Having recently read the published “The accountant of tomorrow – Accountancy in 2028 Survey” results, a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters, it has reinforced what is needed to make any accountancy practice sustainable for the future – progression.

Technology is changing, HMRC are changing the way they deal with data, which in turn means we need to change too.  This led me to look at our client base and see who we can better advise on digital technology going forward and I was surprised to see that 92% of our clients already use digital software to record their financial transactions.  We, as a matter of course, introduce our clients to Xero and such like.  We use the platform ourselves for us and our clients.  We do have one or two who insist on using spreadsheets but feel with further support we can get them adopting digital software in the future.

How will this change our practice though?  Our trainees are currently learning the art of data entry, how nominal accounts work, how to manually reconcile accounts and where to spot errors.  Once they have mastered this we can turn to more analytical processes, where can a client better their financials, suggest business improvements and assist the principals of our business to help our clients grow.

This won’t take away from the compliance expertise of accountants, it will merely enhance the business offering.  We will still see our clients being good at what they do and relying on us for advice and information around reducing year-end stocks, tax position awareness and financial forecasting.

Embracing technology in our business will demonstrate to our clients that we are moving with the times as are they, we can advise on IT systems that will make their day easier, make the data more accurate, which in turn makes strategic business decisions easier to make.

We are passionate about advising our clients on a continual basis and that is why we meet with them on a regular basis – a quarterly review of accurate data will help more businesses grow and prosper and remain the businesses of tomorrow.