Why Your Accounting Firm Needs to Move Into the Digital Age

Recently updated on March 7th, 2024 at 10:37 am

Despite the technology available to make their work easier, many accountants and accounting firm still use paper. When it comes to ledgers, a large percentage have moved from paper to digital. In 2017, one in five accountants still used paper ledgers. Adoption there has likely grown, but 45% of businesses still make the majority of their payments with paper checks.

Just think of what these accounting firms could do if they moved into the digital age and took paper out of the equation or what your firm could do if it became fully digital.

The Benefits of Using the Cloud and Automation

The cloud and automation are two of the biggest buzzwords in business. But behind every buzzword is some truth.

The cloud is simply an analogy for the internet. The work done on paper and in software on separate computers is done on the internet. What does this mean?

• Your team can work wherever and whenever they have an internet connection.
• Your clients will get the same type of 24/7 access to their financial data and reports.
• Collaboration can happen in real time as both you and your clients work together through the same online interface.

Automation takes the rote work that you can do in your sleep but that you still have to take the time to do and turns it into an algorithm that can run on a schedule.

Becoming More than a Bookkeeper Through Advisory

Businesses want more from their accounting firm. Most traditional bookkeeping tasks have become commodities because they can be automated. In this new environment, the only way to compete with compliance work is with the lowest price unless your firm adds value with advisory services.

Your clients need someone who can turn their data into insights. They are good at what they do, and your firm may be good at what it does, but does that really show when you don’t have time to advise them because you are doing all their compliance work manually?

That work can just happen. That is the best way to think about automation. It just happens while your team does other work. That other work is the key. It is how you show you are good at what you do. It is where you use your years of experience and expertise in finance to change the trajectory of your clients’ businesses and become a trusted partner in their future growth.

Transform Your Business

Compliance work, tax preparation, and meeting with your clients once a year is no longer the route to growth that it once was for accounting firms. In this digital age, most of that work is busy work that can be automated to free up time your firm can use for real growth through advisory.

PathQuest can help you digitize your firm. PathQuest SCALE is an automated accounting solution that integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, Intact and other platforms, keeping all client data up to date in real time. PathQuest BI, our accounting business intelligence software, will help you provide your clients with accounting dashboards and reports that fit their business and give them insights that enable them to grow. And finally, PathQuest® AP is a smart accounts payable automation software that helps to streamline and collaborate accounts payable in a single interface.

Find out how you can benefit from AP automation by booking a demo.