Every limited company must file a set of accounts with Companies House following the end of each financial year. That is a statutory requirement, and is seen by some as a necessary evil in exchange for some of the benefits of being a limited company entity. However, far from just being a box ticking exercise, a set of accounts can provide you with valuable information about your business and its performance, allowing you to make better decisions and strategically plan for the future.

The benefits of Accounts can however be limited, if you only see them once a year. Many businesses therefore produce monthly management accounts. For smaller firms looking to control spending, this may seem like adding an unnecessary cost, but we would contend that the benefits nearly always outweigh the expense. Here (in no particular order) are our top ten reasons why:

1. Compare to Budgets and Forecasts

Usually business leaders will have an idea of where they want their business to go, and how it should perform. Often the reality is very different from expectations though, and the difficult part is spotting where those differences stem from. Budgets and forecasts can easily be integrated into management accounts, providing a visual aid to easily see the causes of any variances. Our management accounts packs are specifically designed to be very visual, with graphs and charts to easily see where you are against budgets and forecasts.

2. Help to Control Costs

A monthly set of accounts makes it very easy to compare costs month to month, and to expectations or budgets for the month or year to date. Often savings can be found by analysing costs in more detail, and promptly. It allows you to pick up on small variations against budget, which over the course of a year would add up to a significant difference. It also helps to set out all your various outgoings/costs in a list that is easy to review, rather than trying to do that in your head. This situation has been even more apparent in 2020 where all businesses’ are trying to review their costs, and those with management accounts have a very easy place to start.

3. Can be Used to Obtain Finance / Extent Credit

If you are looking to raise finance from a bank or investor, continue or increase an overdraft, usually a good business plan, backed up by forecasts and accounts, can dramatically improve your chances of success. However, this can be difficult to do if you are using a set of accounts that were produced 6 months or more ago. This is especially true if the business performance has changed significantly since the last financial year end, or in the present situation, where the whole world has changed significantly since the previous year!

4. ‘What Gets Measured, Gets Done’

It’s a bit of a cliché, but it is true! Relying on annual accounts or data is not very useful in measuring realtime, or within a useful timeframe, what is going on in your business. You can use management accounts to help set measures or targets that would be beneficial to your particular business, and then use the monthly reports to measure where you are against those. That way, you are using the data to refine what you are doing, change tact completely, choose what you should be doing more of, less of, or even not doing at all!

5. Helps with Cash planning

Remember cash is not the same as profit. For example, some firms may collect a payment to account from their clients up front, but obtain credit from suppliers, or have chosen to defer payment of VAT. In the gap between receiving cash up front from clients, and paying suppliers or deferred VAT, the company may have other costs to pay out, such as wages and monthly bills. Cash in the bank can sometimes give a false sense of security, whereas monthly accounts will make it easy to identify problems or gaps in funding quickly, so that you can look for external funding or reduce costs before the problem becomes critical

Next week 6-10!

Gregor Angus, Senior Business Development Manager

Cashroom Ltd

So we are now well into lockdown 2 in England but hopefully it is not quite as drastic on working life as the first time – thankfully there is less home schooling, banana bread making and Joe Wicks too!  Wales has come out of their ‘circuit break’ and the central belt of Scotland is working under Tier 3 restrictions. Back in March, EVERYTHING stopped so what about this time?

It appears that for the legal sector there is a lot of good news.

Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government took to social media to reveal that the housing market would still be able to operate.

In a tweet Mr Jenrick wrote:

Housing market update ahead of Thursday’s measures:
 – Renters & homeowners will be able to move
 – Removal firms and estate agents can operate
– Construction sites can and should continue
– Tradespeople will be able to enter homes
– But all must follow the Covid safety guidance

The market is still facing an unprecedented busy time with buyers desperately trying to beat the Stamp Duty Land Tax SDLT holiday deadline so the ability to keep operating will be welcomed.

More good news for the profession is if it is necessary then solicitors can meet clients. The Law Society said it has met with officials from various government departments this week and secured agreement on interpretation of the rules that law firm offices are able to remain open during this period.

Solicitors and law firm staff should work from home if possible but if this is not possible, they can leave home to work in the office. Solicitors must try to see clients remotely and deliver services virtually, but again if this is not possible then face-to-face meetings are permitted.

People are allowed to leave their home to fulfil a legal obligation, including attending court, or to participate in legal proceedings. They can also access public services such as asylum or immigration advice or services provided by charities and voluntary organisations.

So to summarise the stress of everything absolutely shutting shop is not there this time.

However how are firms and business owners coping?

You may have seen Philip Armstrong a conveyancer solicitor in Northern Ireland blow off some steam on LinkedIn last week. My friend at Todays Conveyancer told me to give it a watch and it really struck a cord with me how lawyers are struggling and how they seem to bearing the brunt of a lot of stresses that everyone is having at the moment.

While business is continuing it is at a much slower rate than usual and clients seem to really be taking this out on their lawyers. Some clients…and I stress SOME…are raging! They are fed up with restrictions/worrying about family members/lacking social contact/may have financial worries/work stresses and at the moment that is being taken out with anyone who listens to them – their lawyer! Areas such as conveyancing which can be emotive at the best of times really seem to be taking a kick from clients at the moment!

Give Philip a watch and a follow, he has published another video since then and if the video gives you nothing else other than realising you are not alone then I hope that gives some comfort this year. It is also quite nice to see and hear from other people – even if it is on a video!

Now I am off to do a Joe Wicks (I lied, I’m not fed up of him yet!)

Emma O’Day, Head of Marketing and Communications

Cashroom Ltd

With apologies to Steven Spielberg – “just when you thought it was safe to go back to the office”, we’re all back to lockdown.

With our office in Lancashire in Tier 3 lockdown, and our office in Livingston under the Scottish equivalent, we’re all still working remotely.

We had planned to reopen in October, but have recently told our staff not to expect to be back working “in person” until April next year. Pessimistic? Perhaps, but one thing that makes lockdown harder is uncertainty. How do you plan your life, if you don’t know from one month to the next whether you will be at home of in the office? By ruling out a return to the office for 6 months, it lets people plan a little bit further ahead.

So, like many people I’m going into my 8^th month of working from my “study” at home. And when I say “study”, I really mean the kids old “playroom”, complete with pictures on the wall and Winnie the Pooh lamp shade!

But is it really the same as last time?

Of course not! We’ve done it before. We know it works, and we’ve learned the lessons. We’re better prepared for remote working, and it’s not nearly as scary as it was in March.

Speaking with solicitors across the country, I find more of us ready to embrace remote working, and alternative working arrangements. We’ve noticed a big increase in firms looking to outsource their accounts function. As usual, there are a number of reasons, but increasingly there seems to be 5 main drivers

• First, convenience – With The Cashroom you don’t need to worry about whether your account’s team will function if you’re working remotely – it already does! You can go in and out of lockdown as many times as you need to, without worrying about your accounts team.
• Second, security – you don’t need to worry about the security of email communication or whether somebody hacked your cashiers home computer. All our staff operate over a secure VPN, using our Portal, which undergoes regular penetration testing.
• Third, quality of information – if things are tight, it’s critical to know exactly where you are financially, and where you’re going. Previously smaller firms “skimmed” on management information. Not anymore. Our accounts team are extremely busy, producing management accounts, and most importantly, forward looking projections. We can provide quality financial information to firms who can’t afford to employ a Finance Director.
• Fourth, restructuring. Lockdown has forced many firms to look very carefully at how they work, and how they’re structured. We work with around 200 firms across the UK, and have unrivalled expertise and experience in how to structure a law firms accounts function for maximum performance and efficiency. Our projects team is helping many firms redesign their systems from the ground up.
• Finally – retirement. A lot of people have reassessed their work/life priorities during lockdown. A number of firms have come to us because their cashier has decided to retire.

Whatever the reason, there has never been a better time to outsource your accounts function to The Cashroom!

David Calder, Managing Director

Cashroom Ltd

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a challenging year for us all (to say the least!).

But for those businesses that have been able to adapt their strategy, operational model, or pivot their business successfully, and those who have been fortunate to be in sectors that have largely continued with ‘business as usual’, now might be the perfect time to kick off some Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Often seen as a ‘nice thing to do’ but only ‘when we can find the time’, I would encourage you to challenge that mindset.

CSR activities, at any time, really can be a win:win:win!

Let me explain, using our business as an example. We select a Charity Partner of the Year, and in 2020 it is Thrombosis UK. This is a cause very close to our hearts here at The Cashroom – a member of our team, Emma Collins, very sadly passed away in 2019 from the condition. Emma was a Cashier in our Skelmersdale office, and an extremely popular team member. In honour of Emma, choosing Thrombosis UK as our charity partner for 2020 was a unanimous decision amongst the Culture group.

During October, we are aiming to walk, cycle, run, golf(!) or use any mode of active travel the 201 miles between our two offices. Our staff are undertaking the challenge either in their teams, or individually, to try and raise lots of money for this cause. We will also be doing a raffle draw, and a ‘Fancy Dress Friday’ on 30 October. So, first and foremost, undertaking the fundraising challenge will benefit Thrombosis UK, and assist them in funding the fabulous work that they do. A Win for them.

Secondly, our people have really enjoyed getting involved in the charity initiatives, and that’s even before Fancy Dress Friday! It has brought people together, positively impacting staff engagement, raised awareness of the important health messages from the charity. Also encouraged our staff to stay (or get more) active as the weather turns a bit worse, which has many positive outcomes on physical and mental wellbeing. A Win for our people.

Finally, it is worth mentioning for those who think CSR is all about giving time and money away, it has also been a Win for us as a business. The various activities have raised our profile, and led to increased engagement with clients, suppliers, strategic partners and other stakeholders. People generally like to support good causes, and those trying to help raise funds for those good causes.

So, I would encourage you not to write off CSR just now, but to embrace the opportunities it brings.

Charities have been hit particularly hard this year, and for those able to do so, I would encourage you to support them, even in a very small way if you can. On that note, if anyone would like to donate to our challenge, the link to our JustGiving page can be found here. Even donating the equivalent cost of a take away coffee would be very much appreciated, as every little bit really does help. And I’d be more than happy to return the favour in the future!

Gregor Angus, Senior Business Development Manager

The Cashroom Ltd

Cashroom is not only a legal cashiering company. In this video you will find out more on our technology capability. Chris details where our Portal came from, where it is now, open banking integrations and the introduction of Kanbaro Directors to Cashroom.

Asking a lawyer whether they know what they are doing might seem a little odd. Not an approach likely to endear me to lawyers in general! However, having been a lawyer some years ago, and a partner at a couple of large law firms, I do know that it’s a valid question.

One of my old firms was a leading light in the personal injury sector. I therefore had a ringside seat as the Chief Executive had numerous ding dongs with the claimant department over his ideas for new ways of running claims. This was the early 2000s and his ideas were, at that time, somewhat radical. The firm was one of the first to create an approach based very much around technology, case management and PROCESS.

The mantra which irked many of the solicitors in the claimant department was “What you do is a process. It’s not complicated.”

Many of the lawyers were horrified. The very thought!

But in the end, it was true. The firm took the time to understand the elements of their process, supported it with the right technology, and ended up with a model which is now familiar for volume businesses especially – teams of more junior people operating cases on sophisticated case management systems, with a senior person overseeing each team. Twenty years ago, this was revolutionary thinking.

Fast forward to the present day and many firms (but not all) adopt a variation of that approach. They completely get the concept of ‘right person right task’. Often that is driven by more detailed billing information which means that a client would see if a partner’s hourly rate was being charged for something which could have been done by a junior.

However, a far smaller proportion of firms consider other operational areas of their business in the same terms of process and efficiency. The finance function of a firm in particular is the most often neglected in this respect.

It lies at the core of the firm. It carries the highest risk elements in terms of internal and external fraud. In terms of potential negligence, efficiency and therefore client service. Also, in terms of the data accuracy and interpretation required in order to effectively run the legal business.

It is frequently an area of the firm which the lawyers do not understand. Cashiering is a dark art which requires significant expertise, and even more so as it now interacts with the technology utilised by the firm. The practice management system, so often seen by the lawyers as simply a case management tool, carries the accounts element which, both for compliance and risk avoidance, must be operated efficiently and accurately.

This is more relevant than ever in the present Covid driven circumstances. Is the firm’s remote or disrupted operational model now handling client money optimally? Safely? Efficiently?

We have seen a trend developing. It used to be the case most often that forward thinking firms approached us when their incumbent cashier was leaving or retiring, seeking a different way to resource that function. What we are now seeing is an increasing number of firms, some of them very large, approaching us to carry out a review and redesign of their finance function. It forms part of a general move towards reimagining the delivery of legal services generally. It isn’t just traditional law firms either. Some very big ABSs are looking at it from a ‘blank sheet of paper’ perspective. They want to get everything right from the start.

In all cases, these forward thinking people are looking for an assessment of what they do and how they do it, and whether they could be doing it better. And so, back to my opening gambit…I think it’s actually a fair question. Because many lawyers and legal businesses are now in fact asking themselves that very question…”Do we know what we are doing?”

Alex Holt, Director of Business Development

The Cashroom Ltd

So, maybe I was wrong?

I’ve written a few blog posts on how the COVID Lockdown is affecting Commercial Property in general and bricks, and mortar retailers in particular. It’s fair to say, I’ve been a bit down on the sector.

However, a week or so ago the Issa brothers, backed by TDR Capital, bought Asda from Wal Mart for £6.8b. What’s more, they have pledged to invest £1b in Asda over the next 3 years. The Issa brothers made their billions through EG Group, which owns almost 6000 petrol stations across 10 countries.

That must bring a smile to the face of commercial landlords. If somebody is prepared to make that sort of investment into the retail sector, and into a business that has such a massive retail “footprint”, maybe it’s not all “doom and gloom”.

So, “shrug” what do I know….! Looks like some far cleverer businessmen than me see money in traditional retail, which should, in turn mean rents will continue to flow, and values hold up.

But, here’s a thought …. what if their plan isn’t traditional retail?

Apparently the £1b investment is earmarked for “convenience and online operations”. Asda’s online presence has doubled since the start of lockdown. So that bit makes sense, but the interesting bit is the “convenience operations”. I suspect this means that, very shortly, Asda will be opening small footprint convenience stores on petrol station forecourts. And I can think of 6000 potential sites!

But what about the huge Asda mega stores. There’s one not far from where I live, and it’s cavernous. But again, a move away from “traditional retail” may be on the cards.

First, there is a lot of space that could be used for fulfilment of online orders, and “click and collect” fulfilment of e.g. clothes.

In addition, recently Asda’s chief strategy officer, Preyash Thakrar said

“Our partnerships strategy is focused on making our busy customers’ lives easier. That means offering convenience when they visit our stores by bringing in complementary brands to help them complete more shopping missions in one location, and convenience that makes our great value products more accessible in local communities.”

So, rather than filling out their mega stores with Asda products, there will be a selection of alternative retailers, working in a partnership with Asda, essentially subletting space in their stores. This will benefit from EG Groups experience of setting up franchises in their petrol forecourts.

David Calder, Managing Director

The Cashroom Ltd

The Cashroom Introduction Video.

The client facing part of a law firm is only the tip of the iceberg. Over 200 firms throughout the UK trust The Cashroom with running their outsourced cashiering, management accounts and payroll functions.

Also, how great is our new video thanks for David Opie from Solve Legal.

We have just completed our 6^th month of working remotely. In terms of the service we deliver to our clients, this has been brilliant and our business model has proven we can function 100% without an office. We have such an amazing team, everyone has really pushed through during this strange time. The biggest problem arising from remote working can be the lack of communication and the impact on company culture. We are keen to not let these become a negative for our staff at The Cashroom.

So what about your company culture?

In an office it is easy with everyone in one place to talk about values and have them on posters all over the walls but how do you motivate staff who are not only all working remotely but who are also living through a pandemic?!?

Before you think “pah! I have enough to worry about right now without adding my business culture to the list”, please remember company culture is vital. According to a Glassdoor survey, 56% of employees find a good workplace culture to be more important than salary.

Values

Having a clear set of values can really help direct the culture in your business. Think about what is important, what are the principles you want to drive your business – teamwork, trust, fun and innovation are popular themes in company values. We already have company values but we are taking this time to look at them again – does everyone understand them? How do we communicate them more effectively? How do we integrate our values into part of our everyday work?

Peer to peer recognition is important. We have value awards where staff nominate those they feel have demonstrated our values through their work. We celebrate this quarterly as a whole company. It feels good being recognised, and we make all nominations public so even those who don’t win see that someone has nominated them. These are a great morale boost and are a time to all come together.

Communication and Values

You need to document your culture and publish it. If you are bringing in new team members during this time (some businesses are actually growing at the moment!) then it is really hard for a new employee to understand a company’s culture. The document should be clear about expectations, how performance is measured, how you assess employees for cultural fit, and the like. No detail is too small. Look up any successful business and you will see their values visible in everything they do, Netflix, Air B n B and I can’t leave out Google. Check out Mills & Reeve who came top for culture with a score of 94% in RollOnFriday Firm of the Year survey.

Take your culture public. You can put a culture deck together and publish it on your website. Have your values on email footers and social media. This is a perfect way to attract the right candidates to your business.

Staff interaction

Always encourage open communication, make everyone comfortable with video calling. The more open and transparent you are then the more your team will be with you too. You want to encourage an environment where everybody is contributing, not just the loud extroverts amongst your team.

Take time to learn about everyone. In an office you get a sense of who people are, without even trying. This is hard remotely as you aren’t sitting chatting in the kitchen or at the printer. Something we are doing is sending short virtual surveys out to staff with a few short questions, favourite tv programme, do they do sports, role in the company and we’re publishing these. We hope these generate some conversation which will really help grow a positive company culture.

A tool such as Slack or Teams is useful too. It can act like your office coffee station, where the random chats happen, there can be some banter, jokes and chat about the news – people love adding GIF’s and memes here too.

I’m going to say it again – KEEP COMMUNICATING!

It all boils down to this, culture will fail or thrive purely on communication. We set aside time every week to dedicate purely to a culture group. 30 minutes will suffice and include as many team members as possible.

Measure it. Send an employee survey every month or quarter to see how you are doing and gauge how staff are feeling.

Keep going!

Company culture should be constantly reassessed as you grow or change as well. Don’t just spend copious time on it, and then shelve it somewhere inaccessible to everyone. In order to grow a positive company culture with a remote team, you need to continue to monitor your culture and values, and never stop.

Go create something positive from 2020 and have fun with it!

Emma O’Day, Head of Marketing and Communications 

The Cashroom Ltd

Today I dropped my daughter off at the local train station. We live in a smallish town within commuting distance of Edinburgh. “Normally” the station carparks are chaos, with all spaces full, and people resorting to leaving their cars on the grass verge. This morning (at about 0830), it was empty … well not empty, but there were far, far fewer cars.

It really brought it home to me how things have changed. It’s been noted elsewhere, but the world of office work has changed fundamentally.

A recent survey by Morgan Stanley, reported that, in August this year, only around 50% of people in five large European countries spend 5 days a week in the office. In the UK the number was only around 30%, with over 40% spending 5 days a week at home.

The jury is still out on how that will impact productivity, creativity and company culture (for example, Jack Dorsey, the boss at Twitter has said his employees can work at home “forever”, while Reed Hastings at Netflix thinks working from home is a “pure negative”. Most people tell you they are more productive at home, but that creative output, or “collaboration” is more difficult, and benefits from face to face meetings.  There is some evidence of increased efficiency, but interestingly, less evidence that centrally positioned, densely populated spaces (i.e. offices) help with the generation of ideas.

But the rights and wrongs of it are somewhat academic (!) – the fact is, it’s happening.

Three things stopped it happening before, first was that until it was forced on us, nobody was quite sure it would work … well, it does! Second, we were worried about what our clients and our employees would think. Well, because it was compulsory, nobody cares about that anymore! Finally, there was some investment involved (e.g. laptops), but because of lockdown, we were simply forced to make it.

But will it last? Will people continue to want to work from home, even when we don’t need to?

At the Cashroom, the biggest downside is our staff miss the social interaction of the office. They miss the chat, and they miss their friends. The biggest challenge for us (and I would suggest all firms contemplating long term working from home, or a blend of home and office), is how do we address that?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.

But, looking longer term, IF working from home is a long-term trend, it will change the face of the country. Arguably the whole point of cities was to bring people together so they can work more closely, both in the sense of working more collaboratively, and within physical proximity. It all started with the development of the steam engine, consolidating people into factories, and grew into the need to have people close to the paper that, until relatively recently, was the life blood of bureaucracy.

Without that driver, will people still want to live in cities, or commute into them for work? I doubt it, or at the very least, far fewer will.

Apparently around 900,000 people commute into London every day. That’s 900,000 fewer who might buy a sandwich at lunch time, a beer after work, or nip out to the shops in their lunch hour. I suspect city centres will change dramatically.

But those people aren’t dead! The still need lunch, a beer, and will still shop. They just won’t do it in cities. Perhaps we’ll see the rise of smaller towns, “commuter towns” that until now only “thrived” at the weekend.  Will entrepreneurs create new business to service the needs of the home worker, now freed from their commute and prepared to spend more time (and money) where they live? Will we see the resurgences of local culture and “society”, fuelled by home worker with more time and energy to participate more fully in their local communities? Will the search for the lost office social interaction, actually encourage people to speak to their neighbours….!

I have no idea! But what I do know is that when large scale change happens quickly, and when people and business need to adapt, there is opportunity.

If people are moving out of the city, there are houses to buy and sell, if business are setting up in commuter towns, there are leases to negotiate, and if people are spending more time with their neighbours …… there will be neighbourhood disputes to mediate…!

People will always need lawyers.

David Calder, Managing Director

The Cashroom Ltd

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has forced fundamental change within society, technology and business. As many have said, some of those changes have been difficult to manage but have frequently brought about worthwhile evolution.

Law firms need to seize the opportunities presented by this time, and in particular in the following main areas-

Embracing technology and efficiency advances- surely those firms who have stuck with paper based processes have seen that there is another, better way? Aside from saving space (and the planet!) going paperless is a key element of any sensible approach to remote working. The use of appropriate technology, which these days is far cheaper and easier to adopt, is the enabler. The final piece of that particular jigsaw is a detailed understanding of the processes the firm operates, so that people and tech can work in synergy rather than at odds.

Security and risk management- a collateral benefit of sorting out technology and process should be an improved approach to cyber and internal fraud. It isn’t as easy as simply sending people home with a laptop. As part of enforced modernisation, addressing cyber risk through technology will improve a firm’s risk profile at a time when insurers are looking very carefully at PII premiums.

Communications technology – whether remote working or back (safely) in the office, one thing that all lawyers will have experienced is the need for reliable telephony, broadband and video calling. Addressing issues such as weak signal, clarity of audio, and appropriate cameras would have been very low on the priority list at the beginning of 2020. Right now, they are all crucial elements to delivering a professional service.

Communicating with customers and clients- how are firms connecting with their market now? The old methods still have their place – local reputation and network development for example. But surely an obvious extension of the price transparency regulation is that firms need to be aware of the potential of online marketing. They need to blow their own trumpet with glowing reviews from customers. Case studies on their websites. And a website which is user friendly and informative. Up to date. Firms also need to consider how they communicate with actual clients- many case management systems now enable SMS updates. There are superb app providers out there who can create branded apps via which updating clients becomes easy and automated.

Wellbeing of staff – in all the rush to modernise, don’t forget the staff. They’re the driving force of a business. The present circumstances and no doubt the months to come have brought stress, loneliness and fatigue. Firms must embrace new ways of thinking and engage with their staff even more. Communicate plans. Be open about the business performance and goals. Get everyone on the same page, and listen out for those who are struggling.

This is not an exhaustive list of sensible moves. But wouldn’t it be a start to consider them? After all, the times they are a-changin’.

At the Cashroom we provide a full accounting service to the legal profession – from day to day entries, through compliance, management accounts, credit control, all the way to year end and Statutory Accounts. Additionally we are regularly instructed for our consultancy service to advise firms on the structure, compliance and efficiency of their finance function.

We have a unique insight into the requirements of delivering an optimised legal accounting function. Our senior team consists of Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, Lean Processing experts, Legal Finance Professionals and IT Professionals giving us an unparalleled breadth of knowledge from which to design and deliver the best possible solution.

If you would like any more information about The Cashroom and what we offer, then please get in touch. 

Alex Holt, Director of Business Development

Client money. Compliance. Cyber threat. Negligence. Business management. All these factors meet at the heart of the legal entity.

Many lawyers are humble people. They don’t like to shout about success. They downplay their innovations. Nowadays, that’s a weakness they need to rectify.

I had the pleasure of speaking at a Calico Legal Services webinar recently, supporting our friends at Locktons as they spoke about the PII market. My input mainly related to ways that firms can improve their risk profile by focusing on their finance function, which sits at the very centre of a firm’s risk profile, I’d say.

Firms have the regulatory headaches to manage – the regulations to adhere to. Speaking as an ex partner in a couple of large firms, I feel qualified to state that overseeing the level of compliance of a cashier’s work is not something most lawyers would want to do, let alone be capable of.

Then there’s the fact that the efficient and secure handling of client money falls squarely within that function, and again the compliant and practical operation of the process is something which the lawyers struggle to fathom.

You have to feel for the poor cashier in many law firms. If they do their job perfectly every day, swerving the cyber criminals, coping with spikes of activity on a Friday, accurately inputting the data vital to production of worthwhile MI, not a word will be said. Yet if they make a mistake, the consequences for a firm can be cataclysmic.

Brian Boehmer of Locktons spoke eloquently about the need for firms to go beyond mere form filling when seeking their PII renewal. More than ever this year every penny saved could be vital, as firms face premium increases of 30, 50 even 100%. Brian explained that the brokers need to be given the ammo with which to engage with insurers and explain why this particular firm is different and should be given a better quote than that one.

Tell your broker about training you implement on cyber risk.

Tell them about your recruitment processes which check new employees.

Tell them everything that differentiates your firm from others.

If your firm is doing something different, tell the story. If you’re a start up, do things differently from the outset.

An outsourced solution can bring ‘reflected glory’ – our clients can talk in terms of increased cyber security, increased internal fraud security, efficiency improvements, assured compliance, accurate data and MI, resilient, scalable service. If you’re using a digital dictation provider such as Documents Direct, the resilience of service and improved accuracy is something insurers will value.

There isn’t long to go before the end of September, so give detail and engage quickly, making your proposition look so attractive that the brokers will want to work with you because they will believe they can get insurance for you.

For many firms this will be a tough time for insurance, so it’s also worth considering how you can improve things for next year. Think innovatively and tell the world about it. Now is not the time to be hiding your light under a bushell.

Alex Holt, Business Development Director

The Cashroom Ltd

Alex Holt and Maria Parker discuss how Burtons Solicitors coped with the effects of lockdown. Burtons Solicitors have vast number of services which include Conveyancing, Family Law, Commercial Property and so much more.

I recently attended one of the Armstrong Watson Legal Sector Breakfast Briefings, albeit they are no longer at breakfast time! An interesting point of discussion arose, which I thought I would share. The speakers for the session were Chris Moore of Moore Legal Technology and Ally Thompson of Hey! Legal, who both provided some insightful thoughts and tips for marketing your law firm.  But the point I wanted to discuss arose from a comment made by Stephen Vallance of HM connect.

As I say, the session was about marketing and sales for law firms, and Stephen used the analogy of a Wild West film. When setting about making one of the early films, a producer apparently asked the question… ‘Do you train actors to become cowboys, or cowboys to become actors? Interesting! The same conundrum, Stephen suggested, arises in law firms in relation to generating new business enquiries (marketing), and converting those enquiries into new business for the firm (sales).  Do you teach lawyers to be marketers and sales people, or do you teach marketing/sales/BD specialists to become lawyers?

I don’t know what the answer is, other than “it depends“! Probably not very helpful, I know.

But what I think is the way to approach it, is to play to peoples strengths. Where you have solicitors within your firm who enjoy and are good at marketing your services, writing blogs and article content, that are active on social media etc, encourage them to do so. If you have people who like taking new enquiry calls, are good at building rapport with people quickly, and converting them to clients, encourage them to do so too. Perhaps even allow some of their billable hours to be allocated to it!

For those who don’t have people within their firm comfortable or proficient at marketing, buy in some external assistance. It’s not expensive, and should be considered an investment in obtaining new business – the lifeblood of keeping your business afloat. And when it comes to converting those new enquiries into opened files… on the assumption you don’t have the volume to justify a specialist initial response/enquiry handling team, invest in some proper training for the key people who take incoming calls at your firm. At the very least, explain to them that each new enquiry should be treated as gold dust, and the importance of their role in bringing in business that in turn generates fees, that in turn pays everyone salaries. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the uptick in ‘buy in’ from those people.

So, how does your firm deal with this? Actors turned cowboys, or cowboys turned actors?!

Gregor Angus, Senior Business Development Manager

The Cashroom Ltd

This week David Calder speaks to Eric Baijal from BBM Solicitors about how they coped with lockdown. BBM is a boutique law practice with offices in Edinburgh and Wick, Caithness. BBM was founded in 2010 with the goal of “doing law better”.

David Calder and Eric Baijal, BBM Solicitors

A while ago I wrote an article about why I didn’t think that Commercial Property investment (and in turn, legal work in that sector) was a sound long term “bet”.

I concluded by suggesting that the reason for its success in the past was the need for pension funds to generate secure, long term income streams. And I wondered what might replace them.

Well, I was reading something at the weekend that made me think about this again.

The curious thing is that, despite lockdown and the economic turmoil, the S&P 500 is at historic highs, and while the FTSE has a way to go to achieve that goal, it has recovered a lot of ground.

But the really interesting thing is that some of what’s driving that growth in the S&P, is the return of the IPO. Back in the good old days of the dot com boom, IPO’s were all the rage. I remember my partner pitching for a tiny investment round, and being asked if he could handle the company’s IPO ….. from a couple of guys who probably couldn’t afford the bus fare home!

But that changed, particularly in the last 5 years or so, with more companies being happier to stay private for longer, resulting in the growth of the tech “unicorn” i.e. a privately held company worth more than $1bn.

However, in 2020 so far, companies in the US have raised over $60bn through IPOs. In the whole of 2019, the total was just over $40bn. And there are more to come. On August 19^th, Airbnb filed for an IPO. Rumour has it that a number of other “unicorns” are lining up – Snowflake Computing, DoorDash, Instacart and Pallantir. Added together that comes to around $80bn.

But what has this got to do with Commercial property?

Well, I’m sure a number of factors push firms towards an IPO. However, I wonder if one of them is pure and simple supply and demand – i.e. there is a demand for investment in stocks and shares, because other traditional investments (e.g. Commercial Property, and Government Debt) are simply not providing the necessary returns.

And what has this got to do with Law Firms?

If I’m right, and there is a demand for “alternative” investments, or more simply, a lot of investors are looking for a home for their money …… are law firms a potential investment?

A while ago I was speaking to an investor, who invests in law firms. His take was that law firms were not a great investment if you were looking for capital growth. However, if you were looking for yield, i.e. a steady return on your investment, law firms were ideal, because generally they’re pretty good at generating cash. Which of course is exactly the sort of return that Commercial Property and Government Debt investors are looking for.

So, should we expect a flow of investor money into law firms?

David Calder, Managing Director

The Cashroom Ltd