IPA and Reckon announce industry first initiative

With 38,000 IPA members servicing the small business sector, the partnership will provide every public practice member with five cloud accounting books, enabling them to better cater for the needs of Australian small business. 

In addition, for just $7 per month, members can expand the number of books to service additional clients.

This initiative was member-driven with in-depth feedback following the launch of IPA Books+, a white labelled version of Reckon’s flagship cloud accounting solution Reckon One.

Put simply, members vocalised the desire to make running their business and those of their clients easier.

“The continued move to the cloud is a key focus for our members and the small business community they serve,” said IPA chief executive Andrew Conway. 

“The IPA and Reckon are committed to ensuring small business has access to cloud accounting solutions to facilitate a transition to online accounting, single touch payroll compliance and facilitate enhanced efficiencies. By providing five books per IPA practice we hope a small business that is currently outside the cloud considers contacting an IPA practitioner to take advantage of this partnership.”

Recent updates from the ATO suggest that over 35 per cent, or roughly 300,000 businesses, that employ staff are yet to adopt online accounting, which is required to submit payroll information to the ATO as part of single touch payroll reporting.

“With this change coming into play, the time has come for IPA to make it even easier for members to offer IPA Books+ as the easy and most affordable solution for clients. Importantly, when it comes to business disaster recovery, retrieval from the cloud plays a vital role, and our members therefore can better assist clients in emergency situations,” said Mr Conway.

Sam Allert, CEO of Reckon, noted that this strengthened partnership with the IPA delivers a unique and compelling proposition to public practice members and their clients.

"The bundling of accounting software as part of the membership helps the IPA with its stated purpose of enhancing the life of small business, which includes more than 75 per cent of its member base being involved in small business,” said Mr Allert. 

“These bundled software benefits will also be enjoyed by members of the Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA) in the UK (a member of the IPA Group), aligning to Reckon’s expanding presence in this market.”

As with all Reckon products, IPA Books+ is approved for the Australian Taxation Office’s single touch payroll reporting requirement.

Mr Allert concluded that with the long tail of thousands of small businesses with 19 or fewer employees looking to get compliant come 1 July, this presents a massive opportunity for both organisations.