The Firm of the Future – Trends and Next Steps for Today’s Accountants

Disruptive Trends in Accounting

It is no surprise that clients demand more from you as a CPA today than they did 5 years ago, and the profession is more competitive than ever. As bookkeeping and data entry technologies become more powerful, business owners increasingly require their accounting professionals to provide greater value. The most successful accounting firms are doing just that, and as a forward-looking CPA, you can learn much from what others are doing. We asked the experts at BooksTime, an outsourced bookkeeping service that partners with QuickBooks and modern accounting firms around the US, to tell us what they see the smartest, most innovative accounting firms doing with disruptive technologies. They identified three major trends:

1. Automation and AI

An immense shift is underway toward data entry automation for bookkeeping and accounting. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is leading the automation trend to eliminate manual data entry and save you significant time and labor costs. The big system providers use AI for auditing, extracting key information from documents and contracts, and inventory monitoring. Automation impacts Accounts Payable operations in a significant way, substantially reducing the cost per invoice. According to a Sage Practice of Now report, 55% of accountants plan to use AI in the next three years. So, where does that leave the over 45%? In the dust.

2. Cloud solutions

Cloud-based data services, such as QuickBooks Online, are changing the way smaller businesses scale. Cloud computing enables small companies to access more data and infrastructure at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional on-premise systems. Small businesses increasingly rely on the cloud for their entire technical operations. If you don’t know the cloud, you won’t know your clients.

3. Outsourcing

Small businesses recognize more than ever in today’s volatile economy the absolute need to focus on core competencies. Such focus is not just desirable but crucial to survival. Ubiquitous broadband and high-speed Internet permeates business locations, fueling remote connectivity and communications and realizing the ability for bookkeepers, controllers and CPAs to have high-speed, two-way conversations with clients via video streaming. Bookkeeping service companies like BooksTime, using powerful systems like QuickBooks, can service clients around the globe as well as around the corner. More than ever, you need to connect with your clients through technology.

Becoming a Tech Expert

The future of accounting is technology, and the CPAs who master technology will be in the best position to provide the business value in their practices. An article in CPA Practice Advisor suggests, “Technology advancements have enhanced the accountant’s ability to interpret data efficiently and effectively. He/she now has the ability to interpret the language of business with such ease that the accountant has become a corporation’s most trusted business advisor.”

In a world of technology, where should the astute CPA zero in? An article in Account Today identifies strategically essential systems you need to know:

• Base accounting systems – modules for general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, budgeting, financial reporting, and payroll.
• Financial forecasting systems – using select datasets to predict an organization’s financial outcomes based on past results and known or expected factors affecting the business.
• Enterprise Resource Planning – integrating ERP with the base account system is crucial to providing real-time insights into the financial health of the organization.
• Supply Chain Management – also called spend management, SCM supports business continuity.
• Customer Relation Management – CRM tracks and facilitates communications with customers.
• Cloud systems – putting these essential systems on a cloud platform greatly enhances the opportunities to integrate and combine data to gain efficiencies in data entry, processing, reporting and analyzing.

As a CPA, your key to success is not to be an expert at every detail of these systems, but to focus on integration. You need to become more than just a service provider, you need to be a service integrator.

So what does a service integrator look like? The Journal of Accountancy identifies four skills of a tech-savvy accountant:

1. Understand how processes work

Even the best-engineered systems work only if they are set up and administered properly. You are in an excellent position to advise and consult on sound business practices that underlie successful systems implementations.

2.Communicate effectively with technologists

Combine your business knowledge with technologists’ programming expertise to deliver systems that meet requirements and deliver valuable results.

3.Consult rather than command

In advisory and consulting roles, you must adapt to giving opinions and advocating ideas rather than stating autocratic certitudes.

4.Analyze data and communicate with clients

With automation doing much of the heavy lifting of bookkeeping, you have more time to spend with clients. You can increase the value of your client facetime by learning how to analyze data for business insights. QuickBooks and Xero are two excellent examples of automation platforms that handle the mundane tasks while delivering rich data through robust analysis tools.

Outsourcing for Leverage

The breadth and depth of technology’s impact on accounting can be overwhelming. How do you even begin to come up to speed in the technology ecosystems?

That is where outsourcing comes into play. Start with QuickBooks Online for an integrated, cloud-based software solution that already hooks into the other main business systems, like ERP, SCM, and CRM. Then, rely on BooksTime’s in-depth expertise with cloud accounting systems to take the burden off your shoulders for the daily bookkeeping operations. Free yourself to focus on high-value, high-margin services, maximize your financial expertise, accentuate your differentiators, leverage your core competencies, and deliver real business value to your clients.

After all, you didn’t get your CPA license to spend all day categorizing transactions. Embracing technology, becoming an integrator rather than just a service provider, and outsourcing the manual tasks so you can focus on your value-add expertise will put your accountancy on the top rung of the best and brightest. Make technical disruption work for you.

Business team at work -DepositPhotos

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