Accountancy professionals have broken in their eye teeth by meeting the filing and compliance demands placed on their clients by legislation.

There is value in this service; it keeps the clients clear of penalties and interest charges.

Unfortunately, compliance services are generally delivered after the events that make up returns. Which is why clients should be forgiven for considering such services a grudge purchase; they need to have the work done but apart from dealing with compliance, there is little value in services rendered.

This situation is ripe for exploitation by IT companies and the so-called less qualified who are prepared to work at bookkeeping rates. Practices across the UK have all experienced the loss of clients or reductions in fees that arise in this way.

A good starting point to deal with this conundrum is to consider ways to improve the perceived worth of services you offer. One obvious way to do this is to start reporting and creating business development strategies based on real time data produced by cloud accounting software. At a stroke, clients should see their current problems appreciated and hopefully solved.

One thing is for sure, practices that rely on pure compliance will likely see a gradual loss of clients, reducing fees and falling profits. While their competitors, who grasp the “real time” nettle, will prosper.
 

Source: New feed