Accountancy practice management software has come a long way. Today, features like automated billing and reconciliations are easily integrated into the day-to-day practice workflow of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK customers.

Our employees work side by side with our customers to create and manage these solutions – driven by a deep understanding of their needs and addressing the rapid changes in their environment.

However, it’s often hard to look beyond improving performance in day-to-day operations. Amid Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptions, accountancy practices and their clients are dealing with an unpredictable economic landscape. Future business planning can appear daunting.

However, technology can support accountancy practices (and their clients) in making informed business decisions, and planning for the future. In the first part of our Accountancy Practice Management for Future-Fit Growth series, we’ll explore how they can use technology to define and easily track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Doing so gives practices closer control of performance tracking, and deeper insights that will inform strategic growth plans.
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Saving Time

For several decades, business technology platforms have enabled practices to track performance metrics that they have customised. This highlights areas that qualify for improvement and underpins strategic planning.

Contemporary technology, such as CCH KPI Monitoring, makes setting up KPIs faster and easier for accountancy practices than ever before. This is vital today. The current business landscape demands that firms assess and amend KPIs more frequently, based on fresh market variables. KPIs such as client retention rate and business time-to-recovery have become increasingly prominent performance indicators in the past year. If clunky technology makes KPI management difficult, practices have less time and insight to plan future growth.

Reducing Risk
CCH KPI Monitoring makes it far easier to track KPIs and report on them. This is fundamental in minimising risk. For example, if a KPI is set to track and escalate debt filtered by overdue dates, the ability to easily set alerts and automatically generate reports is critical to practice performance management.

Some practices are manually running monthly reports to measure KPIs. Others are running real-time reporting engines, a key feature of CCH KPI Monitoring. This latter solution allows practices to review essential data at any time – covering both performance management and compliance requirements. They can do so remotely or on-premise.

This means that firms can assess issues before they become problems, and thus act proactively. Real-time reporting is a true asset in building a future-fit practice.

The Proof is in the Practice
A number of Wolters Kluwer customers have been using CCH KPI Monitoring for several years now. Our customers look to us when they need to be right. Ryecroft Glenton has successfully integrated CCH KPI Monitoring with its own system. This consolidates information from several sources, including CCH Central and CCH Practice Management.

“We can use the year end date to trigger a sequence of reminders. Have we asked for the books? Have they been received? If a request to a client has been outstanding for a certain period, the partner will receive an alert via email. For limited companies, we can monitor the corporation tax and Companies House filing deadlines – as well as the different deadlines for pension schemes”

– Ian Smith, partner at Ryecroft Glenton

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Did you know that 66% of accounting professionals believe that the value of their firm drops if they don’t use AI? While many might wonder if AI is a threat to their job, this new technology presents an opportunity for growth.

AI won’t be replacing accountants any time soon, as any practice owner knows that success is about so much more than just the data. Instead, it’s about working with colleagues, managing the practice, overseeing strategy, and presenting the right numbers in the right way. All of these are functions which an AI can’t cover.

So what can it do, and how can you adopt AI for practice growth?

The three pillars of practice growth through AI

In our recent whitepaper, we conducted a deep dive into the types of AI you can use in practice, what their functionalities are, and the benefits. What did we find? There were three main themes that keep recurring throughout our research, which we’ve concluded are ‘the three pillars of growth’.

These three pillars encapsulate the ways in which AI enables your practice to grow: time saving, cost saving, and enhanced client experience. Let’s look at how you can enact these pillars in your firm by using AI.

Time saving

‍Time savings is one of the most immediate benefits of AI, through the automation of repetitive tasks.

As an accountant, repetitive tasks will be no stranger to you. But AI offers a way to speed up routine activities such as data entry, transaction processing and reconciliation. By handing these tasks to the AI, you’re able to free up your employees’ time to focus on more strategic and value-add activities such as consulting and advisory.

This shift not only increases productivity, but saves costs and enhances job satisfaction among employees, as they’re now working on more meaningful tasks.

Cost saving

AI is capable of processing large volumes of data with remarkable precisions—far more and far faster than any human could. This therefore minimises the risk of mistakes that can occur during manual data handling, leading to improved accuracy and reduced errors. The result? A reduced risk of compliance fines or costly errors.

Financial fraud is a growing concern for accounting practices, so AI algorithms can analyse vast amounts of financial data to detect unusual patterns and anomalies that may indicate suspicious activity. AI keeps your practice protected from money-laundering and hackers, as their techniques become more sophisticated, and harder for people to detect.

On top of protecting your practice from costly mistakes, AI offers improved forecasting and budgeting to help tighten spend. By analysing historical data and current market trends, AI tools can generate reliable forecasts that help you create more precise budgets and financial projections. This improved accuracy enables you to allocate resources more effectively.

As your practice grows, the volume of financial data you handle increases. AI systems can effortlessly scaleto accommodate this growth, maintaining consistent performance without the need for proportional increases in staffing. How does this save you money? No need to buy more licences and have on-premise software installed—just pay for what you use as your company expands.

‍Enhanced experience

AI brings a new dimension to the client experience through data analysis and insights. With advanced algorithms, AI can analyse complex datasets to identify patterns and trends that might not be immediately apparent. This capability provides you with insights that can drive strategic planning and decision-making.

Traditional financial reporting often involves a lag between the occurrence of transactions and their reflection in financial statements. While AI eliminates this delay by enabling continuous tracking and reporting of financial transactions. This real-time visibility into a clients’ financial health allows you to adjust and respond to issues.

Finally, you can use AI to offer personalised financial services to your clients, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. By analysing individual client needs and preferences, AI can tailor financial advice and services to each client, offering a more engaging experience.

These are the three pillars of practice growth when using AI. To learn more about harnessing the power of AI and how it affects your profession and your practice, download our whitepaper, How to Use AI to Grow Your Accounting Practice.

Mohammed Sidat, Head of Product Management at Wolters Kluwer TAA UK

Aug 2024

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