“Go big or go home!” says the popular phrase. Yet, achieving greatness isn’t always ideal for your accounting firm clients. Let’s talk about why.
Compared to SMEs, corporate enterprises appear to have it made.
They have all the financial resources, talent, and access to a network of willing customers.
Even most software providers usually tailor their business solutions to corporate needs. It can be the same for those targeting the accountancy software sector.
The market for accountancy practice management software can be puzzling. All advertise themselves as the best (we promote ourselves as the wisest – hence the owl). Some have been around for a long time, yet that does not make them the best.
Some have even been sold to a corporation to become bigger.
But what does that mean for their customer base?
Many businesses fall into the trap of buying corporate-level software
The reason why going big isn’t always good for your accounting firm clients is straightforward: most businesses dream about eventually growing to become the next Apple.
They think of investing in a smaller, boutique software version and paying for a corporate-level platform with more powerful solutions.
This sounds logical, but sadly, it’s not exactly right. Software designed by corporate-sized companies contains many useful features, but only for larger businesses that can pay their pricing levels.
Furthermore, all those features that become available for SMEs are unnecessary!
Differences between boutique and corporate providers
Price
The first principal difference between corporate and boutique accountancy management software is, obviously, going to the pricing.
Corporate-level software is much more expensive. Since it has features designed for enterprises that may need them, you must also justify the more considerable monthly fees to your accounting firm clients.
Do you really want to pay for features you will never need?
Size
As mentioned above, the size of the software is supposed to mirror the company’s size it’s intended to be used by. Corporate-level software tends to be more complex and requires weeks or even months of onboarding and training for each user to become familiar with it.
Because of its complexity, corporate software requires an IT department to implement and maintain it.
This includes customisation. Sometimes, IT departments access their business software platforms’ coding and alter it to fit their specific company needs.
Most businesses typically don’t have more significant IT departments to support when issues arise or with implementation.
The more complex a system, the more likely glitches and crashes could occur. For SMEs, this could severely hamper their business operations – larger files consume space and slow down tasks, if something goes wrong, who will fix it swiftly and quickly?
Software like ours is designed for all-sized businesses. It is more agile and straightforward to implement, and we’re only a phone call away if you need us to guide you through any concerns that occur. Your accounting firm clients don’t need to wait because of a software slow customer service.
Functionality
Decision-making and the speed in which those decisions are made is a slow process for larger corporations.
Although feedback is obtained from their customers, the final decision is only made by an executive right at the top. It has gone through a plethora of company departments for their input too.
Meaning the end-user, i.e. you will have to wait for this functionality for longer than when you actually need it.
It’s why software like Uku is so loved – we respond to our clients’ feedback, and we begin to create that functionality.
Already we have more integrations, custom fields, extended CRM and AML features in the pipeline that will be launched in the Spring.
At Uku, our team responds to customer feedback, but we also call members in the Uku community, and asks them what they need? What is changing in the industry that you now need this type of functionality?
From this, we build only the features you really need.
Uku and many of our smaller competitors do not build features that appeal to executives or IT departments in corporations. We make features that benefit you, our present and future members.
As we’re an SME too, our decision-making process is very streamlined. Once feedback has been scrutinised and agreed, we get to working on it right away.
Human-centric
You will always be more critical to an SME than to a corporation – and that’s exactly how we like our community to feel.
Our support team is renowned for its friendly and proactive approach.
If there’s a way to do something you’ve thought of, they’ll know what it is.
Plus, we reach out and ask you what you need to make your accounting practice even better. Can you imagine a large corporation like Apple or Salesforce calling you up and asking for your input?
Focus on user profitability, not company profits
Finally, it goes without saying that Uku is designed purely for accounting practices, finance teams and service providers.
Jaanus and I originally had the idea to develop Uku because our mothers were accountants and fed up with the clunky and inefficient way of managing their practices and workflows.
Because we are accountants, self-financed, and have no investors or shareholders – we are on a mission to make accountancy relevant, profitable and solve an industry-wide problem.
We’re not here to make investors and shareholders wealthy, only our customers.
Uku – software for all accounting firms and accounting firm clients
Luckily, many service providers, including Uku and some of our competitors are looking after the industry’s needs.
We’re not only building a platform to service all business sizes, but we’re also looking to make our industry more relevant in these more modern times.
It’s a business practice that has served numerous companies from where we are from, the Baltic Silicon Valley in Estonia.
Think Skype, TransferWise, Bolt and Pipedrive.
All these companies believe as we do in simplicity and ambition to modernise existing industries.
So, when searching for an accounting practice management software, keep your accounting firm clients’ precise needs at the forefront of your mind.
Don’t be wooed by a platform that is owned by a large multinational or has tonnes of features that you probably never need but still end up paying for.
Keep it simple.
Take a look at Uku’s accounting practice management software, designed for all business types. We have a 14-day free trial complete with a personalised demo and onboarding to convince you!
Uku has all the features you need, and none of the ones you don’t.
