Businesses and Individuals expect a lot from an Accountant as they handle all the finances which are critical for asuccessful business. There are a lot of things accountants should be dong for any business right now.
So, to keep you ahead, we have listed down things that our accountants should be doing right now:
Offer fair prices for services:
Accountants should offer fair and fixed prices for services and avoid any surprise bills for their clients. The market is very competitive and very transparent. To retain and get new customers, you must offer fair prices and not overcharge the client.
Proactive in finding opportunities to improve cash flow:
An accountant should be proactive in finding business opportunities to improve cash flow, profits in the business. They should be able to solve any business problems and save clients from cash run out.
Proactive tax planning:
Accountants must proactively identify the efficient tax structure for a business and help reduce annual bills. An accountant should be well versed with new software and plan strategically to save money and time.
Ready for any uncertainty:
With the uncertainty of Brexit (although technically its done now), low-interest rates and high inflation there is pressure on profits and cash flow for many businesses. So accountants must be ready for any such uncertainty!
Value-added services and Customer Relationship is the key:
Business owners are looking for added value, better services and trusted relationships with their accountants and this can happen when you proactively achieve value-added advisory services and work with the right clients. This can be achieved if you offer additional services to your clients even via partners.
Onboard with Artificial Intelligence and Automation:
AI is an opportunity rather than a threat. This is merely a myth that software robots will be replacing the accountants starting from now. But in reality, this will be in practice moving from fiction to practical reality for a large number of practices. Many of the leading Accounting software providers like Xero, QuickBooks and others are incorporating AI machine learning into their offerings. But here, your role as an accounting professional will give you time to focus on value-added services while AI will be doing mundane data entry, coding, data analysis, and other entry-level tasks. So, focus on learning and leveraging these tools.
Being ready for Making Tax Digital:
MTD is already into practice as promised. So, it’s imperative that both your practice systems and your client’s accounting software are set up to the speed when it comes to digital accountants and online tax submissions. If you are not really doing so, it’s time to outline the benefits and move to the cloud and digital compliance. You can bring this into practice by informing your clients on the need for MTD compliance, moving to online accounting, digital tax submissions and use receipt bank to automate bookkeeping.
Having the right people in your firm:
It’s important to find the right people in your firm in order to have a diverse and multi-skilled pool of people, who will help you to meet client expectations and remain a profitable practice. Hiring the right people will help build a team that focuses on building trust, customer relationships, and offer high-tech support and business guidance rather than just compliance and accounting.
Reduce costs:
Running a practice is tougher (and easier) than ever!. You just need to find the right way. However, the market has become increasingly competitive and a good way to make more money is to save more money. Try controlling your costs, save on rental costs, hire cheap and make the best out of the resources you have.
The only accountancy practice that lasts long is the one that meets the client’s expectations and the one that grabs new opportunities.
You must always be looking for new customers and never say no to anyone despite whatever the workload you have. Keep at it and slowly you’ll keep growing.
So, we hope this article will help you succeed and enhance the traditional ways of working.