Count Financial has experienced a significant increase in the number of inquiries it is fielding from accountants about licensing options for when the accountants’ exemption expires in July 2016.
The chief executive of Count, David Lane (pictured), says the firm had been having between five and 10 conversations with accounting firms each month up until August, but since then the number has leapt to about 60 a month.
Lane says it is difficult to pinpoint a precise reason for the increase, but it is evidence that a growing number of accounting firms are realising they need to start moving now if they are going to have a licensing solution in place before the exemption expires.
Lane says conversations with accounting firms typically begin with the business seeking a solution that will simply allow it to keep doing exactly what it’s been doing under the exemption, but it quickly evolves to the firm wanting a more comprehensive solution. In the majority of cases that results in at least one individual in the firm becoming a fully authorised representative.
“I’ve spent the last several months travelling around the country talking to accountants,” Lane says.
“To me, what is interesting is seeing the progression of those conversations. The majority start with ‘I would like to replicate exactly what I have’, and so far we have a 100 per cent hit rate of having those conversations morph into, ‘Wow, the world has changed, my clients are demanding more…and I probably have some limitations; now is the ideal time for me to think about how I provide more services to my clients’.”
Limited services a threat
Lane says there is a growing awareness that a limited range of services is a significant threat to an accounting practice. He says research has found that the single most common reason a client leaves an accounting practice is the perception that the practice can’t provide a wide enough range of services.
“As an accounting firm, if you look at your competitors then certainly past 2016 they’re going to be providing those services,” Lane says.
“Every firm we’ve had a conversation with has said we need to do this in a broader and deeper way, and we’re going to have at least one of us fully authorised. That’s not surprising; again, the bigger and better firms are saying that this is important [and] we have got to do it properly – as a business, our clients want us to be able to provide this to them.”
Lane says accounting firms need to be reminded again about potential capacity constraints among licensees and training organisations as the July 2016 deadline looms.
“This is an industry that has consistently had, let’s say, 15,000 people in it; let’s make an assumption that about 1000 people go in and out of the industry each year,” he says.
“So the industry is set up to take in about 1000 people a year.
“We have 10,000 people who may be thinking about [entering] this industry. And accountants, by nature, tend to work to deadlines.
“For those who leave it too late, they are going to find that can’t get into a Kaplan course; there aren’t going to be any spaces available.
“It’s going to be a real shame.”
