View from the board: the online accountant

All, in very different ways, are persuading more and more accountants to do business online.

Readers of a certain age and questionable musical taste might remember one-hit-wonder Vanilla Ice. Now he’s fronting a web-based competition to find the best tax rapper in the US, for which there have been an astonishing 370 entries so far. Go to youtube.com/contest/TheTaxRap if you want to make it 371 – or just laugh at the others.

Last week Accountancy Age revealed that HM Revenue & Customs policy supremo Dave Hartnett was to start podcasting. On the back page, cartoonist Colin was a little unkind in his reading of the likely outcome (somnolent would be the kindest description of his expectation) but the taxman deserves credit for being willing to use all the media available in broadcasting a message.

So far, so superficial you might think. But Philip Woodgate might change your mind. Woodgate accepted the Best Use of Internet by a Practice gong at last year’s Accountancy Age Awards. And the Goodman Jones partner hasn’t rested on his laurels since. His blog a few days ago indicated just how integral technology is to the way in which the firm deals with clients or, indeed, how SMEs deal with the firm.

One example: the firm hosted a wiki event for clients, which Philip describes as: ‘A perfect online collaboration tool. A wiki can be a complete repository of knowledge that evolves as a business grows. Just think of all the emails that get lost in space, especially when the team changes over time. Wikis can capture all the vital information to benefit new team members as they join.’

Then it gets interesting. From customary links through to a more detailed description of the day’s events, there were additional comments from some who attended, photos (hosted on a photo-sharing website) and a link to a mindmap chart distilling the content further. It was fantastically impressive stuff. And not a little scary.

But maybe we should all aim to embrace one technology today. And if it’s a straight choice between taking Vanilla Ice’s advice and following Woodgate’s lead, I know which one I’ll choose.

Damian Wild is editor in chief of Accountancy Age