As a business owner you have many demands on your time. You have to deal with every aspect of running your business, often managing everything from staff problems, to late paying clients, and filing your tax return on time. It can sometimes seem that there aren't enough hours in the day for everything you need to get done. To make the situation worse the pace of life is getting ever faster, thanks to the universal presence of smartphones, the Internet, and social media. You may turn the light off in the office, and go home in the evening, but your clients will still be logged on, and they will still want to engage with your business. For some small businesses this 'always on' society has presented a problem to which they have struggled to respond. For other business professionals, including a growing number of accountants, this has presented an opportunity.

Growing Your Business Online

According to the Wolter Kluwer 2015 survey 100% of accountants aged under 30, and even 50% of those over 60 are regularly engaging on social media. What may raise a few eyebrows is that 27% of these accountants are not randomly surfing Facebook, but are using the social network Linkedin to attract new business. This drive to connect with potential clients online has been around for many years now, but successfully using social media to do this is a comparatively recent concept. It is only in the last few years that many smaller business have come to appreciate the valuable part that social media can play in helping them to connect with their local community. Social Media is however, far from being the only way the online world is gaining a foothold in the lives of accountants. The entire profession has over the last few years seen a move towards online accounting. This shift has been noted both among accountants running their own businesses, and small business owners running their own accounting software.

Doing Your Accounts Online

Online accountancy software is becoming increasingly popular with anyone seeking an easy way to maintain professional accounts. Over the last few years there has been a range of cloud based products introduced that allow clients to access their accounts from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

The popular Sage One Accounts is a good example, it has all the features you would expect from traditional accounting software, and yet it also offers all the benefits of cloud accounting, including the ability to access your online accounts from any device, whether that is a PC, an Android tablet, or even an iPhone. It is this ability to be in constant connection with their accounts that is encouraging more accountants, and in particular, small business owners to take the plunge and choose cloud based accounting software to manage their professional accounts. This trend appears very likely to continue for a long time to come. We now live in a connected world, and as people have become more comfortable with technology in their private lives, they now expect to be able to access their accounts from anywhere, just as they can their Linkedin or Facebook pages.

Keep Ahead With Technology

Staying on top of constantly changing technology is a challenge every business must face, but by taking advantage of the strategic benefits which new technology offers, and adopting the flexible working practices that modern accountancy software makes possible you can keep ahead of the competition, and manage to exceed the expectations of your clients in the years ahead.