Adapt and prosper: The future for accounting firms

Editor’s note: The following article originally appeared in New Jersey CPA magazine. It is reprinted here with permission.

BY CHRISTOPHER R. CICALESE, CPA, MSTFP

If the pandemic has taught the accounting profession anything, it is that traditional accounting firms full of paper, office hours and in-person meetings are officially on the outs and firms must start to adapt to the new era.

The days of ledger paper and in-person meetings are scarcer than ever, and tech stacks and remote work policies are now the focus for many firms. To compound the issue, the profession has started to see a talent shortage that is requiring firms to figure out how to increase capacity to maintain sanity during busy time and leverage their teams appropriately.

Client Experience

At the beginning of the pandemic, virtually every professional was forced home. For tax professionals, it came at the worst possible time with the April 15 deadline looming.

Despite the various extensions, firms had to pivot, if they had not already, to adopt an electronic delivery system. Client portal systems and safe file-sharing services that focus specifically on the electronic delivery of tax returns became vitally important. But firms shouldn’t stop there. Consumers are using apps to conduct many facets of business and commerce, and humanto-human interaction is less prevalent. Even with businesses returning to more “normal” operations, customers will still want a choice in how they interact. And this includes clients’ interactions with their accounting firms.

In addition to improving the customer experience with apps, overall accounting has changed for the better. Clients who were stuck on outdated software that made seamless collaboration next to impossible were forced to make a change, or at least be more open-minded about change, so they could run their businesses remotely. The increasing prevalence of cloud-based software has opened the possibility for any accounting firm to adopt more of an advisory approach to their services and provide more value by automating lowerend services.

Internal Changes

Any accountant who has had the opportunity to follow the #TaxTwitter community on social media will tell you that traditional firms are under fire. Various “members” have been promoting their firms’ low-hour busy season work week, unlimited supply of talent and absence of time tracking. To some, this all seems too good to be true. But potentially, to some extent, this is the way of the future.