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One Australian accountant shares their app story

The App has transformed how businesses are now run with a plethora of Apps for every business process. But what has been missing until now is an App that businesses could use to interact and engage with their accountant or bookkeeper. An App that could become the portal for communication and transactions such as Receipt and Income Management, GPS Mileage Tracker, Push Notifications and much, much more.

Across Australia the way that businesses now manage their accounts has changed, thanks mostly to the Smartphone and cloud accounting services. Bringing these two innovations together with an App specifically designed for accountants, bookkeepers and financial advisors is now possible.

Launched in 2013, MyFirmsApp is a unique compliant App solution that has taken the UK by storm with fast-approaching 100,000 end-users, and is now available for Australian accountants and bookkeepers.

According to the latest Australian Lifestyle Index, 89% of Australians now own a smartphone, while 60% own a tablet PC. Deloitte also found that 57% of Australians consider their phone their ‘go to device’ for services. And Smartphones have now officially overtaken laptops as the preferred mobile device.

The accounting and business management services sector in Australia has been transforming for the past few years, which makes it vital to embrace these technologies to remain relevant to their clients whilst owning and managing the client relationship.

Some Australian accountancy firms have given away or promoted the ATO App without thinking through who benefits from this branding exposure each time a transaction is done? Who is it that is owning the client relationship in the valuable App ecosystem?

Aust Accounting App Home Screen

Who is it that controls the flow of data back and forth and can leverage the App as a key communication tool? Whilst some firms risk giving away control by removing themselves from the client relationship, others aware of these risks and the benefits are taking the decision to launch their own branded App using MyFirmsApp.

One Australian accountancy practice in Victoria could see that their future would be defined by how they supported the businesses that have trusted them for decades. As a forward thinking accountancy and business support services, Thomas Service Holdings understand the power of mobile digital technology, and wanted to find a way to launch their own App to benefit from the App ecosystem they could see was transforming the businesses they had been supporting with traditional services for so long.

What became clear was that developing an App would enable Thomas Service Holdings to move their business into the fast lane.

“One of the greatest experiences of my 20 years in accounting.”

Aust Accounting App Calculators

Steven Thomas, the founder of Thomas Service Holdings Pty Ltd, outlined why the development of their own App, called AustAccounting, with MyFirmsApp became vital to the future success of their business.

“I decided to develop an App for my business because very few accountants if any were using mobile Apps in Australia, and it made finding us on the App store or Google Play a breeze, relative to the Google search bar used to look for websites.

Steven continued: “The Internet and electronic landscape is really very primitive in Australia to the point where our partly rolled out National Broadband Network has been made obsolete already by the MyFirmsApp’s mobile App, because it can use the latest 4G mobile bandwidth which is faster than the NBN that only offers a fixed wire network designed to replace Australia’s copper wire telephone lines.

“Our competitors are using slower bandwidth speeds (for example 3G) and cannot compete in high bandwidth metropolitan areas where our business operates in Australia. By having the MyFirmsApp on our team, we are now able to offer a very unique blend of electronically based or Internet marketing business advisory services, and mobile accounting and consulting services on the go and on a global scale.”

With their App offering such a marked change in how Thomas Service Holdings relates to its clients, how will their App change their business?

“The new mobile App will make my accounting business a truly global and unique platform, with which any client can have access from any mobile device from any internet enabled jurisdiction,” said Steven.

“For example, we had a client in Newcastle, Australia in early 2015, living by the beach selling British souvenirs to the Americans and paying himself at a premium in Australia dollars. He enjoyed this experience so much he will be coming back to us to for our successful eMarketing service incorporating social media, advertising, web development, business cards, to create a second and possibly a third online shop within a few months.”

Clearly the development of the Accountants App is offering Thomas Service Holdings opportunities that simply were not previously available to them. Steven continued: “A mobile App is now the competition killer or ‘must have’ item in Australian business for a whole range of reasons. The Internet is already crowded with websites to the point where you have more of a chance of winning a lottery than having a successful website.”

Now offering their services across Australia, MyFirmsApp are changing how Apps are created to offer a new paradigm for businesses across the financial sectors.

“The experience I’ve had with MyFirmsApp has been excellent. Gillian, Joel and Dan are great people (I certainly haven’t forgotten my MyFirmsApp designer, Stefan too). The experience of developing our mobile App has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest professional experience I have had in my twenty years of being an accountant.

Aust Accounting App Receipt Manager

“This is because whilst my personal life has been very traumatised and stressed in the past month, this mobile App has allowed me and my colleagues to succeed where in all honesty, nobody could have said to us a month ago you will be mobile App-ready before the end of October 2015, and ready to go global. But the reality is we succeeded!”

To find out more about this exciting App solution now available in Australia, simply register for our one-to-one App test-drive here.

Take a free test-drive today!

 

Categories: Android, Apps, Blog

Connor Mullins

Connor Mullins | connorm@myfirmsapp.com

Connor specialises in marketing and customer enablement, handling App calls and providing a key service to ensure clients can promote their App effectively using a range of marketing strategies.

MyFirmsApp provide the world’s leading App solution for Accountants and Bookkeepers, and Connor helps professional service firms in overseeing the progress of their App project and helping them to drive engagement with their clients, and getting the most from Push Notifications to drive interaction.

Connor and the team at MyFirmsApp™ recognise that unless firms have their own App, they will concede control over their clients to these third parties. By putting accountants first and creating an affordable and effective App that will help them remain the anchor in this mobile relationship, MFA is helping thousands of firms protect their client database, save time, generate referrals and create new client relationships.

His experience and skills through having a BA Hons degree in journalism are invaluable to the team.