Less than 15 per cent are under the age of 45. One out of every four sole practitioners is over the age of 65. Three of 10 sole practitioners are aged 55-64. Women account for four out of every 10 sole practitioners in the accounting profession but eight out 10 sole practitioners in the bookkeeping profession. The annual survey is the best source of data on sole practitioners and small accounting firms and is shared exclusively prior to publication with Canadian Accountant. The reality is a little more complex, according to the 2019 Accounting and Bookkeeping Operations and Technology Survey, from Alan Salmon and K2E Canada. The typical accountant is always male, always middle-aged and usually runs his own accounting practice. Phillips warns that for others longevity is less certain: "I do not think many sole practitioners will survive these times unless they really do their marketing and form good relationships with local papers and networking groups and those in areas who can refer work.TORONTO, – Ask your average Canadian what your typical accountant looks like and the answer comes in clichés - the beancounter who does my taxes, Bob in the finance department, math savant Ben Affleck in The Accountant. Very few people even in larger firms have my experience in the specialist areas in which I practice," says Singleton. Niche sole practitioner firms, in particular, can be relatively secure: "I do not see ABSs as a threat at all. Simply having a different and more traditional set of standards and business model does not by itself suggest a lack of probity or competence."įorward thinking sole practitioners are embracing new opportunities: the fact that they are able to be more flexible and to diversify more readily than larger firms can be an advantage and they may not be quite the casualty of ABS that naysayers predict. "Smaller firms are more likely to undertake a bespoke service built upon client recommendation. "Some mortgage lenders labour under the mistaken impression that the size of a legal firm is the appropriate determinant for both its probity and its competence," he says. Getting PII insurance has been ok but the cost is high so you really need the work coming in and the lenders' panel restrictions means you have to have another solicitor act for the lender which has to be paid for by the firm." Being a two-partner firm has helped Phillips get on a number of mortgage lender panels and, she says, should help with joint referral schemes as these are often not open to sole practitioners.īuston believes the difficulties sole practitioners face when they try to get on lenders' panels lie with lenders' misconceptions rather than inherent inadequacies of sole practitioners. "Lots of lenders do not let sole practitioners on the panel. "Sole practitioners have a hard time as the public generally think you will not have the same things in place as a large company," she says. Nicola Phillips was, until recently, a conveyancing sole practitioner in Horsham, but recently obtained an ABS licence and is now in partnership with her mother. The rules are nothing like as complex as people - usually consultants selling things - want to make out."įurther problems for one-partner firms include securing affordable indemnity insurance and getting onto mortgage lenders' panels. The SRA's requirement for compliance officers for legal practice (COLP) and compliance officers for financial and administration (COFA) is an added administrative burden for law firms, but, says Singleton, "it is really easy in a firm of this size to be both the COLP and COFA. It is disproportionate, off-putting to clients and not, as far as I know, something the government is even tackling in its supposed bonfire of the regulations." "Thankfully I employ no one and do not hold clients' money so that relieves me of much of it, but if I want to provide 30 minutes of advice to a client in Saudia Arabia or the USA by internet I need to spend at least as long obtaining original ID from them. "Like most small businesses I do find some regulation excessive," says Susan Singleton.
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