In fact less than a third of business managers consider their accountants in such a flattering light.

Accountancy Magazine: accounting information and software provider CCH, found that 65% of accountants think that they are moving towards a consultancy role…

However, just 27% of their senior management clients share this perspective of the accountant’s role.

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Is this just the age old problem of self-perception versus other peoples’ perception? Or is it that businesses are not aware of accountants’ diverse skills?

‘More and more accountants are providing much-needed support to companies, particularly during the downturn, acting as general business consultants while providing more traditional accountancy services such as compliance and auditing,’ said Cathy Wolfe, UK CEO of Wolters Kluwer, parent company of CCH and publisher of Accountancy.

‘But it seems that many UK companies aren’t aware of the breadth of services that their accountant can offer – a sign that practices may not be marketing this capability as well as they could be.’

Understandably, Ms Wolfe has defined ‘business consultants’ by the services that accountants offer and blames the narrow mindedness on a lack of awareness. But perhaps that misses the point?

Lying at the core of what business people consider is the actual essence of business may not be the neatly defined stuff you find in the professional playbook (even if there’s enough of it to cover nearly all the bases). So there could be a semantic hurdle here; one business owner we spoke to put it like this:

“In business, if you need advice, you’ve got lawyers or accountants; if you need to make a decision, you’re on your own.”

So put on your best Tom Cruise impression and call yourself a business consultant if you wish but, remember your image to many business people… an accountant that offers lots of advisory services.