If your accounting firm fails to adapt to innovations within technology that could help it save time and money, it will get left behind – it’s as simple as that.
Advances in technology have meant that repetitive, time-consuming tasks (such as those associated with back office bookkeeping), can be automated; relieving humans of the need to spend hours toiling over work that doesn’t generate as much revenue as others an accounting professional might perform. It’s worth noting that many such tasks – and even more complex ones that accounting teams don’t have the manpower to fulfil – can be carried out successfully by outsourcing tax preparation services, who have teams of qualified professionals standing by to help you maintain, or increase your workload. It’s also worth mentioning that many such outsourced service providers use innovative technology to help them provide you with accurate and timely work, including the following:
- Cloud-based accounting
Enabling accounting professionals to access reliable and accurate financial data in real-time, from wherever they happen to be, cloud-based accounting tools have transformed the way businesses operate.
2. Integration of accounting software
Integrating the many different software solutions accounting professionals typically use to help them manage invoices, handle payroll, process payments and manage financial reports, helps to automate the sharing of information, and speed up the overall pace of each process. As manual entry is gradually eliminated, errors will also be significantly reduced.
3. Digital currency
Presenting both opportunities and challenges, digital currencies like Ethereum or Bitcoin help to streamline transactions, increase transparency and reduce fees, but only if procedures are followed properly. Digital currency transactions must be recorded as other financial transactions are, and this requires investment in the latest technology so that prevailing exchange rates can be accounted for, and capital gains tax reported at the appropriate rate.
4. Blockchain
Many businesses nowadays, use blockchain to help them record financial transactions in a ledger that’s open, secure, and digital. As well as encouraging transparency and auditability among financial transactions, blockchain also offers authorized users access to the transaction records, wherever they may be, and whenever they may need them.
5. Artificial intelligence
In the average CPA firm office, historical financial data must be analyzed and reported so that well-informed decisions can be made and elaborate reports can be generated. With the help of AI, however, accounting professionals can expedite all tasks related to data, such as transaction coding and bookkeeping.
Additionally, AI will give accountants the ability to offer higher-value services such as financial advising and business strategy implementation. Helping to improve the clarity of earnings and spending patterns, among others, AI tools can track changes to a company’s finances, and essentially, transform the way in which a business operates.
6. Machine learning
As a sub-genre of AI, ML analyses huge swathes of data with the help of algorithms and statistics, to detect patterns; helping CPA firms simplify and automate validation and categorization tasks. For example, ML techniques can be used by an accountant to help them check the relevance of additional expenses, by taking a large set of expenses, and analyzing them. Ultimately, this should help boost an accounting company’s productivity.
7. Robotic software
By automating repetitive tasks, robotic software helps CPA firms reduce many of their operational costs, but the key is to investing in robotic software that has been customized to carry out a range of transactions, such as generating reports, entering financial data and so on.
One advantage of using outsourced bookkeeping for CPA’s, is that they often use the latest technological innovations when providing their services to CPA firms. This then enables those accounting professionals using their services, to pass the benefits onto their clients, without having to invest in the technology themselves.
