How adding HR services gives Milestone an extra advantage

In the second in our series on Milestone Inc, (you can watch Part One here) we hear how six months after opening, they’ve added several HR components to their service offering. Watch now. 

In the first of our customer catch-ups with Milestone we heard how they launched their firm in the middle of a pandemic, and with a robust tech stack at its core. And we were delighted that they chose Fathom as their reporting and forecasting app of choice. 

In this episode, we hear how a chance conversation with a friend led them to get well out of an accountant’s traditional comfort zone and add HR services to their offering. Milestone applied the same logic to choosing what apps they would need to do this as they did to their traditional accounting tech stack, selecting Paylocity, Gusto, Lessonly, Recruiterbox and Emplify. 

“We strongly believe that just because a firm is small, and isn’t ready to hire somebody full time, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have that level of expertise available to them”
Melissa Stout, Milestone Inc

Can any firm offer additional services? 

“Outsourcing is here to stay,” says Tom Gabbert, and HR services like payroll have a natural affinity with accounting. But as Tom cautions, the key to offering any additional service is finding an expert in that field to join your endeavour. After that, it’s a question of building the tech stack and weaving the offering into your pricing structure. 

Are blended accounting firms the future?

Of course, Milestone aren’t the only firm who offer non-accounting services in addition to compliance and advisory ones. In the United Kingdom, Z group brings together accounting, legal and architectural planning services. Early in 2020 we caught up with Jane Aylwin, Senior Business Manager, Z group. Jane tells us how offering additional services benefits ‘joined-up clients’, meaning everything’s under one roof. Which, like Milestone, gives them a competitive edge in the marketplace.