S P O N S O R E D
With an ever-changing landscape, the accounting industry has seen drastic disruption over the past few years. Accounting is a profession with many nuances—working long hours, keeping up with evolving tax laws, managing complex client relationships, etc.—how does a firm manage to stay competitive when new obstacles seem to emerge every day?
Of course, accountants are no strangers to facing and solving problems, dating back to the days when bartering was the foundation of an economy.
But what are the greatest obstacles facing accountants today?
To get a better understanding of what obstacles impact modern accountants, we surveyed more than 2,000 professionals working directly in the accounting and bookkeeping space. These professionals helped us to identify five major obstacles that they feel their firms are facing today:
- Diversifying skill set and offering to clients
- Creating bandwidth to take on more clients
- Competing with venture-backed cloud accounting firms
- Retaining bookkeeping staff
- Shifting to a virtual environment/adopting technology
In the full whitepaper we explore each of the obstacles and make the connection on how AI-powered automated accounting software can help your firm overcome each and every challenge. Read the whitepaper here.
Before we jump into the top obstacles faced by accounting firms, we want to set the stage as it relates to technology—specifically, artificial intelligence (AI).
Have you ever heard someone—in the accounting industry or beyond—claim that technology and automation are coming for our jobs? It’s not exactly true, especially when it comes to accountants. With that said, tech adoption in the accounting industry has been slow at best, despite a global pandemic that’s forced us all to operate virtually and create new processes for survival. So how do accountants view technology and automation? Do most accountants know what artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) are and how they can aid accountants?
Artificial or augmented intelligence is the idea that a computer or machine can think in the same manner we do, like visual perception, decision-making, voice recognition, and translating language.
AI starts with data—numbers that otherwise might have no meaning—and then you apply meaning to it. That is, AI is a system that’s created to sort and filter data to make it meaningful and actionable. An example would be creating a software bot that categorizes all the credits and debits in a spreadsheet. Of course, the software won’t get it right all the time, but here’s the kicker: unlike humans who are unpredictable in our ability to commit new and varied mistakes, bots will continue to make the same ones. The beauty of that is that you can troubleshoot and eventually predict the mistakes a bot will make, then you can remedy them.
Moreover, the whole idea behind AI is that it continues to evolve and get better at what it does. Eventually, it gets to a point where it’s not only following the process and procedure for a given task, but it begins to test and achieve better results.
Being able to successfully run your firm in the digital age and compete for new business requires an in-depth evaluation of your processes and staff. By identifying your firm’s top challenges and trying out different solutions, your firm will be better equipped for long-term success. Technology, in particular, will be essential for all accounting firms that wish to stay competitive now and in the future.
After all, you started your firm to truly help your clients, despite the associated roadblocks. The good news is that these obstacles aren’t insurmountable, and they might be mostly solved with the right technology. Read the full whitepaper here.
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