Ledgerscope

We are living through exciting times, as, for the first time since the eighties, small business owners are able to choose from a huge number of bookkeeping software offerings.

This is, of course, a result of the recent explosion of the online software delivery model (sometimes called “software as a service", or "Saas”). I have read in various places that there are estimated to be at least 50 online bookkeeping packages for today’s small business owner to choose from.

Compare this to the situation that existed between, say, 1990 and 2008 when, realistically, we operated in a Sage or QuickBooks world.

There are profound implications for accountancy practices and those practitioners who worked through the challenges presented by the introduction of the PC will recognise the same factors at work.

It’s practically impossible and financially non-viable for the typical independent firm to train and retain accountancy staff capable of supporting and working with 50 different flavours of software. Then there is the problem of managing all of the different subscriptions, licences and logins.

So, choices have to be made. But which (software) horses do you want to place your bets on? Which will come through the inevitable shake-up, of weeding out and consolidation, on top? Are we yet in a position to guess which offerings will be around for the long-term?

Also, consider the profile of the next generation of clients.

These are individuals brought up in the Internet age, used to instant, always on services like Facebook and capable of sourcing whatever they need via Google. I believe that these new clients are going to find bookkeeping software that suits them, and then find an accountant to work with.

The days of the client meekly agreeing to use Sage, because it suits their new accountant are almost gone.

Ledgerscope is uniquely positioned to help accountancy firms deal with clients using many different packages.

No need to purchase licences for all of the different software types. No problems managing upgrades and version numbers for each software. No need to train staff to work with multiple systems.

Ledgerscope will allow accountancy firms to work with client accounting data in the same, consistent way, regardless of which bookkeeping software it came from. Your staff will love it, and so will your bottom line.

When I saw the headline "Paperless practice: Automating the tax workload" on Accounting Web I was intrigued. After reading the article I was disappointed.

Wikipedia suggests that to automate means:

"To replace or enhance human labour with machines".

In the 21st Century "machines" can be taken to emcompass information technology, both hardware and software.

Working in a paperless way does "enhance" human labour but does not "replace" it - and surely completely replacing human effort is a far more exciting (and profitable) goal to be aiming at?

Ledgerscope does both.

It allows accountancy firms to work in a more efficient, modern way but it also replaces human effort in the key task of reviewing client accounting data. By performing all of the important checks, so that the accountant doesn't have to, Ledgerscope automates the process.

To me, automation means relieving humans of the task, not just giving them a better way to do it.

This weekend I saw many messages on Twitter from accountants working all weekend.

This is something that only happens in January in the UK and is caused by the fact that self-assessment tax returns must be filed before 31st January. This means that many accountants end up working evenings and weekends to try to avoid late filing penalties.

Returning to my desk this morning (luckily I am no longer part of the January madness) I read a blog posting by Kevin Salter, on the ICAEW's IT Counts site.

Kevin is rightly exhorting accountants to think about how they might do things differently next year, and goes on to suggest how more efficient use of technology is the answer. His advice will produce incremental efficiency gains for accountants - but nothing like the gains to be achieved by using Ledgerscope.

You see, the fact is that completing and filing tax returns is not a time-consuming job - once the numbers to be reported are available. The true problem faced by accountants in January is producing client year end accounts quickly enough to provide the numbers to go on the tax return.

What accountants need is something to help them get client accounts turned around much, much more quickly. What they need is Ledgerscope.