By Natasha Chryssafi and Neil Parsons, Senior Director of Product Management, Wolters Kluwer TAA Europe, and Managing Director of Wolters Kluwer TAA UK.
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.
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
“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”
“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”
“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”
“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”
2025 is fast approaching, and the new year brings new trends in the industry. Are you prepared for what this means for your role and your practice?
In this article, Natasha Chryssafi and Neil Parsons, our experts at Wolters Kluwer, share their thoughts on the changing accountancy landscape, and how you can best adapt and thrive. From the talent evolution to the increased integration of AI; these are the top four trends of 2025.
Natasha’s predictions for 2025
Natasha Chryssafi is an expert in developing solutions that drive growth for accounting practices and SMEs, and solve challenges for accountants and business owners. She leads product management for Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, Europe, bringing her extensive knowledge and experience to customers across the region. Natasha’s predictions include:
An emphasis on cybersecurity and data privacy.
A skill shift and talent evolution.
1. The skill shift and talent evolution
With the increased shift towards digital-first practices, I think this is going to lead to a need to upskill and reskill as an accountant. Your job won’t just be about bookkeeping and data entry skills, but also being able to offer optimisations and efficiencies through tech.
Two ways I recommend getting started include:
Every company wants to be able to reduce time spent on manual tasks and focus on more strategic activities. This is where automation comes in as it enables you to speed up manual tasks like data entry and report generation. This is a win-win for both employee and business.
Artificial intelligence is only going to become more engrained in our daily lives and workflows, so learning how to use it in your job is key to staying competitive.
2. Emphasis on cybersecurity and data privacy
I also think that the cyberthreat landscape is quite worrying. Cybercriminals are only becoming more sophisticated in their methods, and the financial services industry is a huge target because of the nature of the sensitive information you’re working with.
In 2025 I would consider elements such as:
Secure access to sensitive financial information with measures like multi-factor authentication and biometric security features (such as fingerprint or facial recognition).
And as cloud adoption increases, I think accountants will benefit from more advanced encryption technologies to protect sensitive financial data. For example, end-to-end encryption will become standard.
Neil’s predictions for 2025
As Managing Director of Wolters Kluwer TAA UK, Neil Parsons has a passion for driving innovation for our UK customers. With over 20 years of accounting industry experience, Neil began his career as an accountant, before moving onto the technology side of the industry. His predictions include:
The increased integration of AI.
A rise in sustainability in accounting.
3. Increased integration of artificial intelligence (AI)
I don’t think it’ll come as a surprise that the AI explosion we saw in 2024 will continue into 2025. Except I think that it won’t just be a tool we use on the side, but it’ll become integrated into all our workflows.
For practices looking to use AI, these are the two places I’d start:
AI allows you to analyse vast amounts of financial data quickly. Predictive analytics will help you forecast future revenue, expenses, and cash flow, enabling better financial planning and decision-making—a whole new dimension of advice in client advisory services.
Routine and repetitive tasks like bookkeeping and bank reconciliations can be almost entirely automated by AI. For example, personal tax automation tools can automate the extraction and categorisation of tax data from client documents.
4. The rise of sustainability in accounting
I believe that as businesses face a growing pressure to address environmental and social issues, accountants will play a crucial role in measuring and reporting on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors.
This may sound like a challenge, but it’s straightforward really. You’ll already have the data skills for ESG analysis—as more businesses show an interest in this area, there’s opportunity to build value-add services alongside conventional accounting. This may involve looking outside of the usual data you deal with, gathering reports on ESG, and providing advisory services.
Armed with Neil and Natasha’s predictions, you’re in good stead to grow your business and turn challenges into opportunities in 2025. Want to learn more? Download the full eBook, 4 predictions for tax and accounting professionals in 2025.
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