15 April 2010
Tim Birkett, FMAAT has been a member of the AAT since the association was founded 30 years ago. He launched his Dorset-based practice, Birkett & Co, in 1979, and now employs four staff and manages nearly 600 small business accounts, ranging from sole traders to £4m-turnover firms. He has been using Digita’s accounting software for 12 years. Here are his top tips for selecting an accounting package.
“Ease of use is the primary factor,” says Tim. “It’s really important that I don’t have to read a manual or waste time looking at help screens. The software should be intuitive and require no formal training.”
Scalability is also key. “A lot of software packages do not have the capacity to grow as your business grows,” says Tim. “Change is extremely expensive, both in terms of acquiring a new license and the time investment – inputing all your data into a new system can take months. Make sure you choose an accounting package that can scale up – or scale down – as your business requires.”
Cost savings are a priority for Birkett & Co. “When I first found out about Digita, I visited their offices in Exmouth. They demo-ed their products and I said, ‘This all looks great but it will take me six months to move all my accounting information on to your platform. That’s six months before I can start invoicing clients.’ So they gave me a six-month payment holiday. I only paid them when I was being paid by my clients.
“Once the system was in place,” Tim continues. “I found I was making huge time savings. This allowed me and my staff to concentrate on high earning activity instead of admin. Take capital gains tax computation. The software calculates it so much faster than I could manually.”
Lastly, there’s the issue of branding. As an independent practitioner, branding and logos are integral to Birkett & Co’s marketing strategy. “You need to be able to adapt your software to your practice brand,” Tim says. “When you’re producing reports for your clients, it’s important that they see your professional image, not that of the software provider.”
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