Our Member of the Month feature celebrates our members and the work they do. This month we’re taking a look at My Digital Accounts, their perspective on the software industry and how they’ve used BASDA membership to give them an edge.
My Digital Accounts make it easy for contractors and temporary workers to understand their accounts. Their software manages company bookkeeping efficiently and helps accountants to manage their clients ‘on the go’ by using a mobile app. Their clients’ accounts are updated in real time using automatic bank imports. The company was established just over a year ago and joined BASDA last autumn. Many accounting software providers are BASDA members and so My Digital Accounts decided to join BASDA in order to be closer to market developments. John Whelan, the founder of My Digital Accounts, said, “We are always a big fan of working closely with competitors. BASDA provides an appropriate forum to do this”.
My Digital Accounts have always been interested in how HMRC interacts with the software development community. John commented that “There is a delicate balance between what the government would like to achieve and what’s achievable in the timescales available. The balance between what the government ought to know, what it wants to know and individual freedoms needs to be very carefully balanced”.
My Digital Accounts look to BASDA for help in getting to the heart of what the government is trying to achieve. John attended BASDA’s meeting on HMRC’s Making Tax Digital scheme in January and said that the information they received was invaluable. He continued that “We would much rather be proactive than reactive regarding the government’s Making Tax Digital initiative”.
The My Digital Accounts App
When John was asked what he thought the biggest threat to the industry was, he replied that it was the lack of focus on information technology in secondary education, which may result in countries like India gaining a significant competitive advantage over the UK, and he hopes to work with BASDA on this in the future. My Digital Accounts put their success so far down to a deep knowledge of their market niche (which is the temporary contractor market), working with their competitors in areas of mutual interest and understanding HMRC’s strategy by participating in HMRC Consultation processes when new tax legislation and initiatives are announced (e.g. the far-reaching Off Payroll working in the Public Sector Consultation, which was published in May 2016).
Further information can be found on My Digital Accounts’ website: http://mydigitalaccounts.com/#
If you would like to be featured as a Member of the Month, or if you are not already a member and are interested in joining BASDA, then please contact us at info@basda.org