Last week I attended the annual MYOB Partner Incite Conference (yes I am a partner with MYOB)!
Over 1,000 of us filed into the Melbourne Convention Centre to be greeted by a jazz band and seating that ranged in style from beanbags to bench seats to a variety of coloured hard chairs. Quite funky!
The CEO of Lonely Planet Gus Balbontin (who was once homeless scavenging food off restaurant tables!) spoke of disruption and we were presented with updates on the evolution of MYOB and it’s soon to be released brand transformation “The Next Big Thing”.
Three Pillars
The evolution of technology presents you the business owner/manager with productivity opportunities and scope for fee reductions. It is clear that the three pillars of an Accounting practice is also shifting with technological change.
- Transaction processing – with bank feeds and artificial intelligence, data entry is getting more and more automated. Please ensure your bookkeepers and data entry folk are using bank feeds to improve productivity and hence reduce fees you pay for transaction processing services.
- Compliance – traditional annual reporting, tax returns and BAS are also being more automated and streamlined thus reducing the time taken to provide such services. You also should be pushing for fee reductions from your external Accountants for these services ensuring that the productivity gains they are getting through technology is being passed onto clients.
- Advisory – traditional practices are finding that they need to offer these services to sustain their income streams as the above two pillars shrink. Interestingly MYOB survey indicates that 7 out of 10 unmet needs of business clients is in the area of Advisory services. These include performance monitoring, forecasting and business planning. So ensure your Accountant is capable of offering these services, and if they are not capable of such, or are not meeting your requirements in this area, don’t hesitate to look for help from experts in this field.
MYOB Advanced
MYOB’s ERP system offering MYOB Advanced is Australia’s only integrated cloud ERP and Payroll solution, so if your system needs have moved beyond the MYOB AccountRight or Essentials offering, MYOB Advanced is worth considering. This is particularly true of you manage inventory, either purchased or manufactured.
Conclusion
Software vendors like MYOB are offering standard functionality to improve productivity and reduce the costs of your transaction processing and financial and tax reporting requirements. Ensure you keep on your Accountant/Bookkeeper to pass savings onto you and that they have the skillset and want to provide essential business advisory services.
Ross – Billson Advisory Part-Time Virtual CFO
