For tax and accounting professionals, time is a precious commodity. Every day, practitioners are faced with tasks that are time-consuming and low value. What if there was a way to free up these precious hours for higher-value opportunities?
That’s the promise of automation. By removing manual, time-consuming compliance tasks from workloads, tax and accounting professionals can reclaim those hours and use them for greater value activities such as advisory services.
How can automation help your firm achieve more?
What is automation, and what are its benefits for tax and accounting professionals?
Tax and accounting professionals are under constant pressure to do more with less. Automation promises to help professionals achieve that. How does it work? Automation’s main purpose is to save your firm time and make life simpler with more efficient processes. It uses technology to streamline processes, reduce or eliminate manual tasks, and reduce labor costs.
Additionally, automation helps firms:
- Keep up to date with the most recent tax law changes
- Boost productivity
- Keep your best employees and attract new top talent
- Use technology to your advantage and plan for future success
- Maximize collaboration between staff and clients
There are a number of different ways that automation can be used in tax and accounting. Some common examples include:
- Accounts reconciliation
- Updating financial data
- Preparing financial statements
- Categorizing transactions
- Email and communication
- Data entry and retrieval
Each of these automations can save help time, increase productivity, and elevate your processes. For example, automating data entry can reduce the time it takes to enter information into a system, while automating email can automate the process of sending and responding to emails. Simply put, automation makes your life simpler.
The promise of automation is more time, less frustration, and greater opportunities. And it’s key to helping firms stay competitive in an increasingly digital world.
How does automating compliance tasks free up time for higher-value activities?
It wasn’t so long ago that tax and accounting professionals spent most of their days manually inputting data and sifting through paperwork. In the last few years, however, technologies like automation and accounting software have changed the profession dramatically. Gone are the days of painstakingly entering data into tedious spreadsheets and pouring over financial statements — automation has put this to rest.
With technology taking over manual bookkeeping and paper-based processes, tax and accounting professionals can devote more time to higher-value activities such as providing financial advice, strategic planning, and helping clients navigate the complexities of tax law. This changing skill set allows firms to go beyond traditional compliance roles and become trusted advisors for clients — resulting in stronger client relationships and more fulfilling work.
Grow and succeed with advisory services
Advisory services are more in demand than ever. With automation, you can create the time and capacity to focus on building relationships with current and potential clients that need these services. This can range from forecasting and budgeting to risk management and financial planning.
Plus, these are services that clients both want and need. A recent survey from CPA.com found 68% of clients want their CPA firms to provide strategic consulting services. Additionally, 29% said this was their greatest unmet need.
Tax and accounting professionals who can adapt quickly to the latest technology and automations are well-positioned for long-term success. Automating compliance tasks helps you gain time back, better manage client relationships, and deliver more value in the form of proactive advice.
Now is the time to take advantage of automating compliance tasks and start offering more advisory services. With automation, you can create a more valuable and rewarding experience for clients and gain back precious time for yourself as well. So, if you’re looking to boost your business in the age of automation, automating compliance tasks is the way to go.
The automation opportunity
Automation is quickly becoming a staple of the modern tax and accounting profession. By automating compliance tasks, you free up time to focus on tasks that not only save even more time in the long run but also prove to be much more fulfilling — like giving clients advice, helping them steer through the complexities of tax law, and assisting them as they strive to reach their ultimate strategic goals. Automation provides an opportunity for professionals to strengthen their client relationships through work that is both rewarding and valuable.
The key to success is adapting quickly with automation so you can take advantage of the time and cost savings it offers. With automating compliance tasks, you’ll be able to grow your business in the age of automation and create a more valuable experience for clients — along with some much-needed extra time for yourself.