How to create a cyber-security conscious firm
Most of us are aware of the dangers associated with a lack of awareness around cybersecurity.
We’re constantly being tested by cyber criminals who use increasingly sophisticated methods to access our data.
As soon as we easily recognise one malicious technique, they source new methods that test our habitual assumptions. As accountants, you hold incredibly valuable personal data in your systems. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2017 (published in a joint report by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and National Cyber Security Centre) identified companies holding Personal Data as more likely to be targeted than companies than those that do not (51 per cent compared to 37 per cent). This puts accountancy practices firmly in the target zone for cyber-criminals. The most common attacks took the form of fraudulent emails, followed by viruses and malware.
Here are five top tips to create a culture of cyber-security
- Provide clear instructions
Explain the habits you’d like your team to use when thinking about cybersecurity. If you don’t give explicit instructions such as not to download a file or click on a link from an unknown sender, then you’ll have a greater chance of a breach in your firm. Make sure your guidelines are clear and concise. Try not to use jargon, make sure your remove ambiguity wherever possible. Providing in-depth training for new staff and regular refresher training is one way of proving clear instructions.
- Discuss it regularly at team meetings and meetings with your bosses
Just because you’ve provided clear instructions on best practice, education doesn’t stop there. The more you discuss threats associated with cyber security, the greater their awareness and likelihood of recognising a potential attack. The more stories your team can share about things they’ve read and seen, the greater the engagement levels across the firm. You’ll be surprised how quickly this becomes part of a conversation piece with customers.
- Have open and honest conversations
Everyone is a potential target, and nobody is completely infallible. Accidents happen and if they do, business owners need to be aware of this as soon as possible. The more time that goes by after any malware downloads, the greater the potential damage. Be sure not to cultivate a blame culture by encouraging your team to report anything suspicious, however small. Staff should feel comfortable to speak up if they think they may have downloaded something they shouldn’t have.
- Password complexity and reset frequency
I know, everyone hates creating and remembering passwords. But this is a key weapon you have in your defence arsenal. Make sure you have clear guidelines on the frequency and complexity of passwords. If you can enforce regular password resets on your IT systems it is well worth considering.
- Training
There are several low-cost/no-cost online training tools for you and your staff. I’d recommend a finding a good course on Phishing. Phishing is a tool that uses email to try and gain sensitive information. Emails will arrive and look incredibly real, sometimes even experts find it hard to tell the difference between a real and fraudulent email.
My recommendation is to maintain conversation and training around this topic to incorporate it in to your firm’s culture. By protecting your firm from a data breach, you’re doing your best to help protect your clients against fraud. Thomson Reuters Onvio offers secure online file storage and client portal software for accountants. Benefit from a more streamlined process for client communication, easily share files and documents with your clients online and gain online approval from clients with e-signing.
For more tips on cyber-security, see how Lucy Cohen and Olly Evans approach risk management within their successful accountancy firms.
Getting serious about an advisory role for accountants
There is a lot of stuff and nonsense talked about advisory.
I’ve been an advisory partner in a top 10 firm and a 100% new business director in a regional practice plus I’ve worked in big corporate world for a large leisure company and been FD of an SME M and E contractor.
I currently run F3C Advantage and we work with accountancy practices that want to get serious about Advisory - by providing them an Advisory delivery platform called CAS – the Complete Advisory Solution.
So, I reckon I’ve got a pretty good fix on what clients want from accountants plus a pretty a good fix on what accountants feel about Advisory and why to date so many dabble rather than get serious.
OK, let’s get into our helicopters and rise up, look at the big picture, make sure we can see the whole forest and not just a few trees.
Now looking down from our helicopter, let’s keep it simple, what is advisory? The best explanation I have found of advisory is helping clients to:
- Move forward
- Protect and improve their personal positions
- Protect and develop their businesses
And when we accountants help clients we are “facilitating INSIGHTS to INSPIRE clients to INNOVATE and make changes”.
It’s all about the clients.
It starts by helping clients clarify what is most important to them. As we know clients are not all the same and they want different things. Never assume clients are clear about what is important to them.
When we help clients clarify what’s important to them this enables us to fully understand their personal and business goals and aspirations. Not only is this essential to ensure we are providing best advice but it’s one of the three things that all client surveys over the last 30 years or more have identified that clients want from their accountants
- To show they care and are in it for the long haul
- To bring new ideas
- To understand me and my business
The Success Gap Model is an excellent way of illustrating what is important to a client or prospect. Some measures of success will be financial – the pound note – others will be non-financial – the smiley face. Do you know all the pound notes and smiley faces for all your best clients?
How can we help clients achieve their pound notes and smiley faces?
Every time you look a client square between the eyes think – what’s the plan, their plan? Have they got a clear plan? Does it go beyond just numbers?
Being the person who has helped the client put their plans together is a powerful position to be. Being in the room when the decisions are being made establishes you as their MOST trusted adviser. You want to be more than just someone who helps them with implementation or solves ad hoc problems.
An annual planning event with your best clients is a great place to be and is core to Advisory.
In today’s fast-moving world not everyone wants to take a day out, so be flexible, break it down into bite size chunks. Two hour sessions are probably optimal going up to maybe half a day. The client experience is everything – when they leave you they should be thinking, “that was great and I want more”, not “that was great but I’m exhausted”! Regular client Advisory meetings with the reference point being the client plan that you helped them put together is also core to Advisory – and will result in new recurring income streams plus project spin off work.
So how do we get serious about Advisory?
Well I was the 100% new business director in a regional practice that tripled in size in two years and I have seen other firms achieve great results. How? The answer is – organise and structure advisory just as you have probably already organised and structured everything else in your business – with systems and process.
We know that good process provides
- Leverage and scale
- Consistency and quality control
- Accelerated learning and development
Most firms whether they are large or small have written or unwritten processes for how they deal with accounts and audit work or tax work. Let’s call them standard operating processes or SOP’s. Few have SOP’s for Advisory work. The successful firms have SOP’s for Advisory.
Accepting that most firms seek to be better at the WIN
W - Winning new clients
I - Increasing client spend
N - Nurturing client relationships for retention
Then successful firms develop standard operating processes
W – SOP to differentiate to attract new clients
I – SOP to broaden the services the clients buy
N – SOP to protect and develop client relationships
If you want to get serious then systems and processes are essential as is the development of SOP’s. You could create your own process in your head or you could look to bring in a proven process from outside – make sure it is client centric and can be deployed in a way that fits you and firm’s priorities.
So how does this work in practice?
I was talking with a small firm before Christmas with two partners. Partner number one has started as the champion but the plan is to involve a new director who joins them after Easter thus creating a pod – the champion model becomes a pod model. The long-term plan is build the advisory revenues and integrate advisory across the whole firm but in the short term it is champion to pod.
The firm in question reckon the have 200 or so business clients and they have segmented and targeted the top 20%. Post year end or pre year end meetings are being held with each of these clients over the next 12 months using one of the CAS tools specifically designed for such meetings. The plan is to migrate a proportion of these clients from being primarily compliance to being compliance advisory. Forty client meetings piggy backing off existing meetings over 12 months they believe is very manageable.
Supplementing this will be a process for handling prospect meetings. The plan is to attract compliance advisory clients and advisory only clients. And then migrate some of the advisory only clients to become compliance advisory clients.
Draw yourself three columns. Left hand column is your C clients. The middle column is your CA clients and the righthand column your A clients.
This firm is serious, it is organised, it’s deploying process in a way that suits them and they are making their life easier by using a delivery platform.
John will be speaking at Accountex on 2 May in the Business and Finance theatre at 11am.
The IAB: your career needs our support
The International Association of Bookkeepers (IAB) is a leading UK and international professional and awarding body for bookkeepers.
Professional membership:
Professional members join us to benefit from:
- Enhanced professional status
- Supervision under the Money Laundering Regulations
- Opportunities for Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- Regular technical updates
- A range of professional and lifestyle benefits
Additional information about professional membership and supervision can be found here: www.iab.org.uk/join-the-iab/.
Bookkeeping and payroll qualifications:
We offer a range of Ofqual regulated qualifications, covering bookkeeping and payroll. Our qualifications enable individuals to learn highly sought after skills, to use either within their own business or improve their job prospects and open the door to a range of career opportunities. The qualifications can be used to upskill those working in a bookkeeping or accounting role or to gain new skills and knowledge. IAB qualified individuals give small businesses or accounting and bookkeeping practices a competitive edge. Further information about our qualifications can be found via the following links:
Bookkeeping qualifications: www.iab.org.uk/bookkeeping-qualifications/
Payroll qualifications: https://www.iab.org.uk/payroll-careers-qualifications/
How we support bookkeepers and accountants:
We are dedicated to supporting bookkeepers, accountants and SMEs. We do this by:
- Ensuring members are kept up-to-date with the latest news and changes relating to the bookkeeping and accounting sectors through the IAB’s own magazines and e-newsletters, and also the exclusive newsletter from Croner-i, which you receive if you are a professional member. This offers new ways to run your business efficiently and provides information to help you keep up-to-date with bookkeeping, accounting and payroll-related matters.
- Working to raise the profile of bookkeepers and the vital support that our members provide to businesses around the world, by attending business shows where we represent and promote the services of our members and also through local and national press coverage.
- Representing your views to government departments and agencies on a range of areas. This also enables us to keep you updated in relation to changes which will have an impact on bookkeepers, accountants and SMEs. Some of the meetings we have attended in the past year are:
- HMRC working group meetings which are attended by other professional bodies. The main topic raised at these meetings is Making Tax Digital for VAT which comes into effect from April 2019.
- The Pensions Regulator professional body working groups in relation to automatic enrolment and the changes taking place over the next year including further increases to contribution rates from April 2019.
- Meetings in relation to the changes to the Money Laundering Regulations which took place in 2017 and guidance on how to comply.
- We regularly meet with other supervisors and are also involved in Flag It Up which is a campaign run by the UK Government and supported by professional bodies to raise awareness of the warning signs of money laundering, promote best practice in due diligence and encourage the high-quality reporting of suspicious activity. Further information about the campaign can be found here: campaign.gov.uk.
- Meetings with Companies House providing updates in relation to the work they do and changes taking place.
- Upskilling individuals around the world through our bookkeeping and payroll qualifications. This equips people with the knowledge required to either run their own business or to progress or begin their careers as a bookkeeper or in a related role, enabling them to excel and hit the ground running to provide vital support to businesses.
Are you an accountant looking to outsource work to a bookkeeper?
If you’re an accountant and you’re looking to outsource the bookkeeping work for your clients to a bookkeeper then why not choose an IAB professional member? IAB members are not only qualified, but also professional and supervised with all the skills you and your clients need. They are required to continue their professional development – ensuring your clients receive the most professional service.
To find a bookkeeper please visit: www.iab.org.uk/find-bookkeeper.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the IAB, our membership or qualifications and the support we can provide please contact us: [email protected] or +44 (0)1732 897750.
We will be exhibiting at Accountex on 1-2 May so if you attend come and see us on stand 1111.
A personal guide to the UK accounting software landscape (Part 2)
I’m on a mission to depict the current landscape of software available to accountants to help improve their practice through better visibility, efficiency and/or automation.
My goal is to break down and understand just how many pieces of software are out there to help paint a picture on what firms can do in 2019 to build their tech stack successfully in the UK.
Here's Part 2 of my personal guide:
Workflow, Job management
- AccountancyManager
- Senta
- Karbon
- BTC
- Capium
- Glide
- CCH
- IRIS
- Xero Practice Manager
- QuickBooks Online Accountant
- Thomson Reuters Onvio
- Sage Accountant Cloud
When you see a list like this where do you start? If anything it was a little overwhelming to see just how many product there are available to accountants in the UK. In Australia this number is nearly halved and even when you consider what firms are using in the cloud, that number becomes a lot smaller.
Personally my biggest recommendation for picking a workflow tool, is try to find something that is going to integrate into your cloud accounting ledger. If you’re running QuickBooks or Xero, then you need to be sure that your workflow tools have an integration. If there’s no integration, then again you need to be mindful of what are you actually trying to solve, as you’ll end up double handling your data manually which is the opposite of what you want to achieve.
If you’re looking for an easy no cost entry to the market and you’ve got a small team. QuickBooks Accountant or Xero Practice Manager could be a great option for you to consider. Both products integrate back to their cloud ledger and have their own perks and benefits as a result. Also with Xero’s acquisition of Instafile it’s only a matter of time before this is incorporated into their practice management strategy in which case you’ll hopefully have a books to tax workflow, all-in-one.
For something with more depth and complexity, then it’s hard to go past tools like Senta, Karbon and Accountancy Manager. Yes you got options with CCH, Sage, etc but I would say this is not where the momentum is. BTC and Capium have notably been award winners in the past - but having little no to exposure to them or firms using them I can’t comment too much on how effective they are.
You’ll also find that some of these tools mentioned may also have Tax filing included which we’re about to talk about next.
Once you find a workflow tool that suits your needs, helps your firm stay organised and you’re really on top of your client work! Congratulations you’re 50% of the way there!
Tax
- Digita
- TaxCalc
- InstaFile (Xero)
- TaxFiler
- Nomisma
- ABC Self Assessment
- Simple Tax
Again, I found a lot of different tools that you could be using in the firm, with a variety of desktop, cloud and everything in-between. Coming back to my first point, I need something that integrates directly into my cloud ledger, and even better if that’s connected to my workflow solution.
As previously mentioned, Instafile was an interesting acquisition for Xero. I’m watching intently to see how this new product add’s to the UK Strategy.
In this mix the two I’ve come across the most are TaxCalc and TaxFiler, with both having integrates to QuickBooks and Xero, this is potentially a smart platform for you to be using if you carry both or one of those options in your firm.
The conclusion...
Navigating your way through the UK software market is no easy feat. I thought this would be a cake walk but honestly I can tell you, it wasn’t. I was left with a lot of questions. But when I focused back to the key pieces that were most important it was integration and streamline of process. I don’t want to have to learn how to use multiple pieces of software, I don’t have the time to trial 4 different practice management systems and I want to create a seamless experience for my clients, so that even they can see the benefits of running a fully cloud and automated stack.
Now this guide won’t work or for fit everyone. Why? Because we’re all different. You’ve got different firm with different needs and maybe you’re already using a combination of the products mentioned. It can be hard to shift, switch and change, especially if you’re systems are heavily integrated or completely disconnected. There’s no point bringing in another disconnected system unless it’s helping you to improve your client or staff experience, and help improve your profitability. Anything that doesn’t meet these two bits of criteria and you really need to ask yourself why you’re using it in the first place.
Good luck, happy hunting and remember. It’s best to plan out what you’re trying to achieve first, before you start buying tools and trying to get them to fit your existing processes. You may need to reinvent yourself and/or your firm as part of this process.
Trent will be speaking at Accountex on 1-2 May 2019. Check out the line-up here.
State of Social annual report 2019 – 10 top facts for the accountant
Based on the responses of over 1,800 businesses in the new State of Social Report 2019, paid for social media advertising is shown to be gaining traction with almost a quarter of respondents seeing it as very effective and a third saying it is effective.
Almost, two thirds (65 per cent) are planning to increase their social media advertising budget in 2019.
Accountants, often dismiss social media as something to do when there is room in the budget. However, if these insights are anything to go by, it can represent a cost-effective way of brand building, of finding new opportunities and increasing visibility as part of an overall marketing strategy.
Here are 10 top line facts for accountants taken from the report:
- Social media is a key part of marketing strategies Social media marketing has been around for many years now, and the majority of marketers see it as an important part of their overall strategy. Fifty-eight per cent of marketers say social media is “very important”, with 30 per cent saying it’s “Somewhat important”.
- Facebook and Twitter are the most widely used social media platforms Facebook is the most widely used channel for business use and 93 per cent of those who took part in the study said they were using it. This reflects a slight fall from 2018, when 96 per cent who took part in the same survey said they use Facebook. Twitter follows closely behind with 84 per cent. Instagram is in third position with 80 per cent, and 70 per cent of businesses use LinkedIn. Instagram is gaining traction and has increased its usage in the survey from 70 per cent in 2018 to 80 per cent in 2019. LinkedIn remains constant with 70 per cent across the two years. Interestingly, WhatsApp is now being used by 14.5 per cent of businesses.
- Facebook is the most popular platform to post business content on Facebook remains the most popular channel for businesses to share video content (81 per cent), with YouTube in second (62 per cent), and Instagram third (57 per cent). LinkedIn is fifth (32 per cent), and could be a channel to watch in 2019, with early data showing that videos on LinkedIn are being shared 20+ times more than any other content.
- More and more brands are turning to video content Facebook still leads the way. Video content in gaining in popularity with this year’s findings showing that just 14.5 per cent of businesses don’t publish any video compared with 25 per cent in 2018. More than one-third (36 per cent) publish video content monthly, with about a quarter (24 per cent) publishing video content weekly.
- Image and video lead the way as most important aspect of content Over a third of businesses consider that image/video is the most important aspect when creating and publishing a piece of content and this is followed closely by 34 per cent who consider narrative to be the most important. Call to action came in next with 21 per cent feeling that this is the most important feature.
- Lack of time is holding businesses back from creating more video content A lack of time is the most important reason given for not creating more video content with 66 per cent citing this as their number one. 41 per cent say they have no budget and 23 per cent say they are not sure what to create.
- Half of businesses don’t have a documented social media strategy There is almost a 50/50 split with 50.0 per cent saying that they don’t have a documented social media strategy and 49.1 per cent that say they do.
- Businesses are uncertain how to measure social media’s effectiveness Social media’s effectiveness as a marketing channel has long been debated, and the survey found that, though social media is key to marketing strategy, 19 per cent of marketers are still uncertain how to measure its effectiveness.
- Likes shares and comments are considered most popular form of meaningful engagement Over 66 per cent of respondents consider that receiving likes, shares and comments equals meaningful engagement when measuring the performance of content on social while 59 per cent consider interaction with the brand as their definition of engaging with the content.
- Engagement is the number one way of measuring ROI of social media advertising Engagement is used to measure the ROI of social media advertising by over 60 per cent of the companies that took part in the survey while traffic follows closely behind. 48 per cent cited leads as the key measure with 43 per cent choosing sales. This appears to be a continuation of a trend that was first seen in 2017 with social media becoming more about engagement than driving traffic or making direct sales.
Conclusion This report provides some interesting insights into those platforms that are being used effectively for social media campaigns in the business environment. With privacy emerging as one of the key priorities for 2019, one-to-one messaging is set to increase in popularity.
Accountants that want to deliver more personalised content have the option to use mass social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger or they can use tailored communication platforms such as OneApp that have been designed specifically to connect accountants and clients digitally on their smartphones and tablets.
Putting the client at the heart of your practice
What it means
Putting the client first, or as some may put it, ‘at the heart of your practice’, means you are focusing on their needs. Building your practice this way means it will best serve their interests and be responsive to their needs.
Why is putting the client at the heart of your practice important?
Clients want to engage with accounting firms that not just understand their needs but are able to proactively help them support their business goals. Today’s business environment is competitive and requires organisations to always plan ahead. Coupled with this, are the increasingly complex regulatory requirements that clients have to adhere to when doing business.
Maintaining a good client relationship also helps build trust, which eventually leads to long-term client loyalty and healthy business growth for them and your practice.
How do you achieve it?
Maintaining an interactive and personalised environment is key to ensuring a great client experience. Digital technology is rapidly transforming client experience and reshaping the way a practice is managed, as well as how they interact with clients.
Clients, for their part, are becoming increasingly savvy in leveraging digital technology in their day-to-day lives – be it via the numerous apps they use on their smartphones through to interacting with others using social media.
Digital technology enables clients and firms to easily share information, enabling the accountant to be responsive to a client’s needs and bringing in the flexibility and proactiveness that clients leverage in their own businesses.
But only focusing on digitising the way firms interact with clients would fail to achieve much, without also reviewing and digitising practices’ back office. By introducing digital workflow technology in its operations, a firm is able to not only improve its employee experience and be more productive, but also sustain its goal of putting the client at the heart of its practice.
One Paper Lane is helping accounting firms of all sizes digitise workflow and automate their practice areas and client management work – one process at a time. You get more than cutting-edge technology with One Paper Lane, plus our willingness to work alongside firms, help them review and map processes and bring in custom solutions as needed.
Who we are and what we do
We are One Paper Lane, the digital process automation and collaboration platform of the future. We are launching in the UK at Accountex on stand 490.
Our technology will enable you to streamline, automate and improve your processes. It can work together with your existing software, apps and tech tools. Our specialists also help you implement these improvements.
We have already helped accountancy and other professional services firms increase productivity and improve both the client and team member experiences.
Visit us and our UK partner, practice advisers Foulger Underwood, at Accountex. Alternatively, for more details, contact Julia Whistler at [email protected]
Why building your accounting brand is more important than ever
Clients of accounting firms or sole practitioner accountants often suffer from buyer uncertainty and remorse and it is easy to see why:
People buy on emotion and justify on logic... how many emotional accountants do you know? 'Emotion' has been a dirty word in professional services.
It is only in the past 5-10 years that they have felt it necessary to inject personality into their communication and put some emotion into their messaging.
We are in a digital social economy where many service-based businesses give away some of their best work, to demonstrate their credibility and to educate the audience of their service proposition. Customers expect more than a transactional service, they expect a personable relationship.
Here are three areas where there is room for improvement in customer communications.
- The starting point is a negative experience such that prospective customers often:
- Feel forced to conform and comply although, by HMRC, your profession is a chink in the chain.
- Uncertain when to access accounting services, so do it late.
- Have unrealistic expectations of the cost of the service, linked to not knowing what you do.
- Lack of understanding of the full services available that could help their businesses grow.
This creates a barrier between customers accessing accounting services.
- Many accountancy firms sell what I call an ‘invisible’ box of services.
No one knows what goes on inside!
The higher the perception of undifferentiated commodity the lower the value. Professional accounting service firms must help customers by differentiating their brand. Giving accounting firm personality and showing customers the specific value to their business.
Besides word of mouth, prospective customers may not know how to make an informed choice between ‘me too’ accountancy firms. To them, many accountancy firms offer similar services, it is hard for customers to distinguish between the good and great. Customers lack the technical skill to assess accountancy qualifications and experience.
To prove this point, when I searched for the difference between chartered and certified accountants one answer was:
“A chartered certified accountant means that the accountant has received his/her qualifications the ACCA. A chartered accountant has received his/her qualifications through another governing body in the world. A certified accountant may also refer to chartered certified accountant UK.”
I remember when I started and managed a growing restaurant and bar business that employed over twenty full and part-time staff. I felt that I was working to pay PAYE, VAT, business rates, corporation tax. As soon as you pay one tax another came thick and fast, and there seemed very little break for the massive personal investment in people and property. I did not always get the right professional advice and it cost me. I was ignorant of the value of professional services, but they did not sell their value to my individual business, they sold the price for the 'invisible box'.
- Customers are unrealistic because they are ill-informed.
Even after the initial service is provided, how can a client assess the quality of the submission? Did the firm find and apply all the relevant deductibles? How would a client know?
Customers have unrealistic expectations not only of the service but also the tax burden. Few people enjoy paying tax. The basic fact is that may customers are ill-informed, and this leads to widespread buyer uncertainty and a lack of trust. Send a personalised confirmation email of the service provided, this is an excellent opportunity to communicate value.
Rather than the above three areas being a barrier, they create opportunities for professional accounting services.
The accounting firm must create an onboarding and service delivery processes to remove barriers to their service and buyer uncertainty. Giving opportunities to deliver and even exceed customer expectations.
What required is education rather than persuasion in sales and marketing. The deepening of the relationship into a partnership is critical to building long-term and lifetime value. It is not a transactional service offered, but a trusted partner relationship. Customers can do their best work knowing they have a trusted professional accounting service in their camp.
Ensuring education is at the core of customer communication shows clients:
- The benefits of seeking an accountancy service early.
- What are the key differentiators between account services?
- Ways to access accounting service providers.
- Ways to communicate their expectations, issues, and desires with their service provider.
- What they should expect from service delivery?
- What they need to look for in early warning signs in their business growth journey.
- What they might be eligible for in deductions.
- A calendar of events or a personalised calendar of their submission deadline.
Your brand values and personality
- What other services benefits are on offer such as a loan, mentoring with example case studies?
Education of prospective customers and current clients will reduce buyer uncertainty and increase trust and loyalty. The better educated your client the higher they value your service.
When a customer perceives the accounting firms or sole practitioner accountant as the experienced professional that has solved a similar business problem for similar businesses. Reduces the risk in the decision to contract your service giving social proof with case studies and testimonials.
When many professional services are indistinguishable it is critical to brand and distinguishes unique element of your firm. Become a specialist practitioner working in one industry or with one type of client.
Building your brand is essential to help customers distinguish your accounting firm others. Survey your top 20% of clients on the attributes they look for in a professional accounting service firm. Find what differentiates your service from other competitors that they considered. When on-boarding customers, ask them what made them choose your firm, record their words and use their perspective to inform your firms brand statement. Researching what is important to your clients and building your brand around this clear communication of difference conveys what is unique about your firm. This will help to attract other similar customers.
Your brand must present brand values, emotionally engage new customers and reinforce why clients must remain with the firm over their lifetime.
Janice B Gordon is a Sage Business Expert, in Sage's TOP 100 Global Business Influencers 2017 ... and founder of Scale Your Sales. Janice will be sharing brand building strategies at Accountex on 2 May in the Sales and Marketing Theatre at 11am.
Is there a ‘best time’ to change accounting software?
Wondering when is the best time to change accounting software? Perhaps you’ve started your own accountancy practice, business is good and your client numbers look positive for the year ahead.
Maybe you’re using software which performs the basic functions, but have begun to realise its limitations as your clients become more complex.
Whether you’ve laid down the groundwork and researched various solutions, or are just in the early stages of considering a change – how do you know when the best time is to switch?
- When it syncs with your business growth plan
If you’re feeling a bit vague about this concept, then it is time to map out some key objectives and timescales in a detailed business growth plan. Even a sole practitioner should align any investment in software with forecasts for projected growth. Perhaps you are not yet ready for the switch and would benefit by waiting until it fits better with your business growth plan.
- When your current software holds you back
Perhaps you’ve used particular software in a previous role at a different firm, and know that certain tasks can be automated, taking up less of your valuable time. According to a recent Thomson Reuters survey of 345 UK accountants, 59% believe they will spend less time on personal tax compliance tasks over the next 10 years. A sure sign that you’ve outgrown your current software is when you’re spending more time in excel than your dedicated solution! It is sensible to select software with sufficient functionality and scalability which also has knowledgeable and UK-based training and support staff.
- When the time of year permits
Few in this industry experience a definitive lull in workload at a certain time of year, but many accountants looking to change accounting software choose to do so at year-end. This is because it presents a clean break before starting reports for the new year. However, this may not be for everyone because staff may be engaged with all the usual year-end tasks. Making the switch when you have the bandwidth to give it your full attention is advised – getting your data ‘fit’ for migration is a project which is worth doing beforehand to save yourself time later down the line.
- When you can get a good deal
Who doesn’t love a good bargain? We certainly do, which is why we have a great deal for on our efficiency packs for new users. Be sure to do your research for the best long-term deal and watch out for high price hikes year-on-year which tie you in.
- When you have had enough of your current provider!
Whether you have had enough of poor customer service, extortionate price hikes and/or your account manager seems to always be on holiday, then today is the day to start looking for an alternative. If you’re tired of using several non-integrated providers, start looking for a more efficient solution for your growing practice.
Speak to us
If you think the time is ripe to make the switch, find a software provider you can trust who can convert your client data with minimal disruption to your business. Learn from accountants who have changed their accounting software successfully and have benefited from industry-leading local support.
A personal guide to the UK's accounting software landscape (Part 1)
You can be crippled by too many choices especially if you don’t know what your goals are - Chip Kidd, US graphic design legend
Despite landing in the UK only recently (four weeks ago), I’m on a mission to depict the current landscape of software available to accountants to help them improve their practices through better visibility, efficiency and/or automation.
My goal here is to break down and understand just how many pieces of software are out there to help paint a picture on what firms can do in 2019 to build their tech stack successfully in the UK.
Here's Part 1 of my personal guide:
There is a lot of software to choose from out in the UK marketplace and even with the ones listed, there’s a good chance I’ve missed some off the list. (Apologies in advance).
What I have done for you is broken down the core software into four categories used by what I’ve observed as innovative and progressive accounting firms in the UK, so that you can see where each of these tools fit in your practice.
The biggest challenge I see with accounting firms across Australia, the UK and the US is that they don’t know what they want when they start looking.
They don’t have an existing process or they have no idea of what changes they want to make to their tech stack and why.
It also leads a firm to think that they just need to digitize their existing process - which I 100% completely disagree with. Read more here to understand why.
Before I really dive in, it’s important to note the only reason you would want to change your tech stack is because you actually want to bring in automation, systemisation and scalability into your firm.
Whether that be to enhance your client experience or to gain visibility into your operations at an in-depth level.
If you have no interest in changing or achieving anything along these lines, then you really must ask yourself why are you looking or even contemplating changing from your original tech stack.
So where do you start?
Cloud Accounting Software
Start with your cloud accounting software. What are you using internally with your clients. If i had a preference, I would try and choose just one piece of software to use internally, and that would be either Xero or QuickBooks Online.
These are the two biggest platforms globally, boasting the biggest ecosystem of app partners and importantly they are more likely going to work with the workflow tools that you’ll need to use in your practice.
It also means you only need to train your team on one product, attend one set of conferences, roadshows - you catch my drift. Now this works really well for the small to midsize practices (up to 500 clients) not so well for larger firms that already have an established base of desktop clients.
Even to this point, my first goal as a larger firm (1000 clients and more) would be to get as many clients to a cloud software as soon as possible.
All the benefits are there, real-time reporting enables real-time conversations which means you can do a better job helping your clients not go bankrupt and avoid the iceberg well in advance of ever seeing it at the last minute.
All the technological investment happening in this space, is all geared towards cloud products. Very little to none is invested into desktop accounting software other then an annual update and new TAX / VAT Tables. All the innovation is headed to the cloud and having all your clients in the cloud will help meet your MTD obligations.
My recommendation: Xero or QuickBooks
Client Onboarding & Payment Collection
- Practice Ignition
- Accountancy Manager
- GoCardless
- GoProposal
Now being completely upfront and transparent, I’ve worked with the Practice Ignition team for quite a while now but I want to try and paint a transparent picture for you the reader, so that you can make up your own mind and decide what works best in your firm. After-all this piece isn’t intended to be a sales pitch, but educational content.
Client onboarding can mean a lot of things to different people, it’s the place where you price your services with your clients, create proposals, send your engagement letters, set your clients on automatic payments and depending on your workflow it has the potential to automate your receivables, eliminate your debtors, forecast your revenue and deploy jobs into your workflow.
Whilst it’s a relatively new category for the accounting industry specifically, I’d argue that you’ve got some really talented people trying to solve a common problem.
Accountancy Manager, being a workflow and lodgements platform, does tackle client onboarding, but I would say the key strengths come from it’s workflow and management of clients. Feel free to investigate and see if it can suit you.
GoProposal, a relatively new player to the market but have definitely made a splash and impact with the firms using their platform. Focusing heavily on helping you calculate your fee’s with your clients and creating a proposal and engagement right in front of them. Integrating directly for one off invoices in Xero, QuickBooks and then Karbon and Senta for workflow.
Practice Ignition allows you to price your fees with your clients, collect client direct debit information upfront in your proposal, forecast your revenue, automate your engagement letter and then integrate with tools like Xero, QuickBooks for your cloud ledger. Xero Practice Manager, Karbon and Senta (Via Zapier). Effectively rolling multiple functions into one platform. Pricing, proposals, direct debit payments, forecasting and job deployment.
GoCardless, direct debit kings and queens for the United Kingdom. GoCardless have a huge market share for recurring payments and recently raised $75 million to expand their product internationally. If you weren’t already using something like Zurich or Practice Ignition, then you may consider something like a GoCardless to set up your clients on fixed fees link to your Xero or QuickBooks software ledger.
Look out for Part 2 of my guide ... coming to a screen near you soon.
BrightPay Connect’s new client upload and approval features
We are very excited to announce the launch of two new features as part of our BrightPay Connect package.
About BrightPay Connect
BrightPay Connect is an add-on to BrightPay that provides a secure, automated and user-friendly way to backup and restore your payroll data to and from the cloud. The cloud add-on also provides a self-service dashboard for employees and employers to log in and access their payroll data; as well as enabling employees to directly request things like annual leave and updates to their personal details, which are then synced automatically to the cloud.
The two new features were designed with bureau users in mind allowing these users to securely send payroll entry requests and payroll approval requests to the clients, changing the way payroll bureaus interact and communicate with clients.
Most importantly the client collaboration features will save hours of valuable time that accountants and bureaus spend rectifying inevitable mistakes in each payroll. Sounds great, right? That’s because it is! These two new features are called Client Payroll Entry and Payroll Approval.
Payroll Entry Requests
The Payroll Entry Request allows clients to securely upload their employee’s hours saving bureaus hours of administrative time and negating data duplication. Clients can easily enter employee hours on their BrightPay Connect employer dashboard. Additions and deductions that have been set up by the bureau in the payroll software can also be selected by the employer. Only additions and deductions that are already set up in the payroll software can be selected for an employee.
Clients also have the ability to add new starters through the payroll entry feature. The client can enter new employee or starter details on the Payroll Entry Request, including name, address, date of birth, NI number, email address, phone number, Tax Code, NI table letter, start date, starter declaration and if a student loan deduction plan is applicable. Once the Payroll Entry Request has been submitted by the employer and checked by the bureau, the new employee's details will be automatically downloaded and added to BrightPay payroll software on the bureau’s desktop.
Payroll Approval Requests
The Payroll Approval Request allows bureau users to securely send their clients a payroll summary before the payroll is finalised. Clients can then review and authorise the payroll details for the pay period through their online employer dashboard. Ultimately, your client will be accountable for ensuring the payroll information is 100% correct before the payroll is finalised. Additionally, there is an audit trail of the requests being approved by the client.
Paul Byrne, MD of BrightPay had this to say:
“It has been great to see BrightPay Connect evolve into something that accountants and their clients will get such great benefit from. In my previous life, as an accountant in practice, I was familiar with just how difficult it could prove to get clear and timely instructions and sign off from clients in relation to their payroll. Connect would have really helped me back then!”
Benefits for bureaus
The payroll entry and approval feature integrates directly with BrightPay Payroll, meaning the transfer of data is automatic and immediate. This process allows payroll clients to electronically view and check the payroll summary before the payroll is actually finalised. As the payroll data checks and approval are conducted by the payroll client themselves, this will result in increased accuracy and a reduced need to make edits after the payroll has been finalised.
Essentially, the client payroll entry and payroll approval features are built to seamlessly work together. However, both features can also be used as standalone functions, i.e. the bureau may only wish to use the payroll entry feature enabling their clients to upload timesheets and employee hours.
Data protection?
And how about those 4 letters we all love to hear? Yes, that’s right GDPR! How do these new features stand up to GDPR regulations? Well, these features actually offer an additional layer of GDPR protection for your clients’ payroll information:
- Confidential employee information will be exchanged between you and your client through a secure online portal, reducing the need for emails containing sensitive personal information.
- It eliminates the need for bureaus to manually re-enter the employee data into the payroll software, reducing possible errors of manual data entry.
- Payroll bureaus will have full control over the data, while their clients will have full ownership of the data verification and approval before finalising.
- Access to BrightPay Connect is protected by username and password with role and permission based access for each user.