In the past, a lot of accountants managed company secretarial work for their clients using a combination of spreadsheets, manually maintained document templates and by logging directly into Companies House‘s online portal.
But, looking to save time and add value to their clients, more and more accountants are now choosing to use dedicated company secretarial software.
Here’s just 10 reasons why so many accountants now choose to use Inform Direct to manage company secretarial work for the clients:
Join the company secretarial revolution
Inform Direct is the perfect company secretarial tool for accountants
1 Manage client deadlines at a glance
On Companies House’s website you’ll need to log into each client separately. in Inform Direct, not only do you only need to enter each company’s authentication code once but you can also see all your clients in one place and review their important deadlines at a glance. With the due dates for all clients organised on a single screen and email reminders also available, it’s much quicker and easier to manage deadlines and avoid late filing penalties.
2 Cheaper, more flexible company formations
Company formations are cheaper for Inform Direct subscribers, with only the £10 filing fee to pay for an accountant undertaking a basic formation of a company limited by shares. Directly at Companies House, you’ll pay a higher electronic £12 filing fee or £40 if filing on paper. Companies House’s online software only allows you to form companies limited by shares using model articles of association, whereas Inform Direct also allows quick electronic formation of companies limited by guarantee and limited liability partnerships, the use of bespoke articles of association as well as a huge range of optional add ons that may be valuable to your clients.
3 100s of additional documents
In Inform Direct, subscribers can easily produce various documents at no further cost which aren’t available via Companies House – over 300 documents are available, including share certificates, dividend vouchers, minutes, resolutions, letters and much more. Not only does Inform Direct give you the ability to produce documents from compliant templates, but it also gives you somewhere – your own personal Document Library – to save them securely.
4 Validation and controls
Inform Direct is driven by what you’re trying to do rather than expecting you to know exactly which forms need to be filed and where to find them on Companies House’s website. Intelligent validation and control on the information you enter help you to get things right first time – which is why there are quite so few errors on submissions made with Inform Direct. That saves you the time and effort of rework or having to go back to clients.
5 A single end to end process
In Inform Direct, you only need to make any change once rather than replicating changes manually – saving you time and reducing errors and omissions. So when you appoint a director to a company, for example, you’ll only enter the required information once: as well as sending the required submission to Companies House, the required board minutes will be automatically pre-populated with the details you’ve already entered and the company’s statutory registers are also updated.
6 Reuse rather than rekey information
In Inform Direct you’re also able to reuse information you’ve already entered before. So if you’ve appointed someone as a director and then need to add them as a PSC, you won’t need to type in all their details again like you would at Companies House. Similarly, you can reuse addresses when they’re used multiple times in a company. As well as saving you time, this also helps ensure your clients’ information is consistent on the public record.
7 Manage complex share reorganisations with ease
Many Companies House forms can only be filed on paper, including a lot of the popular forms related to share reorganisations, which can be particularly time-consuming and complex to complete. Normally you’d have to fill these in manually, but in Inform Direct you’ll be guided through each share reorganisation process step by step and the correct forms are automatically prepopulated from the information you enter.
8 Professional support
Inform Direct subscribers benefit from more than amazing software. Great customer service underpins everything we do, with support available via email, telephone, live chat and social media. Our professional support team will be happy to guide you through using all the software features, with personal webinars available to help you get started. With in depth technical knowledge and years of experience, they’re also on hand to help you work through a particularly complex company secretarial situation that may arise.
9 Save time
Designed with the needs of accountants in mind, your practice will save valuable time using Inform Direct – whether you have a few straightforward clients or a few thousand clients with more complex requirements. By working more efficiently, you’ll have more time for important work, including winning new clients.
10 Offer clients more
With so many extra features available to you, you’ll be able to offer your clients so much more. Whether you want to be able to charge clients for additional services, win extra business or just offer your clients an even better service, Inform Direct can help you expand your business. And as it’s so intuitive and easy to use, you don’t have to be a company secretarial genius to do so.
Don’t just take our word for it. Take a look at how accountants like you are achieving more for their clients and practice using Inform Direct. Better still, contact us to arrange a no obligation one month free trial so you can see the benefits for yourself.
