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Intuit UK

Intuit survey highlights 'tech divide'

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29th Nov 2013
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UK practitioners have been caught on the hop by clients who are demanding advisory and technology services that their accountants are currently failing to provide, according to new research from Intuit.

At its #futureaccountant conference in Kensington this week, the US software house revealed the findings of its Changing role of accountancy survey of 100 practitioners and 200 small business owners and managers. Among its key discoveries the survey found:

  • 88% of SMBs think the cloud will enable them to work more closely with their accountant and develop the right relationship
  • 84% of small businesses would like their accountant to act as an external CFO
  • 82% of SMBs think accountancy firms should be more proactive in developing services, particularly around business advice. Yet many accountants are failing to provide new services; for example 81% of the business respondents expressed a need for project financing and reporting, but only 36% of accountants currently offer such a service
  • 61% of clients wanted a cloud-based solution - yet a little over a third (37%) of accountants could furnish this request.

Reviewing their attitudes five years ago, 70% of small businesses considered their accountants to be “number crunchers”. That figure has fallen to 54% today, with 69% identifying their accountants as financial advisers and 35% thinking of them as business consultants or strategic business advisors.

Further insights from the Intuit survey are available in infographic form.

Many of these latest survey findings support previous research conclusions within the profession and the promptings of practice development experts. But Intuit UK MD Mike Williams was unapologetic: “We are seeing a change in the accountancy profession. It’s being questioned by small businesses. Some accountants are seeing that. This survey is about getting the evidence to talk sensibly to them about that.

“The smart ones recognise that and want to add additional services. But how do they go on that journey? That’s what we can help them with.”

Conference delegates picked up the “how do we get there?” theme and ran with it. One ICAEW member commented, “We’ve got to stop telling people what they’ve done - up to nine months after it’s happened - and start telling them what they’re going to do tomorrow.

“We can help them make more profit, for example with ideas on how to reduce overheads. We’ve got to get out of our comfort zone, but that will benefit us in the long term.”

This view gained some support in the room, but practitioner Ken Solomons commented, “Technology will not necessarily help practitioners who lack those basic attributes. To provide that service to small businesses, you need experience, competence and confidence and that has to flow through to the client.

“There’s a tremendous swathe of practitioners who cannot provide that kind of service.”

AccountingWEB member Charlie Carne (second from left in picture above) took part in a panel session on how practitioners were actually coping with this transition and told the audience: “It’s about collaboration. Typically accountants meet their clients once a year, or perhaps once a quarter.

“It’s still important to meet physically, but with Skype and other online tools it’s very easy to schedule regular meetings with clients to discuss issues proactively,” Carne continued.

“You can also set up systems to monitor the client - you become far more trusted if you become the guy who tells them about problems long before they become serious.”

The London meeting demonstrated that Intuit was following through on its global strategy to promote the uptake of QuickBooks Online and its companion Accountant version within the profession. Williams said that Intuit had taken on eight new staffers to liaise with accountants in its Pro Advisor programme in the UK. While it transparently revolves around marketing cloud accounting software, this approach could bear fruit if Intuit delivers more practical support to help accountants make the transition to their new style role.

Williams explained: “Our plan in this is on the technology front. We’re able to provide accountants a platform to free up time to dedicate to business advice and consulting activity - which is what the market is demanding from them.” 

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By Hannahmc8
11th Feb 2014 09:17

Future proofing practices with Financial Intelligence

It's refreshing to see this shift in perspective. We are climbing up the Roger's Bell Curve of technology adoption within the industry, and appear to have moved into the early majority phase, but there's a way to go. 

Xero and Intuit are two of many cloud solutions steam-rolling through practices up and down the company and have effectively waged war against each other. This delivers a huge benefit to any consumer using these cloud power-houses to manage their day-to-day, as they will find intuitive (pardon the pun!) and time-saving workflows and a solid ability to get an overview of their business. 

It doesn't stop there though. If Xero and Intuit are the day to day, then there are also cloud tools that can aid accountants and business owners equally when bringing the sometimes dry nature of number crunching to life. 

If these are the stats:

88% of SMBs think the cloud will enable them to work more closely with their accountant and develop the right relationship84% of small businesses would like their accountant to act as an external CFO82% of SMBs think accountancy firms should be more proactive in developing services, particularly around business advice. Yet many accountants are failing to provide new services; for example 81% of the business respondents expressed a need for project financing and reporting, but only 36% of accountants currently offer such a service61% of clients wanted a cloud-based solution - yet a little over a third (37%) of accountants could furnish this request.

then complimentary Financial Intelligence software such as http://crunchboards.com is the frosting to Xero or Intuit's delicious cake. Collaboration, future-prediction, scenarios, targets & alerts, cash flows and KPIs all enable the future relationship that clients want. Effortless financial management using a fully integrated offering is the way forward.

CrunchBoards is available for early VIP Beta Signups now. 

 

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