Fired! It had to happen

I 100% agree!! You can't just ignore everything new just because it doesn't suit you - the best accountants are and always will be the ones that get to grips with new technology quickly.

Perhaps it's a bit direct but my t-shirt, also provided to clients in one bad place or another, says "shit goes on happening". No rejections yet.

Clients have always chopped and changed accountants to some extent, otherwise newer practices such as mine would not get going, that said, the difference here is that there is now a medium for letting others know if you are or are not happy with your choice, and that is the real difference, and hopefully this medium whether tweets or blog posts will provide far more information for the small business community in the future in terms of who does what, how they do it and what they charge.

John Nolan has made an interesting point, he is going to pay his new accountants more, we often find with new clients they have to pay more to us which I personally call an ‘investment in our services’, this investment allows us to operate with fewer clients and therefore provide much higher levels of service. Compare that to the cheap quote so many go for and then find the service is not as good as they had anticipated, but that is what happens when the price is cheap accountants have to have more clients which leaves less time per client, result is unhappy clients.

I love this ‘new technology’ but I hope it doesn’t become a point scoring name and shame future as that helps no one. Interesting article though, it really is a brave new world, come on in :-)

Your so right about us web designers, we do listen to each other and tips, apps and tutorials get circulated like wildfire between us via twitter, forums, FB etc.
The majority of web designers I know have either been using FA for some time or are considering it.
I, like John am a strong advocate for it. If you want to spend less time phaffing around with your accounts and more time on the interesting stuff then I recommend you give it a try!

(shameless referral plug coming up!)
http://www.freeagentcentral.com/?referrer=33166oki

As professionals, I think we've historically seen it as our duty to advise clients on what software, amongst other things will best help them administer their business. In the past this has been fine, as (1) there were not that many options to choose from, and (2) clients did not feel empowered to choose for themselves, or feel like they know enough to know what they want.

I still think its our duty to coach clients in choosing the software that is best for them - that being said, there aren't really fundamental differences between the various, decent SaaS offerings out there - not of the type which would pose a threat to the survival of a freelance business, so its probably not the most important piece of professional advice we can dispense thesedays. Also, clients understand their business and the aspects of its administration which cause them the most pain - surely they have a good idea of what software would be most helpful to them.

As accountants, we need to reconcile ourselves to the reality of the "Longtail", and its growing effect on accounting and business software. We're just at the beginning, and its likely that we'll see more and more apps developed which address specific niches of our client markets. To take an approach of not supporting these or using innovative processes to support many different apps (as opposed to me, myself trying to learn and keep up to date with many apps) will probably lead to an early retirement.

so what's a decent SAAS offering, and how do you evaluate the stuff you can't see, like security, availability, speed, respect for your data? There are lots of differences, which your client won't have the first clue about. And that's not to say non-SAAS offerings are not similarly riddled with problems you can't see. Accountants need to savvy up if they want to work in this space.

@ alastair, You're so right - accountants do need to savvy up in order to work in this space. That is exactly my point. Gone are the days when clients were happy to use whatever system the accountant used (partly because 90% odd of small biz used the same system). Accountants need to have evaluated the SaaS apps out there and be able to advise the client as to which ones are not "decent". Part of the skillset of a professional is being able to figure out how to evaluate the "stuff you can't see", so nobody's saying we ignore that now...

My point was that the "Decent" [note the qualification - Decent] apps do not have fundamental flaws [apps that do are obviously not in the universe I'm referring to here] and the client should be able to use, and we as accountants support & even recommend the app (or group of API integrated apps) which is most suited to their particular market niche and way of doing business. I am not going to be scared off a great app which will help my clients tremendously just because it does not line up with the "textbook" system we learned about in university.

@alastair - that's an excellent point but not one that's often talked about. When it is, some vendors go into a hissy fit. In the meantime, I'm working on it.

@Brandon - "there aren’t really fundamental differences between the various, decent SaaS offerings out there – not of the type which would pose a threat to the survival of a freelance business, so its probably not the most important piece of professional advice we can dispense these days."

I think you're mistaken. You're thinking features/functions when you should be thinking value to customer and usability. Very different concepts. John said that FreeAgent made him LOVE them. How often do you hear that about accounting software? If s/w can provoke an emotional response then it IS different, even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles you might wish to see.

"its likely that we’ll see more and more apps developed which address specific niches" - yes, that is the direction I expect to see, it is already happening. In the larger enterprises, we call it 'filling in the white spaces' - for the smaller business, it could well be an 'app for life.'

@Dennis hmm, I think we're having a misunderstanding... My view is that there is not too much variability in the mechanics of the various "Decent" SaaS offerings. So, as accountants we should be comfortable with accommodating the app which best suits the client or their business (or the one they LOVE...). The only time I would advise otherwise would be if I thought the particular app had a fundamental flaw. Accountants should embrace these apps which empower clients - an empowered client who understands the numbers more is far more inclined to value the accountant as an adviser/ partner in the success of the business than as "just another bean-counter".

Sounds more like the firing was due to a lack of communicating the financial position of the business to the owner, the software was just a by-product. Good for him. Getting the numbers into a system is only a small part of what an accountant should do; it's useless unless the result consists of deriving meaning and understanding of your business. I think the fired accountants have more to think about than just software support.

@Geoff - I"ve elevated John's comment to a standalone post. That explains more about how this stuff works.

Hi Dennis, thanks so much for this write up - I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see my thoughts and sentiments written out by someone else.

My accountants drove me slightly crazy - They run a system whereby at the end of each month you send them all of your invoices and expenses, and "they do the rest". Sounds great right? Well it would be, except that after 4 months I had absolutely no idea what was going on with my business. I didn't know how much money I was making each month, whether I was making a profit, or even if I was owed any money from unpaid invoices! I was totally in the dark, and I dreaded anything to do with my accounts.

Then a friend of mine recommended FreeAgent to me, and I gave it a try. Within 48 hours I was completely sold on it. This isn't a sales pitch for FreeAgent, so I won't go into all the reasons why, but let's just say as someone who HATED and was HOPELESS with my accounts, FreeAgent made me love and understand them. (seriously)

So I told my accountants, "check out this great app - I can upload all my bank statements, transactions, invoices, expenses, and it's all in one place! I can even set up a login for you (my accountants) so you can see it all too when you do my books each month."

Their response was (basically): We used it a few years ago and didn't like it, so we do not support it.

I tried to talk them round, I tried to reason, I tried to send screenshots of my monthly accounts in FreeAgent so that I could still get the information to them, but they wouldn't have to take that dreaded 10 second 3-click process of logging in (). But they refused to look at those too.

Heather Villa above summed it up best:
"The client has to work in an application that they feel comfortable with."

This is 100% true - so I had to choose between staying with my accountants, and not understanding one bit of my accounts... or finding someone else. Let me tell you - it was a pretty easy decision.

I'm now talking to CarpenterBox in Worthing, who are a "FreeAgent Friendly" accounting company. Want to hear the kicker? I'm now probably going to be paying them double what I was paying my old accounting company, just because they're willing to cater to my needs - and I'm more than happy to pay the extra for it.

An accountant to me isn't for figuring out complicated numbers and taxes - I have a calculator for that.
It's about forming a relationship, and working TOGETHER to understand and manage the finances of the business.

Thanks again!

John O'Nolan

so Twitting it might be new, but in my experience it is peer groups you describe who are often most instrumental in finance software purchases. One of the reasons why there is so much fragmentation. Social context is important - what my mates/competitors/friends use is always more persuasive than what some stuffy suit might say.

Damn! Just bought two new suits. Do I wear bright tie to prove I'm not stuffy?

nope - a stuffy suit does not necessarily wear a suit!

Noooo - you get a pair of chinos/jeans, trainers and a T-shirt that's says: 'HMRC sux' on the front. Much cheaper - more effective ;)

I'll try it and see what happens :-)

How bad. Any qualified accountant will make suggestions, but not control. Then they will learn to support (and make work) the app of the clients choice. There are plenty of apps out there that do not even do justice for a clients way of business operations, however, my job as an accountant is to make it work. The client has to work in an application that they feel comfortable with.