'There are clients crying out for this’: Why accountancy practice Armstrong Watson partnered with iplicit

When Richard Woolgar of Armstrong Watson was first shown iplicit, he knew there would be massive demand for it. 

He had seen many clients outgrow entry-level accounting software but recoil from the expense and disruption of moving to a complex system designed for big corporates. Other clients were already struggling with those high-end systems, having been sold a product that was too complicated for their needs. 

iplicit was a product he could recommend in both cases. “There are a lot of clients who have been crying out for something like this,” he says.  

About Armstrong Watson 

Armstrong Watson has existed for around 155 years. Its 19 offices in the north of England and Scotland deal with clients based from Brighton to the Highlands. 

“We’re a full-service accounting and financial advisory practice, serving clients of all sizes, from relatively small, growing businesses to large entities,” says Richard Woolgar, Head of Outsourcing. 

“We’ve got the specialist advice and experience that you might get with a larger firm, while still focusing on personal relationships and client service. 

“In my area, dealing with outsourcing and systems, we tend to see a lot of SaaS and tech start-ups – and on the outsourcing side of things, we also see a lot of UK subsidiaries of overseas parent companies.” 

The top three challenges for FDs 

Richard says better software can help with the top three concerns that come up in his regular conversations with FDs. 

Staffing: “You often find the business has grown up and needs different skills than it has in-house,” says Richard. “Maybe it has a lot of finance staff who are at more of an admin level and struggle with the software or new processes or the more advanced audit requirements.” 

Systems: “A lot of clients are aware that there’s a lot of new software coming out and of course everyone’s aware of AI and automation,” says Richard. “Many people have the feeling that their system should be running more smoothly than it is, but there’s such a wealth of options that they don’t know where to start.” 

Reporting: “Just about every FD I’ve ever sat down with has colossal Excel workbooks sitting outside the finance system,” says Richard. “They’re aware there must be a better solution. Many FDs feel they don't have the data they want for making decisions – or they have to do so much work to get it that they don’t then have the time to act on it.” 

Stuck between systems 

Richard sees a lot of clients that have outgrown basic cloud accounting software. They need a system that simplifies tasks such as intercompany transactions, revenue recognition, fixed asset depreciation or foreign exchange – but they are often dismayed by their options.   

“They may have originally moved to Xero because they liked the open API, the user-friendly interface and so on,” he says. “It’s very frustrating for them when they outgrow Xero and find they’ll actually lose these things when they move on, because smaller businesses have been better served than midmarket clients when it comes to cloud software. Their only alternative has been to move to an expensive ERP system.” 

Other clients are already using those ERP systems – whether they bought them or inherited them – and find them too unwieldy.  

“In a lot of cases, they’ve just been oversold products in the past. They didn’t need a basic product like Sage 50 or Xero any more but they shouldn’t have had to go straight up to an enterprise-level system like SAP or Dynamics, with all this functionality they didn’t require. Systems like that are a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” he says. 

“You’ve got systems now that can take away a lot of headaches for this kind of client but people are often sitting on systems they’ve had for a very long time. 

“I’ve had FDs tell me that if the business wants a new, state-of-the-art building, there are millions available to spend, but if you want to improve the finance system, the MD doesn’t see the benefit.” 

‘It was clear a lot of clients would appreciate iplicit’ 

When he was introduced to iplicit, Richard could see it was the product his midmarket clients needed. 

“There’s a massive jump from a £30-£50 a month, entry-level software product to a full-blown ERP system with a 120 or 180-day implementation window,” he says. 

“That’s a big time and training commitment and very daunting, particularly for clients that don’t have a large finance or IT team or any experience of a complex migration process. When I had a demo of iplicit, it was clear that this was a product that a lot of our clients would appreciate.” 

iplicit had the open API and easy integration that clients were used to with entry-level products but was much more powerful, without being overcomplicated. It also offered simpler, shorter and less expensive implementation than those ERP systems, along with a more user-friendly experience and a better pricing model. 

“I’ve seen people charging clients thousands of pounds just to map a bank integration, which really just involves taking an Excel document and telling the system which columns to look at,” says Richard. 

“It was good to see a business that operates on a different pricing model. It makes that transition from a cheap solution to something more sophisticated a lot easier for the clients.” 

iplicit ‘will be our choice for midmarket clients’ 

Armstrong Watson’s relationship with iplicit began with the practice referring some possible clients and joining the meetings that followed. 

“We started by making introductions, sitting in on scoping meetings and having some involvement but handing over the migration and set-up to iplicit,” says Richard. 

“Since then, we’ve gone through the certification process to implement iplicit. We’ve built our skills alongside the iplicit project team. 

“Now, we can implement iplicit for our clients, and we have many clients we could refer to iplicit. 

“iplicit will also be ideal for many of the clients we handle as an outsourced finance function. Clients may already have their own preferred systems, but where we run things, we’ll suggest Xero for smaller businesses and iplicit for those midmarket clients, unless there’s a reason to deviate from that. 

“We commonly see clients who have nothing, system-wise, because they’ve come out of a big group and they have no finance team or software. They need to build everything from scratch and iplicit is going to be our model for doing that unless there’s a good reason why not. 

“I quoted for a client recently that will face a lot of costs for its first three years and then it’s going to grow exponentially to something quite big, with multiple sites. I suggested we start it off in Xero but at the point where the business becomes too big for that, we’ll move it to iplicit. We’ve got all that mapped out from day one and we’ll be able to maintain the same working relationship while moving to software which can handle more complexity.”  

‘There were no salesy promises’ 

Armstrong Watson has found iplicit’s approach in harmony with its own. 

“The first thing that struck us about iplicit was the absence of salesy promises,” says Richard. 

“If the system wasn’t right for a particular situation, people at iplicit would be honest and say so. But they also had an engineering mindset so if the system couldn’t do something out of the box, they could look at ways to achieve it. 

“We like that kind of relationship, where everybody’s pushing in the right direction, rather than trying to drive up income regardless of whether the product is suitable for the client. Unfortunately, that other approach is common in some areas – promising the world when the reality is somewhat different. If you do that just to increase revenue, eventually you’ll get a reputation for it, and you’ll lose the client.” 

Richard says the views of practices such as Armstrong Watson are being heeded as iplicit develops. “There’s a lot of excitement around the software and its rapid growth but iplicit is listening to the partners it’s working with,” he says. 

“In the past, some software providers have tended to collect partners and then get slightly complacent and disregard them. But iplicit has an advisory council for accountants and the accounting partners are playing a central role in the journey.  

“When you speak to the developers and they talk about some of the new product features that are coming, you can see that they’re building the right things – whereas it’s always frustrating when you see a product’s road map and nothing corresponds with what you’d like to see as a practice. 

“Matt Lewns, Partner Manager for iplicit's accountancy channel, has been very interested in our perspective, and we’ve had a lot of marketing support so we have the resources to start contacting our clients with specific offerings.  

“We’ve had our hands held until we were ready to project-manage migrations and the process has been very collaborative, rather than just ‘Go out and monetise it’ or the ‘sink or swim’ philosophy you see in some other places.” 

‘It’s a massive opportunity’ 

Richard says iplicit is the right product for a very large number of midmarket clients. 

“Having listened to iplicit’s CEO, Lyndon Stickley, talk recently about the size of that market, you can tell that it really is a massive opportunity. iplicit is starting to make some real noise in the midmarket,” he says. 

“I’ve spoken to a lot of clients who say, ‘We’ve looked at some systems, I’ve had a quote for a full-blown ERP, but it’s going to cost an eye-watering sum’. I say to them, ‘Have you considered something like iplicit?’  

“They’ll look at it, find it works very well, and then when they factor in the implementation time, the hassle, the cost factor, the impact on staffing and training, they’ll realise that yes, it’s a really good solution for them. 

“People have been overselling software for years. I’ve seen some very poorly scoped, poorly developed software implementations by people who’ve overpromised things. Now, we have something else to show them. They look at it and can see that what we’re suggesting is right for them. 

“As the noise grows about iplicit, I think a lot of organisations will be coming directly to us to find out more.” 

• Find out more about how iplicit helps accountancy practices serve midmarket clients.