In the not to distant past, accountants used to be someone you interacted with once a year when you dropped off your books and then sat down with to discuss your taxes.
At that year end meeting – often several months after your actual year end – you discovered how well, or badly, you had done and how much tax you had to pay.
This process was an immense cause of frustration for clients because the accountant was not adding any value other than completing compliance work for them.
The world has changed – has your accountant?
Now we are in a fast-paced world and clients demand more for their buck. The world today is full of real time streaming, on demand services, same day delivery etc, so waiting 6 months after your year end to see how you did on your finances is not good enough. Business owners demand more, and accountants (well some anyway) have stepped up.
Here are 10 ways we have stepped up to meet the demands of our clients:
- Every client is on Xero – not just because Xero is the market-leading, small business bookkeeping software, but because it is accessible 24/7 and if worked correctly can give you up to date, real time, information concerning the finances of your business, which we believe is key to its efficient running. Here are the 3 reports that every business owner should be running regularly.
- We regularly review our clients Xero and offer FREE training for every client. What’s the point of having Xero if its not up to date? We undertake, for free, a Xero review (following our 50-point checklist) and send you the results. If this list identifies training, we provide that free of charge.
- We will make changes and tweak your Xero as we go along to keep things on track.
- Our Xero reviews also spot potential problems and help nip them in the bud – overdrawn Directors Loan Accounts are a great example. We can spot if you are taking too much and avoid a hefty tax charge.
- We undertake a pre-year-end tax planning process for every client using our 20-point tax planning checklist – we then tailor this to your circumstances and make recommendations before you need them. In time for you to act, not to look back.
- We have different levels of service on offer, so if you need more, we can deliver it – our Financial Controller service has a meet monthly or quarterly option where we take an in-depth look at your figures against your targets.
- We give you unlimited support – that’s right, whatever you need we are there to answer the question, provide advice and not charge you extra for it.
- We communicate like our life depends on it – lack of communication has always been the number one criticism of accountants. We treat every bit of communication as sacred and come back to you when we say we will – we won’t keep you waiting for answers.
- We are picky about who we work with – this is crucial to our way of working – we will go the extra mile for all our clients and because we only work with certain clients they appreciate that and respond. We have a close, collaborative working relationship with our clients and if we can’t build that then we don’t work with the client.
- Always learning – we are always looking at how we can improve our service to our clients and will act on any feedback we are given.
We feel we have met the challenge and embraced the changes and demands, allowing us and our clients to be more efficient in this ever-changing world – but don’t take our word for it, have a read of what our clients say here.
If you have a fractious relationship with your accountant, or they haven’t moved on then give us a call we would love to help.
