Dealing with a shifting accounting environment

Hindle said that the report reveals practices classified as progressive, growing their business and becoming more profitable – investing in technology and are seeing a return, and are moving away from a reliance on one single revenue stream within their practice.

Hindle spoke about the most profound findings in the data.

“65 per cent of the practices that we classify as progressive are running a full service model, which means that they offer services like virtual CFO, strategic advisory, tax consulting, in addition to the annual compliance work. 

“That is the bread and butter of most practices, and about 45 per cent of the declining group are not doing that,” Hindle said.

Hindle noted that this gap is beginning to grow, something that can be seen in the financial results of the practices where they are reporting higher growth and higher profitability as a result of a full service model.

Hindle noted that there is resistance to AI as accountants do not have enough time to invest in AI.

“It’s about needing to spend more time on the tools so that you can get better at using them and get the results that you’re wanting to get out of them, but also to build some trust with it.”

A champion for transformation

Hindle said that when undergoing any sort of transformation, it is important to think about the people, process, and technology components. For him, one simple and effective way to facilitate change in a business is through a “change champion”.

“When it comes to something like a technology rollout, find the person who is more curious and naturally inclined to want to try new tools and experiments and then utilise that person.

“Let them be the vanguard to go out there and experiment, try new things, make mistakes, learn from that, come back, and then be the advocate for what you’re trying to drive across your firm.”

The shifts

Without well-integrated tools across the entire business workflow, Hindle said businesses were found to begin to struggle.

“One of the big things that we’re seeing from practices and that we’ve seen in our survey is a desire to have tools that are really, really well integrated with one another, not things that are stitched together and cause a lot of re-keying of information or data not flowing correctly as well,” Hindle said. 

Hindle said that as part of this shift, firms are looking for a one-stop-shop integrated solution which enables them to work in that one spot and trust the information that they have in there.

“We’re very much at this stage where I am seeing the role of an accountant continue to evolve and evolve rapidly. If I look forward a few years from now, I think they’re going to be just embedded into businesses as strategic advisors and far more than somebody that you go to to make sure you get a good tax return.”