I’m not one for making predictions generally. However, for reasons I’ll explain later I’ve set out below a few ‘new’ trends that may have an impact on accountants this year. What do you think?
1 – More clients will be texting communications to their accountants. NB: how do you print off any such instructions if you want to retain an audit trail of evidence? (instant messaging using skype will also become more prevalent but you can print these off, as you can emails;
2 – Increased use of VoIP (principally Skype) in place of telephone;
3 – As many have predicted for years there will be a continuing and growing demand for by clients for more than ‘just’ accounts and tax return services from their accountants each year. Again I’ve been blogging about this for some time too.
4 – More and more accountants will start to experiment with twitter and other online ‘social networking’. Most will make the mistake of using it as a broadcast mechanism and will then stop using it when they find that their approach fails to win them new clients. If you’re tempted or simply curious, I’ve written a series of hints and tips for accountants who want to find out more or to experiment with twitter.
I promised to explain what prompted this blog post. Quite simply I found I’d posted, two years ago, a piece under the title: Trends that will matter in 2008 – for accountants. The first 3 trends above are exactly what I prematurely suggested in January 2008. The only new one is the reference to twitter. On past performance maybe that’s at least 2 years premature too!
What do you think 2010 will bring for accountants?
Do you think we will see a greater emphasis on the change of the ‘business’ relationship between client and accountant towards a more informal, social relationship?
E.g more “open door for questions” policies, etc? We get on so well with our current accountant because we pay her a monthly retainer and in return not only do we get our tax returns, vat etc done – we can also fire off any questions we run into by email and be assured that we will get a well researched, professional answer by return!
I wouldn’t be so quick to write off micro-blogging via Twitter. I think its a great way of engaging with clients. It takes time to build a group of people interested in what you have to say.
Be warned, do not deliver sales messages this way!
Interesting stuff,,,,I think the latest financial crises will impact on the role of accountants,,,in many ways,,,specially the auditors,,,,
You are right about twitter and sharing more info on the net,,,,I would add that more accountants and auditors will start blogging…..
In this year,,I started my new blog,,”Accounting for Life”, and I will try to make some relations between accounting theories and our daily life,,,and how could we apply acc rules to solve our problems, interesting yea? :)
ok,,,I liked your blog and posts,
keep it up ;)