Taking Stock: KPMG will do Bishop Fleming's accounts for £125

STAFF AT BISHOP FLEMING, the £17.5m turnover Top 50 accountancy practice, were somewhat taken aback – and more than a little amused – to receive an email from KPMG, offering to take on their accounts for the princely sum of £125 a month.

Eagle-eyed readers of Accountancy Age will be familiar with our coverage of the Big Four giant’s vow to take on high-street accountants and the mid-tier accountancy firms by focussing predominantly on the SME market.

Avid readers will also be familiar with the level of scorn heaped on KPMG’s £40m investment in its enterprise programme, which includes subscription-based cloud accountancy support for small businesses, from those same practitioners it has vowed to disrupt, by telling business “you can pay us the same as your current accountant, but we’ll give you more”.

A very senior member of the Bishop Fleming team alerted TS that he and several colleagues had all received the amusing email. He was quick to remark that “clearly their marketing efforts are to be applauded but I think that we might just be able to do our own accounts and they might not want to do it for us for £125 a month!”

Perhaps their bottom line at the £1.8bn giant is under greater pressure than even the most pessimistic observer might have realised. And its marketing intelligence may be somewhat off the most sophisticated end of the spectrum. #Justsaying