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7 July 2021Small businesses shouldn't be afraid of new payment solutions. Find out how Vicki is building better working relationships with her clients by tackling this head on.
7 July 2021Traditionally, a business owner might speak to their accountant a few times a year - when calculating tax payments or preparing historical financial statements for instance.
Not for Vicki and her team at PBT Accountancy.
Like many modern accounting firms, they’re connecting with their clients frequently, to help solve any and all of the financial hurdles business owners can face. And when Google can’t answer their questions simply - PBT’s clients are coming to them with all sorts of accounting tech questions as well. Things like:
Starting PBT Accountancy 5 years ago, Vicki understood early on the importance of reducing the time her clients spent on non essential tasks and financial management. By getting them to use the right tech, they could dedicate their full attention on running and growing their businesses.
In a recent chat with iwoca, Vicki told us “technology has played a part in everything we’ve done”. She explained it’s been really encouraging seeing clients taking it on board and using the technical solutions available to them. They don’t want to waste time paying for admin and functions that they don’t have to.
Simply knowing there’s technology out there that can help your client isn’t enough. Before recommending solutions, accountants must have a thorough understanding of all of the benefits and drawbacks of different softwares.
Vicki’s solution? She tests out new technology within PBT - so she and the team become experts in the products before they start recommending them to their clients.
To make sure any new technology is credible and worthy of being put in front of her clients, Vicki road tests software solutions in the background to see if it works as it’s meant to. (Or doesn't!)
"How can I sell something to someone if I don't use it myself? I like to break systems to fix them and rebuild them, so I can really understand how they come together. I have to be able to use it fully. What if my client breaks something, I have to be that expert."
Vicki from PBT Accountancy
This is exactly what Vicki did with iwocaPay.
Having tried card payment solutions for their invoices in the past (which weren’t that successful), she’s finding the open banking powered payment solution pretty seamless so far:
“When I first looked at iwocaPay, I was more interested in how I was going to get paid faster….it's so easy to send paylinks to clients and we’ve definitely noticed that we’ve been getting paid faster. There’s no reason for our clients to delay payment. Once the iwocapay.me link is on the invoice it’s pretty easy!”
Of course no two businesses are the same and what will work for one might not work for another but – ultimately – everyone wants to get paid quicker.
“If you’ve got these efficiencies and different ways to not only get paid faster but to have better working relationships, then anything is worth exploring. Having this extra payment solution is perfect”, Vicki told us.
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Mat White is an Accountant Relationships Manager at iwoca, writing on everything from finance to food. He's also the host of iwoca podcast '9 to when?'.
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