When MWB Accountants was established, we wanted to do things differently as we did not agree with the way most accounting practices operated, how their clients were serviced and the philosophy regarding how clients were being charged for the services they received.
Somehow, we thought that this automatically differentiates us from the pack. Upon researching this "point of differece" in more detail and sorting through the websites of hundreds of other accounting practices, we came to the conclusion that all accounting practices claim to be different... unfortunately their point of difference seems to be the same as every other practice - be proactive and offer fixed price billing!!! It seems that to be different these days means to be the same... or to be truly unique you will need to be the 'usual' or 'traditional' type of accounting practice, which I could not actually find anyone claiming to be...
This prompted us to think not about how we can differentiate ourselves from other practices or how we can replicate the model of a successful practice but to think about what we want MWB Accountants to stand for and represent. This led us down a path not explored by many accountants for some reason - what do our clients want and value? Our clients are the reason for everything we do and our success should be measured by their success not against other practices'. We want MWB Accountants to stand for integrity and quality not greed and quantity.
We also disagree with the industry's general lack of accountability. Over 90% of our new clients state the reason for leaving their previous accountant as either that the accountant would take months to complete work that was requested, that the accountant made errors that were discovered years later by the ATO and the client was heavily penalised for the accountants mistake or that it took months to get in touch with their accountant. We think that this is unacceptable. Hence, we decided to implement service standards, which can be viewed here, that clearly state our committment to our clients. We go as far as to guarantee this by waiving our fee for a particular service if we exceed these service standards.
This leads us to how we charge for our services. Whilst we are new and growing rapidly, our built-in efficiencies, vast experience, and unique business model allow us to offer most of our services at fixed upfront prices based on value not time. Why should our client's pay more due to inefficient staff?!?! This has baffled us for many years, where is the incentive for accountants to be more efficient if they get paid more if a job takes them longer to complete? This means that our clients receive the services they value with the added benefit of budgeting for our fees in advance. We also offer quarterly payment plans to our business clients to ease the strain on cashflow throughout the year.
Some clients have not spoken or physically seen their accountant in years! Our practice is based on building relationships with our clients that last a lifetime not based on how much fees they pay! We understand that businesses and the economy has ups and downs thus we nurture and assist our clients through the tough times and help them accumulate wealth through the good times.
We stay at the forefront of our industry by offering thought leadership and consultation on the business topics that matter most to our clients. Our culture is one that not only encourages but expects that all members of our team continually develop their technical skills through short courses, seminars and conferences. This ensures our clients always receive the most up to date and correct advice.
Finally, we are ideally situated in the Melbourne CBD to help our clients from all parts of Melbourne access our services. That being said, we also insist on visiting our clients' business premises to see firsthand the “hands on/practical” side of their business in order to better understand their business, which will place us in a position to better advise them. We have affiliations in all other states of Australia and all other major countries through the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and the ICAA's Global Accounting Alliance.