Cut clients and focus on the good stuff, accountants told
Staff shortages and an overabundance of work means accountants should be more selective with clients, according to a prominent consultant.
Accountants should cut their client numbers and focus on work they enjoy doing because talent remains in short supply, says software consultant Alan FitzGerald.
“Now is the time to look at your client base and start thinking about whether you want to give a client another chance or give them the opportunity to move off and go somewhere else,” said the head of Practice Connections.
“There’s no shortage of work and there’s a shortage of people to do it so instead of doing too much work and not enjoying it, [stick to] the stuff that you really enjoy doing.”
Employee resourcing has seen a significant shift in the accounting industry in recent years driven by factors such as the pandemic and the great resignation, he said, speaking in a recent Accountants Daily webcast.
“We’ve obviously had this unfortunate pandemic the last couple of years but there has also been a realisation from a lot of individuals that they don’t want to do [accounting] anymore,” said Mr FitzGerald.
“The knock on effect of all of that is that in previous years it was very easy to maintain systems and just put people in those systems. A lot of firms don’t have that luxury anymore. It’s such a tight market, everyone is looking for staff.”
While upgrading systems and automating processes can help address the staff shortage issues facing the industry, Mr FitzGerald said it’s important firms first think about the types of clients they want to be working with in order to match those clients with the right systems.
“The really cutting edge firms are able to analyse their clients and then piece together the systems that are best suited for working with those clients,” he said.
Free up time for specialisation and innovation
The period directly after the tax return deadline is always a good time for a firm to be thinking about what clients they want to retain and those they don’t, according to Mr FitzGerald.
“The first thing is to identify the ones that you don't like working with and give them the opportunity to be serviced by someone else,” he said.
“That does a couple of things. Firstly, it frees up headspace and it also allows you to look at your database and identify your ideal clients. Once you’ve identified your ideal clients you can then make a decision about how to best service them and take on others that are in that same industry or profession.
“With firms that specialise in Medical practices for example, all their focus goes into working on medical practices and word of mouth gets out and they can develop a business from there.”
Tools for analysing your client database
Mr FitzGerald some many of the newer accounting software systems allow accounting firms to streamline internal reports on their client base, helping them determine which clients are best suited to the firm.
“There’s been a lot of talk about practice management over the years and in the future that’s going to move towards client relationship management. Once you start analysing the information that sits within your database you can start using this for business development,” he stated.
“[For example], we’ve got X number of our top clients in the financial services side of the business but they’re not necessarily using our business services. Let’s change the ratio so that our top clients are also our top clients for business services,” he said.
“We can also use the information to understand how much it costs to take on a new client. What is the cost acquisition of a client? Or what’s the payback period for all the business development work?”
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