RSS feedsThere was a time when accounting practitioners could provide clients with compliance-related services and little else, but most businesses now expect more.
Switched-on firms are using technology to commoditise their compliance-related services, automate and streamline their processes, and focus their efforts on the sort of value-added service that can help the firm and its clients improve their bottom line.
‘Time is money, for the firm and its clients,’ says Kevin Parkes, a partner at Landin Wilcock. With that in mind, the firm has used software and systems to make them both as efficient and effective as possible. The value-added services it offers range from advice support and training for business software through to online access to a regularly updated database of UK and EC grants, to business planning and forecasting. ‘We’ve always taken an active interest in new technology,’ says Parkes, adding that this has enabled the firm to steal a march on its competitors.
‘In 1979, we were the first firm in Sheffield to get a mainframe,’ he recalls. ‘It made a lot of noise and took up an entire room.’ But being an early adopter impressed local businesses and, over the years, it has enabled the firm to develop extensive in-house IT expertise.
‘To make the best of it, about seven or eight years ago we decided to set up a separate business,’ says Parkes – and Quest Computing was born. Its services range from helping businesses set up their email systems to building full-blown e-commerce sites, and its reach extends beyond Landin Wilcock’s client base.
‘Cross-referrals happen all the time,’ he says, so the enterprise has benefited the firm’s existing clients and helped to bring in new ones.
Clients do appreciate the combination of accounting knowledge and IT expertise, even if they don’t know where to draw the line between them. ‘Most business people don’t understand enough about computing or accounting to know what’s going wrong,’ Parkes says. ‘They often think it is one thing when it turns out to be something entirely different.’ Providing expertise in both areas saves clients time and money, and helps Landin Wilcock strengthen its relationship with them.
Technical excellence
Ellacotts has also used technology to impress clients and provide the sort of services that can save them and the firm time and money. Unlike Landin Wilcock, the firm doesn’t have extensive IT expertise, so it relies on the advice of organisations such as 2020 Consulting – an active member of the UK 200 Group – and employs a full-time specialist. ‘I’m not a technology expert, so I have an IT manager,’ says managing partner David Saunders. ‘I tell him what I want the firm to be able to achieve, and he goes away and makes it happen.’ Sometimes this means working closely with software providers; sometimes it means exploring less formal channels.
Let it be
When a supplier told the firm it wouldn’t be able to get its Citrix terminal servers to work with the dual-screen setup it wanted, the IT manager went online and found someone in the US who told him how to do it for free. ‘I give him the freedom to use his own initiative,’ says Saunders, ‘and he delivers. That’s how we found eCopy,’ he adds. Ellacotts is using it along with Drive (from Relate) to manage documents and build a comprehensive, centralised database of clients, jobs, prospects and contacts.
This has enabled the firm to save office space, made it easier to handle client enquiries and supported the development of new client services. ‘We’re about to go live with an open members’ area on the firm’s site,’ says Saunders. ‘The data is encrypted and access is password-protected, so clients will have secure access to any relevant correspondence, tax returns and so on, once the firm has posted it in this area.’
The response has been positive. ‘Clients think it’s fantastic,’ says Saunders, ‘because they can see how much time it is going to save them.’ It also saves time for the firm. As Ellacotts has increased its use of technology, everything has been done with this in mind, making it easier for the firm and its clients to focus on revenue-generating activities rather than getting bogged down with less productive – but equally important – activities.
‘It hasn’t been easy and it has taken a lot of commitment,’ reflects Saunders. The work has taken him away from fee-earning activities, but he says he has no regrets. ‘I wanted to use my time differently,’ he explains, ‘and if you don’t like what you do and want to change things, you have to make them happen.’
At Harlands, the firm has taken the same approach and run even further with it. In addition to growing its own in-house IT expertise, it has a team including specialist financial advisers and business development consultants. All are geared towards turning the firm’s slogan, ‘Together, we can achieve your goals’, into a reality for its clients.
‘We are helping people to realise their dreams,’ says Phil Murray, a business consultant at Harlands, and the firm does this with the support of a range of software, systems and specialists. ‘We want to make it easy for our clients to work on their business rather than in it,’ he adds. In addition to off-the-shelf products such as Sage Financial Forecasting, Harlands uses AVN products, including Business Builder and IRIS Benchmarking, plus its own in-house creation, the Personal Balance Sheet.
‘The Sage package is great when you want to analyse a client’s accounts and show them what’s going on using graphs and charts,’ enthuses Murray, ‘because it makes everything so clear and simple.’ The AVN products come into their own when Harlands wants to get clients excited at the potential their business offers. ‘Business Builder is a great way of helping people look beyond the numbers,’ says Murray.
How suite it is
The firm can use its suite of products to show clients what’s possible and demonstrate how the firm can help them achieve it by illustrating the effect small changes to variables such as price or sales volume can have on business value or turnover. ‘It’s also good to be able to show businesses how their performance compares with their competitors [using IRIS Benchmarking],’ says Murray. ‘It can be really powerful,’ he adds. ‘Sometimes you need to demonstrate that the way people are doing things is five or six years out of date.’
Because Harlands wants to help clients identify and then achieve their goals, inside and outside the business, it also uses its Personal Balance Sheet. ‘It can show them how to get where they want to be,’ he says, and telling someone how much money they have today can be almost as popular as showing them how to make more. ‘Clients love it,’ adds Murray. ‘Even people who have a vague idea what they’re worth get excited when they see it on paper.’
What clients want
When Millifoods had the opportunity to expand its food preparation business and buy a local factory, it needed to computerise the finance side of its business. ‘We didn’t have a system, and I’m no computer whiz. I wanted something simple to use,’ says Stephen Drew, the ex-chef who runs the business.
The expansion also meant extra staff, so Drew needed a solution that could help Millifoods handle payroll and accounting, and be up and running in a short timescale. So he turned to his accountant, Ray Backler at Capsa Consulting, for help. ‘The timescale was very short,’ recalls Backler. Millifoods had never used an accounting system before, so he suggested a hosted online solution from Liberty.
‘Millifoods was able to start using the integrated bookkeeping and payroll solution immediately,’ explains Backler, ‘because you can access it from any PC with a browser. Options such as employing a full-time bookkeeper or installing traditional accounting and payroll applications were more costly and complex.’
Millifoods appreciates both the system and the service it got from its accountant. ‘The system provides me with a snapshot of where the business is,’ says Drew. ‘I can see the bank position and the status of creditors and debtors,’ he adds. So he can check the financial situation quickly, and if he does have any problems or queries, Drew’s accountant only needs a phone and internet access to be able to help.
Because Backler was able to meet his client’s needs quickly, he helped the business to minimise its accounting costs and make money from its growing customer base – which includes BHS and P&O. Drew was impressed, so it will be easier for his accountant to interest him in other value-added services in the future.
Lesley Meall is a freelance business and technology journalist
