Hear Reckon, Saasu and the Institute of Public Accountants discuss future business models for accounting firms on Wednesday 2 April at the Future of Accounting Forum in Sydney – in-person or streamed live. Register now.
Accountants must educate themselves about the technology that ran their clients’ business systems or face irrelevance, said Marc Lehmann, CEO of cloud accounting company Saasu, in a video interview with BoxFreeIT.
More than 700,000 businesses in Australia sold products and services online and wanted accountants who understood e-commerce. “The person who owns a business that sells electronically is going to stop relating to their accountant as the trusted adviser and start thinking of them as the ignorant adviser,” Lehmann said.
“A firm has to understand e-business right now and has to do it quickly because they’re going to lose clients if they don’t do it well.”
Only 10 percent of the accounting profession had begun learning about business systems and it wasn’t too late for accountants to start.
“Accountants should have started a couple of years ago but thankfully it’s not too late. If anything you’ve let that first 10 percent work out the gory details and you’re coming into it knowing some of the traps and mistakes,” Lehmann said.
The digital revolution had made the systems behind a business more important than its primary service or product. Every company, including accounting firms, had to think of itself as a technology company first.
“A client that sells some products on eBay, I might see him as selling iPhone cases. Well no, he’s actually in a technology business dealing with SEO and big problems that the accountant hasn’t got his head around,” Lehmann said. “He’s not just selling widgets anymore. It was easier when he was just selling widgets because we were taught widgets in economics books. It’s more complex now.”
Lehmann advised accounting firms wanting to get up to speed to start using cloud software systems internally. The experience would help accountants understand industry systems.
Need help planning a post-compliance future for your firm? Come to the Future of Accounting Forum on the top floor of the AMP Tower at Circular Quay, Sydney, from 9-11am on Wednesday 2 April.
Breakfast included, and the event is worth two hours of CPE. To buy tickets to attend the event, or to watch the live stream or video on demand, Register Now.