RSS feedsTo look at it from outside, you wouldn’t know there was a revolution going on within number 29 Fitzroy Square, London. With a front door flanked with blue plaques and genteel neighbours like St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy, this seems an unlikely address to hatch plots to overturn the status quo.
But revolution is exactly how Philip Woodgate characterises the pace of change within business and accountancy. And it’s a movement that he wants his firm, Goodman Jones, to be at the heart of. The technophile partner is the driving force behind the firm’s use of the web with an approach that helped Goodman Jones carry off last year’s Best Use of Internet by a Practice Award in the Accountancy Age Awards for Excellence.
The Goodman Jones website is a step up from the brochure sites offered by most accountancy firms. GoodmanJones.com showcases the firm and its partners and services. It is also a gateway to those services, providing an online accounting system, GJ Online, which lets clients process their accounting records securely and view them in a clear interface.
Client and adviser can confer on the most up-to-date version of the business’s accounts and the facility allows Goodman Jones to offer training and troubleshooting on the fly. It means that an accountant at the firm can double-check figures with clients before they head into meetings with potential investors or bankers, or before they sign off performance-related bonuses, for instance. The site also offers online banking and an online meeting facility.
The online accounting system is based on an application by Twinfield, which Woodgate saw demonstrated at BDO Stoy Hayward in the Netherlands. It is based on the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. As it is web-based, the client does not need to install software. Woodgate says the system is flexible enough for many business models and is more secure than internet banking. What’s more, the practice doesn’t have to renew licences as it is a subscription-based service.
Accuracy and speed
Woodgate says the main plus for sharing information in a web-based system from
the firm’s point of view is accuracy. ‘The big driver for us is getting
real-time, accurate client information. It’s hard to add value if you don’t have
accurate data on which to base decisions,’ he says.
‘The other issue is that we’re all trying to be business advisers rather than just beancounters. This is a great system for automating processes,’ he says, ‘so you can load in bank statements from online banking. You can take data from e-point of sales systems and load it in.’
Speed is another benefit, he argues. Management accounts can be produced five days after month end. Cost is another. ‘We can train admin people at the client’s business to process invoices, and because we’re checking data, we can be confident that they are doing it right.’
Offering accountancy services via remote access appeals to a client base with fast-growing expectations, says Woodgate. Many clients, he says, are streaking ahead and they expect their advisers to do likewise. With iPods, Blackberries, remote working and a greater blurring of the boundaries between home and work, there is a revolution going on, he says, particularly in the way we communicate.
It is not just technologically-minded clients who like the system, Woodgate says. It appeals to small businesses and start-ups that haven’t yet put in place accounting systems of their own. He concedes that sometimes people have to be persuaded on security issues and this is often a cultural issue, he believes. Some clients think that web-based systems are inherently insecure. Once the system is explained and demonstrated, most people are happy to come on board. Data is held on a secure server and user details, data streams and password activity are monitored 24 hours a day.
Woodgate’s path to Goodman Jones began with a Maths degree, a training contract with Websters, a small firm of chartered accountants on London’s Baker Street, plus stints at Clark Whitehill in Yorkshire and FW Stephens in the City. His early experience gave him a good grounding in the basics and also in the all-important disciplines of presentation, marketing and acquiring clients. Woodgate joined Goodman Jones in 1998 as an audit manager.
The firm’s client base occupies the heartland of the UK’s large family and owner-managed businesses and SMEs, as well as overseas subsidiaries. Woodgate looks after retail, wholesale and technology businesses and UK subsidiaries of international companies. As well as broad business advice, he has a focus on business systems and technology.
Freedom to experiment
The great thing about Goodman Jones is that the firm, and managing partner Larry
Phillips in particular, offers a great deal of freedom. That has given Woodgate
scope to experiment and pursue activities such as setting up and writing an SME
blog, something that has given the site a point of entry for a wider community.
The firm also hosts technology events that demonstrate the firm’s technological
expertise to clients. It’s all about exploring new areas and showing that the
firm understands new technology and where it might take business next.
The firm is more than a disparate group of people heading off in different
directions. ‘A lot of medium-sized firms of accountants and businesses can be a
group of sole traders, whereas we’re very much a firm,’ he says. ‘For instance,
we may have a client and there will be three or four partners involved in that.
It’s because we’re one firm that you get the freedom. You’re not just worried
about your own portfolio. You’re concerned about developing the firm as well.’
The blog is an example of pursuing technology for its own ends without knowing
beforehand where it will lead. While blogging does not generate business leads,
it does form networks. ‘This is keeping me informed on things outside my
sphere,’ says Woodgate. ‘It also keeps me aware of things that impact
medium-sized companies. The blog helps us plug gaps in our knowledge and helps
us provide a better service to clients.’
That’s the indirect benefit of spending time on technology. ‘If you
concentrate on what you’re trying to achieve you can find things that will
benefit the client,’ he says. The ‘wiki’ is next on Woodgate’s list websites
that are as easy to write as they are to read. ‘It’s an area of great
potential,’ he says.
While Woodgate is a strong advocate of the web-based accounting system, he does
work with a range of other business and finance systems. He’s currently working
on accounting systems for a large owner-managed business using Access
Accounting. The mid-sized sector has a great deal of challenges when it comes to
technology, he says. They face many of the same issues as large enterprises, but
with far fewer resources.
There’s a resource challenge within accountancy firms on the technology side as well. Woodgate has just recruited a management accountant with an industry background to work with him on the business systems side.
Woodgate was looking for more than technological excellence, though. Presentation skills are just as important as systems implementation skills, he says. Good accountants with systems implementation skills, who also show a good approach to clients are difficult to find. ‘It’s difficult to get people who are technologically aware, good accountants and presentable,’ says Woodgate.
Secrets of success
People getting the right team is the most important part of practice life,
says Woodgate. You need a team that can communicate well and people who
understand what the client wants.
Technology adapting to technology and evolving with it is also key. We’re in a society that is changing so rapidly. The way clients want to communicate is different too, so we need to reflect that.
Drive it’s about more than money. It’s about doing the best that we can. We are at work for a lot of the time, so it needs to be satisfying.
INVALUABLE ASSET
Client view: goodman jones helps an Asset Management company to grow
In GJ Online, Goodman Jones has a web-based system that appeals to clients who are novices, as well as technology enthusiasts. Its great plus is that it is easy to explain and highly adaptable.
One person who needed little persuading on the technology was Olivier Meyer, CFO of Alken Asset Management. Alken is a relative newcomer to the competitive and high-pressured world of asset management. Meyer became CFO of the start up in October 2005 and decided to work with Woodgate, with whom he had already had dealings.
‘I knew Philip’s professionalism and I knew I could trust him,’ he says.
Alken started with three people all focused on the business of growing the
nascent fund. No-one had time for accounting and back office tasks, so
accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll were outsourced to Goodman Jones. Along the
way, Woodgate took on an advisory role on online filing requirements, VAT and
other issues.
Now Alken has moved from micro business to small business, and Meyer is looking to introduce new tools. ‘We’ve started to look at the remote access accounting. We’re looking at using internet facilities to connect with the [online accounting] software,’ says Meyer.
Meyer believes this will allow him to maintain the detailed view of his operation and the fund as they grow in complexity. ‘As you grow, you need more tools and controls. The online accounting system will be very valuable and we will be very well positioned from a technology point of view,’ he says.
As Alken takes more ownership of the system, Woodgate’s role will shift to one of monitoring and advising. Clients often need advice on how to organise people in house to take care of various elements of the financial reporting system and on what people’s roles and responsibilities should be. As clients grow, they realise they can train administrative assistants for data entry tasks and free up senior people for more skilled work. Meanwhile, the business has the reassurance that financial information is being monitored by their advisers.
Gradually, Woodgate is building up a fuller accounting and management system
for the company using GJ Online. ‘The online system is there in the background.
They can start going live with parts of it as the company grows,’ says Woodgate.
The next phase will be for Woodgate to provide more detailed and responsive
management information, so that the company can look at key performance
indicators over time.
Go to www.goodmanjones.com
