Embracing the digital workplace in your accounting practice
Digital transformation for accounting practices has become a necessity, not a choice. The digital workplace has accelerated over the last few years, and this has ensured that accounting firms in Australia and New Zealand need to consider digital adoption to meet the needs of a changing environment.
A report by ACCA found that, of the accountants surveyed, 89% said that digital skills were either necessary or very necessary in their industry, and 63% indicated that they considered that they had the right level of digital skills for their roles.
For professional services like accounting, it is most important to deploy digital workplace solutions, such as accounting practice management software, that support your employee experience, no matter where staff are located.
In this article, we’ll explain why it is time to embrace the digital workplace and why avoiding digital transformation in accounting practices can result in firms falling behind the competition.
The challenge of embracing digital transformation for accountants
According to a report by CPA Australia, the accounting profession is rapidly evolving due to innovative technology, such as the Internet of things, smart sensors, cloud computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence in accounting that, once implemented, will significantly transform our industry in the years to come.
Even if they recognise the true value of these innovations, digital workplaces in accounting practices can be slowed down when they find it difficult to know when and how to incorporate these changes into their workplace.
After all, a poorly planned digital workplace transformation for accounting firms, rather than taking a strategic, well-timed approach, could have devastating consequences, with clients fleeing to competitors. At the same time, your team grapples with moving away from the physical workplace.
To help you know when it’s time to make a change and, more importantly, know when you are ready, here are six common signs where embracing digital transformation in an accounting practice is needed:
- You find that unexpected changes are occurring rapidly, and your accounting practice struggles to stay agile enough to keep pace.
- Your hardware and accounting practice management software could be aging, and newly onboarded employees will find it difficult to adapt to less intuitive digital technologies. Your legacy practice management software infrastructure is also an expense that continues to require repairs, and in many instances, customer support is no longer active.
- Your employees are defaulting to the software for accountants that they know best rather than sticking with your legacy programs. This creates security issues, impacts collaboration and is an ongoing headache for IT.
- Governance is an ongoing challenge, with leadership concerned that the traditional way of doing things is no longer in your accounting practice's best interest.
- With cybersecurity risks for accounting firms rising, you know that your existing systems cannot thwart increasingly complex cyberattacks, and you may even be unable to comply with new industry regulations.
- Staff are seeing your competitors allow flexible working arrangements. If you fail to do the same, some of your best accounting talent will likely jump ship.
Why is digitalisation important in accounting practices?
Accounting practices that have been set in their ways for years and are still running day-to-day business using manual methods may find the idea of uprooting everything for the digital workplace to be unsettling.
However, the way that accounting practices handle paperwork and data is a cause for concern. A study by the Tungsten Network revealed that businesses waste an average of 125 weeks through the mismanagement of paperwork. Not only is this low efficiency putting practices at risk, but this can also lead to late payments and an unsteady cash flow. This can hinder practices from evolving, as Ashley Finance reports, up to 90% of businesses say that cash flow is the main reason they’re held back from growth.
The term ‘hybrid work’ is hot on the lips of business leaders across all industries. Indeed, for most jobs that aren’t exclusively client-facing, a hybrid workplace has become the rule rather than the exception, according to PwC. In the UK alone, the proportion of adults working from home for at least some of the week has more than tripled.
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, according to an article by Forbes, accountants should be thinking more about how they adapt, and this shift away from the physical office space towards hybrid working and a digital workplace should be viewed as an opportunity for accounting practices rather than a threat.
The pace of change in the accounting industry will continue to accelerate, and traditionally-minded accounting practices that fail to embrace digital transformation will miss out.
What are the advantages of digital transformation in accounting practices?
There are many digital workplace benefits:
- Empowering every employee to connect.
- Providing digital tools, such as accounting practice management software, where everyone can collaborate.
- Be more flexible and let your staff work the way they want to.
- Maintain control and ensure sensitive personal information and accounting firm data remain secure from cybercriminals.
What is meant by digital transformation in accounting?
A digital workplace strategy in your accounting practice comes down to two focus areas for accountants: the right digital workplace technology and cybersecurity.
Investing in the right digital workplace platform for your firm
Digital accountants are already embracing various software for accountants to help make their modern workplace more flexible, intelligent and secure.
Whether it’s the suite of Microsoft 365 applications for everyday tasks, collaboration tools like Gmail, Teams, Slack, Trello and Zoom, or even embracing ChatGPT in your accounting practice, integrating this functionality into your practice's digital set-up will ensure work can continue unhindered.
In addition to tools for work, digital transformation in accounting practices must also consider how they will derive value from data. With accounting practice software, such as data management and analytics software, you can gather valuable insights to support better decision-making for your accounting practice. The key is choosing practice accounting software that offers this as part of an all-in-one accounting practice solution.
The best accounting cybersecurity
Relinquishing a traditional work environment may be difficult for some accounting practices, particularly those wanting to maintain visibility over their distributed workforce. In these circumstances, cybersecurity is a critical factor.
You need to ensure any digital workplace solution you adopt in your practice provides quality security. Namely, it must keep sensitive data and documents safe and secure, even when accessed remotely. You can bolster that security in various ways, from multi-factor authentication to single sign-on. Access accounting practice data management and analytics software contains an online backup system allowing you to store your accounting practice data in the cloud securely. Automatic daily backups and data encryption ensure all your critical data is up to date, secure, and recoverable.
The right cybersecurity is an essential part of the digital transformation for accounting practices, so make sure you bring your entire accounting team into the digital workplace conversation before making any big changes. They will have the insight to guide you on the right path for streamlined workflows and stronger security.
How will digital transformation impact accountants?
Accounting firms who get their accounting practice software and cybersecurity right will reap the real benefits of digital transformation.
By undertaking a digital transformation in your accounting practice, you will reassure remote employees with the knowledge they have everything they need to work anywhere, anytime through communication and collaboration tools.
This means faster client results and more employee productivity. As Deloitte research has found, there is a substantial link between collaboration and profitability, meaning you'll also have a much healthier bottom line.
Be ahead of digital workplace trends
Whether you are ready or not, the digital workplace adoption for accounting practices is here to stay. As CPA Australia puts it, practitioners in the accounting profession need to rethink the future of the profession and to take active steps towards embracing digital transformation.
The digital workforce of tomorrow will be armed with the right technologies and tools to perform their tasks on the go. Whether they are at their desk, on the road with mobile devices or working from home, they must have intelligent cloud-based accounting practice management software at their fingertips.
Industries have already accepted that hybrid work is now the norm rather than the outlier. So, if your accounting practice wants to retain its best people and attract top talent from elsewhere, you need to offer the technology they expect.
Technology is constantly driving change within the accounting industry, and it’s also helping practices adapt to these changes and empowering them to drive better results for their clients.
The time to embrace the digital workplace is now. So, ensure you equip yourself with the best accounting software solution for the future.
