Cloud reality check: Meet the digital plumber

28th Jun 2016

3 comments

Journalist

Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

The small business accounting guru Doug Sleeter created a stir at a recent conference when he pronounced that it was the technologists who are leading the profession – not accountants.

Matthew Heggem is one such technologist. Heggem, a former dancer/choreographer turned accountant, has transformed his accounting firm SUM innovation into a company that assesses, designs and implements accounting solutions for businesses and non-profits across the US.

What’s more, a practitioner like Heggem has a snappy name: the digital plumber. “From my perspective,” Heggem told AccountingWEB, “a digital plumber is a person who connects the dots and makes data flow from one system to the other within an organisation. You’re trying to find a way to get one step closer to zero data entry”.

According to Heggem, there’s a bounty of people who understand the technology. Simultaneously, there’s a dearth of people who understand how to curate it and consult with small businesses on how to use it most effectively.

“You can blame technology. The beautiful thing about the world today is that everything is in the cloud and you have all these apps that can transform your business. It helps small business do what bigger businesses do.

“With the cloud transformation comes the expectation and frustration of having to figure out how to make these tools work for you,” said Heggem. “The problem we face in cloud environment is that a lot of these apps are becoming so niche. Because you have all these great tools but you need them to work together.”

This discord, explained Heggem, hasn’t been helped by software companies marketing directly to small businesses, leap frogging accountants. The software industry’s marketing overtures are effective because there’s a tremendous thirst for technology among business owners, but also an abiding confusion over how to implement them effectively.

The catch with becoming a digital plumber is that it’s inherently risky. Consulting means less certainty than good old fashioned compliance, a mistake could cost your clients business. As AccountingWEB’s editor John Stokdyk pointed out in another article, accountants’ “professional training taught them not to approach complex situations without a full understanding of the situation and a command of the skills needed to address them”.

Heggem acknowledges this difficulty, but from his perspective the risk is an unavoidable side effect of client demand. According to the Pew research centre, 88% of British adults report using the internet at least occasionally, 68% report owning a smartphone. Not everyone certainly, but as young people become the next generation of paying customers and business owners, the accountant will be called, more and more, to become the digital consultant.

Heggem realised that to become that digital consultant, he needed to learn the language of programmers. “First thing I did, I started taking programming classes. Then I shared it with my employees, and we crafted a role within our firm whose purpose is to understand technology.”

For Heggem, automation’s increasing grip on accountancy is what drives him. “I looked at my business and thought I’m only 31 years old, I plan on being in business for 30+ years.

Automation will also continue to erode the prestige of compliance work, according to Heggem, and he has a point. A recent example is Smacc, a start up AI that digitises and automates accounting and financial processes. Programs like Smacc will only continue to increase.

As the machine becomes more adept at the rules based work, the accrual of tremendous book knowledge becomes less meaningful to clients. “You can’t amaze clients with compliance work anymore,” said Heggem. “If I’m thinking about the transformation of my industry and I’m not trying to solve that problem now, then I’m setting myself up for failure. That was the true motivation. If we don’t do it, our business won’t exist.

“The writing is on the wall.”

Tags:

Cloud

Replies (3)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

By Tornado

30th Jun 2016 10:38

What seems to be missed every time that we talk about digital accounting technology is that whilst the theory is fine, in practice much of the software we use (including Cloud based software) is unreliable, slow and sometimes simply does not work.

Over the last week I have experienced these problems, using well known commercial software -

* Trying to create a new 2016 SA100 - Bring forward data does not come forward. Software developer tells me this will be fixed in next software update (not sure when). I can work on Return but have to enter information not brought forward again.

* Trying to create a new 2016 SA100 - Cannot access the newly created Tax Return Template at all. Software developer tells me this will be fixed in next software update (not sure when). I cannot proceed with Return.

* I create an SA100, it is approved by my client and I submit it through the Cloud portal. The report tells me that it has been submitted to HMRC and we are awaiting a response. In the meantime all actions on the Return are frozen. A few days later still no change. No email from HMRC so obviously no submission. Software developer says that this will be looked into, in the meantime I can do nothing until the developers figures out a way to unfreeze the submission report so that I can try to re-submit.

* I talk to Juliet (HMRC chat help) and ask if there is a problem with the HMRC server. She advises me there is but does not know when it will be fixed.

* I phone the Agent line asking for information about a letter I sent to HMRC on the 7th March 2016 to which I have not yet had an acknowledgement or reply. The operator advises me that they cannot access the Self-Assessment system which has 'been down since early this morning'. No indication of when it will be up again.

* I have a licence for P11D software which I updated to 2016 data a few weeks back ready to submit P11d's. The updating went wrong for some reason and had to be fixed remotely by the software provider (not cloud based). It still would not work and after several support calls, no one seemed to know what was wrong. Even today, the software is unusable and I have effectively been abandoned, despite having a valid licence.
Fortunately, I found some Cloud based software and after a free trial, I was able to get using this very quickly and my problem was solved.

* I went to check some information on two companies using my online HMRC agent access, and find I no longer have access to the information. I am the Secretary of both companies and also the Registered Office so I would know if there had been unauthorised changes, so why has the HMRC computer taken my access away?

I could go on but I feel sure that I am not the only one who spends many hours these days just trying to get software to work.

Fancy ideas are fine, but they will simply not be of any use unless the software and support services are ultra reliable, quick and easy to use. Making Tax Digital is doomed to failure if it has not gone though thorough tests beforehand. I can guarantee that I am not going to spend much more of my time fighting unreliable technology for the Government when I could be sitting in the garden with a cool beer listening to the birds sing, well away from error messages and support lines.

EDIT

I forgot to include the email problems I have had over the last couple of weeks. Apparently a subscriber to the same ISP as myself had his account hacked into without the subscribers knowledge. The hackers used his account to 'mine' for information on quite a large scale. This was eventually discovered and stopped but the outcome is that Microsoft blocked all email from my ISP to any of their subscriber accounts (Hotmail, Outlook, etc) as being unsafe. The mail was either returned to me or sent to the receiver's spam box.

As you can imagine, although I have other ways of sending emails to my clients, (gmail account), I have been unable to send emails through normal channels to many of my clients that have accounts owned by Microsoft. My ISP advises me that all they can do is report to Microsoft (online report) explaining what happened and then wait until Microsoft decide to unblock all accounts with my ISP. It seems to be OK now but I am not entirely sure if there are still some of my emails unnoticed in spam boxes.

Thanks (2)

Replying to Tornado:

By NDun2512

01st Jul 2016 14:48

interesting! I too have had problems recently with well known cloud based software creating a new CT600 return, not bringing forward data. Can after a few tries work on the return but have to enter b/f data.

Thanks (0)

Replying to Tornado:

By chatman

05th Jul 2016 13:09

Which software is it?

Thanks (0)

Content series

Cloud reality check 2016

Cloud reality check: Where we are in 2016

Who's going to park an Uber on accountancy's lawn?

Cloud reality check: Protect yourself

Cloud reality check: Meet the digital plumber

You might also be interested in

Replies (3)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

Accountancy firms hit in £2.28m AML clampdown

HMRC issues guidance on CIS changes

Suppressed sales on the menu at Chinese restaurant

AccountingWEB Events

Content series

Industry insights

Cloud reality check: Meet the digital plumber

You might also be interested in

Replies (3)

Please login or register to join the discussion.