I am constantly amazed that, in the age of the internet, accountants as a breed continue to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that the World Wide Web (even that sounds old fashioned now!) is a fad that won’t last.
Even the establishment and especially HMRC have embraced the internet and from some time next year businesses will be obliged to file VAT returns, CT600’s aned P35’s etc online.
Yet most accountants in this country shake their heads and purse their lips when it is suggested that Internet accounting (or Software as a Service – SaaS to use the current acronym) should be part of their service offering.
The advantages are numerous and have been well rehearsed – the detractors point out the perceived problems of Internet security and the possible weakness of the server hoster, but these objections seem to be for want of anything more concrete – part of the find me problems not solutions school of thought!
Like it or not, Internet Accounting is here to stay -dinosaurs be warned.