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Zoosme reveals what makes small firms tick

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23rd Nov 2015
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The founder of innovative South Wales practice Zoosme shared his insights with AccountingWEB about understanding and anticipating the needs of small business clients in a recent webinar in association with IRIS KashFlow.

Murray Pullin set up Zoosme in 2011 in response to a shift he saw taking place in accountancy. As he researched the market he could see that technology was streamlining compliance tasks, allowing him to built a firm based around a much more advisory ethos.

“I wanted to prove that accountants do not need to be that ‘necessary evil’ that small companies talk about,” Pullin said.

Pullin’s research was on the mark, according to a more recent survey undertaken by KashFlow, AccountingWEB and our sister site BusinessZone.co.uk. Where 61% of small business owners said they wanted their accountants to offer forward-looking business advice, this was only a priority for 19% of accountants who responded to the survey.

The AccountingWEB-KashFlow findings is hardly a surprise. From every direction practice development consultants and coaches have been urging accountants to follow a proven formula to accelerate client satisfaction and growth:

  • specialise in specific niches and really understand the problems clients face in their sectors
  • embrace online collaboration with clients
  • use management reports to prompt advisory conversations.

During the 50-minute webinar, Murray Pullin didn’t just tell viewers what they should be doing, but explained how he went about building his firm.

According to Pullin, accountants need to shift the focus of their business clients from the annual filing deadlines and online accounting tools and portals can help them do that.

“By working that way with customers, compliance feels like it’s getting done all the time. You don’t have that delay at the end of year. It’s about working with them day-in, day-out, being available and having a support service that meets clients’ requirements,” Pullin said.

“Accountants need to make it clear they can provide that capability.”

Pullin’s first principle of practice may come as a shock to some: “Accountancy these days is not a numbers business. It’s a people business. Our first port of call is not looking at the business, but the people behind the business. So we get to know people behind it and what motivates them.”

In addition to using the firm’s “BoxFile” web portal, a branded version of IRIS OpenSpace, for accounts and tax data, Zoosme regularly uploads management reports identifying areas of concern. “That encourages them to contact us for more information, or suggestions about how to mitigate the risks that have been identified. It’s a very effective way of collaborating with that business,” Pullin said.

According to James Griffin, director of product management at the IRIS cloud division, accountancy firms are exploring numerous other advisory avenues. “We’re seeing some firms develop very strong revenue lines based around auto enrolment,” he said.

“Other advice is related to what Murray says about taking real-time data and using it to offer advice. Small businesses are so busy doing business they’re poor at collecting cash. So a lot of accountants we work with set up credit control and payment services to help customers get paid early. That’s quite simple and high value.”

The KashFlow webinar is part of a wider IRIS initiative to support accountants who want to offer more advisory services. As part of this programme, IRIS has published a 'Go2Advisor' guide to offering advice around cashflow issues this month. A similar guide on auto enrolment is also available.

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By johnjenkins
23rd Nov 2015 16:31

Wow

Now I know where I've been going wrong all these years. I'm going to get some bottle of portals straight away. My wine already comes in "box files".

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