It’s time to stop talking our core products down

Richard Brewin • December 5, 2017

Accountants have always suffered from the bean counter perception of our role. Many of us have lived with it, comfortable in the fact that our clients know better. However, two views expressed by accounting firms this year have made me re-think this passive response.

Back at the start of the year, in the middle of a fascinating conversation with a director of one of the rapidly growing UK online accounting firms about digital accounting, AI development and the threat to traditional accountants, he raised this question:

“Let’s face it, apart from preparing the accounts and tax return, what else do most accountants do for their clients?”

I argued back armed with our trusted advisor and business consultant roles and we moved on.

That lay at the back of my mind until I read feedback to an article by Richard Hattersley (AccountingWEB 14 / 11/2017) on client centric service. The first two replies both came from an angle of ‘I do a professional job for my clients with their accounts and tax returns, this ‘touchy feely’ stuff has no place in smaller firms’.

Now, that annoys me because a professional job with their compliance is the minimum that any client is entitle to expect from their accountant but that’s for another time. It took me back to that earlier conversation though.

What I should have done, rather than accept his point devaluing our core work, was emphasise its true worth. The fact is that every correct set of accounts and tax return is the result of our profession’s expert knowledge of the highly complex tax and accounting legislation and standards in this country and internationally. Every online derived set is only as the good as the accountant who has built the knowledge into the software in the first place. It needs accountants to create the digital solutions, to analyse their outputs for both correctness and opportunity and to maintain their validity in our rapidly changing legal and political environment.

Even those of us looking to expand our trusted advisor and business consultant roles would do well to remember that it’s not just a set of accounts and a tax return.

Why your accounting firm is unique

By Richard Brewin • June 5, 2025
All accountants are the same! We’ve all heard it said. It’s nonsense, of course, but, when you are asked what it is that your firm does that differentiates it from other accounting firms, it can be a challenge to come up with something tangible.  Accounting firms tend to offer similar services, that’s what makes them accounting firms. Differentiating from competitors based upon services provided is therefore an issue.

Will MTD ITSA be the next big gift from the accounting profession

By Richard Brewin • April 2, 2025
Question… Should accountants charge for the additional work and obligations they will have when MTD ITSA finally comes into play next April? Not sure? Let me ask another one… Should business owners and taxpayers be expected to pay for the work that their accountant does for them and for the expertise that they receive? Put down in black and white, the answer seems obvious but there are many in the profession who are losing sleep over this issue.

“Accountants can’t or won’t sell”

By Richard Brewin • February 25, 2025
Accountants selling to their clients is a topic as old as the profession itself. I regularly hear criticism from those looking to monetise the accountants’ relationships with their clients that “accountants can’t sell”. I also come across an attitude within the profession that “accountants shouldn’t sell to their clients…it’s unprofessional…it’s not what my clients expect”.  Let’s tackle the issue.