Accountants must transform from number crunchers to trusted advisors

Crunching numbers and filing tax returns simply isn’t enough. Accountants need to evolve and become trusted advisors as businesses demand much more of them to tackle the challenges ahead.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses in every sector to accelerate their digital transformation efforts, such as eliminating outdated processes and elevating their use of technology to become more efficient and effective. Accounting and payroll are arguably the most crucial elements of any business, meaning businesses need more advice and support from their accountant than ever before.

Rather than simply checking in with their accountant at tax time, modern businesses are looking for more holistic relationships with accountants who can offer increased support to help them on their digital transformation journey. As a result, the accountant’s role is shifting from transactional to advisory. 

Understand clients’ needs

Accountants are seeing a clear shift, with 82% agreeing that clients’ expectations have increased significantly in the past two years, according to KeyPay’s State of Accounting Report, which surveyed 339 public practice accountants in Australia and New Zealand about accounting services and attitudes toward technology.

With economic uncertainty on every business leader’s mind, it’s unsurprising they have an increased expectation of advisory support for responding to economic hardship. We can expect a continued shift in the role of an accountant to becoming a more strategic business advisor, with accountants needing to adopt a consulting perspective to keep up.

More than half of practice accountants (55%) say their clients want a holistic relationship, to ensure stability and growth post-pandemic. Likewise, 57% say clients require increased business advisory to future-proof their business. New technology is the key, with 56% saying clients desire increased support and advice surrounding technology. 

All of this paints a clear picture. Rather than a simple service provider, accounting clients are looking for a partner to support them in their endeavors. This means accountants need to dedicate more time to establishing and supporting these relationships, in line with the more personalized advisory approach that clients are seeking.

Embrace new skills and services

Responding to this change demands that accountants also continue to grow with technology. In addition to streamlining practice management internally, they must upskill in technology and establish the expertise to advise clients on selecting and working with the most appropriate solutions for their business. 

As many accounting firms grow their offering, payroll services are near the top of the list. Today, 72% of accountants are already offering a form of payroll services, while an additional 11% plan to introduce them within the next 18 months.

Looking at the big picture, other areas of interest include tech consultancy and implementations, along with advisory and training.

This all demands an accountant’s time. Exacerbating this challenge is the fact that the majority of respondents say their clients are growing in head count, which means their needs are also growing.

Respond to the challenge

This seemingly leaves accountants stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they scramble to meet increasingly time-consuming demands of clients with more complex needs. Accountants need the ability to scale while avoiding growing pains to ensure clients get the support they need to succeed.

The adoption of cloud services and automation can be a key differentiator for accountants looking to meet these extra demands on their time. While the data suggests that the adoption of cloud software is high, those offering payroll processing services could certainly be making better use of technology. 

Payroll is a key offering for many accountants, with 72% of respondents providing at least one payroll service, such as processing, software implementation, advisory and training.

Yet handling payroll comes with several key pain points. Respondents say the biggest challenge is chasing clients for payroll data, followed by making leave calculations and keeping up with payroll legislation. These are perfect examples of where the cloud and automation can ease the burden.

Despite this, less than half of those accountants processing payroll for clients are currently automating pay rates (28%) and increases (9%), leave requests (44%), tax deductions (42%), timesheets (38%) and termination calculations (31%).

Accounting is entering a new era, as clients look for a one-stop shop to support their businesses as they grow. The status quo of the client-accountant relationship no longer resonates, and accountants are finding a way to offer scalable, profitable, holistic services for their clients.