iscover ‘Ambitious expansion’ on the cards for 1 in 10 accounting practices
BusinessNew findings have offered insights into the strategies and challenges set to shape the country’s accounting sector over the coming year.
The Growth and Marketing Maturity Benchmarking Report 2025, commissioned by Intuit QuickBooks and produced by Agile Market Intelligence, has revealed the spectrum of future planning across Australian accounting practices. When asked to define practice outlook over the next twelve months, three categories emerged for the 460 accounting practices surveyed: high-growth, growth outlook, and conservative outlook.
The comfortable majority (61 per cent) planned moderate expansion. According to the report, these firms were focused on client retention and organic growth through advertising, referrals, or other activities for their planned trajectory.
Ten per cent, however, forecast a significant expansion of client base through both organic growth and acquisition. Of these firms, 41 per cent were large practices with 20 or more employees.
And, at the other end of the spectrum, 26 per cent of practices held a conservative outlook. Consistency defined this group, explaining the strong representation of solo or small practices in this group at 69 per cent. Taking the category up to 29 per cent was the 3 per cent preparing to sell or retire their practice.
The report showed a clear link between a firm's capacity and its resources. High-growth firms would be able to expand their client base with a skilled team and invest in anticipatory infrastructure, according to director at Agile Market Intelligence, Michael Johnson. On the other hand, he said, smaller practices “often take a cautious approach, focusing on stability and retaining their existing clients”.
Something all practices have in common? Growth barriers and simultaneous pressure to expand.
Looking at internal barriers, capacity constraints were the most common, at 70 per cent. This issue was felt the strongest by conservative outlook firms, over 75 per cent, and 59 per cent of high-growth firms.
However, high-growth outlook firms were more likely to identify skills and marketing gaps.
Overall, moderate-growth outlook firms were more affected, especially in pricing and regulatory pressure, technology limitations, and inefficient systems. Whilst they may appear the steadiest, these firms did not poll the strongest in any one category.
In response to pressures, many firms adopted in-house reviews or automated compliance solutions. Firms also leveraged technology to reduce costs whilst retaining quality of service.
“Understanding these differences is critical for firms looking to invest strategically in people, technology and infrastructure,” Johnson said.
These findings are in line with Agile’s recently released The State of AI In Accounting Report 2026, which found expansion was also prevalent in the AI sphere. Almost 50 per cent of accounting practices are reportedly looking for complete AI integration, one-third were eager to expand, and another quarter was experimenting.
Amelia is a Professional Services Journalist with Momentum Media, covering Lawyers Weekly, HR Leader, Accountants Daily and Accounting Times. She has a background in technical copy and arts and culture journalism, and enjoys screenwriting in her spare time.
