relationships for a lifetime, I know that it is one of the powerful ways to develop your business and create opportunities. It's about more than building a network of relationships. One of the main mistakes many professionals make in their business development efforts is to assume that knowing a person for a while is enough. But ask yourself how much you really know about the prospect you are chasing except the fact that, say, you studied together. Most of the time, not much.
The Solution: The first rule of business development is to know about the company and executives you are going to pursue, in detail. There are some prospects that simply won’t hire you and your services for reasons that have nothing to do with you! For example, it could be the fact that this professional belongs to a specific network and because of that he is obliged to use only the services of others in the network. Or it could be that one of the family members of this prospect delivers the exact same services as you do. So do your research!
3. Learn to give attention
The Mistake: Feelings like perceived rejection or a lack of attention, influence engagement decisions made by your prospects or clients.
The Solution: It is important to not only care about the way your prospect or clients feel but to clearly demonstrate that you care by giving your authentic attention to them. We all know these professionals that every time you meet them. They do most of the talking. I suggest you learn to give attention!
4. Build relationships, don’t sell
The Mistake: Almost every time I do a keynote, I ask a few people in the audience to introduce themselves. Rather than the person shares a few things about herself, many people immediately start telling about their work and pitching to me and the audience, without knowing if anybody is interested in their services. Sad.
The Solution: Networking events are meant to be a starting point to build relationships. Instead of trying to sell yourself at these events, make it your mission to connect with people and enjoy learning about them. This is the first step in building a relationship.
5. Follow-up with key people
The Mistake: Not following up. Not following up. You forget the contact. The new contact forgets you. Result: If you do not follow up…you fail! This is a fatal business development mistake that many professionals make. Even those who learn to follow up, do not follow up enough.
The Solution: I believe that the follow-up process is one of the most important aspects of business development in terms of building on relationships with current and potential clients. Over the years I've learnt that following up with everyone you met, is a waste of time. Not everybody is a viable prospect for your practice. So every time you meet a new person try to make your first initial judgment if any follow-up makes sense. The more you will do it the more practice you will gain and the easier (and even more accurate) your judgment will be. You can read more here.
6. Lost or quiet clients are not lost relationships
The Mistake: Experienced professionals know that the best clients are repeat clients and that it’s much easier to reconnect with a previous contact than it is to establish a completely new connection. But “keeping in touch” is easier said than done. This is a real mistake.
The Solution: First, relax. Keeping in touch doesn’t mean a lot of work. You don’t need to connect with them every week or meet every month… You can keep in touch by simply sending them something of value - an article you read or a link to special news that may interest them or a special hand-written card ( I like this one very much and use it myself all the time) etc. It can be done once in a while. Remember: the success in keeping in touch is by taking this step and by acting. Your success does not depend on the reply you will get from your former or a lost client.
7. Always be a person of value
The Mistake: Trying to convert a prospect to become a client too soon. By Trying to rush potential client to become a client too soon, you’re actually focusing on your wants, not a prospective client’s needs. Thus, the potential client does not see any use or value to staying in touch with you.
The Solution: Let me emphasize: Business development is about relationships. In order to win a deal or engage a client, it is essential to build a relationship. The root of relationships is embedded in providing mutual value to both parties. You are probably familiar with the saying, “you get what you put in.” That saying is particularly relevant.
In order to win the approval and acceptance of potential clients, it is more important than ever to you as a professional to provide value first before asking for anything in return from the other person. You need to become a useful resource for your potential clients. The more value you offer, the more a potential client comes to depend on you. Don’t hesitate to share information they may find useful, whether or not it benefits you in any way.
8. Offer to help, ask for help
The Mistake: I've discovered that a lot of professionals see asking a client to help them as being “pushy” behavior. As one to me: “We are here to serve the clients, not to bother them. The client tells us what they need and we supply it.” Really? This mindset is a mistake, in my opinion.
The Solution: I believe that you should ask for and offer to help. It will show you care, that your're empathic. It shows that you are truly listening to their needs and focused on solving problems. No doubt that acting in this way also help to make you an even more trusted adviser to your clients. Isn’t that what you want?
9. Continue to be creative and proactive
The Mistake: Henry Ford said: “If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” And this is also true when we are dealing with professional business development. Unfortunately, many professionals learn to become reactive in their practice. They only act when a client asks them to do so. But running your practice solely on a reactive-passive basis will harm your potential growth.
The Solution: In my experience he most valuable professionals are the ones who are proactive. By definition, this means they are the one who comes with new ideas and solutions to their clients rather than waiting to respond to clients requests. Embracing business development doesn't mean waiting for answers to appear; . Put one foot in front of the other, and find the answers. Be resourceful!
10. Set the right expectations
The Mistake: Setting expectations too high. Be honest -- you don't invest time in business development just to meet new people. Sure, that's part of it. But, ultimately you're hoping those new potential clients will be able to benefit you in the future, whether by becoming your clients themselves or by introducing you to someone else that might become your client.
The Solution: It's important that you're realistic about your expectations. Don't expect to make your introduction and immediately ask that person to become your client or to refer you to a new client. Remember, you're building relationships - and that takes time. Be patient.
11. Play to win
The Mistake: ‘For many, the aim is "not to lose". This approach guarantees that prospective clients will forget you. When they need your services, they don't think about you… and your competitor wins the business.
The Solution: As a professional, if you aren't trying to win, if you're just trying to participate, you are wasting your time and the time of your prospect. You have to define your practice purpose strategically, decide what specific business development victories would lead to your ideal future.
Of course, you can't win the whole world or please everybody. Trying to be all things to all potential clients is a recipe for failure. You have to strategically narrow your business development focus and be willing to stand-out for something. Be bold, not bland.
Key Takeaways
- How many of these mistakes are you making in your efforts to increase your client base?
- Your mistakes can be assets as long as you learn from them, correct them, and stop repeating them.
- Business development is even harder without being smart about the process. Avoiding these 11 common mistakes will help improve your success rates
Which solution are you planning to implement first, and why?
Please share your input.
Want to learn how to avoid 20 common mistakes in networking and to get more results from your particiaption in Accountex 2018?
Register for Itzik's upcoming FREE webinar here.
Accountants: Seven top tips to ensure your pricing is right!
I’ve spent many years advising accountants and bookkeepers on effective pricing and I’ve found some common factors that hold them back. Most firms believe clients are focused on price when, in fact, they’re looking for value. If a client ever says: “That’s a bit expensive,” it’s not because you’re too expensive.
You’re not. You’re too cheap. You’re not charging enough!
The reason clients say: “That’s a bit expensive,” is because they don’t understand the value. They can’t see how they benefit. So we have to change the way we present our solutions and present our prices.
Firms also often lack confidence in setting prices as well as lacking knowledge of pricing psychology and strategies.
Here are seven tips to get you started in overcoming these pricing issues.
1) Have a price discrimination strategy
Value is a relative concept — no two people will place exactly the same value on something. You need to figure out ways to charge different customers different prices. This is price discrimination.
One way to do that is to offer a range of packages. I call this menu pricing. There are two benefits of this approach:
- First, clients get to choose the package they want. That’s important. When we buy anything we want choice because we are all individuals with unique wants and needs. Your clients are the same. They want choice.
- Secondly, when you offer them different packages some will choose a more expensive package. The end result is you make a bigger sale and make more profit.
2) Add more value
I believe our primary focus should be to add as much value as possible to clients.
Of course, when we focus on the client and do more for them — and providing we price based on the value we create — we get to charge higher prices.
So before you present your solution to the client, ask yourself this question: “What more could I possibly do to give the client an even better solution?”
Make a list of all your ideas.
Once you have your list, you can either build those things into your more expensive packages or offer them as optional extras. If the client places value on those additional things, they will choose those packages and options.
For example, you could add value to your tax return preparation service by offering a meeting to review the entries on the return and provide some tax saving tips. Clients who want that will happily pay for the extra value. If you don’t offer it, clients cannot possibly choose it and you lose out on potential extra revenue.
3) Explain the value
Clients aren’t really interested in how many hours you spend on a job; they only care about the value.
The problem is, clients don’t always understand the benefit to them. And if they don’t understand how your solution benefits them, they will see your price as too expensive (as we discussed earlier).
So what do you do?
You have to use techniques to better explain what you do, why you do it — and most important — how the client benefits. Tell them exactly:
- What the end result will be,
- The pain you are taking away, and
- How their life will be better (through cost savings, peace of mind, saving time and so on).
4) Discuss payment terms as part of your service
Your payment terms are an important part of the pricing process.
By default you should be getting paid in advance. If you want to give the client the option to pay after, make sure that is an option with a much higher price. That way, either way you win. You either get the cash up front or you make a bigger profit.
The client will be happy because they get a choice. And we all like choice when we buy anything.
5) Link price to value
Traditionally, accountancy firms have charged based on billable hours. That’s cost-plus pricing. It’s not value pricing.
There are many reasons why time billing is crazy. The most important is that clients hate it. They dislike it because they don’t know what the price is until after the work is done and the hours added up.
Instead we should link the price to value. Time is not important. Clients don’t care how many hours you spend doing the work. They only care about the outcome, the result or solution. So price based on the value of that.
6) Understand price psychology
Price psychology is a relatively recent study (only a few decades old). What we are learning from the price psychologists is that the way we express our price has a profound impact on the customer’s perception of the magnitude of price.
In other words, presenting a price in a different light can change it from seeming expensive, to seeming like a great offer.
For example, the order in which you present your prices makes a very big difference. The first price you reveal creates a reference price (referred to as an anchor by price psychologists).
7) Price is the most powerful lever in the profit equation
Changing your price can have a profound impact on your profits. If you want to make more money, they fastest way to get there is change your price. It’s not through cost cutting or winning more clients. So take some time out to learn about value pricing.
If you would like to learn more about how to price more profitably, click here, register your free VIP place, and then — once a month — I will send you an invitation to the next live online training session.
Are you a victim of poor past decisions?
Running a business is rather like flying an aircraft: set your course, altitude and cruising speed, switch on the autopilot, and turn your attention to other tasks.
Obviously, pilots are reminded to take back control of the flying process otherwise landing would be a problem, but business owners may be content to leave the autopilot switched on? In this way we become victims of past planning and these choices may no longer create the best outcome for our business.
For accountants, February/March is a good time to reconsider your options. The past tax filing season has come and gone, there is still time to consider planning options for 2017-18 and half-term may be an opportune time to organise time out of your practice.
What to do on your blue-sky days? The first task is to probably figure out what your past assumptions have been. For example:
- Staffing.
- Resources, office space.
- Technical support, software, IT, data security.
- Service options – compliance activity.
- Service options – added value activity.
- Changes in legislation that affect the organisation of your practice – data protection.
Once you know what your autopilot is set to deliver, you can decide if you need to change course, or simply land and refuel.
We all ask our clients to spend time working on their businesses, and we should follow this advice.
Informanagement UK Limited will be at Accountex London 2018, stand 846
Understanding tech trends is a key to survival for accountants
Accountancy trends are driven by technology. So future-proofing your practice means staying on top of these accounting trends and understanding how they’re disrupting and shaping industry best practices.
So, what are some of the key trends that accountants and bookkeepers should be aware of in 2018 (and beyond)? Let’s take a closer look.
1. Automation enables high-value advisory services
Advances in machine learning and AI are rocking the world of accounting. Intuit QuickBooks and Xero have both introduced machine learning projects over the past couple of years.
These developments have enabled accounting firms to automate document collection, data entry, and other compliance-related tasks.
But automation is not making the role of accountants obsolete. It’s arming them with two items that are essential for becoming proactive advisers. More time and more data.
It’s up to accountants to leverage their available time and data to provide more proactive advice (and, consequently, more value) to their clients.
2. Client experience is a key differentiator
It is predicted that customer experience will take over price and product/service as a key differentiator for most B2B businesses by 2020. Adopting cloud accounting technology is proven to help increase practice efficiency, improve the client experience, and supercharge your practice.
However, firms should not rely on the use of cloud accounting tools as their only differentiator. Standing out as an adviser requires going above and beyond with all client interactions.
Consider every possible interaction (from client onboarding, to optimising your workflows, to reporting). Figure out how you can increase client engagement. In turn, increasing client engagement will improve client retention.
3. Advisers will require a deeper expertise of the growing tech landscape
In March 2017, Accountex reported that the accounting technology ecosystem had doubled in size over the previous year. As exciting as it is to explore all of the cloud accounting solutions that exist, it can also be confusing.
Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by the sheer number of available apps is a phenomenon known as “app fatigue” – and it can impact a firm’s productivity in more ways than you might think.
Accountants with “shiny object syndrome” might go overboard and select too many apps, creating redundancies in their accounting technology stack. Or, conversely, they might feel intimidated by the app ecosystem and avoid exploring new solutions altogether.
Navigating the accounting app landscape and being able to help clients understand which tools will work best for their business will be a valuable skill as the ecosystem continues to grow. Moreover, overcoming app fatigue and understanding where automation can improve your workflows (and, more importantly, how it can improve your client experience) will help to future-proof your firm.
If these three trends point to one thing, it’s the importance of becoming a devoted adviser to your clients. In order to effectively advise (and future-proof your firm), it’s critical to stay on top of trends and adapt to best practices that are in your clients’ best interests.
HubDoc will be on stand 863 at Accountex London 2018 on May 23-24.
Is the road to accountancy revolution paved with gold?
It's an accountancy revolution. Cloud technology, MTD and your clients’ increasing expectations set you and your accounting firm up for unheard of success. But are you ready? Fees, profits and capital value gains are all within your grasp. But only if you take action.
So how do you turn all this financial potential into hard cash for your firm?
Step 1: Get yourself familiar with what technology is available. Because technology is one of the biggest drivers of change, you run a risk by not being knowledgeable about what’s available to you and your clients.
ACT NOW: Get yourself registered for Accountex in London on 23-24 May to see what’s being used by other firms, what could HELP YOUR CLIENTS (and make you some money) and what could HELP YOUR FIRM do more in less time.
Step 2: When you’re registered for Accountex, work out which speakers you want to see to inspire you and provide you with the practical guidance on running a better 21st century accounting practice.
ACT NOW: Register for Accountex, book your train ticket or hotel (if you’re going for two days) and make sure you PLAN YOUR VISIT rather than free-wheeling around the event. Instead diarise your day(s) around the stands you want to see and the speakers you want to see.
Step 3: Get as many of your people involved in Accountex as you can. You want your team to help you with the changes in your firm. Use Accountex to inspire them and drive them to be part of your solution.
ACT NOW: Decide who should attend as well as you attending.
April 2019 is the start of the MTD revolution. The cloud accounting revolution is already under way.
In May you have the opportunity to inject insight and renewed motivation into your firm’s future. And to work out the practical next steps so that you get your share of the financial rewards that comes with the inevitable changes racing towards you.
I’ll see you there hopefully – I’ll be speaking and we have a small stand launching my new book – The Business Growth Accountant. If you want a pre-release copy you can order a copy at www.paulshrimpling.com.
ACT NOW: Register for Accountex (for free) here.
Real-time solution can find a balance for freelancers and sole traders
Did you know that clients can now open a bank account that automatically summarises income and expenditures, and is mooted to be Making Tax Digital ready, with automatic downloads to the client’s digital account with HMRC?
Are we about to witness the transfer of compliance activity, normally the job of accountants and bookkeepers, into hybrid banking solutions?
Coconut is a challenger software group offering this service to freelancers and the self-employed. It's basically a real-time banking app that estimates income tax owing.
More and more routine analysis work is being automated, either by an accountant’s own software or third-party solutions. So there's a case for selling advice rather than providing processing skills.
Specialist skills
No doubt these changes will take time to unwind but, in the meantime, it's a good idea to develop of specialist skills where “automation” cannot contribute, at least not soon.
As an example, consider the requirement for all businesses to be GDPR compliant on or before 25 May 2018. If you take the time to review your practice systems that cover the management and security of personal data, why not offer these acquired skills to your clients?
Like all endangered species, the future for the accountancy profession depends on its ability to adapt to changing environments. We will probably need to abandon activity offering minimal returns and concentrate on specialist advice. After all, a coconut has limited usefulness if its main purpose is to act as a glorified adding machine.
Informanagement is on stand 846 at Accountex