Technology for Accountants in Practice | Top Accountants

I have just been reading this interview with Sage MD Paul Walker on the City AM website and thought I would share a few facts that jumped out at me.

• Sage is valued at £3.4bn and sells accounting software and services to 6.1m small and medium-sized businesses worldwide
• It has bought over 110 rivals since it was founded in 1981
• 70% of revenue comes from support and maintenance services
• Online software sales currently account for two to three per cent of revenue
• The pay of one in four working people in the UK is processed using Sage software

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I have just spent 10 minutes writing a comment to this posting over on Accounting Web, then thought that it would be better to set out my thoughts here.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding in the Accounting Web discussion, when contributors state (rightly to some extent) that transactions cannot be keyed into the online accounting services, like Xero, Kashflow and Free Agent as quickly as in desktop software, like Sage and QuickBooks.  The problem is speed, many say. >> read more >>

Yesterday we learned that IRIS has invested in SaaS accountancy software supplier FreeAgent, the financial details are undisclosed.  This news was something of a surprise to me and, since the benefits to FreeAgent seem very clear, got me to thinking what’s in this for IRIS? >> read more >>

The bottle of red wine on my table just provoked a realisation for me – it seems that Kiwis are behind many of the new web-based services on the market.  I wonder what it is that makes our friends from New Zealand so good at this stuff? >> read more >>