Clients expecting more from their accountants

Online payroll software KeyPay’s State of Accounting Report found that 61 per cent of accountants surveyed said their clients now expect increased advisory to support economic hardship, while 60 per cent said clients wanted faster response times and increased advisory support to future-proof their business (57 per cent).

More than half (56 per cent) also said their clients desired increased support and advice surrounding technology.

The findings supported the idea of an accountant’s role moving from transactional to advisory with more than half of practice accountants (55 per cent) stating their clients wanted a holistic relationship with their accountants to ensure stability and growth post-pandemic.

The research confirmed that COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation across accounting firms, forcing practices to eliminate outdated processes and elevate their use of technology in the workplace.

Accountants were generally keen to embrace new technology according to the report with 94 per cent saying they are currently using cloud accounting technology and 68 per cent saying they also used cloud payroll software.

With the change in services, the survey found that 72 per cent of accountants are already offering payroll services and an additional 11 per cent were planning to introduce these within the next 18 months. Areas of interest for new market entrants include tech consultancy (7 per cent), advisory and training (7 per cent), and implementations (6 per cent).

Phil Bernie, co-founder of KeyPay, said the research found that a larger part of accounting firms have experienced a surge in client expectations.

“With economic uncertainty on every business leader’s mind, it’s unsurprising that an increased expectation for advisory support to respond to economic hardship emerged as a priority,” he said.

“With this, we can expect a continued shift in the role of an accountant to a more strategic business advisor, with firms having to adopt a consulting perspective to keep up.”