Contractors may benefit from greater price transparency and value from accountancy service providers.
This follows contractor accountant ClearSky’s launch of its ‘price match guarantee’ for accountancy fees. It has also developed an interactive online comparison tool that allows direct comparison of its service and pricing alongside those offered by competitors.
“We guarantee that we’ll never be beaten on value, which is why we have introduced our ‘price match guarantee’,” explains ClearSky managing director Derek Kelly in an exclusive interview with ContractorCalculator. “We’ll match any cheaper like-for-like quotation for accountancy services from an alternative provider.”
Empowering contractors to make informed choices
According to Kelly, contractors are often faced with highly variable prices from several accountants, and don’t always know exactly what they can expect to receive for their money: “We get calls from potential and existing clients claiming that another service provider offers a cheaper accountancy service.
“However, when we look more closely, it usually transpires that the accountant was low-balling on their headline price. Core services, such as personal tax returns, are often omitted, so the contractor would actually be charged a great deal more than what they have been quoted.”
Kelly anticipates that many accountants will use the imminent arrival of HMRC’s Real Time Initiative (RTI) as an excuse to hike their fees: “Lots of accountants will tell their contractors that RTI is not included in their standard package just to squeeze more money out each month. Using our new online comparison tool will help contractors spot such practices.”
Lots of accountants will tell their contractors that RTI is not included in their standard package just to squeeze more money out each month
Derek Kelly, ClearSky
Kelly’s aim is to provide a tool that empowers contractors to ask the right questions when seeking a contractor accountant, and enables them to genuinely compare providers’ offerings on a ‘like-for-like’ basis. However, he also acknowledges the initiative has been launched for commercial reasons.
‘Price match guarantee’ - how it works
What if a contractor does find an accountant genuinely delivering the same service as ClearSky’s on a ‘like-for-like’ basis but at a lower cost? “We’ll match the price,” confirms Kelly. “All we ask for is a copy of the quotation from the other provider – that’s the only requirement to meet the terms and conditions of our price match guarantee.”
Kelly is not concerned that the outcome will be hundreds of contractors paying less, as he believes that ClearSky is already well positioned within the contractor accountancy marketplace.
He explains: “Each month we look at other accountancy service providers to benchmark our prices and service levels. As a result, we know that ClearSky offers excellent value across all of our four tiers of service and each is priced competitively.”
And he points to ClearSky’s recent performance as evidence that its value-based and transparent pricing strategy is benefiting contractors: “During the course of 2012, we took on 1,527 new clients and recorded revenues of £4.33m – up from £2.99m the previous 12 months. That’s an increase of 45%.”
Good value and service - a contracting industry game-changer
Parasol acquired Quay Accounting, as ClearSky was originally called, five years ago. Kelly believes that it was a defining moment in the contractor accountancy sector: “At that time many service providers took the decision to become technology businesses supported by a few people with a service focus on the accountancy system and portal.
“We decided not to go down that route and instead adopted a people-centric strategy. Since then we have grown a business with 25 staff and two accountants into today’s organisation with 87 staff, 25 of whom are accountants, and which was shortlisted in the mid-tier firm of the year category at the 2012 British Accountancy Awards.
“ClearSky hired 37 new staff during 2012 to maintain what we believe is the correct ratio of qualified staff and clients. We’re predicting similar growth in contractor client numbers in 2013, and have already budgeted for 21 new staff to ensure our service levels continue to exceed expectations.”
Kelly concludes: “Our ‘price match guarantee’ and online comparison tool underpin our mantra, which is to do what’s right for contractors, not what’s easy.”