KPMG is targeting the SME market with a £40m investment in a technology platform that will enable the firm to deliver accounting services to small and start-up businesses at a fraction of its usual fees
The new service, dubbed KPMG Enterprise, offers online accounting and tax services - including accounts preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, VAT and corporate tax returns - to small and start-up enterprises via the cloud. It is understood that the software will use the Xero platform, following a deal signed earlier this year.
KPMG confirmed that 'the £40m investment does include the technology, but also includes our intentions to recruit between 20 and 50 partners and directors to help grow our offering in this area'.
The service will also offer access to one-to-one advice from KPMG experts, with fees starting from £150 per month.
Simon Collins, UK chairman of KPMG, said: ‘By using new technology in combination with our deep experience, we can give small businesses access to KPMG knowhow at affordable rates, revolutionising the market for accounting across the UK.’
Collins said the firm’s aim was to become ‘the clear choice for all privately-owned businesses’, in a move which will bring it into competition with software suppliers and mid-tier competitors.
‘The SME sector is the growth engine of the UK economy and we want to support early stage and smaller businesses that previously may have believed our services were out of their reach,’ Collins said.
A recent KPMG/YouGov survey found that 70% of SMEs across the UK think the government could do more to support small businesses. Their top three preferences would be to see reduced red tape (36%), a reduction in business rates (31%) and greater tax reliefs and incentives (28%).
Iain Moffatt, head of enterprise for KPMG, said: ‘Innovations in technology are enabling more and more people to realise their dreams of starting their own business but the daily reality of regulation, red tape and form filling can turn that dream into a bit of a nightmare.
'We hope that our small business accounting offering will help to take some of that pain away, enabling entrepreneurs and owner managers to really focus on driving growth across their business.’
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