Five Things I Learned from the Accounting Profession This Week
I bring you good news.
This week’s Bullet has no opening story, no illustrative anecdote, no metaphor to warm you up.
Just five straight-to-the-point lessons from the accounting profession for your learning and benefit.
Lots of Data ≠ Lots of Insight
Having lots of data doesn’t mean you’re ahead. It just means you’ve got lots of data.
Until you organise it and know what you want it to tell you, it’s noise rather than knowledge.
Advisory Still Hasn’t Taken Hold
Below the Tier 1 and mid-Tier 2 firms, advisory continues to stall. The reasons are familiar time, resources, priorities; but the real culprit is fear.
Accountants don’t want to ask their clients questions that go beyond the comfort of compliance.
Guidance ≠ Reporting
Guidance software and reporting software are not the same thing.
The profession keeps buying reporting tools because software makers know that most accountants would rather have attractive charts and dashboards than guide clients toward their goals.
The Gathering
If private equity and venture capital investment in consolidating accounting firms continues at the current rate, in a few years, the Top 100 accounting firms list of a country and the all-accounting firms list of a country will be the same list!
Your Governing Body: Seller, Not Servant
Despite what the marketing says, your governing body wants to sell to you far more than it wants to serve you.
When’s the last time your governing body responded to a request of yours to provide a service you actually felt was missing?
To your success
Martin Bissett
