10 expectations SMEs may have of their accountants
What the owners of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) want from their accountants, and what their accountants give them, may not coincide.
- Tax matters: Getting their tax returns done by accountants with precision and on time is a primary expectation, for getting this right can make all the difference between possible financial disaster and survival in business. All too frequently clients have no sound knowledge of the full range of their tax obligations. But they expect accountants to have it and to employ it on their behalf. Periodically, tax issues, for example important changes in tax law, are discussed on our website.
- Proactivity: Owners of SMEs, more often than not are so involved in trying to run their businesses that they don’t find time to investigate ways of making them function better. They expect their accountants to be proactive in advising them about such things and to make recommendations. (For accountants there is software such as Xero which they’ll find helpful.)
- A wow factor: Accountancy is a service industry that’s highly competitive. Clients want to be valued. They would never admit they expect their accountant to remember they have a son who plays for a particular football team, or expect to be invited for a one-on-one business chat over breakfast. But things like this are what clients have in mind when they say they’re looking for “a wow factor” with their accountant. They’re the sort of thing for which accountants who meet this expectation will be rewarded, not only in client retention, but also by way of new business from referrals.
- Phone calls: Is returning the pesky things really worth it? A client waiting in vain for a call to be returned is a frustrated client, and your frustrated client may well seek another accountant.
- Cash flow: While it’s the No. 1 on-going concern of most business managers, guidance on how best to keep cash flowing is also something many of them automatically expect from accountants as part of “proactivity”. However many business owners list cash flow advice as a specific expectation. Accordingly, anything accountants can do to help clients understand why cash is king, how it moves as lifeblood through a business, and how the most can be made of cash available to a business, will be very much appreciated.
- Save on tax: Which is an issue separate from “Tax matters” shown as the No. 1. It’s one thing to get the business with the Australian Tax Office done correctly and on time; but clients also expect accountants will actually save them money in dealing with the ATO – which they tend to regard as the sweetest saving of all. Clients will display varying degrees of aggression against the Commissioner of Taxation, so to what extent accountants foster or forestall this has to be a personal judgment. Bear in mind always that minimizing tax is a legitimate endeavour, avoiding tax is not. Unquestionably among the most successful accountants are those who most successfully offer clients taxation advice that saves money.
- A surprise bill: Something no client likes and many won’t tolerate. A surprise bill is the main reason clients change their accountants. Accountants who don’t tell clients how much particular services will cost, or don’t advise them of the likely upper limit of fees for these, run the risk of losing those clients.
- The game plan: Whatever it is, clients expect their accountants to help them make the plan work – even when they haven’t actually spelt it out. So if you’re unsure of your clients’ aspirations and how they’re to be achieved, ask the questions. The revelations are likely to be in both your client’s interests and yours.
- Protocol: Clients can be very fussy about this. Accountants need to be sure that the right people in their offices are talking to the right people in clients’ offices. A junior accountant shouldn’t hassle a business owner or senior executive for information that the client’s bookkeeper could supply. Establishing good relationships is important to meet the client’s expectation of being treated respectfully.
- Dealing with staff: It’s a corollary of the previous expectation. Just as you, as an accountant, have a care for clients’ sensibilities - being careful for instance not to adopt an air of superiority if they don’t understand concepts, business structures or financial terminology - also make sure all your staff members deal similarly with members of clients’ staffs. Clients expect accountants “to be nice” to their staffs and will dispense with the services of a firm of accountants that fails to meet this expectation.
The following quotes from a recent client survey – or phrases very similar to them included:
- “I just want my accountant to make suggestions useful to my particular business.”
- “I don’t want to be the only person thinking about ways to make my business better.”
- “I don’t expect to be the only one coming up with ideas”.
A simple and regular question to ask of yourself could be:
- “How many genuinely useful suggestions have I made to clients this week?”