Author: Christina Lane

AC Repair

How AC Repair Can Save You Money and Improve Indoor Air Quality

Christina Lane

A properly maintained AC system is more efficient, which helps to reduce long-term expenses and energy consumption. It also improves indoor air quality, which benefits individuals who suffer from respiratory conditions such as asthma.AC Repair

During a maintenance appointment, your technician will inspect and clean equipment components, like filters and refrigerant coils. They’ll also ensure your breaker box is correctly set to protect the compressor. Visit https://promastersheatingandair.com/ to learn more.

A well-maintained AC system can save you a lot of money on your electricity bills. A repair technician can check for and repair any issues that are keeping your air conditioner from delivering the cool, fresh air you expect.

Your HVAC system is one of the biggest consumers of energy in your home, and if it’s not running at peak performance, it will draw more energy to keep up with demand, leading to higher electricity costs each month. Having routine maintenance done by a qualified technician can avoid this issue and save you from paying those high electricity bills each summer.

An experienced AC repair technician will be able to help you understand how your HVAC system works and will be able to suggest ways for you to lower your utility bills throughout the summer. For example, they can show you how to properly program your thermostat to ensure that it is lowering the temperature when you’re home and slightly raising it when you’re away. This is a simple change that can significantly reduce your cooling bill without making you feel uncomfortable.

Another way an AC repair service can save you money is by reducing your indoor humidity levels. A high humidity level in your home can make it difficult to breathe comfortably and can lead to mold and mildew. A repair technician can test the air in your house for humidity and help you reduce it through various methods.

AC repair services also include a cleaning of your indoor unit, which helps remove dirt and dust from critical system areas that affect efficiency. This prevents these contaminants from negatively impacting your air quality and requiring you to spend more on your energy bill to cool your home.

While every AC unit will eventually need to be replaced, maximizing its life with regular maintenance can spare you the high cost of a new system for years to come. A qualified service technician can identify wear and tear, or even potential problems before they become serious and save you the expense of an expensive replacement.

Improves Indoor Air Quality

As you know, poor air quality is a major health concern. It can trigger allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions. Several factors degrade indoor air quality, including inadequate ventilation, poor air circulation, and chemical emissions from furnishings and cleaning products. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to improve indoor air quality. These include utilizing AC maintenance services, incorporating advanced filtration options into your home, and following general cleanliness practices.

An important part of keeping healthy indoor air is ensuring the right level of humidity. Humidity affects everything from skin and hair to the growth of mold, dust mites, and other allergens. AC repair services help to keep the humidity in your home at a comfortable level by removing moisture from the air and reducing condensation.

During an AC maintenance visit, a technician will check your filters to ensure they’re doing their job properly. The type of filter you choose makes a big difference; standard fiberglass filters trap large particles like lint and dust while pleated and HEPA filters catch smaller contaminants. The more efficient your filters are, the better your indoor air quality will be.

A professional will also inspect your ductwork. Leaky or damaged ducts waste energy, causing hot and cold spots in your home and reducing overall efficiency. A professional can repair leaks and seal small cracks in your ductwork to save you money on your energy bills while improving your indoor air quality.

Aside from ductwork and filtration, your HVAC system plays an important role in keeping your indoor air quality at its best. When your AC unit is running properly, it pulls fresh, clean air through its ductwork and into your living spaces. It then circulates that cooled air throughout your home, preventing heat and humidity from affecting it as much as they would without your AC unit’s assistance. An AC repair technician can also install or repair a humidifier or dehumidifier to balance your home’s humidity, which helps prevent the growth of mold, dust mites, fungus, and other allergens.

Extends Your AC Unit’s Life

Like anything else in your home, an AC unit can only perform at its best when it’s properly cared for. A regular tune-up schedule keeps your HVAC system in tip-top shape and ensures that it will continue to operate efficiently for its suggested lifespan of ten years or more.

Most of the time, your air conditioner will experience minor issues that can easily be fixed by a professional technician. However, if these problems are not taken care of in a timely manner, they could cause significant damage to your system. A tech that regularly inspects your AC can identify these issues and repair them right away so you don’t have to worry about paying for a more expensive, potentially longer-lasting replacement down the road.

Another way that a regular AC tune-up can help extend your system’s lifespan is by helping you to get the most out of your home energy use. Your HVAC system works hard to keep your home cool, so it’s important to make sure that you use heat-producing home appliances during times of the day when it isn’t as hot outside. This will help keep your system from running overtime, causing it to overwork itself and ultimately become more susceptible to breakdowns and repair needs.

In addition, a regular tune-up can help to extend your AC unit’s lifespan by helping you to adhere to other maintenance advice such as cleaning or replacing the air filter monthly and adopting energy-saving practices. The long-term savings that you can enjoy as a result of these simple but effective measures will further help to offset the cost of your professional AC tune-ups.

Additionally, many homeowners don’t realize that scheduling a routine AC tune-up can help to extend their warranty coverage. Most HVAC manufacturers will only cover their systems for a certain amount of time, but regular maintenance can extend this coverage and save you money in the long run. For this reason, it’s highly recommended that you schedule a bi-annual maintenance appointment with your local AC company. They can provide you with a detailed, thorough AC tune-up that will ensure that your system is working properly and keeping your home as cool as possible!

Reduces Risk of Fire

A house fire is one of the most devastating experiences a homeowner can face. Seeing their personal possessions, hopes and dreams engulfed in flames is heartbreaking and can leave families homeless and devastated. Unfortunately, many of these unforeseen events are caused by HVAC issues or lack of maintenance. A home’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system can ignite combustible materials, creating a fire that destroys everything it touches.

Faulty wiring, overheating units, electrical problems, and lack of proper AC repair are the most common causes of fires associated with an HVAC system. The good news is that most HVAC related fires are largely preventable.

Scheduled HVAC maintenance and cleanings help keep combustible materials away from the unit. Dirty filters and clogged coils can obstruct air flow, overheating the unit and causing a fire. Regular inspections of the unit by an experienced technician can prevent these issues from occurring and ensure proper operation of the system.

The use of extension cords and power strips can also pose a fire hazard. It is best to avoid using these devices near an AC unit, especially during hot weather. Instead, you can purchase a surge protector or an in-wall power strip, both of which can be purchased from most hardware stores. If you must use an extension cord, you can reduce the risk by keeping it away from the unit and not extending it past three feet.

Lastly, wildfire smoke contains enough flammable particles to overload and damage even the most energy-efficient AC systems. Regular cleaning of the system helps to remove dust, pet hair, and dirt that can accumulate in the air vents, filters and fins.

In addition, having a properly functioning HVAC system with fire-safe components like carbon monoxide detectors will help to keep your family safe and secure. Incorporating fire dampers in the ductwork helps to minimize the spread of smoke and toxic gases during a house fire. Having an emergency power supply will enable you to stay in your home longer while firefighters work to restore your home and remove the materials that can’t be saved.

Choose A Plumber That You Can Rely On

Christina Lane

 

 

Were you aware that water pressure above 80 psi can actually cause a loud hammering sound to occur in your plumbing system? This can be easily resolved by installing a valve that can adjust the incoming water pressure. For more great expert tips, check out the rest of this article.

 

As the weather begins to get cold, attend to all of your exposed pipes by adding insulation to them. Pay particular attention to pipes located in crawl spaces and the outside walls of your residence. Taking this step will help ensure that your pipes continue to function throughout the winter.

 

If you have issues with the plumbing making a hammering sound when you turn it off, check your water pressure. Any time your water pressure is above 80 PSI, you will hear extra water noise. This can be easily solved by the installation of a pressure-reducing valve, which can be done by most homeowners.

 

Use strainers in all drains to catch hair and other objects. This will prevent all the material from going down the drain and causing a clog, which can cause a bigger problem down the line. Clean out the strainers daily so that you don’t start getting backup of water in your sink or tub.

 

You can check your toilet for leaks by adding a few drops of food coloring, Kool Aid or some coffee grounds to the water in the toilet’s tank (not the water in the bowl). Check the water in the bowl after a half hour or so. If any of the coloring agent is visible in the water in the bowl, the tank is leaking, and you will have to have it repaired.

 

In conclusion, you want to be sure that you know what all of the noises you hear coming from your basement are. Some noises could be normal, some could mean that are more serious problems. Hopefully this article will help you determine what sorts of issues require your immediate response.

You can also visit our other website and post your article.

 

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How Many Non-Auditors are Getting Pulled Off the Bench to Do Inventory Counts This Year?

Christina Lane

Hello and Happy post-Christmas Monday, everyone.

Quick show of hands (let’s just pretend I can see them through the screen OK?), how many of you NOT in audit have been pulled off the bench to do inventory counts this week? We’re hearing some grumblings of tax people being thrown into the gauntlet and thought it might be good to throw the question out there to find out if this is just the usual “hey you’re not doing anything anyway and Kevin has the flu so he can’t go to St. Louis to count widgets” year-end situation or something a bit more acute.

As we all know, there is a critical labor shortage not just in accounting but everywhere, but since we don’t care about “everywhere” it’s solely the pressure accounting firms are under to recruit and — more importantly — retain talent that we’re interested in at the moment. Can’t imagine firm-sponsored Applebee’s dinners are going to go over well with tax people who thought they’d get some much-needed rest and actual food this holiday season, and we already know that entire teams are jumping ship one after another, leaving fewer victims associates to do the counting this year. Add to that, you have the Rona wildcard still in play; the CDC recommends isolation if you have symptoms, even if you’re fully vaccinated. That last one has the potential to be disastrous for already short-staffed teams.

Last year some firms deployed remote inventory counts using real-time video — think someone from the audited entity roaming the warehouse with a GoPro strapped to their head — but that was before vaccines were widely available to anyone who wants one. We’re curious if remote inventory counts are here to stay, especially after KPMG recognized they are faster and cheaper (we all know how much firms love to save a buck).

Anyway. We’d love to hear how things are going this year, so go ahead and let ‘er rip in the comments, shoot us an email at [email protected], or text us at 202-505-8885. As usual, you are also welcome to use the tipline to vent (therapists are expensive, we get it) if, say, you’re counting vats of bull semen, stacks of dildos, or otherwise engaged in any kind of terrible inventory count.

Stay safe out there all of you, no matter where there is.

Photo by Samson Katt from Pexels

The post How Many Non-Auditors are Getting Pulled Off the Bench to Do Inventory Counts This Year? appeared first on Going Concern.

Did you miss our previous article…
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Growth and productivity: is outsourcing the answer?

Christina Lane

A third (34%) of UK accountants do not trust that outsourcing is done correctly or to a high enough standard, according to latest research from IRIS Software Group (IRIS), the UK’s leading provider of accountancy software and services.

The research reveals many accountants are reluctant to outsource certain elements of their role thanks to out-of-date assumptions. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, accountants have been their clients’ essential, trusted advisors. Yet with the threat of business survival still at large, accountancy professionals need more support in managing admin-heavy tasks so they can focus on what matters most – helping clients and growing their business.

IRIS’ latest insights paper surveyed 200 senior accountants and their opinions on outsourcing. It found 42% of accountants associate outsourcing with negative connotations, with 68% saying that they haven’t considered outsourcing in the last 6-12 months – despite a rising demand for advisory-led services since the start of the pandemic.

However, the research further revealed that accountants would gladly use the extra time freed up by outsourcing to dedicate more time to work-life balance (45%), complete higher fee-earning work (33%), build client relationships (27%), and one in five (20%) would use it to focus on business advisory.

Matthew Elliott, Managing Director at Clarity Accountants comments on the findings; “Accountancy is very traditional and value has always been found in the tangible reports created and delivered to clients. But now, there is new value to be found in relationships with customers and offering a better service. [By outsourcing] we’re not bogged down in compliance work, so we can focus on cross-selling services and increasing the value we bring to our clients.

Outsourcing gives us the bandwidth and capacity to scale the business. Without it, I don’t think we could have grown to the scale we have.”

Before COVID-19, 24% of accountancy firms surveyed were planning on hiring extra staff to help ease workload. Although no one could have predicted the uncertainty COVID-19 would bring, recruiting full time employees could have been the wrong decision at a time when staying agile was key. It demonstrated how the flexibility of outsourcing wins out over the risk of costly and unreliable recruitment.

Jim Scott, MD for accountancy at IRIS Software says;

“Firms must act smart. They have to be proficient with their time and proactive if they are to stay as the beating heart of British business.”

“Firms must act smart. They have to be proficient with their time and proactive if they are to stay as the beating heart of British business.We need to break the stigma attached to outsourcing. It’s an efficient way for accountancy firms to resolve any talent gaps, extend practice services and reduce costs, all while increasing profits and margins and enabling them to scale at pace. To unlock these benefits, it’s time for accountants to hang up their hang ups around outsourcing.”

The insight guide, Growth and productivity: is outsourcing the answer? can be downloaded here.

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Optimism as small businesses start to get back to normal but financial support lagging behind

Christina Lane

Small business owners are feeling upbeat about the prospect of trading getting back to normal but are still struggling with their mental health and finding financial support, according to a survey from ACCA UK (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and The Corporate Finance Network (CFN).

All owners reported that business trading is at the level they expected or slightly higher this month, a jump of 11% over last month.

And there was also unanimity from 100% of respondents that their businesses will return to pre- Covid levels of productivity and turnover within two years, with more than half (57%) believing they will achieve that goal within 12 months.

The SME Tracker, which reports what small businesses tell their accountants, reported data from accountants representing 12,135 SME clients and ran until yesterday.

However, despite the optimism, about their own prospects, business owners continued to report on the struggle to find suitable financial backing from traditional outlets now that government-backed loans are winding down.

More than half (57%) said they found it more difficult to obtain even an overdraft and the same percentage struggled to obtain an unsecured business loan. Others also had problems qualifying for a commercial mortgage (43%), which was a 10% increase from last month.

Anecdotally, some members even told the survey that even the most straightforward tasks, including opening bank accounts, have been made more difficult.

This frustration with the real-world practicalities of delivering on the opportunities now re-emerging may have contributed to another worrying set of responses concerning business owners’ wellbeing.

More than one in five (22%) said they were more stressed and anxious and 19% reported that they were either not sleeping, feeling unable to cope or that their mental health had deteriorated.

Glenn Collins, head of policy, technical and strategic engagement at ACCA UK said:

‘Our survey shows business owners are still struggling to secure the right financial support.

‘They are telling us that conventional and traditional sources of business finance, such as banks, are lagging behind and are making it difficult for them to complete even the most basic functions like opening bank accounts and securing an overdraft.

‘We would like to see government working with finance providers to improve access to the right finance options to help to support recovery and we will be engaging with both parties on this matter.’

Kirsty McGregor, founder of the Corporate Finance Network, said:

‘Small business owners can see the opportunity on the horizon and are seeing the early signs that trading can return to normal. However, they are also feeling uncertain about navigating the current financial landscape, which is causing them stress.

‘They are generally optimistic about the future, but they perceive a high degree of risk and uncertainty stands between them and achieving their targets.’

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Friday Footnotes: Accounting’s Future; PwC Plants a Flag on the Metaverse; Netflix For Professional Services? | 12.24.21

Christina Lane

Ed. note: Have a safe and happy holiday out there, everyone. We hope a good chunk of you are rocking the out of office message this weekend and can get some much-deserved rest and relaxation, and that the rest of you can at least fit in a nap and a text message to your grandma. We’ll be back Monday with the usual end of the year phoned-in trash. Merry Christmas!

The Future of Accounting: How a New Generation Can Tackle the World’s Biggest Challenges [Bloomberg Tax] As the tax and accounting landscape changes, it’s natural to wonder what that means for the profession. Carmine Di Sibio, the Global Chairman and CEO of EY, writes that he’s “never seen a more important, inspiring moment to be an accountant.”

How companies are responding to rising pressure on wages and benefits [Journal of Accountancy] In the fourth-quarter edition of the Business & Industry Economic Outlook Survey released by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, respondents predicted an average increase of 4.3% in salary and employee benefit costs in the year to come — the highest such measurement in at least 12 years.

KPMG blocks referrals to former insolvency unit over Silentnight scandal [Financial Times] KPMG will not refer any work to its former UK restructuring business Interpath Advisory in the latest fallout from the scandal over the sale of bed manufacturer Silentnight to a private equity firm. The decision is part of KPMG’s attempts to repair its image after a series of fines and investigations.

PwC Hong Kong purchases land plot in The Sandbox [Cointelgraph] PwC Hong Kong, an international subsidiary of the global PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) organization, announced Thursday its emergence in the metaverse space with the acquisition of LAND in the popular world The Sandbox. Though the cost of its LAND asset was undisclosed, it was noted that PwC Hong Kong intends to construct a Web 3.0 advisory hub to facilitate a new generation of professional services, including accounting and taxation.

A Survey of Tax Analytics and Automation Technologies [CPA Journal] Tax departments are always looking for ways to streamline their processes and procedures, and provide greater value-added services to management. Tax analytics and automation technologies present new opportunities to corporate tax departments, and the benefits will trickle down to small and medium-sized businesses as the technologies diffuse. The authors surveyed larger companies on the deployment of tax analytics and automation, and the lessons learned in the process.

Spotlight on tax season [Journal of Accountancy] CPAs assessing the start of this year’s round of client tax return preparation can take some satisfaction in knowing that they’re not likely to face a repetition of last year, when retroactive tax law changes required revisiting many of the returns they’d already completed.

Auditors investigated four unlawful actions over Fairfield Halls [Inside Croydon] Twelve months after Grant Thornton was asked to conduct an audit of the botched and budget-busting refurbishment of the Fairfield Halls, their report has yet to be published. The delay seems likely to be because the auditors have discovered evidence of unlawful conduct.

There’s Inside Information in SEC Filings [Bloomberg Opinion] A good plot for, like, an insider-trading Hollywood thriller would be if the villains hacked into the computers of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC, after all, is maybe the world’s greatest repository of material information about public companies. Companies are constantly filing earnings releases, merger announcements, management changes, proxy fights, all sorts of material news on the SEC’s Edgar system. If you hacked into Edgar you could … well, in a movie, I guess you could delay every filing by like 10 minutes, to give you a chance to read and trade on it?

Are practitioners ready for new pricing models? [Accounting Today] The tax and accounting profession has long talked about evolving to subscription services and pricing. Some have made the leap. Others are still trying to hammer out the details — and the potential benefits.

Privacy and Trust Are in Jeopardy If IRS Gains Power to Monitor Bank Accounts [U.S. Chamber of Commerce] Implementing a new mandatory reporting regime whereby banks must monitor and collect data on their customer’s accounts will hurt not only banks but also the businesses and communities that rely upon their services.

The post Friday Footnotes: Accounting’s Future; PwC Plants a Flag on the Metaverse; Netflix For Professional Services? | 12.24.21 appeared first on Going Concern.

Many businesses failing to focus on cash flow, survey finds

Christina Lane

–  Only 14% of UK Finance departments report a primary focus on cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic.

16 AUGUST 2021: New research has shown that just 14% of UK Finance decision-makers focused on cash flow during the most recent Covid-19 lockdown.

The majority of businesses focussed on cost-cutting exercises and the use of Government support. For example, 41% confirmed they had furloughed accounts payable staff over the past 12 months.

As of June 2021, approximately 11.6 million jobs had been placed on furlough in the United Kingdom as part of the government’s job retention scheme at a cost of around £100 billion.

Ian Smith, GM and Finance Director for document management provider Invu, the company that commissioned the research, argues that cash is the key metric in a crisis.

“Cost-cutting is a key component in cash management but failing to pay attention to current and future cash flow both entering and coming out of a crisis can be terminal for a business.”

“At the start of a crisis, working capital assets and liabilities unwind as the volume of business reduces. For most businesses, this releases cash tied up in working capital and together with cost-cutting may help a business survive to the bottom of the cycle. Emerging from the crisis will see both increasing expenditure and increasing working capital requirements, a nasty pincer movement on cash resources.”

“Surviving this cycle is dependent on having full visibility of working capital commitments which places a high reliance on timely and accurate management accounts and visibility of future financial commitments.”

The survey showed 16% of UK businesses can take up to 20 days to publish their management accounts – a further 7% taking over 30 days.

Smith argues that this is far too long in a normal business environment, let alone a crisis, as the relevance of the information diminishes after each passing day, providing little value for decision making.

“A business needs real-time visibility of variances compared to plan to be agile in a crisis. Each day spent waiting for management accounts, to see variances in performance against the current plan, represents a lag in decision making for corrective actions. This is a significant business vulnerability to nasty financial surprises,” Smith says.

The survey showed that a minority of businesses, 32%, use budgetary controls at the point of making a purchase commitment, and 68% of those businesses believed their purchasing process was effective.

“The majority of businesses appear to make financial commitments without fully understanding their financial business impact at the point of purchase. Combining this with slow management reporting means the impact on cash is often not known until it’s too late to do anything about it,” Smith continues. “Narrowing the gap between making a commitment and understanding its impact on cash flow needs to be a priority. Businesses failing to address this are at risk.”

The post Many businesses failing to focus on cash flow, survey finds appeared first on Accounting Insight News.

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How can accountants unlock their practices’ full potential?

Christina Lane

By Jim Scott, MD for Accountancy at IRIS Software Group

Accountants have faced a number of challenges since the start of COVID-19. The sudden shift to remote working and changing customer demands meant many had to adopt new ways of working, fast.

Added to this, businesses have needed additional support to prepare for phase two of the evolving Making Tax Digital (MTD) legislative changes and will continue to need expert advice from accountants ahead of the next phases in 2022 and 2023.

As we emerge from the pandemic, accountants will play a critical role in their clients’ economic bounce back. There’s a real opportunity for accountants too – to unlock their practice’s full potential by nurturing their clients’ growth. As with happy clients, business growth soars.

By taking these small steps and creating better efficiencies for clients, accountants can gain the headspace needed to grow their own firms.

Focus on the specifics

Accountants need to be efficient, accurate, compliant, and productive to best help their clients. This requires the right tools – enter cloud technology, this can become an accountant’s most powerful weapon. Not only can it drive efficiencies by reducing technical complexity, increasing agility and supporting flexible working, it can also improve accountants’ ability to rapidly respond to changing customer needs.

For example, a huge task for any practice is recording business purchase orders, invoices and expense receipts. Whether a sole trader or limited company with many employees, submitting and recording receipts is a time-consuming and arduous task. Leading many accountants to fall into the trap of becoming preoccupied with lower value actions.

One extremely effective tool to combat this is record digitalisation, stored in the cloud. This tool can streamline lengthy admin tasks like tracking client receipts, capturing photos and digitally processing receipts, invoices, purchase orders and bank statements. This frees up accountants’ schedules, enabling them to respond to impromptu client requests and deliver value-add services.

It also allows for valuable collaboration with colleagues that can benefit practice operations in the long run. By minimising the occurrence of incomplete records or lost receipts and invoices by ‘snapping’ all records as they arise, standards can remain high and expectations can be met on a continuous basis.

Cloud technology is also hugely beneficial in staying compliant with and managing MTD. Through harnessing a cloud approach, accountants can not only streamline services, but also act smart and respond flexibly to changing requirements as they happen. Freed from time-consuming admin-based tasks, accountants can focus on more value-add services like advisory, which will ultimately help them cross-sell services to existing clients and grow their business.

The key to unlocking potential

Happy clients equal happy business. So, for accountants looking to unlock their full potential, it’s essential they get this right.

Adopting cloud software can play a huge role in empowering accountants to work smarter, not harder. It gives them the headspace they need to meet their goals today and tomorrow and focus on what they love and do best – supporting clients. Only then can they grow with confidence and thrive moving into the next normal.

The post How can accountants unlock their practices’ full potential? appeared first on Accounting Insight News.

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We Did it Guys, We Found the World’s Most Insufferable Accountant

Christina Lane

Once again, r/linkedinlunatics comes through with the gold:

Either this guy is really, really serious about his job OR — and more likely — just really bad at figuring out how to get 16 hours of work done in 10.

If Reddit existed 20 years ago, the comment section on that post would likely be filled with similarly-minded weirdos who consider abandoning any hope of a personal life some kind of twisted badge of honor. Thankfully we live in current day where this kind of behavior is called out for what it is: lunacy.

This is not the flex you think it is, my guy. Go touch grass. Quick, before climate change turns it all to dust and sadness.

The post We Did it Guys, We Found the World’s Most Insufferable Accountant appeared first on Going Concern.

Making Tax Digital is less about tax and regulation than you may think

Christina Lane

Evan Jones is Lead Technology Product Manager at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK

When we think of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax, the obvious association is tax and regulation, but the reality is that MTD in any form is less about either of the above and more about how practices need to evolve as organisations, and how they might encourage their clients to begin to operate in a digital way.

When it comes to practices making as smooth a transition as possible for their clients, there may be a certain amount of expectation setting and education that make MTD for Income Tax a streamlined process rather than the burdensome task many practices fear. There is a real opportunity to transform customer interactions across the entire journey into a seamless, client-focused end-to-end digital experience.

Evolving as Digital Organisations

A shift in mindset to encompass digital working is needed among both practices and their clients as we edge towards the deadline for implementing MTD for Income Tax in April 2023. In their preparations, many practices have begun to explore technology solutions, and it’s often left to the tax department to assess these and lead the way.

However, the reality is that most of the job of MTD for Income Tax will not involve the tax department, and rather, will fall on the department already doing the bookkeeping or VAT. The fundamental principle in MTD for Income Tax is that the record keeping needs to be digital and recorded as close to real time as possible, but understandably, ‘Making Bookkeeping Digital’ probably doesn’t have quite the same impact!

In recognising the true nature of the requirements, what practices will no doubt soon realise is that MTD for Income Tax is less about regulation and tax, and more about preparing clients to work digitally as soon as possible. In fact, it’s also less about specific technology, and more about being comfortable with digital workflows and new ways of working, particularly when preparing clients to make the transition from annual bookkeeping, to quarterly bookkeeping.

Setting Expectations

Most practices have wanted their clients to use digital bookkeeping products for some time now and MTD for Income Tax and its quarterly reporting requirement may just be the catalyst they need.

The upside is that these practices will then be able to have sight of the client data they need, and to keep tabs on it throughout the year without the rigmarole of sending backups via email and ensuring clients don’t work on it at the same time.

However, the complexity is that these increased checkpoints have the potential to change relationships with clients around areas of responsibility and expectation. Just because an advisor has 24×7 access to a digital bookkeeping solution and a client’s data, doesn’t mean that there is a constant human audit service ready to flag when figures aren’t correct.

It’s important to prepare clients for this change in the relationship and set expectations by working with them more digitally now. This may help to address the fear than many practices have, which is that they will be experiencing a large extra burden that they are unable to charge for.

Making it Personal

As practices make the digital mindset shift, there’s often a fear that these new digital processes, including automation applied to what may have traditionally been manual, will affect advisor’s ability to provide a personal service to their clients.

However, if implemented correctly and appropriately, technology should inspire innovation and help practices to build stronger relationships. Sharing information digitally and having more transparency can often introduce more touchpoints, and the move to digital absolutely does not need to replace personal relationships.

Digital should actually enable practices and their clients to have more meaningful relationships, as the rather mundane necessity of constantly requesting information to be sent back and forth can be removed. Just having that data on tap will allow advisors to work more closely with their clients, and move beyond the administrative, operational tasks to dig down into what value add services they may be able to offer.

These are just a few of the mindset changes we’ll begin to see practices make with their clients as we begin the two-year countdown to MTD for Income Tax. While it may seem a daunting process, remember that it’s not the first regulatory hurdle that practices have had to overcome in the past, five, ten or even twenty years. Like all regulation, it’s a chance to adapt and to work smarter, and with the right approach to digital, practices may just find MTD for Income Tax is a new opportunity to have better, more meaningful and more profitable relationships with clients.

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Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting were the sponsor of the Accountex Spotlight Day on 12 August, which focussed on Making Tax Digital and featured 3 free webinars with members of the HMRC MTD team. All are available to watch on demand now.

The post Making Tax Digital is less about tax and regulation than you may think appeared first on Accounting Insight News.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.digital-accountants.com/?p=692