‘There is a gap in the market’: Why AAB partnered with iplicit

Where do you turn when all the software available to your finance team is either too basic for the job or too complex and expensive? 

Lauren McCluskey had seen many businesses stuck in that situation, first as a CFO in industry and then as an accountant with AAB. 

iplicit has filled a big gap in the market, enabling AAB to better serve midmarket clients who are often on a high-growth trajectory. The fit is perfect, and she describes the opportunity as “very exciting”. 

About AAB  

AAB is a leading professional services firm serving the midmarket in the UK, Ireland and the US. It offers a host of services including audit, business advisory, tax, people consultancy and wealth management. 

Lauren McCluskey is Partner and Head of Virtual Finance Function, working typically with clients whose revenue is above the audit threshold up to around £200m. Her team, whose members each have their own sector specialisms, acts like the client’s own finance department but outside the organisation. It also supports clients with preparing for deals, exits and management buyouts and with specialised technical accounting.  

The top challenges in the midmarket  

For the clients Lauren’s team advises, cashflow is always top of mind. “Everyone worries about cashflow,” she says. 

“The other big issue on people’s minds at the moment is the rise in employer National Insurance contributions. That’s had a massive impact on businesses, particularly those with big workforces, along with the increase in the minimum wage and the National Living Wage.  

“Our midmarket clients really want to invest in people, invest in their region and have a sustainable approach to business, but they’re finding that more and more expensive and finding fewer ways to mitigate any of that cost.” 

How AAB discovered iplicit 

Lauren had long been aware of the challenges facing those midmarket organisations who lacked the ideal product. 

“When I worked in industry, we used Sage because that’s just what we always did, as a bespoke system it can become expensive as well as complex in terms of making customisations to suit changing needs of the business,” she says.  

When she moved to AAB and took the reins of its virtual finance function, a colleague asked her if she’d seen iplicit, which was just beginning to make waves in the cloud accounting market.  

“I met the team at iplicit, we looked at the product and its development, and I realised its road map would fit perfectly with our midmarket clients,” she says. 

She saw that iplicit had three big strengths.  

“Firstly, I liked the product – it’s user-friendly, accessible, and 90% is built straight out of the box, so you don’t need to do a lot of customisations. You can bespoke bits of it but it doesn’t tie you in to that setup forever,” Lauren says. 

“Secondly, the implementation time and the cost was significantly less than some other systems. And there was an upfront conversation about the cost, rather than that situation where the customer gets a quote but ends up signing off a bill for significantly more, which is what can often happen if the implementation is not carefully managed. 

“And thirdly there was the fact that the product itself contained most of what a customer would need, without a lot of add-ons.”  

Why iplicit is the perfect fit for midmarket clients 

With iplicit, accountants have a product they can recommend to growing midmarket clients, reducing the risk that the clients will feel they have to take finance back in-house. 

“There is a gap in the market between software for smaller businesses and software for much larger businesses. 
 
“With iplicit, you can implement a system that you use the experts for but you don’t need those experts in the business all the time. It’s an accessible product and for a midmarket business – in the £5m to £40m revenue type range – that’s exactly what they need. 

“They want something that works, that will give them the information they need and that’s clear and easy to use, iplicit does that. 

“The price is not ridiculous, and the product is being developed all the time. The company is agile, its people listen to the customers, and they act when we suggest improvements.” 

Which clients are right for iplicit 

Lauren admits she was wary of entering a partnership with a software developer. “I’m keen to provide the best service for our clients and never wanted them to feel they were pushed down a particular route,” she says. 

“I was upfront with iplicit and they understood that we would only recommend the product to those clients that we thought it would really suit. It’s a good ethical line to abide by, on both sides.” 

She has found iplicit responsive to accountants’ needs, through rolling feedback and its iplicit Advisory Council.  

“We feel very well-supported by iplicit. We can tell the iplicit team what’s worked well and less well from any implementation,” she says. “They listen to the feedback; they give us feedback and they put things on the product roadmap as a result of our suggestions.”  

The ‘massive’ market for iplicit 

AAB sees the partnership with iplicit thriving as more clients discover the product. 

“The market opportunity is massive for iplicit,” says Lauren. 

“There are so many clients on historical systems that worked in the past but as the business has expanded the systems have not been developed to keep up with this growth.  That market – the people on legacy systems – is huge in itself– iplicit is perfect for those too. 

“I can only see iplicit growing, developing and gaining more market share as the product develops alongside that. That’s really exciting.” 

• Ready to discover how iplicit helps accountants serve midmarket clients? Why not find out more about our accountancy partner channel.