Welcome to EFAA's website: Events
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EFAA Annual Conference "SMEs and SMPs: is the traditional role of the profession challenged?"
On 22 May in Copenhagen, EFAA organised, in co-operation with its Danish member FRR, a conference on ‘SMEs and SMPs: Is the traditional role of the profession challenged?’ The aim of the conference was to discuss the role of the accounting profession with regards to the needs of the SME clients. Speakers from SME and industry organisations, practitioners, academics, legislators and standard setter took the floor in two panels on 1) the mission of the profession interpreted by the SME clients and 2) the mission of the profession: a new educational challenge.
Speaking in the first panel, Luc Hendrickx, UEAPME Director for Enterprise policy, confirmed that accountants are the most important small businesses’ advisors, mainly on fiscal, taxation and financing issues and score well on client satisfaction. Close relationships, good reputation and competence are the main criteria for the choice of an accountant. Kristian Koktvedgaard, from the Confederation of Danish Industry, emphasised on the use of the audit to create value in business. Niels Englev, from the Danish Commerce Agency, questioned whether the trend to set up new regulation, for instance the IFRS, is compatible with the focusing on reducing administrative burden. The last speaker of the first panel, Geoffrey Britton, expressed the view of a practitioner. He stressed the importance of the relationship with the client and within the practice. He insisted on several concepts that are the essence of a good service, among which, reliability, experience, trust, independence, helpfulness and integrity. Participants in the audience stated that the main challenge today is to find a clear definition of the profession in a context where auditing and pure accounting are not sufficient anymore, and there is now a strong need to better know and understand the needs of the clients. However, all the participants agreed that an audit should be performed whenever it is necessary.
The second panel addressed the education challenges. Piotr Madziar from the European Commission - DG Internal Market, said that the traditional business structure and environment are evolving and request a wider scope of competences and a mix of skills from the profession. He stressed that all EU stakeholders, and in particular the European Commission, are committed to the change. Marc Spofforth, from the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), presented the Board and its main projects on International Education Standards that should reflect good practices in pre- and post qualification. He insisted on the importance of benchmarking and also questioned whether audit training is the best way to learn how to advise SMEs. Kim Füchsel, from PWC Denmark, stressed the importance for the profession to be involved in, and even anticipate, the process of standardisation and regulation, in order to address properly the challenge of a changing profession. Daniel Piano, from CGCEE (Spain) and member of EFAA audit expert group, speaking about the harmonisation of the educational standards in the EU, stressed that there are still major differences in the quality of education between the Member states. He added that an important debate to be raised at EU level is whether audit education should be provided by professional institutes or by universities. Anne-Marike van Arkel, from NOvAA (Netherlands) and member of EFAA education and training expert group, presented the Dutch situation and addressed the sensitive issue of education path to become an accountant and/or an auditor. She stressed that in the Netherlands the auditing studies are very hard and she asked whether there is a real need for each accountant to be able to perform an audit. She also pointed out that practices encounter difficulties to recruit as accounting students are fewer and fewer. During the discussion with the audience, concerns were raised on the differentiation and hierarchy trend between accountants and auditors. Instead of promoting such differentiating approach, the profession – which is one and deserves the best, recalled EFAA President – should promote a common branch of study with at the end a possibility of specialisation (auditing, taxation, etc.).
Federico Diomeda closed the event by concluding that the main challenge for the profession in its relations to the SME clients is to anticipate their needs.
Speakers' presentations
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EFAA Conference "Running a small practice in Europe" 10 December 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal
The European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EFAA) held its annual conference in Lisbon on 10 December 2007. The event, called "Running a small practice in Europe", was organised in collaboration with the CTOC and gathered representatives from EFAA members' bodies, professors and practitioners. The aim was to discuss the global situation of the profession in Europe and to share good practices on how to run a small practice and make it grow. EFAA President Federico Diomeda opened the conference presenting a global picture of the accounting profession within EFAA members, focusing on the educational and training path in the different countries, the regulation environment and the kind of activities carried out by the profession from bookkeeping to payrolls to tax advising. A very lively exchange with the audience allowed an updated and deep vision of the profession. The main conclusion was that although for instance educational paths and registration systems are different in every country, the profession is seen as one both at national and EU level. Participants also stated that accountants are definitely the first advisors for small businesses, which are the majority of their clients, and that it is of the utmost importance they provide relevant managerial advising to their SME clients. The morning session continued with the presentation by Prof. Leonor Fernandes Ferreira, from the New University of Lisbon, on the accounting profession in Portugal. She elaborated on the modernising process that has been undertaken in Portugal. The audience raised concerns on insurance for the profession and whether and how internal audit should be taught as a specific area of accounting. Then EFAA Board member Geoff Britton presented his own experience of running a small practice in the UK. Mr. Britton set up his company in the 80s and currently employs 35 people dealing mainly with accounting, taxation, audit and business strategy advising. He insisted on the importance of clear and close relationships both externally with the clients and internally among the staff for a company to grow in good conditions. He also promoted corporate social responsibility as an important aspect of a good business development. Among the threats he identified for his business were competition from other unregulated smallest accountants and biggest accountants as well as staff and clients management. However Mr. Britton said he was optimistic on his business growth and believes that there are endless opportunities to seize as long as the profession acts according to the motto "we know we must change".
During the afternoon session, Jørgen Lund from Norway and Mats Olsson from Sweden presented two other practical cases. Mr. Lund delivered an analysis of two different approaches of how to run a small practice: the traditional one and what he called the "Turbo" one. The traditional practice is based on bookkeeping and accounting knowledge and services and is organised around the principle "each employee has his own fixed portfolio of clients", which does not allow a proactive business development strategy. On the contrary, the "Turbo" practice offers a wider range of services from bookkeeping and accounting to business advising. All the employees work together for the clients and the focus is put on internal and external communication. The "Turbo" practice aims at always being a step ahead of its clients' needs. Mr. Olsson then presented his own experience of running a small practice in Sweden. He firstly stated that although the profession in Sweden is traditionally audit-oriented, the trend today is to a closer relation with the accounting profession to form one sole profession. Regarding the activities within his practice, accounting, auditing and company law advising services are the essence of the business. Speaking about threats and opportunities, Mr. Olsson agreed with Mr. Britton that one of the main difficulties a small practice has to tackle with is staff (in particular recruitment) and clients management. He shared his own experience of going to the universities and presenting his practice that had very positive results in terms of attracting students, and called on the profession to work more actively with CRM systems. He also advocates for the promotion of green entrepreneurship. He concluded his presentation saying that the profession has a lot of opportunities ahead it and that change is very important to act instead of only react.
During the open discussion with the participants, Paul Thompson, IFAC SMP Committee senior manager, commented on the situation of SMPs in the US. It appears that the needs in this sector are the same as in Europe and hence that the profession works at the same level. Federico Diomeda concluded the conference saying that such an experience must be followed by further investigations among EFAA members of more specific fields of activity toward SMES and definitely by common activity of the members through EFAA in the field of education and training for our practitioners. He announced that this activity will be a high priority in the EFAA agenda for 2008.
Presentations A picture of the profession_Federico Diomeda Running a small practice in Norway Running a small practice in Sweden Running a small practice in the UK
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