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A “paradigm shift” or quantum leap?
“We need to change people from ‘history writers’ to ‘forward thinking advisers’,” he said. “The business of the accountant will evolve as an adviser."
I agree with the central point of this analysis.
A great opportunity to add real value to a (client) business.
And a way to counter the steady erosion of commoditised fee billings.
But this will necessitate both a 'mindset' and 'skill-set' shift - maybe difficult for some.
I'm an accountant....can I upgrade?
I consider myself so lucky to have been told this in the eighties......and the nineties.....and the noughties...and now the ? don't know what we call this decade?
Anyway the message has sunk in and when someone called up this afternoon and said "I'm looking for a new accountant" I said, "sorry we don't have any".
Because accountancy, in its simplest sense, is so boring thousands of us have been advising for decades.
what a load of tosh...
....presumably all businesses go to advisers for a cash flow 'forecast' rather than an accountant. Unfortunately for all businesses they have to look back, in order to compile records of their performance for tax purposes amongst others. Indeed they also need this information to check how they did against what they had forecast/planned/targeted (presumably set by an 'adviser').
I wonder if the software being developed will help my transition from 'accountant' to 'adviser'....hmmm
I must be thick
I really struggled to understand what the point of this article was. It seemed to meander around a couple of poor and largely irrelevant quotes and statistics from (sponsors?) large businesses, without addressing the headline.
Technology...ok, yes can be useful but do you really have to be an entrepreneur rather than just an accountant to provide some help on this?
Anyway all this talk of shifts and portals means I need to go...
.
I cant quite work out if Mano is very gently taking the proverbial out of the article or not.
I hope so.
It is true, but
There is nothing new in this message
But, every client has a budget,
If because of the dysfunctional tax system Hopeful inventors Ltd has to pay DG-FCCA £1,000 to sort out his RTI they ain't gonna have the money to pay DG-FCCA for valuable grandfather advice.
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True story
This morning had prospective new work. Mainly because the prospect "Suddenly" discovered his adviser was turning on the meter each time said client telephoned him for "Advice",
The rich accountants are those able to convince clients that they should pay for "Advice" as well as accounts.
Advisers may have different balanace of skill set
Having claimed millions of pounds in cash benefit for technology organisations in R&D tax Credits that accountants (including large / Big 4 firms) had not identified. I know that these would not have been achieved without a team that had technological (and to an extent entrepreneurial) skill set that understood the clients operational business activity.
This skill set has been welcomed by the clients and I suspect this would be echoed in other areas of advice, capital allowances for example. So I believe there is truth in the article, but of course there will always be a core requirement for 'the accountancy skill set to be integrated into holistic advice.