AI, or outsourcing? Or both? AdvanceTrack MD Vipul Sheth takes a big picture view on how things might develop for your practice – and for us.

 

Will AI be so clever, intuitive and powerful that you won’t need outsourcers to support your firm? And, by that definition, does that mean you’ll be able to reduce your own headcount?

These are the kind of questions that we’re hearing (or, quite frankly, we’re being asked) at the moment. Let’s not beat around the bush: there are a number of people in the outsourcing space that see AI as a huge competitor to their entire business models.

What about us at AdvanceTrack? Well, we’re not complacent enough to think that it definitely won’t impact us. In fact, the opposite. Those of you that have worked with AdvanceTrack will know that we’re big investors in technology. Our IT has to work with your practice’s systems, and securely. It needs to be ‘on’ as much as physically possible, and also enable fast and effective communication (of both knowledge and data) between us and our practice partners.

We’ve seen various technological leaps and iterations over the past 20 years, and we view AI as another leap. Broadly speaking, we will use AI.

AdvanceTrack is, by definition, an extension of practices’ own business. And if you’re thinking of using AI, or having it placed upon you through developments and updates across practice and accounting platform tech, then it makes sense that it will impact our systems, our operations – our way of doing things – too.

Big data, big questions

Certainly, we can envisage the likes of Xero and QuickBooks looking to add intelligence into their offerings. After all, with masses of data at hand they will be able to turn that into knowledge to be actioned upon. This evolution will drive hundreds and thousands of micro-decisions made on your behalf, which will save practitioners seconds, that turn into minutes and then hours.

Perhaps, at AdvanceTrack, our masses of information at hand will be similarly leveraged by AI tools? It’s still conjecture – and we would be rightly cautious about what that would mean for your clients’ data security.

AI may well free up your people’s time even further than current levels of automation can do. That’s true – but that will be the case for AdvanceTrack’s people, too. We’ve no doubt that our offering will evolve, in tandem with the way practices operate too.

We’re still not at the stage where just a review is needed of client files. There is still plenty of up-front work and checking before the validation stage. Things will change, and it’s possible at a faster rate than we can envisage. But, whatever the pace of change, we hope to still be very much in the mix of helping practices grow – perhaps with AI in there too, helping us all grow faster and higher.

Vipul Sheth is MD of AdvanceTrack Outsourcing

If you’d like to talk to us about helping your practice grow and develop, please get in touch by clicking here.

Accountants hit conference season with a bang at the start of May, attending both AdvanceTrack’s annual event and Accountex. Kevin Reed covers the main messages coming out of a busy but fascinating three days

On 1-2 May, Europe’s biggest accounting and finance show Accountex saw a record-busting 9,063 attendees – an event in which AdvanceTrack was delighted to take part.

We spoke to some of the key participants to find out what their new products and services are, along with views on the current issues impacting accountants’ working lives. Key topics included: how some accountants and clients have moved down ‘the digital path’ while others still delay; and differing views on the direction of travel set by MTD bridging software.

 

QuickBooks

QuickBooks’ Making Tax Digital Product Suite was being demonstrated at the show, including bridging software. These new tools, and their importance to the marketplace, were a key focus of our discussion with its sales director Nick Williams.

Williams said there had been “lots of work” by accountants to bring themselves and clients towards MTD compliance, and bridging software was a step on that journey for many.

Its pre-Accountex research found that 89% of small businesses were now aware of MTD, with 84% believing they were now compliant.

And for those accountancy firms using MTD as a catalyst for transforming into a cloud-based adviser, there was more good sentiment. QucikBooks also found that 49% of respondents believe MTD will have a positive effect on their business – up from 37% since March.

“The transition to MTD was never going to be without its stumbling blocks for accounting professionals and small businesses, but it is pleasing to see increasing numbers realising the time, efficiency and cost-saving benefits that digitisation can bring,” said Williams.

He believes that the bridging technology, which some industry insiders believe should only sit in place for a year, will continue to be used beyond that period by some advisers and their clients.

“We’ll always see customers in need of support – that will remain with bridging,” he said.

Williams also referenced a number of other innovations, including SmartLook – which enables QuickBooks to work quickly and interactively to resolve any problems users may have via a one-way video feed and screen-sharing; and Online Advanced Payroll – enabling accountants and payroll bureaux to manage multiple businesses with complex payroll needs.

 

IRIS

Accountants are “bridging the digital divide”, believes IRIS chief marketing officer Nick Gregory.

IRIS also released new statistics for the Accountex launch: some 215,000 documents were e-approved between accountants and their clients via its OpenSpace document sharing platform in January 2019 – a 328% increase on January 2018.

“Accountants are recognising that they have to be online,” Gregory told InsideOutsourcing.

Gregory said that IRIS’s customers were “pushing” the technology house to enable them to use a more “open” software stack and access via mobile devices.

“We want to use data to deliver more from a productivity point, and to link with third-party applications,” he said.

A key part of this process will be an online “platform” from which services can be accessed – the first application it will make available is an anti-money laundering solution this summer. “You’ll be able to onboard clients and run all the necessary checks,” said Gregory.

 

MyFirmsApp

“Many accountants are thinking: ‘I’ve got my cloud clients and they’ll be fine with MTD… but what about the great unwashed?’,” said MyFirmsApp head of product management and customer experience Mike Page, when describing how to deal with swathes of clients that still haven’t moved to digital bookkeeping.

Page sees the app as providing a simple solution to get accountants’ clients moving on the digital path. Its new platform will launch in the summer, providing a new user interface for both accountants and their clients. A new version of receipt capture will also be introduced.

MyFirmsApp has also produced “The Definitive Guide to Bridging Software”, after viewing what it described as a “baffling array” of options.

 

CountingUp

Millions of pounds could be flowing into the coffers of CountingUp, with up to £12m sought in the near future to drive more product development and marketing.

The bookkeeping and banking app is “100% on board with accountants”, chief commercial officer Andrew Garvey said, viewing them as “the most important part of our business”.

“With 4.5 million microbusinesses out there we know how hard it is to get them to use accounting tech,” said Garvey.

Accountants still have many clients “not using anything” to manage their bookkeeping and tax data. “We’re trying to make accountants’ life easier,” he concluded.

In the next year Garvey expects to see greater convergence between accounting and banking from a technology perspective.

 

AdvanceTrack

A new way to help you transform your firm has been developed by AdvanceTrack. The AdvanceTrack Growth Academy has been launched to guide practice owners and seniors towards positive change for their practice.

In partnership with well-respected consultant Paul Shrimpling, the academy aims to have a profound impact on how you and your team feel about the core work at your firm, in turn helping your team enjoy the work it undertakes.

The academy is focused on two main areas: accountability and motivation. You’ll be held accountable with regular calls and visits to review the actions you’ve committed to and agree any steps.

AdvanceTrack MD and founder Vipul Sheth said the programme would not only inspire accountants to make change, but provide them with the support to deliver. “It can be very lonely at the top,” he said. “We believe that the academy will provide both a strong support network, accountability and ongoing practical advice to help you take positive action to improve how your firm operates.”

 

A lot of our recent discussions have been about practices’ strategic approach to clients, staff and management. It seems a good time to put the key UK tech providers under the spotlight. What are they focusing on, and where do they see their relationship with accountants impacting on tech development in the future?

 

Wolters Kluwer/CCH

Wendy Rowe, commercial director TAA, Wolters Kluwer UK&I

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: We were proud to launch CCH OneClick in April. CCH OneClick delivers complementary cloud tools to the CCH Central on-premise suite supporting accountants around GDPR, digital data collection, accounting efficiencies and new cloud tools to support new filing regulations being driven through HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme. One of these tools is VAT filing, supporting the mandatory VAT filing for businesses from April 2019.

 

Q:What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Our focus for the next 24 months will be around how we support practices becoming digital and in helping accounting practices to embrace and navigate the new digital world.

Areas of interest are:

  • Providing tools that help with digital data collection and aggregation of digital data– helping practices to reduce the volume of manual data entry but also collating useful data that can be leveraged across multiple activities. For example, how transactional bookkeeping data can be used to support quarterly reporting compliance needs but can also be leveraged to create a set of accounts and then for forecasting cashflow projections for business advice.
  • Delivering compliance more effectively– with HMRC bringing in new regulations around MTD, practices will need to review their current processes. It is highly likely that these will change to ensure compliance work remains efficient.
  • Advisory– Wolters Kluwer is exploring solutions and services that help accountants to be more proactive and responsive in their client interactions.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: I see the following as key themes over the next two years:

  • Efficiency/automation– how technology can make compliance more efficient.
  • Advisory and data– the use of technology to help advisers to become more proactive.
  • Client collaboration– how the advisor changes their traditional collaboration approach in light of the millennial generation and a digital world (mobility and so on).
  • New technologies (eg. machine learning, BI and so on)– how these technologies can assist the practitioner of the future while simultaneously protecting the profession.

QuickBooks

Alex Davis, business development manager, Intuit QuickBooks

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: Making Tax Digital is part of the UK tax authority’s plans to become one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world, and a topic on everyone’s mind as we look to make the process as easy and straightforward as possible for our accountant customers.

QuickBooks Online is already MTD-ready, which means the product is fully compliant with the requirements set by HMRC. Companies will be able to submit VAT filings directly from our software through to the UK tax authority. We’ve already completed successful filings from a number of our accountancy customers through our beta programme.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Our teams are focused on helping our customers earn more money, make better decisions and develop greater confidence about their finances. Bringing together siloed data is one important way we help save customers and their advisors time, and reduce the risk of manual errors. For example, we have direct bank feeds with three major retail banks in the UK, covering 60% of the UK market. Direct bank feeds automate much of the time-consuming data entry associated with bookkeeping. Tax prep is an area in which we continue to add value for accountants who spend an excessive amount of time gathering data for a single client on an annual or quarterly basis. A recent example is our release of the option to import bills and invoices to QuickBooks.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period?

A:There is little doubt that over the coming months practitioners will be focused on first identifying which of their clients need to be migrated to MTD-compliant software. Then, they will put the plans in place to manage those migrations efficiently. This will involve the transfer of critical financial data, along with educating staff and clients on how to use the software efficiently. Once these building blocks are in place, we expect the conversation to move towards how these insights can be put to use.


IRIS

Nick Gregory, chief product & marketing officer, IRIS Accountancy Solutions

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: IRIS continually develops products to help practices evolve beyond compliance services to deliver more lucrative advisory-based services. This includes Accountant Go, a practice-branded app that enables accountants to engage and communicate with their clients.

We’ve also launched IRIS Analytics, an analytics tool for large accountancy practices to obtain comprehensive insights into business performance. We are due to launch IRIS AI, a new AI tool that enables accountants to address skill shortages and deliver new risk and fraud assurance services.

We are also adding more GDPR enhancements across our product range, and launching IRIS GDPR Advisor, a new service designed to help accountancy practices maintain GDPR compliance.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: IRIS is 40 years old this year and our heritage allows us to see the industry in a unique way. IRIS continues to heavily invest in developing its product portfolio to help accountants’ grow their businesses and deliver new services, enabling them to thrive in the new digital economy.

The next strategic announcement will be at IRIS World in October with the launch of ‘Darwin’ which will help liberate desktop IRIS compliance suite data and offer new apps, all available via a cloud platform. We also want to make MTD (VAT and personal tax) as easy and as seamless as possible for customers so will continue to enhance new digital ways of reporting into the existing products and workflows.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: Without a doubt, MTD – and especially MTD for VAT and personal tax – will continue to be at the forefront of discussions. Traditional assurance and core compliance services are evolving, so our job in the next few years is to ensure practitioners get it right, first time and succeed every time through integrated, efficient and automated processes and workflows.

As the industry transforms, discussions advance beyond compliance services to business advice.


Sage

Michael Office, VP Accountants, Sage

Q: What is your latest/impending launch?

A: We’ve just launched exciting new services for accountants and bookkeepers in practice:

  • Sage Accountant Cloud– the platform to run your practice – brings together all your client information, important dates, documents and interactions to help you keep on top of tasks and jobs. It also gives one-click access to client bookkeeping in Sage Business Cloud Accounting, and an automated workflow to Accounts Production and Compliance/Personal Tax.
  • Sage 50cloud Payroll Online Bureau– we’ve given the 6,000 practices running payroll on behalf of clients the very best benefits of the cloud: automation. With secure online employee details and hours entry, payslips, payroll documents and reports – all with an automated workflow to and from payroll.
  • Accountants and Bookkeepers Hub– this has brought together all the expert advice and support we offer (from help with MTD to growing your practices, from toolkits to webinars) into one place, dedicated for accountants and bookkeepers.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Our mission is to make admin invisible by 2020 for accountants, bookkeepers and their clients. Our roadmap for the next 12 months across both Sage Business Cloud (featuring accounting, payroll and payments) and Sage Accountant Cloud (featuring client/practice management and compliance) is focused around automation, efficiency and AI/machine learning driven proactive capabilities. A great example of this is automatic bank reconciliation and bank rules launching this autumn across Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Sage 50cloud.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: We talk to more than 1,000 accountants and bookkeepers (face to face) every month through our expert field team and at events. We know that MTD is something that is on the minds of accountants and that together we can unlock the potential that digitisation presents.

Taking 60 days out for tax year-end and Christmas, there are just 90 working days to go until the MTD deadline next April. The average practice has 112 clients, so already that’s more than one client per day that practices need to get ready for MTD now. Our focus is therefore helping, supporting, enabling and driving practices to be ready for MTD.


Xero

Damon Anderson, director, partner & product, Xero UK

Q: What is your latest/impending product launch?

A: Most recently, we launched the all-new Xero Expenses. This has been one of our oldest features in Xero but it was overdue some love, so we’ve worked closely with our accounting partners to reimagine it from the ground up. It now offers businesses a more efficient way to manage expense claims and is smarter, easier to use and designed to benefit both the small business and their employees.

 

Q: What developments can we expect from you in the next 12/24 months?

A: Artificial intelligence has a fundamental part to play in all our product developments over the next two years.

Further proof of our commitment to improving productivity for small businesses is through our recent acquisition of data capture solution Hubdoc, offering our customers another powerful solution for better workflow efficiency.

Machine learning is paving the way to high-integrity accounting. Our Find and Recode software has already saved small businesses and their advisers in excess of 307 hours of time in the first year alone, and the next two years could see the elimination of data entry and coding entirely – a really exciting prospect for business productivity.

 

Q: How will conversations with practitioners develop over that period – what will you be discussing with them in 12/24 months’ time?

A: Making Tax Digital is having a major impact on the accounting profession, and supporting accountants through this change is our priority. And a modernised VAT returns experience will mean a better understanding of business financials as well as enable improved levels of efficiency and productivity.

There are the pacesetter firms that will have no problems in the coming 12/24 months. But many others might be faced with the daunting prospect of getting their clients’ finances online in a short amount of time, and we will be helping them navigate these waters.

It doesn’t stop there. Once MTD has been fully implemented, we then want to support practitioners as they build new service offerings or fuel their growth. We don’t see the conversations dying down any time soon.

The changing practice landscape, the impact of MTD, investment into the cloud by the major software companies, and how AdvanceTrack® is helping support practices be fit for the future. The company’s founder Vipul Sheth talks to former Accountancy Age editor Kevin Reed about these key topics, and more

Vipul, what are the pressing issues for practices in the next 24 months?

Technology is the number one issue. Knowing which tech companies will be the winners – that’s a very big unknown. They have made a lot of investment, but we don’t know which will stand the test of time. I do think Xero and QuickBooks will be the two global cloud platforms… I can’t see Sage being there. Unless Sage come up with something amazing, they’re not in the game – as a Brit, I feel disappointed about that.

The profession is losing skilled staff through retirement and mergers, leaving a gap in experience and advisory skills. Younger staff like to use tech but are not always so proficient or experienced in client engagement – that’s not true of everybody, but many naturally communicate through devices. The next generation don’t always want to take the risk of running a firm, with the responsibility and financial exposure. Firms must consider how to provide work/life balance.

Back to tech-based communication: this will be ne for 90% of scenarios, but there will be an element of the client base that wants to engage, to meet up face-to-face. The next generation of practitioner needs to be able to ‘press the flesh’, and gain the confidence of the client in a one-to-one situation. As such, succession planning is an issue that’s never far away.

Is Making Tax Digital (MTD) the game-changer, and if so, why?

MTD is absolutely front and centre for everyone, but my view is ‘never let the government write your business plan’. Build a business that goes beyond dealing with numbers; build a business that clients feel they can’t do without.

MTD is concertinaing the time window to migrate people to the cloud to do things effectively. It’s important that MTD is making firms visit this – but they should look beyond it. The law will make us help clients be compliant, but what do you do with that information? MTD will ‘help’ you keep clients out of jail – but it won’t help you make more money. What will enable that is how you use that information to make clients run their business better.

What about longer-term for practices?

Everything comes down to client service. Moving to the cloud is an essential part of providing advisory services – keeping them compliant but using other tools to give better insight to what will be increasingly operational data. By offering clients insight, you can use data to justify where you are and what decisions you’re making.

There will continue to be a market for compliance business but, over time, technology and self-service will replace those firms – if that’s all you’re delivering to clients.

Automation and AI – what should practices consider with regards their strategy, and staff levels?

Our top clients have already started moving staff to client-facing roles. When they recruit people today, the type they recruit are those they think could be partners in 10-15 years’ time. If you have enough coming through with that skillset, you’ll automatically have in-built succession… practices forget they’re running businesses.

Tech is used in young people’s everyday lives. So practices must look at the range of skills they will need. You will rarely find someone that can be an accounting technician, fully IT-literate, can run a practice and serve clients. Teams will need to be built to cover the bases.

Is it tough for firms to serve clients while everything is changing so quickly around them?

Forward-thinking firms have a small group of people running change programmes. They’re the ones most successful at implementation, and some with non-accountants going into the technological change roles.

We all need to re-skill and keep developing. I’ve had several professional roles in my career, and am doing something very different to what I did 15 years ago. We must recognise that in ourselves, and also give people the time and framework to adapt.

What types of practice are impressing you, and why?

Some cloud-only firms are very impressive. They have no shackles, and are not wedded to a particular technology. Staff can work anywhere (which comes back to staff wanting work/life balance).

There are a handful of ‘traditional’ firms that have impressed me by having a big client and team base, looking after SMEs and using AdvanceTrack® and other technologies to service a much wider cross- section of clients than they would have in the past – regional practices operating on a national or international level.

Where does AdvanceTrack® fit into all this change?

We have been a tech-first supplier/provider to the profession. We will adopt tech that’s developed by third-parties, or develop our own. Where we have really continued to progress is our need to be efficient, particularly in collecting and processing data efficiently – to help our practice clients deliver an amazing service.

Off the back of MTD and the need to keep clients compliant, we’re able to give scalable bookkeeping solutions to practices and enable them to work with real-time data. This solution feeds into practices’ other advisory- led and insight services.

What do potential clients ask you about AdvanceTrack’s services, and what is your response?

The questions have hardly changed over the years! First, quality – how do you maintain it? How do you keep clients’ data secure?

Our biggest challenge is those in the industry that have offered bad service, which makes it much harder for practices to revisit the option of outsourcing.

Some clients have come to our offices. They want to ensure that if working with a provider, we’d also look after our staff when working on their projects – part of their due diligence is to visit our offices and ask our team members any questions they want.

It is interesting to observe the changes in the profession as a result of technology. As a technologically advanced accountancy outsourcer, we understand the changes and are driving the biggest changes in the profession. Cloud accounting is transformational.

What is surprising is that there are a significant proportion of firms who have yet to develop an integrated approach to cloud accounting and bookkeeping.

Receipt Bank contribute their thoughts on making bookkeeping pay for the professional firm. This is available to read on our website.

Many accounting firms have steered away from bookkeeping in the past due to the relatively low value and the large volume of paperwork. Consider how much work you passed to local bookkeepers in the past? Consider how inconsistent the quality of these bookkeepers has been over that time.

So what are your options today?

No change (The Do nothing strategy)

That is a strategy of sorts. The long-term impact of such a strategy is to reduce the long-term value of your practice, as few new entrepreneurs will buy your firm’s services if you don’t demonstrate cloud capability.

Half-baked cloud strategy (Partial cloud strategy)

There are many firms that fit this profile. Consider how many of you have clients that use Sage, Xero or QBO (and many others) and because your client has introduced you to them, you do support them, but it is almost accidental?

In this instance, you support anything as long as you win the client.

Full cloud strategy

This is where the firm has a clear strategy as to which products it will support and how they will transition appropriate clients to their chosen software products and how they will attract new clients using their expertise in the chosen products.

A truly professional outsourcer like AdvanceTrack® can deliver cost-effective and efficient delivery of bookkeeping and other compliance services. This strategy can also help deliver a cloud strategy faster than in-house staff.

Outsourcing should help you focus on what you do best – deliver better service and advice to your clients.

AdvanceTrack® is run by UK based ICAEW Chartered Accountants and are certified by BSI in the UK for ISO9001:2015 (Quality Management) and ISO27001:2013 (Information Security Management) and operating since 2003.

Call us today to arrange a meeting to help you develop and deliver your cloud strategy on +44 (0)24 7601 6308

“It is interesting to observe the changes in the profession as a result of technology. As a technologically advanced accountancy outsourcer, we understand the changes and are driving the biggest changes in the profession.”