BDO gets InTouch with cloud accounting
BDO has opened a small business accounting service based partly on the Xero cloud accounting platform.
Called InTouch, the BDO package is designed to support clients with “current business performance information which can be accessed anytime and anywhere”.
The service is being offered by BDO’s business services and accounting practice, which will use the online tools to support clients with proactive, business advice. The service makes the core accounts data available on any desktop or mobile device, and BDO said it will customise applications to meet specific client needs.
InTouch is positioned as part of an adaptable package of accounting and compliance services. Client companies could do some of the work themselves and rely on BDO for tax and company secretarial services, or sign up for a fully outsourced finance function.
The service is still very new, but follows the example set by hundreds of small and medium sized firms in the UK and latterly Big Four players including KPMG and PwC.
BDO’s head of business services and accounting Mark Sykes explained: “We’ve been involved in this space for some time and have been looking for a couple of years at how we could better deploy services to clients. It’s not in response to KPMG.
“Our starting point is the services we deliver and doing it the right way, not just on the back of technology but using a suite of tools clients want.”
BDO’s Netherlands subsidiary has been doing this kind of thing for years in tandem with the Dutch Twinfield accounting application and their experiences have fed into the UK service. While the Xero platform is appropriate for smaller businesses, BDO’s online accounting team will also rely on other systems such as Sage One, Twinfield, AccountsIQ and even Microsoft Dynamics according to the complexity of the client’s requirements, Sykes said.
“We will also help clients get the information they need from existing systems,” he added.
The service is still very new, but follows the example set by hundreds of small and medium sized firms in the UK and latterly Big Four players including KPMG and PwC.
BDO UK’s decision to go with Xero reflects the degree of autonomy that prevails in the larger accounting firms, according to Xero’s UK managing director Gary Turner.
“We have relations with BDO in other countries like New Zealand,” said Turner. “The BDOs and KPMGs have quite a large degree of self-determination.”
It’s becoming less of a surprise for large firms to adopt cloud accounting, he added: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a small practice in the high street or one of the top 20. They’re all moving in their own ways to deploy cloud as part of their strategy. It’s kind of inevitable.”
Source: AccountingWeb – BDO gets InTouch with cloud accounting
