Unison Accounting Group will at the end of the month officially unveil its online licensing program for accountants, which has a strong focus on embedding systems and processes into practices well ahead of 1 July 2016.
The SMSF licensing solution covers both full and limited advice options.
“Getting RG 146 accredited is easy; it’s the flow-on work you need to do to get the advice processes and the systems embedded into your practice that’s the hard bit, but we’ve got that covered in our SMSF licensing solution,” Unison Financial Group managing director George Haramis told selfmanagedsuper.
“Accountants are busy people, so the more time efficiency and productivity you can give back to them, particularly through online services, the better off they’ll be and that’s what we’ve decided to do.
“We can start working with them to get their systems and processes running by either late this year or early next year, and begin utilising these procedures to become familiar with the documents and how to [operate under a licence] so that by June they’re ready and comfortable with it.”
Haramis said the offering was fully integrated and targeted at the one to three or four partner accounting firms.
“We develop very close relationships with these firms so that we can tailor our services to suit them and we’re not after hundreds of firms; probably 50 to 60 in Victoria and we’re about a little more than halfway there,” he said.
“We actually held our first licensing course about 15 months ago and it was a two-day face-to-face course and we put through six accountants.
“But we soon realised that it would be preferable if it was an online course, so we’ve now got that and we’ll be formally launching it towards the end of May, in line with our special SMSF licensing workshop.”
Importantly, the Unison offer provided accountants with the full range of advice documents online, which were also customisable, he said.
“We have two statements of advice: to open and close a super fund, and to open and/or provide strategic advice to the fund,” he said.
“We also work closely with Grant Abbott’s NowInfinity business to deliver a joint document portal offered as part of the program and a lot of accountants have found that very useful.
“This allows them to bed these services into their practice as seamlessly as possible.
“It’s critical that we give them as much online services to make their lives more efficient and save them time and money.”
