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Practice snapshots: A peek inside five firms

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26th Jul 2013
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Back in February, accounting software providers Keytime started blogging about their customers’ insights into what it’s like to run a practice.

In total, they interviewed five practitioners, also AccountingWEB members, gaining views on everything from how the economy has affected their practice to their adoption of new technology.

Here, we provide a round-up of the firms and their top tips for staying afloat in difficult economic situations, what legislation they find most cumbersome and what advice they have for the future.

DSM & Co

The first blog was an interview with Dave Martin from DSM & Co, who has been in practice since 1987. DSM, a ‘new’ practice, has been around since 2007 and specialises in general accountancy and management accounts.

The economy has presented a challenge to Martin and his practice since it was set up in 2007.

“I have grown my own practice slowly but intentionally as I didn’t want to expand too quickly at the start and risk putting the practice growth before the quality of service for my clients,” he said.

But now, Martin is trying to grow faster after having some leeway to implement and improve his systems by growing via word-of-mouth.

The firm is embracing paperless office, but Martin says he doesn’t need anything more than the basic Office set-up as he’s a sole practitioner.

“As long as I have my iPhone with me all the time, clients can get hold of me either by phoning or emailing me and I always respond at the first opportunity,” he said.

In terms of what legislation he’d like to change, Martin said the 2013 reforms to child benefit and the currently “unfair” system would have been simpler if child benefit was scrapped and child tax credits were increased for families whose income is under a certain figure.

Time for Change, aka Chris Mann

Mann has been in general practice, specialising in personal tax. Over the last 11 years, his practice has gained a number of elderly taxpayers, which he says is “interesting, to say the least.”

Mann found that the economic downturn has hit clients in the suburbs harder than some sectors, but that he sees many new and interesting opportunities this year.

His firm embraces technology, as through his extensive experience Mann said he’s seen the “whole gambit”.

“I’m lucky at my age,” he said, “I’ve gone through accounting for pounds, shillings and pence, through decimal conversion, the introduction of VAT and the effects of computerisation. I even remember the initial introduction of Canon calculators.”

Mann said he would abolish the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) if he could, as he was trained as an accountant, and not an “unpaid and quite useless police officer”.

Lambertclerical, aka Steve Lambert

Lambert has been in practice with a small number of private clients for more than 20 years while working in industry, but his “proper” or full-time practice has been up and running since 2002.

He specialises in small-to-medium-sized businesses as a sole practitioner and works from home.

The economy has encouraged clients to downsize as “ride out the storm” he says, but the hard times have brought some good news for Lambertclerical as he has gained clients from larger practices.

Interestingly, Lambert adds that more clients now want interim management figures and wanting work prepared earlier than before.

In terms of technology, Lambertclerical is “highly dependent”. Lambert embraces technology and says he will try anything to see if it can benefit him or his clients.

“I spend a fair amount of time visiting clients so mobile technology is a must for me. My smartphone is my mobile office – all my client database, emails, and dial-in access to all my computer records means my office goes with me everywhere,” he said.

Paperless office has been enhanced by having a computer-specialist son, who has built his dad’s work computers and the firm has off-site back-up on family servers.

Lambert predicts that in the next 10 years, practices and businesses will be uniform in their roles, irrespective of size.

Practices specialising in small-to-medium-sized businesses will find themselves working closer to or in a more internal position in the firms, dealing with compliance.

Robinson Stewart & Co, aka John Robinson

Robinson has been in practice for 23 years and is a sole practitioner, specialising in one-to-three person small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Due to economic conditions, clients are leaving preparing accounts tighter to filing deadlines as they don’t want to spend money on fees, he said.

But Robinson has tackled the issue by getting new clients on to a standing order from day one, unless they’re very small.

Not a technofile like Lambert, Robinson has only adapted to changing technology because he had to, filing SA returns online for years and using an updated iXBRL ready accounts programme.

Through these changes, he has regained around 10 hours per week, he said, and email is used now a lot more than telephone calls.

Robinson predicts that everything will be online over the next 10 years for practitioners, and less face-to-face interactions with clients.

HJP Accountants, aka Angela Peden

Another 23-years in practice practitioner, Peden’s firms specialises in helping firms of all sizes and industries in “making money”.

For her, embracing change is what’s key to running a successful practice, as from a practice management perspective, looking at new ways of doing things is as important as steady routine.

“We have changed our brand, our look, our attitude and even tweaked our culture in recent times. We are a small practice but each team member plays a crucial role in the success of the business,” Peden said.

The economy has provided a learning curve for HJP Accountants, as clients and subsequently they get hit by challenges.

But when a firm helps clients through tougher times, they will bring you with them, Peden said.

“We put all our resources into helping them survive. Then, when the initial market panic subsided into acceptance, we looked internally and made some changes. We changed our brand, we launched a new bookkeeping company to complement our accountancy practice and of course we reviewed our cost base,” she said.

“More recently we have actively sought new relationships with alternative lenders and other less traditional partners. The result has been brilliant; we have opened up new opportunities for our clients and ourselves.”

Technology adaptation hasn’t always been part of the firm’s strong points, but they are working on it with the re-brand.

Over the next 10 years, Peden predicts that the gap between compliance and value added services will widen, as clients just are not interested in compliance work.

“What they want is a finance professional that understands their business and gets involved in forming and achieving their goals. As a result of this I think technology will play an even bigger part in shouldering the compliance burden, leaving the accountant more time to truly partner with clients,” she concluded.

How long have you been in practice, what changes have the economy and technology brought and what do you foresee for practices in the future? 

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