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Bankstream Blog: Don't let the cloud spoil your summer holiday!

16th Jul 2014
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We take our summer holidays seriously in the UK – as well we should, the relatively few months of long, warm days are a time to thaw out, unwind and perhaps catch some sun on one of the many beaches that discount airlines have put within our reach.

Various surveys have shown that 1 in 5 Britons consider their overseas beach holiday a “necessity”, and having just returned from my own summer holiday I can certainly relate to that.

Yet taking a break for accountants, particularly those who run their own practice can be very difficult. This is perhaps even more the case now as many smaller firms have, during the recession, trimmed their staffing levels to such a degree that partners daren’t take any more than a few days away from work. 

In our discussions with accountants across the country, we are finding a couple of schools of thought emerging as to how partners can get away over summer without the practice grinding to a halt. Some are making use of cloud technology to essentially take the work with them. With systems and data in the cloud, it’s no longer necessary to hide a briefcase from the wife/husband when going on holiday! Indeed that innocent looking iPad can do far more than provide music, e-books and Peppa Pig cartoons for the kids – it can provide real time access to all the essential information and tools accountants might need to keep up with work while they are away.

That’s great for some, but for others the thought of reviewing ledgers while beside the pool somewhat defeats the purpose of getting away from work. 

For these people, having systems in place that enable the work to continue while they are away is more critical than having access to the work while they are away. We’ve found this to be a significant motivator for several practices who’ve recently adopted Bankstream in the run up to summer. They want their computer system to receive and process client transaction data even when they are not there.

It’s a scenario that is familiar to us at Bankstream, particularly a couple of us who’d previously worked in our Australian business, BankLink. In the years following the introduction of GST (VAT) in Australia, accountants across the country were overwhelmed with work. Many worked 6 or 7 days a week for the first year or two and it was in this context that many came to us at BankLink seeking a solution in the form of automation (staff were hard to come by in the early years of the 2000’s – economic prosperity had made the Australian labour market very tight). 

We were delighted to learn of these accountants finally being able to take a break, secure in the knowledge that the practice would continue to work even when they didn’t. One particularly relieved accountant used to send us postcards from various points of the compass to thank us for enabling him to finally take time out. We even used the phrase “take time out” as our slogan – reflecting both the aspiration of the accountants to have a break, and the reduction in time on each accounting job. It was a slogan (with associated pretty pictures of people on the beach) that struck a chord with accountants and remained our theme for several years.

Nowadays accountants are fortunate to have a number of ways to “take time out” using automation systems such as Bankstream, and to also have the option to access their work easily (and perhaps discreetly) via the web when the need arises. In reality both automation and online access have their place although a careful balance must be struck to avoid letting cloud spoil a sunny summer holiday.

Frank Woods
Bankstream General Manager UK & Ireland
 
To find out more about Bankstream visit www.bankstream.co.uk
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