With so many struggling small practices in the market I was wondering if anyone would be interested in the idea of groups of bookkeepers working together?
It would need to be area based and involve meeting up on a regular basis, not just emails.
As an example, you might have someone who loves Payroll looking after that side of things for a business, someone else looking after the bookkeeping and someone else looking after the accounts.
From the clients perspective they deal with only one person and know nothing of a network of professionals looking after their business.
Could also be used to swap out clients that are too complex, too demanding, to large, too small, those who use different software, etc.
Also means that we as a group could provide holiday cover for each other, cover sickneses, help each other with technical issues, etc.
Just an idea that I thought I would float to see if anyone was interested.
Worth noting that this also circumvents the ICB rules that ICB people can only employ ICB people as nobody would be working for anyone else, you would be working with them.
There would of course be issues around who owns the client, rules about client poaching, agreeing fixed cross charging rates, etc. But all in all I think that it could be a good idea to help each other espechially those looking to broaden their experience.
I would be happy to try and pull together a trial group for South Staffs (basically an area covering Stafford to Walsall, Lichfield to Brewood).
Its just an idea at the moment but if there's enough interest I would expect for this to become something real quite quickly.
If your within the above (below) catchment area drop me a PM (and/or post here). If there's enough interest I'll put the trial group together and see where we go from there.
If it works we'll start looking at rolling the idea out to other areas if there are others interested in running these groups.
All the best,
Shaun.
p.s. this is the initial catchment area I'm suggesting for the first group (I'm willing to concede Wolverhampton as a seperate area in its own right) :
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I would be interested in this Shaun. I already sub out nearly all my bookkeeping, I have one bookkeeper coming in to my office 4 days a week, and another ACCA qualified guy twice a week, but I am happy to put work elsewhere in future since I am now more interested in the accounts/tax work. I would suggest an area covering Coventry and Warwickshire?
Sounds like a good idea Shaun, a bit like a workers cooperative. I'm surprised that something like this hasn't happened before. A bit too far south for me though.
Think this is a brilliant idea Shaun. RobH could we extend the Warwick Coventry group to cover Rugby/Daventry? I would definitely be interested as I am struggling to find someone reliable trustworthy and qualified to sub work out to
Interesting idea Shaun. I originally intended to do something like this with YLB, but found the book-keepers would rather bin most of the clients they had problems with than pass them to each other.
IAB members can work with anyone, and in fact are encouraged to make agreements for Continuity of Practice for their clients, with anyone they are happy to do it with.
