Only one in ten accounting firms are promoting their websites and just 14% are prepared to accept email enquiries from prospective new clients.

A survey of 1,000 firms by accounting IT association IAAITC has revealed the lack of use of the internet as a key part of accountants' offering to clients.

'It is difficult to understand how a firm of professional accountants can attempt to position itself as a firm of "business advisers" to its clients if they themselves ignore the Internet,' said IAAITC CEO Dave Reynolds, at the association's conference held today at the DTI; and sponsored by Accountancy Age.

Laurence Pyzer of Relate Software said: 'Accountants should have top-rate websites and provide a service (directly or indirectly) to help their clients with their websites. They should be using the Internet to provide on-line services to their clients and thereby provide encouragement to clients to do the same for their customers. They should be registering proper domains for their email servers and providing their clients with secure access to their own data.'