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.

The Art of Saying No Without Losing Clients

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In the Accountant/client relationship, “yes” often feels like the default. Yes to urgent requests. Yes to timeline shifts. Yes to “just one more thing” added to the scope. We want to say yes to our clients. We want to support them, be helpful and build more work, but every unqualified additional yes becomes an invisible cost; on your time, your margins, and your wellbeing.  Bold accountants think differently. They know that “no” isn’t rejection. It’s honest and professional. It’s a strategic decision that protects quality, strengthens relationships, and reinforces your value.

From compliance filer to trusted coach: The role waiting for accountants willing to start the client conversation

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Let’s be honest, most business owners have a perception of an accountant that probably falls far short of our ambitions. They want someone who helps them make sense of the chaos, plan for growth, and sleep better at night knowing someone’s got their back, but their accountant doesn’t usually spring to mind as this person. What they dream of is a coach, not an accountant, but, weirdly, they often don’t trust coaches but do trust their accountant. Their accountant can be both, so the client gets the trust and the coaching

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