Ha, if I remember correctly John it was Hamish's leaving do where I first met you and Dennis. Seems like a lifetime ago, but I do remember The Haka and the view of London being so much nicer from New Zealand House, rather than being obstructed by New Zealand House!
Gary's made a huge impact on the tech adoption throughout the profession - look forward to seeing what's next for him.
Thanks for your reply, we honestly appreciate that you've taken the time to look into what we do.
We seem to have a different view on the benefits of cloud and automation for the smallest of businesses - but that's fine by us! It's an evolving world and we will each have a different approach to this. Our belief is that TaxGo will be of huge benefit to those small businesses that see accountancy and tax compliance as a cost, not as a benefit.
Now, I do just need to pick up on your comment about disclosure checklists for sole traders... That's not really what I said, is it? But just to reassure you and other readers, TaxGo has been founded by 4 individuals, each Chartered, with circa 15-20 years experience each in practice. Both founding firms have won multiple industry awards, and certainly at d&t we service a huge number of small businesses across all corners of the UK. We know the small business accountancy market.
This isn't to boast or an act of one-upmanship - this is simply to reassure anyone reading of our experience, given your comments.
We're also regulated by ICAEW, and as such have to work to the standards expected of a firm of Chartered Accountants. All we've done is use technology to minimise the human input, and errors, which can arise in the accounts and tax production process.
Again, thanks for your time looking at TaxGo. I fear batting back and forth on a public forum might not be the most productive use of time for either of us though. If you want to discuss it further, feel free to reach out to me personally - I'm fairly easy to find online - it's much nicer speaking to a real person than an internet username... if you're in London, there might even be a coffee in it for you!
Cheers
Carl
ireallyshouldknowthisbut wrote:
As a general response you seem to be very confused about what happens with small sole traders.
You do not "sit ticking disclosure checklists" for 3 line P&L's. You don't do that for small limited companies either unless you are pretty unskilled.
This suggests you have little understanding of this market, which is mainly about helping people through the clutter and drilling down to the bare minimum that people at this level need to do to pay the right amount of tax with the minimum amount of fuss. Its about dealing with clients who form a limited company for a £2,000 turnover, its really about steering people in the right direction, something a skilled human can do in minutes.
The actual "number crunching" side is minimal, and is usually around 10% of the time taken on such clients.
The benefits of cloud and automation are much diminished the smaller you go. What use a bank rec when they dont even have a business bank account? who needs software when you can write all your transactions for the year on one sheet of A4 and still have room to ask questions on the unused half of he paper?
Whilst cloud is not just "coming" its very and working right now, I dont see the offering here as any different to what Xero does - they will give you a "garbage in, garbage out" balance sheet and P&L report.
Carl - can you explain you relationship to this business?
You and the other positive respondent on this thread (David) have registered purely to comment on this topic.
Hi ireallyshouldknowthisbut - I suspect your username is apt!
I'm Carl Reader - the guy who was quoted in the article, and hence am "related" to the business and indeed the article. Apologies if that wasn't made absolutely clear, I presumed the use of the word "we" when referring to TaxGo, together with registering under my real name would have made that clear.
(I do have an old AccountingWeb membership under carlreader, just can't remember the password to get in...)
Hi all, thanks for commenting on this and sharing your views. Some kinder than others :-)
I can't comment personally on Tayabali Tomlin's fee structure, but TaxGo is aimed at a very different market to that which both d&t and TT, and indeed most practices, serve.
Regardless of whether MTD happens or doesn't, and whether we like it or not, the cloud revolution and automation is happening - and that's where TaxGo comes in. Let's be honest, we've all seen the benefits that automated bank feeds have given our clients. Further automation and artificial intelligence is only going to improve their experience of the accountancy process, by providing consistency in both customer service and technical expertise - and we're proud to be leading that innovation.
From a personal perspective, my firm became the first serious "cloud accounting" practice in the early 2000's, was the first UK Xero partner (and indeed helped them adapt it to the UK market), and this is now the natural progression of where the technology is allowing us to help the smallest of businesses.
Some businesses may decide to pay more for a hands on service. There's room for all of us; however, for the smallest of businesses paying over the odds (or possibly, not even using an accountant), TaxGo offers a very real saving for them from a time and / or cost perspective.
Don't forget, we've all still got the >1m larger businesses outside of the "micro business" arena to work with and deliver massive value for. Whilst the upcoming automation will eventually mean that our compliance fees will be minimal, we can use our learned skills and commercial experience to help these businesses grow further - which is far more rewarding and useful to both us and them than adding up yesterday's numbers and ticking disclosure checklists!
(And yes NH - I hate to break it to you, but their bookkeeping software is included with the TaxGo package...!)
My answers
Ha, if I remember correctly John it was Hamish's leaving do where I first met you and Dennis. Seems like a lifetime ago, but I do remember The Haka and the view of London being so much nicer from New Zealand House, rather than being obstructed by New Zealand House!
Gary's made a huge impact on the tech adoption throughout the profession - look forward to seeing what's next for him.
We use QBO.
Cheers
Carl
Thanks for your reply, we honestly appreciate that you've taken the time to look into what we do.
We seem to have a different view on the benefits of cloud and automation for the smallest of businesses - but that's fine by us! It's an evolving world and we will each have a different approach to this. Our belief is that TaxGo will be of huge benefit to those small businesses that see accountancy and tax compliance as a cost, not as a benefit.
Now, I do just need to pick up on your comment about disclosure checklists for sole traders... That's not really what I said, is it? But just to reassure you and other readers, TaxGo has been founded by 4 individuals, each Chartered, with circa 15-20 years experience each in practice. Both founding firms have won multiple industry awards, and certainly at d&t we service a huge number of small businesses across all corners of the UK. We know the small business accountancy market.
This isn't to boast or an act of one-upmanship - this is simply to reassure anyone reading of our experience, given your comments.
We're also regulated by ICAEW, and as such have to work to the standards expected of a firm of Chartered Accountants. All we've done is use technology to minimise the human input, and errors, which can arise in the accounts and tax production process.
Again, thanks for your time looking at TaxGo. I fear batting back and forth on a public forum might not be the most productive use of time for either of us though. If you want to discuss it further, feel free to reach out to me personally - I'm fairly easy to find online - it's much nicer speaking to a real person than an internet username... if you're in London, there might even be a coffee in it for you!
Cheers
Carl
Hi ireallyshouldknowthisbut - I suspect your username is apt!
I'm Carl Reader - the guy who was quoted in the article, and hence am "related" to the business and indeed the article. Apologies if that wasn't made absolutely clear, I presumed the use of the word "we" when referring to TaxGo, together with registering under my real name would have made that clear.
(I do have an old AccountingWeb membership under carlreader, just can't remember the password to get in...)
Hi all, thanks for commenting on this and sharing your views. Some kinder than others :-)
I can't comment personally on Tayabali Tomlin's fee structure, but TaxGo is aimed at a very different market to that which both d&t and TT, and indeed most practices, serve.
Regardless of whether MTD happens or doesn't, and whether we like it or not, the cloud revolution and automation is happening - and that's where TaxGo comes in. Let's be honest, we've all seen the benefits that automated bank feeds have given our clients. Further automation and artificial intelligence is only going to improve their experience of the accountancy process, by providing consistency in both customer service and technical expertise - and we're proud to be leading that innovation.
From a personal perspective, my firm became the first serious "cloud accounting" practice in the early 2000's, was the first UK Xero partner (and indeed helped them adapt it to the UK market), and this is now the natural progression of where the technology is allowing us to help the smallest of businesses.
Some businesses may decide to pay more for a hands on service. There's room for all of us; however, for the smallest of businesses paying over the odds (or possibly, not even using an accountant), TaxGo offers a very real saving for them from a time and / or cost perspective.
Don't forget, we've all still got the >1m larger businesses outside of the "micro business" arena to work with and deliver massive value for. Whilst the upcoming automation will eventually mean that our compliance fees will be minimal, we can use our learned skills and commercial experience to help these businesses grow further - which is far more rewarding and useful to both us and them than adding up yesterday's numbers and ticking disclosure checklists!
(And yes NH - I hate to break it to you, but their bookkeeping software is included with the TaxGo package...!)