In this interview Mark sits down with Rob Campbell to discuss increasing workload pressures for accounting practices.

Rob Campbell was a Chartered Accountant in private practice for over 30 years, operating as a partner in mid-sized firms in Sydney, and as the principal of his own practice in a regional area.

Today Rob acts in a Consulting Role and has provided advice to many Accounting firms in the areas of process, planning and management  issues.

As Rob talks to many Accounting principals, both City and Regional we thought he would be the perfect person to tell us about the issues of workload, what effect this has on the firms and the individuals, and what steps that can be taken to mitigate, pivot, and move forward.

Topics discussed:

1.  Staff Turnover

The main issue facing accountants today is staffing. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find suitable staff that are worth the salaries that they are demanding.

The other big issue with staffing is turnover. Staff leave for a variety of reasons with pay rates and work life balance really pushing staff out the door.

2. Not finding suitable staff to replace lost staff

Practice principles are not able to find suitable staff to replace lost staff and are now often doing the jobs themselves as they are losing confidence in the labour market putting more financial and mental stress on them.

Principals are often working far larger hours, workload is extended out and work in progress is becoming harder to turn into cash.

3. Clients are asking why the service is dropping and turnaround times been extended.

Practices are under yet more stress as clients are wondering why their deadlines haven't been met, the expected service is not the same as it was and therefore clients are more apprehensive to pay their bills on time as they only see the problems that have happened rather than all the good things the principals have done for them. 

4. How outsourcing removed a load of the shoulders for a few practices

Few practices had no choice but to outsource, Felcorp provided the service and the practice noticed that they could better service clients, offer more services to retain the client (which the client loved) and crucially saw their invoices paid much faster as the clients were happy.

The main takeaway:

Staffing is the problem. It affects most aspects of the accounting practice profitability. Getting the right staff is the key to having a more profitable practice, happier clients and less mental stress.

And this is where Felcorp offshore accountants come in. As it is virtually impossible to find the right staff in the current labour market conditions, practices aren't left with no options outside of offshore accounting services.

The practices that did decide to take Felcorp accountants, saw a big increase in client serviceability, decrease in WIP (turned to cash faster) and offered more services to their existing clients which is a client retention strategy itself.