IT advisory questions?

IT advisory questions?

Didn't find your answer?

If you have or are considering providing an IT advisory service to clients, then there are probably a few questions on your mind.

Microsoft and AccountingWEB are hosting a live panel next Thursday December 10th with the experts - accountant and IT advisory head Paul Rolison, Microsoft representatives and more.

But first we would like to know what's on your mind - questions, queries and pain points. We will then gather and ask them on the day. So comment below if you would like yours to be answered!

Replies (22)

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Portia profile image
By Portia Nina Levin
26th Nov 2014 16:32

What is IT?

I not always able to put my finger on IT, yet there IT is is.

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By merlyn
26th Nov 2014 16:40

Move to Xero

"Move to Xero" is the only advice most accountants should be offering their clients on I.T.

 

After all you wouldn't expect an IT support company to offer their clients advice when it comes to accountancy now would you?

 

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By jaywood
26th Nov 2014 17:05

Backup

Where we use cloud software, do we need to back up? If so, best way. 

Concerned about being tied in with cloud software like Xero. Question is extracting data that would be useable. Stop paying the subs after client leaves. 

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David Winch
By David Winch
26th Nov 2014 17:16

Office 2011

I'd like to know why it is taking MS so long to get around to updating Office 2011 for Mac.

David

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By Howard Marks
26th Nov 2014 19:00

IT

I missed the recent jolly so didn't get to take part in the workshops.

 

Is this the new thing?  Accountants offering IT services?  I know we're all embracing 'the cloud' but I wouldn't have thought the two go hand in hand.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
28th Nov 2014 00:19

There are more IT Experts than there are Accountants

Having used it (IT that is) for nearly 35 years I've picked up general knowledge that I pass on to clients, so will extol the virtues of Hosted and Cloud solutions as well as the supremacy of Macs but there are so many IT experts out there now there's no way I'd get into detailed stuff.

Couldn't resist this @merlyn - re Xero being the only answer to life, are you saying that they now provide email, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, data backup, virus & security protection, networking and server configuration advice, or maybe they have just added another 20 add-ons to their ever so basic bookkeeping, when I wasn't looking?

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Replying to The Dullard:
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By cparker87
28th Nov 2014 01:16

I can't resist either...

Paul Scholes wrote:

as well as the supremacy of Macs

Really?

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Replying to The Dullard:
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By merlyn
28th Nov 2014 09:21

A little knowledge

Paul Scholes wrote:

Having used it (IT that is) for nearly 35 years I've picked up general knowledge that I pass on to clients, so will extol the virtues of Hosted and Cloud solutions as well as the supremacy of Macs but there are so many IT experts out there now there's no way I'd get into detailed stuff.

Couldn't resist this @merlyn - re Xero being the only answer to life, are you saying that they now provide email, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, data backup, virus & security protection, networking and server configuration advice, or maybe they have just added another 20 add-ons to their ever so basic bookkeeping, when I wasn't looking?

Of course not but most accountants should only be advising on which accounts package to use and not on things they are unqualified for such as IT security, storage, backups etc. 

Having had to go in an fix issues a number of times caused because a clients accountant advised them on what to do just shows a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Think this is best illustrated by your comment about the supremacy of Macs as any decent IT person knows Linux is the future ;-)

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By Rachael White
28th Nov 2014 14:04

Thank you

Thanks for all the great questions - please note this has now been pushed back to Wednesday 10th December. We hope you can still make it :) 

Rachael

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By mrme89
28th Nov 2014 14:24

Imagine the outrage on AWeb if an IT boff posted a question asking how to offer tax advice to their clients as an additional service?

 

If we have a go with our own IT systems and fail, then bad luck. But if we have a go with a clients IT systems and fail, then I'd expect a claim that my insurers would not pay out on. 

 

There are plenty of additional services accountants can already offer, without having to have a go at something outside their field of expertise. 

 

 

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Replying to jane:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
28th Nov 2014 15:15

But input is sometimes needed

mrme89 wrote:

Imagine the outrage on AWeb if an IT boff posted a question asking how to offer tax advice to their clients as an additional service?

 

If we have a go with our own IT systems and fail, then bad luck. But if we have a go with a clients IT systems and fail, then I'd expect a claim that my insurers would not pay out on. 

 

There are plenty of additional services accountants can already offer, without having to have a go at something outside their field of expertise. 

 

 

Whilst I don't have to do this these days, when I worked full time in practice and a Travel Agent client was considering a change to a fully integrated front office/ back office system I did get flown down to Manchester with members of their staff to a two day road test of the software to ensure the accounts/ financial side was fit for purpose, would produce what they needed and to check their bookkeeping staff would be capable of handling with requisite training, and the firm I was with did write a report of my conclusions for the client. I appreciate this is now pre history (the 1990s) and was a significant change/ cost for the client- circa £24,000 in the mid 1990's, however the principle of accountants' relationship with IT has a long history; one of the four ICAS part 1 papers in the 1980s was re computer systems.

I appreciate that for smaller clients an off the shelf box will usually fit the bill, I also know that these days I am a luddite with my poor ability to embrace changes in technology, but I really don't think an accountant can fully serve the needs of a client if they are not prepared to give the client, when required, some steer as to whether a particular system will likely meet the client's needs. Even if the advice is merely the tactful point to a client, who has shown over  the years his/her singular ability to not file anything/ remember to do anything, that maybe his record keeping would be simpler to later correct if maintained on excel or even on paper (tippex and sticky labels, the accountant's friends)

I think some input from accountants re IT is helpful and ought to be given, it is just a matter of not straying into one's level of incompetence.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
29th Nov 2014 11:32

Agree DJKL

If I think back over the past 10 years I have helped clients set up basic networks, configure Outlook and other email accounts, load and get to grips with Word & Excel, configure printers & scanners and steered them through migration from PC to Mac, ie all the stuff I've done for us, but (obviously DUH!)  wouldn't offer help if I had no knowledge or experience, and so would recommend one of our IT guys.

If you are happy just adding up and ticking boxes for clients all day long then rock on, but that doesn't mean we should all stay locked in that box and should not try and help clients with other stuff.

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By jndavs
02nd Dec 2014 15:59

Windows 8

 - Why?

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By Rachael White
04th Dec 2014 14:11

IT advisory questions

Hello,

Can I please ask if you have any more IT advisory questions?

Not questions solely related to Microsoft products but rather around providing tech services to clients through an IT advisory.

For whitepapers we recently published, I spoke to many accountants who have been providing this service either through whitelabelling an outsourced tech companies' services or have been doing so since the 1990s with a partner who is very skilled in the tech area. 

So if there are any queries on the above, we would be grateful to receive them.

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By User deleted
04th Dec 2014 16:25

Here's one ...

Why do so many regard DropBox as either appropriate, or the answer to almost everything from backups to client transfers?

@merlyn - Linux ... Unix?

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Replying to davidbaileylauring:
Stepurhan
By stepurhan
04th Dec 2014 16:50

Issues with Dropbox?

JC wrote:
Why do so many regard DropBox as either appropriate, or the answer to almost everything from backups to client transfers?
That doesn't really sound like an IT question. Do you possibly mean "Is DropBox appropriate for backups and client transfers?"? IT experts aren't going to be able to tell you why people do things, but they might be able to tell you, on a technical level, if a particular service is suitable for that. Follow-up questions on that basis

What are the limitations/risks of using Dropbox?

Are there other facilities available that would be more suitable for these purposes?

I am assuming, from the phrasing that you are not keen on Dropbox. Perhaps if you shared why that is, there may be an IT aspect that is worth raising.

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Replying to davidbaileylauring:
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By merlyn
04th Dec 2014 16:58

umm no linux

JC wrote:

@merlyn - Linux ... Unix?

Umm no Linux, it feels a bit like Unix because it's kernel is designed in the same way but it is a separate operating system.

Linux is great as it's open source so anyone can develop for it without licence fees, the phone OS android has Linux at it's core.

 

 

 

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By User deleted
05th Dec 2014 08:00

My understanding - to be technically correct …

@merlyn - Although I could be wrong I understand Linux to be the following

Linux has the moniker GNU – ‘.. GNU’s Not Unix ..’ & was developed by the Free Software Foundation although it is still related to Unix (originally wordplay on ‘multics’  DEC PDP-7 then PDP-11 but now more of an umbrella name). However, ownership & distribution of the two are entirely different

Technically Linux is not an OS but rather a Unix-Like Kernel inside the GNU ‘userland’ which Linus Torvalds created (1991) as new code based on the old-Unix type of kernel rather than the Minix-type micro-kernel. Hence the Free Software Foundation has always insisted it should be called GNU/Linux. Although, whether one can call an Linux an OS because it is only the kernel is a moot point, however, that would seem to be common parlance

There are many distributions of the Linux kernel (Debian, Red Hat & even flavours of flavours – i.e. Ubuntu) which consolidated all the other stuff needed to make a fully-fledged OS. Nevertheless Linux is regarded as one of the most common implementations of Unix

Linux kernel release ReadMe - https://www.kernel.org/doc/linux/README - see heading 'What is Linux'

‘.. Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix ..’

PS. As an aside in 1997, Apple took over the BSD-based Nextstep, and eventually developed it into a new Mac OS

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Replying to SLF:
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By merlyn
05th Dec 2014 09:08

Kernel

JC wrote:

@merlyn - Although I could be wrong I understand Linux to be the following

Linux has the moniker GNU – ‘.. GNU’s Not Unix ..’ & was developed by the Free Software Foundation although it is still related to Unix (originally wordplay on ‘multics’  DEC PDP-7 then PDP-11 but now more of an umbrella name). However, ownership & distribution of the two are entirely different

Technically Linux is not an OS but rather a Unix-Like Kernel inside the GNU ‘userland’ which Linus Torvalds created (1991) as new code based on the old-Unix type of kernel rather than the Minix-type micro-kernel. Hence the Free Software Foundation has always insisted it should be called GNU/Linux. Although, whether one can call an Linux an OS because it is only the kernel is a moot point, however, that would seem to be common parlance

There are many distributions of the Linux kernel (Debian, Red Hat & even flavours of flavours – i.e. Ubuntu) which consolidated all the other stuff needed to make a fully-fledged OS. Nevertheless Linux is regarded as one of the most common implementations of Unix

Linux kernel release ReadMe - https://www.kernel.org/doc/linux/README - see heading 'What is Linux'

‘.. Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix ..’

PS. As an aside in 1997, Apple took over the BSD-based Nextstep, and eventually developed it into a new Mac OS

Sorry was simplifying as this is a forum for accountants not technical folk....and before any comments yes you can be both but it's quite rare in my experience.

That's correct Linux is the kernel which although designed to emulate the Unix kernel it was written from scratch and the purpose was to remove any of the commercial parts of Unix, but the term Operating System is commonly assigned to Linux where in reality the flavour of Linux such as Red Hat, Ubuntu etc. would be an Operating System, same with Android that's the OS but has a Linux kernel.

As with Linux there are lots of version of Unix (Sco, HP-UX, Solaris etc.) each of those is an OS in it's own right and software written for one version won't necessarily run on another, or Linux. 

Unix and it's versions are very commercial (boo!) where as Linux is free and open source (hooray!),which has helped it become really popular.

For anyone wanting to try Linux there is a standalone bootable version called Knoppix, download that,burn it to disk and you can boot your computer with it (Bit like windows PE but better), is really handy for when windows crashes and won't boot.

 

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Replying to SLF:
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By jndavs
05th Dec 2014 09:26

Linux

JC wrote:

Technically Linux is not an OS but rather a Unix-Like Kernel inside the GNU ‘userland’ which Linus Torvalds created (1991) as ...

 - Just to clarify, Linus was responsible for the Linux kernel. Richad Stallman (St. IGNUcius) created the GNU project.

 

Regarding the cloud, my firm flirted with it early on. We stopped using our cloud provider and now host our own server.

To cut a long story short, we recently had cause to access some of the historic information and found that we were unable to.

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By User deleted
05th Dec 2014 08:15

Thank you for your insight ...

@stepurhan - as you may be aware the issue of DropBox has been raised many times in the past on Aweb and although answered comprehensively by @merlyn & co at the time, still appears periodically even today

The reason this post was made was to draw out those who use DB and their reasons why – so ‘yes’ it was not a direct IT question but more a way of generating questions on the suitability of DropBox in a secure business environment

In this respect it would seem to have achieved its purpose – so thank you for supplying a couple of questions about DropBox for submission to the IT panel

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By Rachael White
10th Dec 2014 09:45

Live chat is TODAY!

Thank you for all of your questions. 

I'm going to ask some of them today during out live chat at 10am. 

You can ask some yourself via the homepage: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/it-advisories-your-questions-ans...

Microsoft and other IT advisory experts will be on hand to share their knowledge! Please attend if you can.

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