Access Accounting - Blog

Driving for change…but still feeling the pain

The business software market continues to mature - so much so that the reasons and drivers for change sometimes don’t outweigh the fears of failure or limits of prescribed benefit.

Having worked in this industry for over a decade, I'm aware of how complex all software has become. In most sales situations a company is often buying an upgrade to their existing solution on ‘gut feel’ or the confidence the sales person is radiating, rather than a documented process of real benefits.

For a successful system implementation, these three factors are important…

1. The sales person must communicate to you that they understand who you are, what you do and where you are going, listing the immediate and future requirements of your business. Without this information documented, the chances of a working solution that does what it says on the tin is minimal.

2. The product provider must demonstrate a solution to fulfil your entire requirement. The promise of the next version or sexy feature should not influence you decision.

3. You must insist that the provider documents sales and project requirements which deliver on promise. With modern integrated software solutions that fulfil your whole requirement the sales-to-installation process can be lengthy, documented promises cannot be forgotten.

If you follow these guidelines and insist on quality documentation and project planning you are less likely to replace one system with all its problems for another system with a different set of issues. At Access Accounting we, and our Access Specialist Centres, are more interested in understanding your business and how you want to work, before considering which software and features are appropriate.

This is a proven formula for success for the customer and software provider alike. Long term relationships are created and referrals are a natural bi-product - and that’s exactly how it should be.

Steve Ashman

Standard Audit File (SAF-T) for VAT

Well, we released the Standard Audit File sofware on 10^th August and I was expecting a barrage of complaints in the media along the lines of us supporting a “Big Brother” state. This Standard Audit File is part of an international initiative to allow tax authorities to take data from businesses in a common data format. This will then allow them to run tests and integrity checks on the data electronically to ensure that tax is being properly accounted for.

We are the first software company to release this in the UK and we had been geared up to defend our stance - but so far, all has been quiet. We did get some coverage in Accountancy Age and today we have had our first user enquiry about the facility.

In Holland, this type of system has been in place since the late eighties and is used by both the tax authorities and the accountants in practice.  Here, it’s adoption is likely to be slower with HMRC only just starting to promote the technology as one of the components within their new BSI specification for accounting software. I guess we’ll just wait for the interest to grow.

Kevin Misselbrook

Investing in People

People are the lifeblood of any company. A cliché perhaps, but I can’t help being a great believer in the importance of investing in staff whether this is through training, self-development or enhancing their current role to make it more rewarding. Quite simply, we’ve found this approach to add great value to the company.

This whole philosophy is part of our ‘always recruiting’ culture where we’re constantly on the lookout for talented individuals with spark, passion, creativity and vision – even if no role currently exists for them. There’s no denying that this approach does take time and effort. What’s more the whole process doesn’t stop there, as you’ve also got to constantly “sell” the idea of a career to all staff. The process is therefore ongoing, requiring commitment from us as directors to encourage people who want to develop their career - and inspire them with the possibilities that are open to them. 

However, we’ve found this to be time well spent, having a positive impact on staff retention - which can only be good for us as a company!

It would be interesting to hear from other businesses that have also tried this approach or indeed have other approaches to HR that they would like to share.

John Beech