So over a year on, how is KPMG's assault on the small business accounting market doing?

Is KPMG's small biz offering working?

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After a period of absence I got some KPMG spam the other day. When they first launched their Xero based offering at a low base cost many small accountancy firms were worried. Over a year on, have you noticed any disruption in the market, or has their takeup been confined to tech hubs and startups? Have you lost clients to them? Have you won clients from them who found them wanting?

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
03rd Jun 2016 20:49

I was thinking the same. Have they also dropped there price again? I saw an advert for £125 per month yesterday which includes £25 software subscription. I charge more than that for Xero clients as a sole trader. I wonder how much you end up paying as I cannot see how they can do wages, bookkeeping, year end accounts and personal and corporate tax for £100 per month.

It was said at Xerocon that they have 800 clients using the service, which seems to me to be a poor sign up rate considering the profile and marketing spend they must have put into it, they also supposedly prepaid 5000 Xero licences to get No 1 Xero reseller spot so must be disappointed at the sign up rate.

I have spoke with a number of accountants and between us we have only heard of one business in the North East that use the service.

Unless sign up improves I cannot see it been sustainable in the medium term. I think the PWC package looks better and more realistically priced for what you would expect from their brand. I priced a test job on their website which produced a monthly fee of about £1250 for you to get everything done plus a face to face meeting quarterly with your personal account manager.

It does concern me slightly with these high profile partnerships with accountants and cloud software providers, I saw something where Freegagent and Crunch had hooked up.

As I guess you clients on these systems are potentially at risk to fancy marketing and low prices once you have set them up.

Maybe as sole traders we should look a white label solution so the client relationship with you is key and the software used is secondary as long as it does the job.

Thanks (2)
Replying to Glennzy:
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By PracticePartner
05th Jun 2016 08:24

Glennzy wrote:

Maybe as sole traders we should look a white label solution so the client relationship with you is key and the software used is secondary as long as it does the job.

I agree, most of my Xero clients don't care that its Xero, and I spend several hundred quid a month on it.

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Replying to PracticePartner:
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By SE_Confused
11th Jun 2016 07:03

have a look at QBO - they migrated for free a new client who was on xero thus saving the guy 20 a month. Plus it is easier to use

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RLI
By lionofludesch
04th Jun 2016 10:12

None of mine have left for the big city. To be honest, the big city is just too inconvenient for folk living round here.

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7om
By Tom 7000
07th Jun 2016 11:44

I wonder when they have spent £5m on marketing and have only £800k turnover ( the equivalent of one audit fee) they will decide its more trouble than its worth and sell it to me for £1.

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Replying to Tom 7000:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
08th Jun 2016 14:52

Tom I could be up for a JV on that one 50p a man.

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By PracticePartner
08th Jun 2016 16:01

Glennzy wrote:

Tom I could be up for a JV on that one 50p a man.

Maybe get a bogof with BHS

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Replying to PracticePartner:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
08th Jun 2016 21:20

A few interesting comments come out of the BHS hearing today, Sir Phil Green got a bit of a hammer.

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Replying to Glennzy:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
08th Jun 2016 22:31

Glennzy wrote:

A few interesting comments come out of the BHS hearing today, Sir Phil Green got a bit of a hammer.

Yes, given the comments it has made me realise I made some very poor career choices, life within BHS seems far more exciting-nobody ever threatens to kill me at work; it must have been like working within a soap opera.

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