Over at AccountingWeb UK we came across the following discussion: We have been thinking about becoming a 100% Xero practice for some time. This would bring in economies of scale. Downside would be not take on clients who are not willing to use Xero. Do others have any experience on this area?
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In the process
I'm in the process of doing the same with Clear Books. It's a gradual process but it's actually quite refreshing turning clients down for a change!
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. 2 thanks
Is it not a bit risky to go "all in" with one supplier?
Or you end up being like our SAGE heavy friends and very myopic about what is on the market and getting screwed by your supplier.
I am already having a strong whiff of "corporate" from Xero with their expensive bank feeds and recent price hike.
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agreed
ireallyshouldknowthisbut wrote:
Is it not a bit risky to go "all in" with one supplier?
Or you end up being like our SAGE heavy friends and very myopic about what is on the market and getting screwed by your supplier.
I am already having a strong whiff of "corporate" from Xero with their expensive bank feeds and recent price hike.
You always want to have an alternative otherwise you can get screwed (or is that "saged"?).
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Horses for courses
Because I have a variety of clients, especially in their abilities, and I want each to do as much as poss of the number crunching (if not all of it), there was no way I'd find one system that would be best fit for all and so it works far better for me to pick say 2-3 systems (Clear Books, FreeAgent & Xero) and match each to the clients.
It's also my experience that, for two decades, I felt stifled in what I could achieve with the 2-3 desk apps on offer and so with two dozen Cloud apps now available, it's been like a breath of fresh air.
I know other firms however who do a lot of the work themselves and so want to pick best fit for them, rather than their clients, and so I understand why they might want to "do a Sage", especially with Xero which is targeted at accountants and, as mentioned by ireallyshouldkn..., has that Corporate taint so reminiscent of Sage's outlook on the world.
With regard to the profile you get with any of these I'd be interested to hear of the experience of others. I gave up for example thinking I could get anywhere with the Xero Bronze etc banding, especially when the directory was slewed towards the hundreds of firms in front of me, but have picked up some really good clients and contacts from being active on the Clear Books and Freeagent community pages and, if you are looking for a more active growth path from this sort of connection, I get fed several potential leads a week from Find a UK Accountant, a site that's linked to my Clear Books profile.
Maybe when I was younger I might have considered getting to know another 1 or 2 on offer but 3 is enough for me and whilst I might not automatically turn away a prospect from a different system there would have to be a good reason to take them on as I doubt I'd be able to provide the service they deserved.
As always (especially when casting any doubt over Xero) I have to disclose that I am a consultant for Clear Books.
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God help you, though
God help you, though, if you had tried the "I only support X software company" with: -
a. Sage (exorbitant price rises every year);
b. MYOB (discontinued in the UK).
Where do you go then?
Surely the software should be right for the client, rather than right for the accountant.
I support a mixture of Excel, Sage, Xero and will probably look at Clearbooks at some stage. I also have a client on QuickBooks, which I can just about run reports from, but that's the exception.
I'm happy with a stable of a few different "horses".
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We have 3 and won't touch anything else (at the moment)
We offer a choice of Kashflow, Quickbooks and Freeagent. We won't take on a client who wants to use any other cloud system. We get plenty of new clients from our own website and via the "accountant directory" of each of them, so aren't worried about not getting a few clients.
We brought QB into the mix recently and it is proving popular. Kashflow is going down, we've migrated a few away from it to QB/FAC and have noticed quite a drop in potential clients approaching us via their directory. We're sticking with it for now to see if it starts to develop and modernise under new ownership, but if not, I can see us migrating others away.
I couldn't possibly stay on top of more than 3 offerings, especially when they're always bringing in new developments and there are always more add-ons becoming available. If we do decide to part ways with KF, I'd be looking at Clearbooks more closely as a replacement, although I think that we'd probably just go with the two of QB and FAC as I can't see anything beating QB for basic accounts/book-keeping and it is very cheap at the moment so competitive against Accounts Portal and Clearbooks.
I'd never have just one offering - our exposure in case of software failure, price increases, etc., would be too much to risk. We suffered enough with QB desktop a few years ago when we had most clients using that and they fouled it up with the VAT debacle which meant we ended up migrating most clients away from them (onto KF ironically).
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All eggs 1 basket vs make hay whilst sun shines
Red Leader wrote:
You always want to have an alternative otherwise you can get screwed (or is that "saged"?).
I get that, the "all eggs one basket" attitude. Depends on whether you follow that, or the "make hay whilst the sun shines" theory.
This very much concerned me 2-3 years ago. My sole source of income was closely tied to FreeAgent...and whilst it was all going great, there was always the fear that something they did, outside my control, scuppered me.
For me, I diversified outside the accounting practice. Helping to set up MVL Online and buying a commercial property for us to operate from, which is big enough to let out spare space to others.
Horses for courses (sorry, I'm using lots of silly sayings in this post). Maslins had struggled along for a couple of years trying (and failing) to be everything to everyone. Specialising heavily worked well...and to date is still working well, but I do appreciate that makes us vulnerable. I don't want to be accounting for the next 30 years, so this doesn't bother me too much.
We've done virtually that