What is the work of an accountancy practice?

Posted by paul shrimpling PM | on Fri, 25/03/2011 - 13:44  1280  2 comments | report

Sounds like an obvious question requiring an obvious answer!

My experience suggests otherwise.

I'm talking about the operations of an accountancy firm (not the sales, marketing or finance functions).

From my 9 years of working closely (and only) with accountants I'm of the firm opinion there's three operational jobs to be managed. Fail on anyone of them and you'll fall short of being a remarkable accountancy practice...

1. Technical work - you must be great at doing accurate accountancy work (naturally)

2. Workflow work - you must be great at predictably turning accounts around - one firm I work with is averaging 15.5 days from receipt of books/records so far in 2011

3. Relationship work - you must ge great at proactively building and maintaining great relationships with your clients. The firms I work with who are as focussed on 'Relationship work' as they are on doing the 'Technical work' are the ones winning lots of new business too (Two sub-£1m firms have both seen more than 16 new high-quality prospects since February 1st)

So I'm keen to hear...

- How well do you manage and balance the three operational jobs in your firm?

- How do you manage to juggle all three jobs?

- When the pressure's on which one gives? Which one takes a back-seat whilst you get control back?

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bookmarklee's picture

Or to put it another way...

bookmarklee | Fri, 25/03/2011 - 19:16 | Permalink

Finding, Minding, Binding  and Grinding ;-)

  • Finders – going out and finding new work
  • Minders – looking after the relationship with the clients
  • Binders –  keeping the team working well together and workflow issues
  • Grinders – doing the professional work required by the clients

 

Mark

ps: Many established practices devote very little time and effort to 'finding' as they are content with the size and shape of their client base which tends not to vary too much.

AIMS represents the largest

Henry_AIMS | Wed, 02/01/2013 - 17:20 | Permalink

AIMS represents the largest network of independent qualified accountants in the UK and we are in constant contact with over 15,000 small businesses. Now that we are in our 20th year it’s nice to reflect on some of the lessons that you have highlighted. We see a lot of examples of best practice for small businesses and one of the most important is to be open and honest with our clients. You can find out more about what we do on our website; www.aims.co.uk

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