How our tailored banking solutions can benefit your accounting practice
Discover Standard Bank’s business banking solutions for accountants in practice.
Accounting firms, especially small and medium-sized practices, are the preferred advisors to other small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). According to the International Federation of Accountants, most accounting practices worldwide are small and medium-sized firms founded by accountant-entrepreneurs.
This comes as no surprise to Mandisa Zwane, Head: Accounting Sector Business Banking at Standard Bank. She says, “Most accountants opened a practice because they know their skills are needed by SMEs.” We saw the pivotal role accountants play in SMEs during the Covid-19 pandemic when 56% of South African SMEs credited their accountants with helping them to survive the impact of Covid-19 on their businesses.
Like all entrepreneurs, accountants also want to grow their personal wealth through their practice – and it is these two factors that prompted Standard Bank Business Banking to tailor business banking solutions specifically for accountants in practice.
Standard Bank’s holistic banking solutions for accountants
“Standard Bank has a strong African footprint with over 160 years of rich history, and a unique focus on the accounting sector, which allows us to build solutions specific to the needs of accountants in practice. We also understand our role as a bank in supporting its clients.
“Our business banking offering for clients in the accounting sector therefore consists of holistic solutions that make banking and doing business simple and efficient,” says Zwane.
In practical terms, what does the bank offer?
- Partner funding: We’ve created an efficient and effective way to manage the buy-ins of new partners, making it easier to access capital to fund the buy-ins at consistent rates. We ring-fence our loans to make this funding easier to manage and streamline the associated admin. This will enable you to structure repayments to suit your cash flow requirements.
- Risk management: As a business owner, you know as well as we do that your risk cover needs extend to all areas of the practice. What if you or a partner were to become disabled and unable to repay an overdraft? Or a loan that you or your partner guaranteed in a personal capacity? And will you be able to continue if your partner or a key employee were to die or become disabled? Does the business still have a bond on its premises?
There’s a lot to consider. And we’ve considered it all from your point of view and can assist with buy-and-sell agreements, professional indemnity insurance, key personnel insurance, legacy planning and financial planning.
Alternative energy solutions:
We offer comprehensive solutions for businesses and have financed several projects in various formats, ranging from grid-tied solar systems to fully integrated systems with backup power. Our packaged asset finance solutions cater for the diverse alternative energy needs of clients, and for more complex requirements, structured funding solutions can be tailored accordingly. The aim is to provide solutions that truly address the challenges faced by clients, acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work. To simplify the process and empower clients to make well-informed decisions, the bank introduced two distinct platforms such as PowerPulse & LookSee to enable businesses to explore and implement suitable renewable energy solutions seeking to enhance cost-efficiency and optimise energy usage.
Show me that you know me
In our experience, the number-one demand of business-banking clients is for their banks to “show me that you know me”.
We also understand the balancing act entrepreneur-accountants perform each day as they strive to maintain their client portfolio, manage their practice and nurture their personal wealth. We’ve also seen that they define business success as optimisation, financial stability and sustainability, and recognition in their field. As such, their business bank has to be a strategic partner in the business.
Deliberately creating and delivering business banking solutions for accountants that will create value for the individual by increasing their ability to make money, allows Standard Bank to be just that – a strategic partner for accounting firms.
Discover our business banking solutions for accounting firms.