Businesses See The Need For Speed From Their Accountants

A recent survey has shown that many SME’s believe speed is one of the most essential requirements of their accountants, along with them being tech savvy. The survey was carried out by business software provider Exact in which they spoke to 2,500 SME’s and accountants.
Because their clients are looking for them to be able to work rapidly and accurately accountants are gaining more IT and software knowledge so they can keep up with the demands placed upon them. Talking about this Gavin Fell, who is the general manager of Exact, commented: “Rising demand for information ‘now’ combined with advances in new technology mean that accounting is increasingly seen as a commodity. Accountants that can keep the pace providing real-time and in-depth business insight for clients, have the best chance.”

The report on the survey in the Accountancy Age also said that:

‘The survey revealed that 67% of accountants highlighted better integration of admin software as a crucial focus area, as well as replacing paper forms with online forms (62%), and improving home/mobile access (43%). There has been a drop in ‘spreadsheet accounting’ from 25% in 2015 to 20% this year, and the number of UK SME customers that are entering their data online, are slowly on the rise from 10% last year to 16% this year.

Less than half, 40%, think that ‘robotisation’ is over-hyped, and yet 23% believe that highly-automated competitors pose a very real threat. When it comes to their SME customers, only 10% would trust a robot to do their accounting.’

In fact accountants in the UK are a lot more tech savvy than most of their European counterparts, with 45% of them using some sort of online solutions to aid their administration, which is only beaten into 2nd place by the Netherlands where 60% of accountants use digital help.

For more on this story you can visit the Accountancy Age website at the following link: Accountancy Speed Essential To SME`s

And if you require any help with your own accounts, tax advice or advice on growing or funding your business then please contact our offices here at WHR Accountants by ringing us on 028 3752 2909.