Small business makes up the majority of businesses in Australia. The sector’s ever-changing needs drive change through multiple sectors of the economy including those which provide the support and advice small businesses require to grow and prosper. One example is how many Australian small businesses have moved their accounting services requirements to the cloud and how accountants and bookkeepers have adapted to this change.
Intuit recently hosted an Accountants Roadshow across key regions of NSW, Victoria and QLD during, which we surveyed 438 accountants – most of whom are small businesses themselves – about the biggest opportunities their practices face over the next three years.
Expectations of small businesses keep changing
The research revealed that small businesses want forward-thinking accountants who can provide insights and guidance on managing their business.
The findings also confirmed that this is an industry with its finger on the pulse of small business. Accountants and bookkeepers overwhelmingly recognise the biggest opportunity for them and their small-business clients is the growth of advisory services which are already overshadowing the importance small businesses place on standard services such as data entry.
When we asked accounting futurist and Accodex CEO Chris Hooper about the findings he said the trend of diversifying into advisory has emerged over several years. Pleasingly, he credits cloud accounting with opening up a plethora of business information system consulting opportunities which didn’t exist previously.
With the move to more advisory work Chris is unequivocal that talent will be one of the key differentiators for successful accounting firms. While he maintains attracting and retaining tech-savvy accountants is a smart move he points out there is a noticeable gap between available talent and demand. Chris believes firms can expect to pay top dollar for good talent, alternatively they will have to foster and develop it internally.
Faced with this rapidly changing small business and accounting landscape, Chris maintains everyone in an accounting firm should be able to operate from a tablet anywhere in the world. If not they have a lot of catching up to do.
His comments are an indication of how quickly cloud accounting packages and other advances in technology have reduced the need for data entry and other basic traditional accounting functions as these become increasingly automated.
Improved value through enhanced advice
Our small-business customers consistently tell us they want a forward-thinking accountant who can provide insights, guidance and solutions in managing their business.
And accountants appear to be listening. The survey revealed that accountants prioritised the growing opportunity to change the nature of their engagement with small business clients. Using number-crunching insights driven by cloud accounting and feeding these data-driven indicators back to small business in real time is one very important example.
Intuit’s view is not only is the future of small business service moving to more advisory services but we are and will continue to see more compelling and real-time insights through machine learning.
Embracing the future
These are exciting times and small businesses are gaining access to quality advice and rich information, which would have been inconceivable a few years ago. We’re passionate about supporting the accounting industry as it drives this transformation and we’re committed to helping upskill accountants and bookkeepers as we respond together to the ever-changing needs of an increasingly sophisticated small-business sector.
Nicolette Maury, Vice President and Country Manager, Intuit Australia
