Accountants lagging in cloud adoption

It had to happen, of course, and it just shows you that surveys are about who is asked and what they are asked more than they are about what is actually happening in the world. No sooner has a surveyappeared saying accountants are already gungho about the cloud than another appears suggesting they are woefully lagging behind and missing the boat.  

This study, called ‘The Changing Role of Accountancy’, comes from Intuit UK. The headline finding of the research is that 88 percent of UK small businesses expect their accountants to embrace cloud-based solutions and 58 percent of them feel so strongly about it that they are willing to pay more for the privilege.

These findings would seem to show that there is a large perceived gap between the services accountants currently offer their small business clients, and the level of innovation that their clients are demanding.

Conducted by Coleman Parkes in September and October 2013, this UK research includes feedback from 100 senior managers and owners of accountancy firms with between five and 250 employees. In addition 200 senior managers and owners of SMBs with between two and 250 employees were interviewed.

According to Inuit, the findings illustrate the urgency that British accountants face to move from desktop to cloud-based software or risk losing clients. This does beg the question, of course, of where the disgruntled SMBs might turn for an alternate source of accountancy services if the vast majority remain unclouded.

But the research does seem to show that many SMBs now have a low opinion of their accountants capabilities, with 40 percent of them believing their accountants are far too traditional to move to the cloud and 72 percent believing their accountants should update their software to the cloud. This includes being able to service their clients anytime, anywhere and on any device from laptop, tablet and smartphone.

“Intuit’s ‘Changing Role of Accountancy Study’ is a wake-up call for British accountants to embrace new technology and offer new services. Their clients expect this and many are increasingly looking for their accountants to drop the ‘number cruncher’ label and offer cloud based services. It is a worry that 62 percent of accountants don’t recognise the additional revenue opportunities associated with providing business-consulting advice, despite 95 percent of their customers willing to pay more,” said Mike Williams, Head of Business, Intuit.

 According to the survey 65 percent of small business owners expect their accountants to operate as strategic business advisors, with 82 percent expecting their accountants to be more proactive in developing value added services. Those firms who are not prepared to embrace modern practices could lose their clients to more progressive accountants.

The findings also highlighted the technology divide that exists accountants and their clients, with88 percent of SMBs believing that it is important for their accountants to embrace cloud-based technology or will soon expect them to. Unfortunately, only 61 percent of accountants surveyed think their clients would like cloud-based accounting solutions, and only 37 percent are offering these services already.

What is clear is that 82 percent of SMBs are seeking more services that add value to the relationship with their accountants. This includes increasing their skills base, modernising their brand and updating their accountancy software. This would help accountants move to the position of consultant or advisor. Encouragingly half of accountants agree that they need to strategically change their position in the market and 42 percent see the cloud enabling them to do this.

The survey also shows that the SMBs also accept that such services would cost them more, but see the investment as worthwhile. They are prepared to pay for additional services such as business consulting advice (65 percent) and project financing and reporting (72 percent). More than half would pay for cloud-based accounting solutions. This does suggest an opportunity for accountants by using the cloud to free up their clients to concentrate on their core businesses rather than the machinations of financial management.

 “According to the latest GDP figures from October 2013, Britain is now moving towards recovery. With improved economic performance across nearly every sector this is an exciting time. At Intuit we play a key role in helping accountants make the most of the opportunities available, and by using the latest technology they can enhance their client solutions. We are committed to offering them training and support to move their practices to cloud-based accounting, whilst helping them to grow their practices as Britain’s economy starts to recover,” said Williams.