Recently, as businesses struggled to adjust and maintain continuity of operations, the role of accountants came to the forefront. They were key to helping businesses forecast cash flows, access public relief measures, comply with emergency legislation, and assess tax measures. Even as we move into the post-pandemic era, those same businesses expect Accounting firms to remit such business and strategic advice that goes beyond traditional bookkeeping services.
For instance, AI can take up the manual data-entry work to help accountants focus on providing value-driven services that delight clients, boost profits, and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Click here to learn more about the potential of AI in accounting.
Let’s explore further.
How can CPA firms profit from digitization?
A recent research by Members of the Maryland Association of CPAs, Inc. has shown 45% of accounting professionals would like to automate repetitive, time-consuming accounting tasks such as data entry and number-crunching. Additionally, 54% of accountants could provide faster service thanks to technology, and 43% felt that technology improved their client service and satisfaction.
Equipping your CPAs with modern technologies like AI and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) allows them to create a robust, centralized accounting function that builds more agile and resilient business operations. Moreover, such technologies eliminate data silos and remove manual, time-consuming tasks from the picture, thus enabling accountants to serve more clients with fewer resources (time and money), bringing business profits for CPA firms.
Moreover, accounting firms that present their employees with the opportunity to engage in more meaningful work, attract and retain talent that serves clients better and add to the profits. Additionally, today’s CPAs want on-the-go access to information and expect to stay connected even when not in the office. Hence, equipping them with such security technologies can help work across devices and connections.
In the Journal of Accountancy, CPA Steven Kurinsky has stated, “We should embrace the technology that will help do our data-entry roles so we can focus our time on higher-level work. A bot could replace our need to act as bookkeepers, but our clients will continue to seek our advice for business strategy, tax strategy, and business operations.”
So, how does digitization help top accounting firms streamline client operations and earn more profits?
1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and cloud technology enable centralized data management, streamlining the flow of documents and information and allowing all employees to access data on a unified platform without emailing back and forth. This eliminates errors and reduces data silos. Moreover, automation takes up all time-consuming tasks like number punching, three-way matching, assignment of responsibility, etc. A wholesome and intuitive datasphere simplifies capturing, sharing, and analyzing data sets, reduces costs, improves data accuracy, and allows accountants to focus on strategic tasks that warrant ingenuity.
2. 80% of the data generated worldwide is unstructured and needs to be rendered into manageable forms. AI-enabled accounting technology uses machine learning to surface trends and patterns to make sense of unstructured accounting information. Moreover, AI can put accounting information at everybody’s fingertips and surface the most relevant search results, so people spend less time finding data and more time serving clients.
3. Actionable insights generated by AI help CPA firms provide additional value-added services to clients, including strategic problem-solving and consulting future cash-flow forecasting and adaptive thinking. Moreover, accounting technology supports CPA firms in creating growth-centric business management plans for clients. Providing such services-as-a-product leads to higher client satisfaction levels and brings business profits for CPA firms.
4. Cloud accounting technology has its benefits. Saving information to the cloud improves data security and continuity and enhances information access, thus reducing operational costs and increasing profits.
5. In the case of a significant event such as the pandemic, CPAs need access to information more quickly than ever, such as political, economic, and government data. In such a scenario, AI-driven systems create a unified platform for accountants to access all information, find trends, and build reports to help clients battle uncertainties.
6. Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies provide more effective ways to explore, analyze, and share data and collaborate with other departments to build more integrated operations. Moreover, distributed ledger technologies powered by blockchain are helpful for process development, records management, auditing, and much more.
How can Sentient Solutions bring more Profits to your Firm?
Due to rapid digitization, CPA firms have expanded their services beyond basic accounting (bookkeeping, payroll, etc.) to incorporate more strategic services with technologies like AI, RPA, advanced analytics, cloud, and much more.
At Sentient, we help CPA firms improve scale, reduce operating costs, and earn more profits with accounting technologies powered by AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation (RPA). We leverage our highly qualified workforce into a blend of onshore and offshore resources, which include Chartered Accountants (CAs), MBAs, and CPAs, to improve accuracy, speed, and transparency in accounting activities.
Our technologies for accounting bring business profits for CPA firms by driving significant improvements in client satisfaction as high as 50% or more cost savings.
To know more about our technologies and services, including staffing, tax, reporting back-office, or compliance, please feel free to schedule a personalized consultation with our experts.