Almost 2000 rural and regional accounting practices will soon be surveyed by mail with the aim of providing a more complete understanding of the range of services provided by country accounting practices, their staffing requirements and factors that challenge their ability to adequately meet current and future client requirements.
 
In addition to the mail survey, interviews of selected accounting practitioners will take place in regional areas across Australia over the next 12 months.

The focus of the project is to clearly identify and establish the extent of problems faced by the accounting profession in country areas across the nation and to recommend solutions to overcome these difficulties.

Preliminary Victorian interview results

Preliminary interviews with Victorian practitioners and clients have revealed a range of issues including:

• difficulties in recruiting qualified staff
• fewer young people choosing to study accountancy
• generational differences in accounting staff motivation and efficiency
• the declining number of sole accounting practitioners in rural areas
• the falling size of rural populations
• the consolidation of family farms into larger farming businesses
• the aging farming population
• the impact of professional indemnity insurance, auditing rotation requirements and financial planning regulations

Preliminary interviews indicate that practitioners can be successful in rural and regional areas provided they have extensive knowledge of the local region and its business environment, provide a well defined and constrained list of service offerings and have established a close working relationship with their clients.

The recruitment and retention of staff, the extension of the service offerings, the transparency of services and billing practices, the development of a practice succession plan and the continual maintenance of accountant-client relationships become increasingly important as the accounting practice grows.

The initial practitioner and client interviews have also unearthed:

• vibrant approaches to the development of accountant-client relationships
• the use of information technology and communication systems
• the recruitment and retention of professional staff
• the provision of financial planning and business advisory services

Ultimately, the single most important factor is the development of the individual accountant-client relationship. Clients have said that, “Small business needs a personal relationship with their accountant. The accountant is like a partner, providing financial advice to our business.” An effective long term accountant-small business client association in a rural and regional setting requires an adequate supply of appropriately trained and resourced accounting staff who have a real understanding of the local enterprises and business environment.

Project Owners

The project, jointly funded by the Australian Research Council and CPA Australia, is being undertaken by staff at The University of Melbourne, Deakin University and RMIT University.

Graeme Wines, Associate Professor of Accounting at Deakin University and a principal researcher on the project, said, 'Practitioners can be assured that their responses are completely confidential as the study meets the standards of confidentiality and anonymity required by CPA Australia and The University of Melbourne Research Ethics Committee.'

CPA Australia will publish the project findings as they become available.