Fashioned in 2011 by Georgi Rollins, Starfish Accounting satisfaction themselves on being approachable, pleasant —- and undoubtedly not stuffy. Based mostly in Berkshire, the crew includes 9 ladies and, whereas they’ve a various mixture of shoppers, the agency has a specific concentrate on serving to female-run companies. “I believe we’ve got a extremely good understanding of among the challenges that numerous our shoppers undergo,” says Georgi. “We’ve got numerous conversations with individuals about how they’ll get further assist to assist with their work life stability, or easy methods to take care of maternity pay. Purchasers really feel comfy to ask us sure issues that possibly they wouldn’t if we have been a bit extra fusty, quaint and male dominated.”
Giving the best assist is a complete lot simpler because of Xero — which they adopted in 2012. “I had a play with a little bit of on-line accounting software program that certainly one of my shoppers used, which was a horrible little bit of software program, however I actually appreciated the cloud-based side of it. Then anyone really helpful Xero, and so we signed up and have by no means regarded again. That was among the best enterprise choices we made.”
Click on right here to observe Starfish’s story, or learn her tricks to create an environment friendly observe.
Tip #1: Embrace know-how to make VAT returns a breeze
With the following stage of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT imminent, many accountants want to digitalise their VAT course of, however Starfish made the change lengthy earlier than it turned a requirement. “I at all times hated coping with VAT returns as a result of they’re simply large, unwieldy, clunky issues,” says Georgi. “So we switched to coping with VAT digitally very early on.”
One of many greatest ache factors of getting shoppers on spreadsheets in addition to on Xero was getting maintain of cohesive, dependable information to finish the return. “The most important aggro was making an attempt to ensure the info was correct and full. You then discover a suspicious line merchandise and you need to shuffle by an infinite sheaf of papers to attempt to discover any backup.”
The crew at Starfish now do all of their shoppers’ VAT returns by Xero. “When MTD for VAT initially got here in for companies who have been above the VAT registration threshold, it was a helpful lever for us to encourage shoppers to maneuver to Xero who have been beforehand reluctant to take action,” says Georgi. “And we made the choice at that time to not deal with individuals who have been under the VAT registration threshold any in a different way, so we registered all of our VAT registered shoppers for MTD for VAT.”
Submitting VAT returns on-line by Xero not solely ensures shoppers are MTD-compliant, it additionally makes the method fast, straightforward and seamless by streamlining your entire observe workflow. “On the info integrity and the info enter aspect of issues, there’s an infinite array of instruments inside Xero that make life simpler — like money coding, and discover and recode,” says Georgi. “After which there’s the performance that sits throughout the VAT return in Xero. We use the HQ VAT part to maintain an eye fixed out for which returns must be filed. You may run the VAT return as a report for various durations as properly.”
Tip #2: Develop your advisory companies by automating administration duties
With Xero caring for numerous the mundane duties, Starfish can focus on the enterprise advisory aspect of their service. “Automating the admin duties is certainly a giant time saver, however I believe extra importantly, it helps us to do a greater job as a result of we’re not simply sitting there asking ‘have we bought an attachment for this?’” says Georgi. “There’s all kinds of various issues that we will spend a bit extra time on now that we’re not frantically simply clobbering collectively the info.”
Even shoppers who have been initially sceptical are impressed by the advantages. “Once we’ve moved individuals throughout to Xero who’ve beforehand used spreadsheets and spent many many hours placing collectively the knowledge, they’ll’t consider how a lot simpler it’s,” she says. “On the finish of the day, the shoppers need to ensure that their compliance necessities are taken care of, however they don’t get excited a few VAT return or a tax return or a set of accounts. What they need is to have a relationship with an accountant who’s there as a enterprise advisor, to allow them to ask questions and perceive what the impression is likely to be of paying again a mortgage early or establishing a brand new location or no matter it is likely to be. They need the compliance stuff to occur within the background, taking as little time as doable.”
Xero has helped take the ache out of the busy January and VAT season. “I used to get to the top of January pondering I ought to be capable to ease off, however I’d nonetheless have all these VAT returns due that have been going to take me ages and it felt actually disturbing,” shares Georgi. Now, Xero helps her get forward of the sport and unfold the workload all through the crew.
“Seven of us work on VAT returns. It’s a lot simpler from a collaborative perspective. Certainly one of my crew can put together a VAT return and I can go in and run a report. I can drill down into one thing and ping them over a query. We’re capable of have these a number of contact factors with out it being tough.”
Driving effectivity to create a more healthy work-life stability
By saving time, spreading the load and streamlining workflows, the entire crew has a greater work-life stability. “We’re very cautious to handle individuals’s workload so that they’re capable of take a while out. We function a versatile and hybrid working fashion,” Georgi provides.
For accountants nonetheless utilizing spreadsheets for VAT, Georgi has one easy piece of recommendation: “Make the change to Xero! In case you’re nonetheless utilizing spreadsheets and bridging software program, you’re spending extra time on a given activity than you actually need to and producing one thing that’s not the identical worth of output” she says. “It’s such a no brainer.”
For extra sources to assist your shoppers with the following part of MTD, try our Assets Hub in addition to our new associate information which outlines many efficiencies that your observe can entry by Xero.