In this issue…
Making the tax
review process
less taxing.
Using cloud collaboration
to deliver superior client
engagement.
The publication of the AITUK, the association for
Accountancy IT Directors February 2016
www.aituk.co.uk
Contents
#AIT_UK
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Welcome
The first Technical Meeting of the year, held at our usual British Computer Society venue is due to take place on Thursday 12th May, this will kick off the years main event programme and provide a key opportunity for current and new supplier members to update us on their offerings. Various members and suppliers covering different topics will attend the day, primarily using it for information sharing and networking. Content of the presentations will cover many of the areas that are currently ‘hot topics’.
Planning for the Annual Conference is well underway; we are very much looking forward to working with all of the confirmed sponsors to ensure it is another varied and informative event. We should all remember that the interaction between the group’s members is what makes it such a success. Over the last seven years we have grown from informal gatherings for IT Directors only, to technical meetings open to a cross section of technical and managerial staff. It would be great if we can increase the input from member firms, so if you are able to provide a presentation on a recent project, or help lead a discussion do let us know. With the host venue confirmed as the exclusive 5* Warren Weir conference complex situated in the grounds of Luton Hoo, 2016 is going to be a great conference!
3
Four ways accounting
firms can use cloud
collaboration to deliver
superior client
engagement.
6
Accounting powerhouse
EisnerAmper implements
compareDocs from
DocsCorp, making the
tax review process
less taxing.
7
Virtual Cabinet Turns
into a Task Master.
You’re an exceptional accounting firm. You deliver high-quality service, operate efficiently and keep information up-to-date and scrupulously accurate. And yet in spite of the immense value you bring to your clients, the increasingly competitive market in which you operate is making it harder than ever to differentiate your services.
As a knowledge-based industry, there aren’t many metrics that firms can use to set themselves apart. That’s why investing in the client experience has become such a key diffentiator for today’s accounting firms.
A great client experience has measurable value for any business. For example, one 2015 study across professional services organizations found that those that scored highest for client
satisfaction saw greater revenue growth and higher billable utilization.
But achieving this, and creating more valuable and engaging client relationships, requires that firms become more
collaborative, and fundamentally change the working dynamic between internal teams and their clients. In fact, it’s a change that’s not only being driven by accounting firms, but also by the clients themselves, who are beginning to demand greater transparency into the process.
Unfortunately, many of the legacy enterprise tools many businesses rely on are no longer fit for this purpose and present very real barriers to this more collaborative way of working. Processes are riddled with inefficiency, governance is often put at risk and clients become frustrated with delays. A recent Huddle
study of accounting professionals found that 55% were limited by their workplace tools when sharing files with their clients, 51% had wasted time working on a document only to discover it had already been superseded by a newer version, and 39% were routinely delayed on a project while waiting for approvals. None of this speaks to the efficient, client-focused approach that’s required for success.
More and more organisations are discovering the power of cloud-collaboration tools, which allow organisations to share and work on documents in the cloud, outside of the company’s firewall, with clients and third-party advisors. These tools address these deficiencies and drive greater efficiency and client-focus into their businesses. Here are four ways your firm can benefit.
Four ways accounting firms can use cloud
collaboration to deliver superior client engagement.
1. Synchronicity
and Communication
In the increasingly commoditised and
competitive accounting industry, superior client relationships are a significant competitive advantage, meaning that clear client communication is an absolute business necessity. Most companies interact with clients exclusively via email or through shared extranet spaces that essentially act as file dumping areas; using a dedicated collaboration platform lets you interact with them in real-time, so all parties can edit, discuss and upload work.
Client collaboration is also a great way to ensure all parties have the most up-to-date and accurate information, which can streamline not just communication, but workflow as well. By creating a shared community space to collaborate with clients in real-time, accountants can cut the amount of hours wasted going back and forth on email and accelerate review cycles.
More importantly, cloud collaboration platforms provide a single, consistent client interface to minimise the chance of working with bad data and give clients the chance to voice their preferences early in the process. As a result, clients have more say in the process, increasing the chances that they’ll approve of the end result and witness the effort that went into developing it. An accountancy firm using a cloud collaboration portal offers a more thorough, well-managed service than its competitors—something the client has the instant visibility to appreciate.
2. Transparency
Accounting is a service that depends heavily on
trust. Clients absolutely must have confidence that their private business information is safe and well-managed. Giving them insight into the process builds confidence in a firm’s service that’s rare in the rest of the industry, where information is
generally kept tightly under-wraps. Clients want to feel involved in their engagements, and have insight into how much time and effort is devoted to their account. By collaborating with clients directly, accountants can build transparency into the interaction and reduce concerns of neglect or mismanagement—a trust that ultimately lays the foundation for a longer and more productive relationship.
3. Efficiency
Sometimes, the hardest thing about working
with a client is simply coordinating the logistics around accessing their
information and changing financial needs and realities. A collaborative cloud environment is more convenient for both the accountant and the client because it allows them to make edits and add comments as they become necessary in real-time, reducing the risk of missed email or information. This also cuts down on the need for “status meetings” and
conference calls.
4. Security
Gone are the days of dealing with the
nuisance of firewalls that have traditionally been used to secure vital corporate data. Organisations are finding that it’s no longer about keeping data in, it’s about sharing it securely. This means letting go of traditional notions of the firewall. Cloud servers today are equipped with exceptionally strong firewall protection and encryption, meaning that any data stored there is completely protected; yet easy to share.
Above all else, clients need to know that their data is secure. Having a collaborative portal that absolutely establishes the safety of their data without compromising convenience makes things easier for both you and them and establishes that trust that is so pivotal for successful client relationships. Cloud collaboration technology has opened an opportunity that never existed in accounting before: the opportunity to engage with your clients safely and directly, breaking down the barriers between your two organizations. It creates an entirely new relationship dynamic that allows your firm to highlight its value and give yourself that extra competitive edge.
More information: [email protected] www.huddle.com
Meeting Dates for 2016
To request a signup invitation please email [email protected]
AIT are on
TECHNICAL MEETING
Thursday 12th MayBCS offices, Southampton Street, London
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Thursday 22nd – Friday 23rd September
Luton Hoo Hotel, Bedfordshire
Presentation/Sponsorship packs are available for both Technical Meetings and the Annual Conference. Please contact Emma Jones [email protected]
CLOUD COMPUTING
SECURE
NETWORK
Can IT Improve Efficiency?
In a recent survey of Accountancy practices we found:
36% of those working within the Accountancy sector face highsoftware and hardware costs, which would be reduced if they were to look to a
Cloud Computing
solution.36%
Find out more about how Exponential-e can help your Accountancy practice increase fee earner efficiency:
www.exponential-e.com/accountancy
37%
A total of 40% of respondents to our survey stated that they would be interested in implementing
Cloud
Computing
, whilst 28% were keen to introduce aBig Data
solution
in to theirpractice. 37% feel that their
Infrastructure
andNetwork
is unable to keep up with therequirements for growth.
40
%
40
%
A key requirement for 31% of respondents was fast internet connectivity - something a high-bandwidth,Smart Business
Internet
can provide.31%
0845 470 4001
C M Y CM MY CY CMY K accountancy-A4-infographic_HighRes.pdf 1 11/02/2016 16:02DocsCorp, a global leader in integrated
document workflow solutions and technologies, announced today that EisnerAmper
LLP has successfully implemented its compareDocs software to compare tax return PDF documents more efficiently. Headquartered in New York City, EisnerAmper is a premier global full-service accounting, tax and advisory firm.
Using compareDocs, EisnerAmper accounting professionals can quickly compare tax returns to see where changes occur between versions of K-1s rather than checking manually.
DocsCorp developers customized
compareDocs for EisnerAmper to ensure integration with the firm’s accounting software programs. They also fine-tuned compareDocs to dramatically reduce false positives generated whenever a font did not match up properly between documents. Now, compareDocs shows only real differences between documents, largely eliminating useless clutter caused by false positives.
compareDocs is versatile and can be used to compare Word, Excel, PDF, and image-based documents. User-friendly, the tool requires minimal training so users can benefit from it immediately.
Stephen Pena, Manager of Tax Processing and Technology at EisnerAmper, commented: “Using compareDocs has helped our workflow and we are very happy with the outcome. Developers at DocsCorp have been incredibly helpful, delivering a solution in a timely manner. We are expanding use of the software incrementally, and ideally all users firmwide will eventually have compareDocs.”
DocsCorp President and Co-founder Dean Sappey said, “We are very pleased that EisnerAmper is using compareDocs with great results. Our technical and development teams will continue to support their needs as they roll out the software to the entire firm.”
Accounting powerhouse EisnerAmper
implements compareDocs from DocsCorp,
making the tax review process less taxing
Deploying compareDocs has enabled EisnerAmper to automate the process of
comparing tax returns to show changes
About DocsCorp
DocsCorp provides document professionals who use enterprise content management systems with integrated, easy-to-use software and services that extend document processing, review, manipulation and publishing workflows inside and outside their environment to drive business efficiency and to increase the value of their existing technology investment. DocsCorp operates in all countries around the world with customers located throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia/Pacific. The company’s U.S. headquarters is in Portland, Oregon. More than 3,500 organizations rely on DocsCorp software every day.
More information: Kim Dunn [email protected] www.docscorp.com … the tool requires minimal training so users can benefit from it immediately.
Lindenhouse Software, developers of the market leading document
management system, Virtual Cabinet, has introduced workflow capability and in-built reporting in a new module known as ‘Processes & Tasks’ that will make prioritising easier than ever before.
It improves three key areas of document management providing:
• Greater control of documents and their authorisation path
• Improved efficiency with each member being presented with a group of logically ordered tasks • Heightened visibility – see instantly
outstanding work, who is doing it and what state it is
Processes & Tasks is an important differentiator as it allows professional firms to tightly control a document’s life cycle routing it to the appropriate members of the team for authorisation. It provides a convenient platform on which to build and manage business processes and delivers a framework that results in improved consistency and quality and ultimately, better control.
“Processes & Tasks delivers a breakthrough in workflow automation that powers the steps in a business process,” says Mark Woolley, Director, Lindenhouse Software. “Professional firms looking to address inefficiencies can now streamline all their business processes by empowering teams to work from a list of well-defined, grouped and logically ordered tasks.”
Virtual Cabinet Turns into a Task Master
More information: www.virtualcabinet.co.uk
About Virtual Cabinet
Virtual Cabinet (www.virtualcabinet.co.uk) is the preferred document management & cloud portal solution of professional firms of all sizes including 30 of the top 100 UK accountancy practices. It combines industry strength document management with secure client communication and the electronic sign-off of documents through an integrated portal. This represents a major step forward in the professional markets the company serves.
