ICAS ICAS logo

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Careers support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Finance + Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Charities
    5. Coronavirus
    6. Corporate and financial reporting
    7. Business and governance
    8. Ethics
    9. Insolvency
    10. ICAS Research
    11. Pensions
    12. Practice
    13. Public sector
    14. Sustainability
    15. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD courses and qualifications
    2. CPD news and updates
    3. CPD support and advice
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

How to stop ‘scope creep’ that costs accounting firms nearly £70k per year

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
By Adam Jezard, business and technology journalist, writing for Ignition

23 September 2022

  • The 2022 State of client engagement in the UK report by Ignition uncovers the financial and human cost of avoiding or delaying awkward client.
  • The research report reveals unrecovered out of scope work is costing UK firms on average £69,957 each year.
  • By putting off awkward client conversations, a third (33%) of accountants and bookkeepers surveyed said their mental health has suffered as a result.

Difficult conversations are a cornerstone of professional services, but Ignition’s 2022 State of client engagement in the UK report into the sometimes difficult relationships between accountants, bookkeepers and their clients only serves to illustrate George Bernard Shaw’s comment that: “The biggest single problem with communication is the illusion it has taken place.”

The report by Ignition, the professional services client engagement and commerce platform, and researcher YouGov, was of 470 key UK decision makers in accounting and bookkeeping firms with 1-50 employees. It reveals that 58% of professionals found it awkward telling clients that work they had requested was out of any agreed scope of engagement.

Absorbing costs: Don’t put off awkward conversations

Respondents said the problems of ‘scope creep’ were costing their firms an average of £69,957 in unrecovered costs every year, with one in three going as far as to write off an entire, or part of, an invoice to avoid having an awkward conversation with a client. More than a third also admit they manage increases in scope by just absorbing the increased time and costs themselves.

Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Managing Director, EMEA, at Ignition, said: “If you work in professional services, chances are you’ve experienced an awkward client situation. Accountants and bookkeepers are putting off these awkward conversations as they’re worried about their clients' reaction or losing their business. What we now know is that this has the opposite effect, with detrimental impact to the firm and its people.”

Meanwhile, 38% said they’ve suffered a loss of potential income by putting off an awkward client conversation, and in some cases accountants and bookkeepers are avoiding awkward situations at all costs.

Beyond financial: Mental health harmed as much as profits

Guy Pearson, co-founder and CEO of Ignition, in the forward to the report, quotes research into ‘fight or flight’ responses in difficult situations by psychologist Joshua W Clegg, who tested participants in 16 socially awkward situations. Guy Pearson said: “Those who addressed the awkwardness were able to establish a ‘sense of social harmony’ and connection with others. Those who avoided it? They magnified and extended the negative impacts of the awkwardness.”

The price that is being paid by professionals for this is not just financial. Of accountants and bookkeepers that avoided or delayed awkward client conversations, a third (33%) said it had a negative impact on their mental health and that of others in their practice. More than a third of respondents (36%) said they were worried that awkward client interactions could also affect compliance.

Carl Reader, Head of Accounting at Ignition and Chairman at d&t Chartered Accountants, said the effects of professionals avoiding difficult situations was something he and his team encountered regularly. “The numbers of those impacted might sound quite big, so this may seem abstract to people, but my team and I have seen the huge impact on firms of not billing clients correctly for the work they do. This is because accountants and bookkeepers have a passion for their clients and so have put off having difficult conversations, sometimes not just for months but for years,” he said.

Over to you

Changes in the scope of work can and often do happen. Making sure you can charge and get paid for work that goes out of scope can be the challenging part. The key to managing an out of scope request is having processes and solutions firmly in place, so you feel confident about renegotiating any additional work or pushing back on your client’s request, if you need to.

To address the issues of confidence and expectation setting, and to show how automation can assist with client relationships, Ignition has a free on demand webinar available.

In the meantime, Ignition offers guidance on how to manage changes of scope, including:

  • Set clear expectations. Don't start work without a signed engagement so you and your clients are on the same page about the deliverables and value from day one.
  • Anticipate change. Make provisions for out-of-scope work in your proposal to set expectations upfront that it will incur additional costs.
  • Communicate regularly. Regularly review and address any changes in scope with your client early on.
  • Don’t delay difficult conversations. When your client makes a request that isn’t covered by their agreement, politely (but firmly) address it with them immediately and confirm it in writing with a review or new engagement letter.

The price of doing business in the UK is set to rise amidst the cost of living crisis, and now is the time for accounting firms to act, Emma Crawford-Falekaono said. “Addressing out of scope work is a way to make a big impact in these uncertain times without a huge amount of effort or affecting clients. This is not only low hanging fruit, it’s the right thing to do.”

And Carl Reader added: “My one bit of advice would be to avoid the awkward situation from day one. You need a clear scope of engagement, including fees rather than estimated quotes, and setting up payments from the moment you start work, so both sides know what the relationship is.”

The good news for firms looking to improve client relations is that there are tools and resources that can improve existing client relationships, and help future ones get off to a good start.


Find out how avoiding or delaying awkward client conversations could be affecting your firm. Download Ignition’s 2022 State of client engagement in the UK report.

Download now

This blog is one of a series of articles from our commercial partners. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ICAS.

Ignition | Proposal management software

Up to 50% discount on first three months of subscription.

Ten tips on how to implement new technology in your practice

By Carl Reader, Head of Accounting at Practice Ignition

24 November 2021

2022-01-xero 2022-01-xero
ICAS logo

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

ICAS logo

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: