The practice services a diverse client base. Initially it worked
mainly with primary producers and country based businesses
but has expanded to include sophisticated CBD corporate clients.

Having a second, smaller office in Melbourne, close to the CBD
has contributed to this expansion. Another factor is the increase
in people living around Woodend who commute to the city
for work. The large client base in Melbourne provides a great
mix of clients for the staff to work with. Most of their work
comes from referrals.

Riverwood Group has 16 staff including partners, senior
account managers, graduates undertaking CPA and
bookkeepers. They undertake all types of work ranging from
general tax advice to entity structuring and complex capital
gains tax issues. They share the wide-ranging work between
the staff, providing a good learning ground.

As with most non-city based practices, staff recruitment and
retention is a problem. Younger staff tend to reach a certain level
in their development and leave to experience other employment,
while older staff are attracted because of the location and lifestyle.
This all means keeping a balanced mix of staff can be difficult.

Ross started in sales and marketing and then became an
accountant in industry, which has given him a good understanding
of many of his clients. He finds his marketing skills very useful in a
profession which does not always promote these skills.

Ross regularly visits his clients in their workplaces. These visits
are not always directly work related as he believes building and
maintaining relationships is essential.

Ross says he has the best of both worlds working in a rural
location. He and his wife have an 80 acre property not too
far from Woodend, so he has a short trip to work and a good
lifestyle balance.

He believes it is necessary to take a positive approach to what
he sees as tax agents’ greatest challenge – keeping up to date
with new and changing tax law.

All staff attend the June Tax practitioner seminar as Ross feels
it is good for staff to hear what is happening in a face-to-face
situation. They also attend two-hour monthly tax update
professional seminars with a private provider for in depth training.
He is aware of our webcasts and podcasts, and reads elink.

Ross believes IT is an integral part of the Riverwood Group’s
business. The group continually tries to be at the leading edge
in IT and finds that while this has always been important for
practice management, it is increasingly important for clients,
as well. One innovative thing the company is doing is creating
an interactive website with secure log-in for clients to access
their data and transfer information to them securely.

'Ross says being a tax agent
is a great career.'

The practice recently ran focus groups with clients using an
independent facilitator. This was to look at what clients wanted.
According to Ross it was a challenge because it is not an easy
thing to ask clients what they think of your business and it is difficult
to get them feel confident enough to open up. However clients
viewed it positively and were very receptive, offering feedback that
has helped the practice progress. Ross feels the success of the
group was in large part because of an excellent facilitator and the
fact that there were no Riverwood partners or staff present.

As the partner responsible for quality assurance, Ross sees
QA as an integral part of running the business. Everyone
gains – it helps achieve consistent outcomes for clients and
standardises procedures for staff. At the very least, it is a risk
minimisation strategy.

Ross says the Portal is an excellent tool that is constantly
improving. All staff in the practice have successfully used digital
certificates for some time. He likes our Relationship Manager
program and acknowledges the improvement in our premium
telephony service. He also notes the much improved search
function on our website.

Ross believes all these factors contribute to creating a much
more collaborative relationship where we realise the value of
agents and the large part they play. Ross says this is definitely
moving in the right direction: ‘a 180 degree shift for the better.’

Ross says being a tax agent is a great career. There will always
be a need for tax agents to interpret and apply tax law for
clients. The challenge is to keep up with the changes and
interpret the ever-increasing complexity.