Tips for effective brand building
In this digital age, where consumers are drowning in an ocean of branded pap, companies are beginning to learn that they live or die by the strength of their brand and how they market it.
With ever increasing online and offline channels, and social media dominating Gen Zs' daily information source, identity and differentiation are becoming vitally important. ‘For markets, differentiation today is more challenging than at any time in history - yet it remains at the heart of successful marketing’ (Alastair Dryburg). So here are some tips on conveying your authenticity as a brand in today’s marketplace.
1. Brand - do you know who you are?
A cohesive, consistent and authentic brand across all area’s of your business is crucial. Branding goes deeper than stationary sets, fonts, brand colours and attire. A true brand includes a strong vision and a purpose towards which you and your team can strive. Establishing a strong core values framework early will allow you to shape key components of your business, like your customer journey and website. This way, your brand will really resonate.
At Clarity we have a core values framework called ‘LIAISE’ which enabled us to embed our core values into our day-to-day business. If you would like a copy of this, please get in touch.
2. Clients - do you really know who your ideal clients are?
Understanding who your clients are (or who you want them to be) is really important too. Communicating the right message, in the right way, on the right channel, ensures your firm’s services don’t get lost.
Creating avatars of your ideal clients is a great activity for the whole team, allowing them to truly understand who they are and how yo connect with them.
Do you know their fears, wants and needs?
What keeps them up at night?
Do you know where they hang out, both online and offline?
Do you know who their influencers are, and where they get their news from?
Do you know what types of messaging they prefer and trust?
3. Social Media
Not only is social media free, it offers direct access to millions of prospective clients. Like content marketing, the strength of social media marketing and building a true brand identity, lies in the development of a consistent voice.
There are many different platforms and it’s important to identify which ones are used by your ideal client-base so that you can target specific ones. Agree on appropriate (and often different) messages for each channel with matching and clear call to actions.
Being active on social media is a brilliant way to promote your firm without having to spend money on paid advertising. But, don’t rule out promotions on social media channels, as it can often be cheaper and more targeted than google adwords. Simple automation tools like buffer.com and paper.li are really useful for managing multiple social media channels effectively.
4. Events/Networking/Speaking
Branding isn’t all about online - we are in the people business and it is all about relationships. There is no substitute for direct personal connections, and you never who you might meet by networking at an event. Webinars are a very effective use of time and resources - zoom is a great tool to host panels and can also be a brilliant way of recording professional looking videos for you to share.
Your brand is your one true differentiator. By understanding who you are, who your ideal clients are and sharing the components of your brand consistently across online and offline channels, will ensure you rise above the pap.
CMA recommends shake-up of UK audit market
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wants to see big changes to tackle serious competition problems in the UK audit industry.
Legislation is needed to take on the vulnerability of the sector to the loss of one of the Big 4, and the current "inadequate choice and competition."
The CMA is recommending the separation of audit from consulting services, mandatory ‘joint audit’ to enable firms outside the Big 4 to develop the capacity needed to review the UK’s biggest companies, and the introduction of statutory regulatory powers to increase accountability of companies’ audit committees.
The CMA’s recommendations follow extensive discussions with audit firms, investors and major UK companies on its update paper – published in December. They also take account of the recommendations of a major report from the Business Select Committee, and the inquiry into regulation led by John Kingman.
The recommendations are:
Operational split
Auditors should focus exclusively on producing the most challenging and objective audits, rather than being influenced by their much larger consultancy businesses. Given the difficulties with an immediate global structural split, the CMA is – at this stage – recommending an operational split of the Big 4’s UK audit work. This will require separate management, accounts and remuneration: a separate CEO and board for the audit arm; separate financial statements for the audit practice; an end to profit-sharing between audit and consultancy, and promotions and bonuses based on the quality of the audits.
More choice to increase resilience: mandatory joint audit
More choice and competition for the audits of big businesses can and should drive up their quality, but the barriers to entry for ‘challenger’ audit firms are currently large. The CMA recommends mandatory joint audit, to increase the capacity of challengers, to increase choice in the market and thereby drive up audit quality. Challenger firms should work alongside the Big 4 in these joint audits and should be jointly liable for the results. There should be initial limited exceptions to the requirement, based on criteria set by the regulator, focused on the largest and most complex companies. In addition, any company choosing a sole ‘challenger’ auditor should be exempt. Audits of exempt companies may be subject to rigorous, real-time peer reviews commissioned by and reporting to the regulator. The joint audit requirement should remain in place until the regulator determines that choice and competition have improved enough to address the vulnerability of the market to the loss of one of the Big 4.
Regulation of UK companies’ audit committees
It is essential that audit committees choose auditors by seeking those likely to provide the most robust and constructive challenge to the accounting practices of their companies. The CMA recommends that the regulator should hold audit committees more vigorously to account. This may include ensuring that committees report their decisions as they hire and supervise auditors, and that the regulator issues public reprimands to companies whose committees fall short of adequate scrutiny of their auditors.
A 5 year review of progress by the regulator
The regulator should review the effects of these changes periodically, in the first instance five years from full implementation. This should consider in particular: the merits of moving to independent appointment for auditors; whether to go beyond the operational split already proposed; and how to fine-tune the joint audit remedy to adapt to market developments.
CMA Chairman Andrew Tyrie said: People’s livelihoods, savings and pensions all depend on the auditors’ job being done to a high standard. But too many fall short – more than a quarter of big company audits are considered sub-standard by the regulator. This cannot be allowed to continue. The government now has three reports to hand. In large part, they come to similar conclusions. Conflicts of interest cannot be allowed to persist; nor can the UK afford to rely on only four firms to audit Britain’s biggest companies any longer. Early action will require legislation – hence the CMA’s proposals.
CMA’s Chief Executive, Andrea Coscelli, also commented:
The UK is recognised as having a strong history in the fields of corporate governance and accounting.Our recommendations, along with improvements to regulation and clarifying the purpose and scope of audits, will ensure the UK strengthens its position.We look forward to supporting the government as it considers how best to take forward these changes through legislation, alongside Sir John Kingman’s recommendations on regulation and the results from Sir Donald Brydon’s review on the quality and effectiveness of audit.
Avoid accounting software mishaps with bluQube
No one plans on software purchases ending with furiously typing a misspelled, ALLCAPS rant on a user forum… But what do you look out for to stop this?
Here at bluQube, the words “It’s not at all what we expected,” are heard too often from our new customers…
Lots of software buyers have told us exactly that when explaining why they needed to replace recently purchased accounting software.
Nobody plans to have their software purchase experience end with them furiously typing a stream of misspelled, ALLCAPS rants on user forums, but there sure are a lot of those out there.
When new customers come to bluQube, we find that there are a few main reasons why.
It could just be time to change, maybe a falling out with a supplier through extended and over priced implementations, but most of the time it’s due to a business out-growing their software.
When there is too much manual input and re-keying of information…
It takes an age to report, meaning by the time the meeting has come around – the data is out of date and probably inaccurate!
We hear lots of stories from clients who thought they were buying X but ended up with Y, so here’s our top list of things to be aware of…
- Surprise limitations on user licences. Not every user license is a full access license. Different vendors have different licensing models so make sure you know what they’re quoting for.
- Unexpected annual support costs. Very often the first year of support is bundled in with the initial cost of licensing software. The bundling of support costs can easily skew expectations for ongoing costs and total cost of ownership.
- Database and required software licensing. If you’re only tallying up the licensing costs for the actual accounting software, you might have some more software line items to add to find your true costs.
- Lack of integration. Integration might mean that you need to manually trigger a process to export data from one program to another and plan for data inconsistencies between updates. Find someone who offers True Interoperability.
- Poor support. Long waits, communication issues, inexperienced support agents, or limited support availability hours can all turn even simple problems into major inconveniences. We pick up the phone within two rings.
- Know their methodology. Implementations should be fixed price so you’re not strung along for months and being charged for it! You also need to find a partner to work with, you shouldn’t just be left to it.
- Records limitations. Certain product offerings will cap the number of records that can be stored in the software, in order to keep users from running into slow response times. Users who approach records or file size limits generally face a choice between upgrading their software or removing data from the system – which isn’t possible with UK auditing standards! Find a cloud that can expand and contracts as you do.
If you want to find out what it's like to work with an accounting software partner, opposed to a supplier, check out how we helped Oscar and Ruby here and get in touch! With bluQube, there’s a better way… 08456 44 77 88
The case for cloud document management
Let us start by defining document management (DM) to mean any software system that maintains a centralised repository of documents such that it assists in finding and organising documents, while facilitating office processes.
So a DM may be anything from a simple shared folder structure through to a sophisticated management system supporting full versioning, custom metadata, views, filtering, sorting, user access controls and document workflow.
Most professional businesses deal with vast numbers of documents and hence secure, robust storage for the document repository is a key IT concern and cost centre.
The question arises as to whether it is appropriate or worthwhile to also consider moving DM to the cloud, given that document creation, editing, storage and printing is all done locally within the office?
The on-premise rationale
Firms committed to in-house deployment for DM typically offer the following reasons:
• Considerable investment has been made in their own IT infrastructure with both staff and facilities and it therefore behoves them to leverage this investment.
• Physical security of servers is entirely under their own control and responsibility. Typically, only escorted access is permitted to on premise servers, and only their own hardware is permitted to be connected to their internal network.
• Electronic security is managed by virtue of firewall isolation from the Internet enabling controlled protocol level access to what is essentially an isolated private internal network.
• Application usage is controlled and centrally managed by IT to ensure that staff has a controlled and managed desktop working environment.
These measures are designed to protect the organisation from external threats such as hacker attack and virus penetration, and to ensure known levels of system performance, redundancy and backup.
The general belief is that internal installation of DM is necessary to maintain the level of security and robustness required by the organisation.
But is this really true and at what cost?
On premise deployments usually carry considerable IT costs, which bear scrutiny. Typically, there are 3 main cost centres:
• Cost to buy.
• Cost to maintain.
• Cost to backup.
How secure is it really?
No matter how much is spent on the on-premise or virtualised server environment albeit locked behind firewalls, it seems repositories are still vulnerable to attack by malware such as crypto-locker, which infiltrates via email or web access.
Introducing cloud document management
CDM is a cost-effective solution for document-minded businesses, and provides the following benefits:
• Unlimited file storage - no more running out of disk space, no more expensive server upgrades.
• Permanent archive - no more tapes, just an unlimited permanent online archive, never lose a thing.
• Collaboration - no uploads, no downloads, no copies, just single source shared documents.
• Security - securely encrypted file store replicated across world class data centres.
• Accessibility - view and edit your files online, anywhere, anytime and on any device.
So true cloud application technology allows all traditional costs of owning or leasing equipment, maintaining it and backing it up, to be eliminated. It allows you to eliminate expensive IT support services for host servers. It is the way of the future.
Improving practice efficiency…and compliance
A well-run practice ensures happy clients as well as enhanced employee experience. Managing complex business activities of clients also requires accounting firms to have a well thought-out practice that is able to seamlessly gather and process data, while keeping track of regulatory compliances.
Today’s disruptive technology is a boon for firms as it allows them the opportunity to bring in increased efficiency and automation while lowering operating costs. Client expectations too are changing, requiring their accounting firms to use more sophisticated technology in their operations. This requirement is predominantly driven by their need for a more efficient way of interaction between the two parties, as well as to help build confidence in the quality of services being provided.
Audit 2025, a report by Forbes Insights/KPMG, reflects these trends in its findings, while also showed that clients want firms to leverage technology for data gathering and analytics.
Leveraging technology to improve a practice also helps keep track of regulatory compliance requirements. Global operations of both clients and accounting firms make the regulatory landscape complex, requiring firms to pay more attention to compliance requirements.
The key component for a well-run practice is the team working for the practice. Well thought-out and streamlined practices will leverage paperless process automation and smart technology, help reduce repetative mundane tasks, leaving employees free to focus on complex activities and client management. In addition, it also helps boost employee morale.
One Paper Lane is helping accounting firms of all sizes digitise workflow and automate their practice areas and client management work, leading to improved efficiency and compliance. You get more than cutting edge technology with One Paper Lane, with 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]
How much is disruptive technology actually disrupting accountancy?
The accountancy sector, like any other, is facing a sea change. The future is digital, not just for accountants but for everyone – at home and at work, the paraphernalia of our lives are leaving the page and being entered on to the hard drive. This is far from news. But despite the rising tide of digital information exchange, accountants work in what has historically been the slow lane of business development: finance.
Financiers are cautious by nature, and with good reason. When you’ve got the company’s money at your disposal, it pays to be careful before rushing into a new system, solution or infrastructure. No-one wants to be the unfortunate soul who unwittingly opens a system backdoor and sees the family jewels go rushing down the plughole.
Regulatory requirements also apply a natural brake to the speed of change – when your every move is dictated by compliance and you’re up to your ears in red tape, you’re a lot less likely to install the latest Shiny Object unless you’re sure it’s going to help you.
The balance of accounting
All of that means that accountants have to perform a high-wire act when looking to implement new technology that could help improve their services. They must take their clients on the journey with them, demonstrating the benefits of technology without bounding off ahead, missing the basic bookkeeping requirements that the majority of their customers still have. They must act as royal food-tasters, sampling the latest innovations and advising their clients on how they’ll affect their systems – and avoiding anything damaging. It’s a delicate pursuit.
New research that we will be sharing at Accountex has found that although many accountants are well aware of the benefits technology can offer them – improved accuracy, greater insight, reduced admin, deeper strategic understanding – they’re also seeing a slowness in actual uptake. That’s not because they’re lacking in vision or entrepreneurialism – quite the reverse. It’s because they have a responsibility to bring their clients along as they evolve and ensure that each innovation is up to best practice.
With that said, how can accountants communicate the value of digital transformation clearly and enable not only their own practices but also their clients to get the most out of emerging technology?
Technology feeding strategy
The answer lies in value-add services. Accountants that limit their vision to bookkeeping are missing a massive opportunity. As accounting software becomes more data-driven, integrating with other business services and bringing in data from across clients’ organisations, accountants have the chance to become valued strategic advisers. They can use their insight into the financials to provide advice on wider strategy.
For example, if they notice a sudden dip in revenues aligning to reduced productivity on the factory floor, they can begin a conversation with the client leadership about which areas need to be addressed to rectify the problem. Similarly, they can quickly pick up unexpected fluctuations in cashflow, whether they’re the result of error or fraud, and help the client to rectify the situation quickly.
The bottom line is that technology isn’t just a labour-saving device – it’s an intelligence-booster. Automating basic tasks definitely reduces the amount of back-end admin on which accountants have to spend their valuable time, but the really exciting thing is what they can then do with the time that they get back. A well-informed, data-driven accountancy firm can use the information that next-gen accountancy software gives it to grow its value in its clients’ eyes, not only improving stickability but also driving up revenues.
To answer our own question – is disruptive technology actually disrupting accountancy? It certainly is. The real question is whether accountants are keeping up. Those who take advantage of technology will have the jump on their competitors – now’s the time to get on board.
To find out more about the latest innovations in accounting technology and the findings from our industry research, visit Sage at stand 720 at Accountex London.
Preparing for your first submission in an MTD world
The 1st of April has come and gone but the transition to Making Tax Digital for VAT filing is far from over. The true impact of the change will be felt at the first VAT return submission. What should be top of mind for you is keeping digital records, reviewing your VAT clients and assessing your current processes to ensure they are fully compliant.
While it may seem overwhelming at first, start with these simple considerations as you prepare for your first submission.
How are you submitting VAT returns today?
Firstly, consider how you submit VAT returns today. Are you submitting on behalf of your client using a bookkeeping product, or using a spreadsheet to come to the nine figures only to manually type them into HMRC’s online service? Do your clients prefer to submit their own VAT returns using a bookkeeping product or HMRC’s online service? The final question should be, are these processes compliant and if so, do you want to maintain them?
How will you maintain digital records?
The next fundamental step should be to start maintaining digital records to ensure the first VAT return submission is compliant. The good news is that spreadsheets remain acceptable for digitally capturing data. For some, this might be the logical first step to digitalisation. Providing you use API-enabled or bridging software to make the final submission, you have the freedom to keep spreadsheets with valuable historic data and calculations in the process.
How do your clients currently submit their VAT returns?
Finally, in preparation for the first submission, whether you submit monthly or quarterly, you should be completing your final reviews on all your VAT clients to establish:
• Do they want to complete and file the VAT return themselves?
• Do they want your practice to prepare and file on their behalf?
• Do they want your practice to validate and file the return after they prepare the data?
Once you have agreed on how to proceed for each of your clients, the next step is reviewing the system you use today and even setting up a new system for monitoring your deadlines. This will ensure that you know when all the different activities are due and are alerted to filing deadlines ahead of time.
How do you currently monitor your VAT returns?
Research shows that most practices have been using spreadsheets to monitor returns, which tend to list out the key milestones and deadlines. One solution that practices are looking at is being able to set up an automated workflow within their tax and accounting software which incorporates the alert data, the activities and when they need to be completed.
The key question to ask yourself would be, is the process you have efficient and compliant? If the answer to either question is no, join us, Wolters Kluwer, at stand 1060 at Accountex on 1 and 2 May to find out how you can achieve both.
3 simple ideas to reduce the peaks and troughs in your firm’s workload
We may not be peak silly season yet for accountants, but now is the time to really think through how to sort out your resourcing for both the Nov-Jan peak, but also ensure you have enough work for the core team to do in the quieter months such as February. In this article, we share 3 simple ideas to smooth out the peaks and troughs in your firm’s workload.
Don’t wait until the peak period is nearly upon you…
It’s tempting to think that this is a task you can put off for a bit longer. Perhaps when the schools break up for summer? Most of the ideas I share in the article need some planning and meetings to come to fruition. They are not something you can just do and expect immediate results.
Do forecast ahead
Now all of these three simple ideas rely (mostly) on you being able to forecast demand for your services. This means doing capacity planning. Capacity planning is often the difference between being hit unexpectedly by a tsunami of work vs having the right capacity in place when you need it.
Idea 1: Carefully manage your firm’s holiday calendar
Of course you want to make sure that your team can take holiday when they want and need too. But, before you grant a request do check your firm’s capability requirements. And don’t forget to factor in any study leave that your staff may be needing. The more you can let staff know in advance when the busy periods are going to be, the easier it becomes to turn down holiday requests in peak periods.
Idea 2: Book clients into pre-agreed slots for when you will do their work
Most clients are happy to bring their records in at a certain point in the year. Very often you just need to ask for them at a certain point in the year. However, it’s really important that you don’t just set a month for them to bring their records in, but you nag gently remind them, so they bring their records in at the correct time.
Idea 3: Use an outsourcing company to service the peaks in demand
And of course, you can use a trusted accounts outsourcing company such as ourselves to help you service the peaks in demand. We charge you a fixed fee so you always know exactly what you will pay. Plus, unlike other outsourcers, you can also work with us on a ‘pay as you go basis’. I.e. no having to pay for a seat for a whole year.
In summary
Reducing the peaks and troughs in your firm’s workload isn’t just good for stress levels among your team. It’s also a great way to increase your firm’s profit margin.
Get a quote HERE today to find out how you can benefit from Global Infosys services. We'll be speaking at Accountex too. Check out our session HERE.
Digital tools that every employer should be using
It’s predicted that by 2020 the global workforce would be dominated by millennials (35 per cent) and Generation X (35 per cent).
That means by next year, over 70 per cent of the global workforce will be under the age of 40. A younger workforce presents knock-on effects for the entire business. As an employer, you need to adapt to meet the expectations of this new generation of employees; they’re very different from the workforce that preceded them. Having grown up using the internet as second nature, these young employees are true digital natives and have never known a world without it.
Take, for instance, payroll. With payment technologies evolving, millennials have become some of the fastest adopters of mobile and digital payments. Their influence on mobile payroll adoption cannot be ignored. The simple fact is these new generation employees don’t do paper forms. They are increasingly looking for digital options to access payslips and apply for annual leave.
In recent years, employees are using holiday time differently than previous generations, with the average leave duration reduced to just 2.34 days. This alone creates new challenges for payroll and HR managers. Shorter, more frequent bursts of annual leave tend to be requested last minute rather than planned in advance. It is important for employers and HR personnel to be able to quickly review and approve leave requests.
Mobile payroll solutions, such as BrightPay Connect, are an ideal way to improve the efficiency of your business, especially as new generation workers continue to integrate smartphones into every aspect of business operations.
BrightPay Connect benefits include:
Request annual leave - An employee opens up their phone or tablet, logs in and applies for leave online. The HR manager or employer will be alerted of the leave request and can approve the leave instantly, with the leave automatically flowing back to the payroll software. On the self-service portal, both the employee and the employer can view their number of leave days taken and remaining, along with an employee leave calendar displaying all past and future leave.
View payslips and payroll documents - The employee can login to their self-service account to view and download all current and historic payslips and payroll documents such as P60s. For the payroll processor, there is no more printing or emailing payslips. Payslips are automatically added to the employee’s online portal each pay period eliminating employee requests for copies of past payslips.
Access everything in one central location - Keep everything in one central place. For employees, there is just one login to view employee documents and a company noticeboard. Employers can upload documents such as employment contracts, staff handbooks, privacy policies, training manuals. The employer can decide whether the employee should have access to view the document or not, using it as a central location for everything to do with each individual employee.
As an employer, adopting these few features favoured by younger workers, along with the additional employer benefits (such as an automatic cloud backup of payroll data and instant access to payroll reports), you are guaranteed to improve the efficiency of your business and payroll processing.
Book a demo today to find out how you can benefit from BrightPay Connect.
What are your views on the 'advisory accountant'?
The word "advisory" never fails to spark a reaction when it's linked to the term "role of the accountant."
Some believe it's all a bit of a red herring; a sales pitch that is simply highlighting an area of the traditional accountancy role that has been performed by members of the profession since an Italian monk invented double-entry bookkeeping.
Others see it as a concept that needs to be grasped and adopted by accountants ASAP ... if they are going to navigate a tech-heavy future productively and profitably.
Survey of the profession
Here at Accounting Insight News, we have teamed up with Remarkable Practice's Paul Shrimpling and Intuit QuickBooks to try to shed some more light on the matter by carrying out a survey of the profession.
It's entitled: How important will business advisory services be to your accountancy firm’s future?
So how well prepared are you and your team to make the most of this so-called advisory opportunity?
Fees and profits
Paul says: "Because some accountants earn healthy fees and profits from advisory work, it follows that you can too. For other accountants a few things get in the way and prevent them earning these fees and profits.
"The questions in this short survey will show you what’s getting in your way. The results report will show you what’s stopping your fellow accountants.
"Then, last but not least, the webinar (that survey participants can access) will show you how to overcome the challenges so that you can start earning and scaling advisory work in your firm."
You can take part in the survey HERE