How important is IT to accountants?

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AccountingWEB has run a piece on what is called Web 2.0 for accountants. This is not a techy site so I'm not going into the details (although i personally like them). But I do know a lot of accountants read this blog.

In my comment on AccountingWEB I said (in edited form here):

Web 2.0 is about doing things more effectively. It can't do everything yet. Nothing ever will. But accountants who ignore it are like the graphic designers who 15 odd years ago refused to recognise that the Mac was transforming their whole business model. However good they were they went out of business. Simple as that.

That's the issue here. Unless you understand what's happening in IT and are willing to embrace it then the future for you is bleak. On that Dennis Howlett is 100% right. It's time to get geeky, I'm afraid. Those that do will do three things:

1. Win clients
2. Win staff.
3. Ensure practice succession.

And the last is the biggest point of all for most people right now. I'll go so far as to say that if you don't have good IT systems you can kiss your goodwill and your sale prospects goodbye from now on. That's the biggest pay day any practicing accountant gets. What about that for commercial motivation to embrace this stuff?

I seriously suggest all practitioners reading this should follow Dennis Howlett's AccManPro blog on these issues. It's as important as tax for the practitioner (and I can't get more serious than that :-)! )


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