Businesses look to accountants for advice

Date: 7th August 2008

Small businesses trust accountants to give them sound advice, a new survey has suggested.

The latest Pulse Survey from Sage showed that 35 per cent of accountants said they believe they are their clients' first port of call for business advice.

What's more, the research showed that accountants are embracing the latest technologies to provide their business clients with the best possible service.

Just six per cent of accountants said they had never filed an online tax return and 62 per cent said they use social networking sites such as Facebook to improve their services.

"We can now see a Facebook generation of accountants who have become increasingly tech savvy, getting more and more comfortable with technology in the workplace as well as in private," commented Greg Ford, the managing director of Sage's accountants division.

"This can only be a good thing as the industry gets ready to fully implement the government guidelines resulting from the Carter Report."

Despite this, only 19 per cent of accountants regularly use work related-sites, such as HM Revenue & Customs' online portal.