Posts by marvin

If you had asked me that question when I first got into accounting many decades ago (don’t ask how many) I would have fallen off my seat with laughter. Who in their right mind would want to see their accountant, let alone speak highly of them. And yet, as I visit accounting firm after accounting…

I’ll give you a hint… it’s not “how much tax do I owe?” Today’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are looking for more from us… their accountant. With the explosion of cloud-based accounting solutions our clients have better access to data and information than they ever have before. They don’t need us to tell them…

In today’s dynamic accounting market, brands are so much a part of our day to day lives that we forget how much we depend on them. Look at successful businesses like McDonalds, Qantas, Air New Zealand and Coca Cola for example. Their brand is well recognised and the market knows what goods and services they…

A few years ago, I travelled over to the United States and was very fortunate to attend the Disney Leadership Excellence training in Anaheim, California. The course was a one day event held at Disney’s Californian Hotel at Disneyland and included a field visit to the back stage area of the Park to meet experienced…

Some older readers would remember my days in the 80s and 90s creating and running what was in the 90s, the PKF Technology software business (Corporate Register System and Superfund SMSF admin software) before it was sold to Solution 6 (now part of MYOB) in 1999. It was an exhilarating time being in the vanguard…

An interesting observation from our recently completed #ATSA16 Technology Survey was the adoption rates for various technologies had dropped over the past two years. Now this may be a result of many firms having now implemented the new technologies but to me I think there is more at play. I have seen in many firms…

Every week we hear and read about the impact on traditional compliance work. We hear that traditional accounting services are drying up and with it our revenue streams. But are they really. Or is that we need to rethink our services and the value we add to clients. Tax planning is a great example of…

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of firing up an application on your PC, phone or tablet and thought to yourself “which idiot designed this?!” as you go hunting around for the “obvious” things you need that the programmer has cunningly hidden away. Well as an old coder from the 80s and 90s, I can…

One of the pivotal issues that arose at recent firm staff interviews and staff retreats, is that our clients do not get their telephone and email issues addressed in a timely manner. Many practitioners have mentioned to me that they get frustrated when the client calls back often agitated that they have not had a…

Every week we hear and read about the impact on traditional compliance work. The best way firms can address this perceived loss of income, is by making sure we highlight and reinforce what we do well for our clients. Tax planning is a great example of a simple process that certainly does this. Tax Planning…