Ghent & London  – 9 March 2026 –  Silverfin, the cloud-first accountancy SaaS platform, has appointed An Maes as its new CEO, effective March 1, 2026.  An will lead Silverfin’s ambitious global expansion plans and the diversification of its product and service offerings.

Founded in Ghent, Belgium in 2013 with a mission to ‘connect the world’s financial data’, Silverfin’s cloud-based platform is now used by more than 1,000 accountancy practices worldwide. This includes all of the Big 4, 90% of large accountancy firms in Belgium and 30 of the top 100 accounting firms in the UK. Its platform integrates with leading financial software to centralise live data, automate compliance workflows and deliver AI-driven insights.

An joined Silverfin in 2019 after more than seven years at EY as an accountant. She most recently served as General Manager International, where she led expansion of the SaaS business beyond Belgium.  An also strengthened relationships with leading global networks and brands, a combination that continues to support rapid growth.

An will now focus on accelerating adoption of Silverfin’s cloud-based platform across key international markets including the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark. She will expand the reach of its platform-as-a-service offering to accounting firms and software partners globally, and reinforce the company’s strong position within the Belgian accounting and financial ecosystem. Under her leadership, Silverfin will continue helping firms standardise and automate compliance, improve quality and gain visibility across their client portfolios, creating capacity for higher-value advisory services.

Visma, who acquired Silverfin in 2023, comments on the appointment. Joris Dresselaers, business area director at Visma, says:

“Our goal at Visma is to provide the best tools for the financial professionals of tomorrow. Under An’s leadership, Silverfin will continue to bridge the gap between complex data and actionable insights for accountancy firms. She has a proven track record of helping practices move beyond manual compliance to become true strategic partners for their clients, and we are excited to see her scale that impact globally.”

About Silverfin

Silverfin is a cloud-first SaaS platform that transforms accounting processes, helping firms run efficiently today and in the future. Founded in Belgium in 2013 and acquired by Visma in 2023, Silverfin serves over 1,000  leading accounting firms (including all of the Big 4) across 18 countries. The platform brings together live client data, automated accounting, and compliance workflows into one solution, enhancing efficiency, quality and profitability. Learn more on our website, or visit us on LinkedIn. 

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Already active in Luxembourg, Silverfin’s relocation reflects its growth alongside its established global presence in Ghent and Mont-Saint-Guibert (Belgium), Gouda (Netherlands) and London (UK). With a team of more than 200 employees across five offices, Silverfin supports over 1000 accounting firms across 18 countries.

“Luxembourg firms are dealing with the same pressures we see across Europe – tight deadlines, complex compliance and clients who expect more advisory support. Our new office lets us deliver the local support these firms need, in their language. With German launching soon alongside French and English, we’re making it easier for Luxembourg practices to work the way they want to work.’,” said Bassam Alaoui, Regional Manager of Silverfin Luxembourg. ”

A strategic location at the heart of Howald

The new office is located in Howald at The Corner – Monceau, positioned at what will become Luxembourg’s main multimodal transport hub linking train, bus and tram lines. The location gives clients easy access to the team and puts Silverfin at the centre of Luxembourg’s growing business district.

Supporting Luxembourg’s  accounting community

The office brings together Silverfin’s eight-person Luxembourg team – covering product, sales, customer success, support, and marketing – and creates space for planned recruitment as the local customer base grows.

Beyond day-to-day operations, the office will host industry events for Luxembourg accounting professionals. Silverfin is celebrating the opening with a client networking event on 12 March, where it will announce that the platform is becoming fully available in German alongside French and English, with all updates included at no additional cost.

For more information or to RSVP to the opening events, please contact:

Justine Biren | [email protected]

About Silverfin

Silverfin is a cloud-first SaaS platform that transforms accounting processes, helping firms run efficiently today and in the future. Founded in Belgium in 2013 and acquired by Visma in 2023, Silverfin serves over 1000 leading accounting firms (including all of the Big 4) across 18 countries. The platform brings together live client data, automated accounting, and compliance workflows into one solution, enhancing efficiency, quality and profitability. Learn more on our website, or visit us on LinkedIn. 

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We’re seeing these shifts play out across all 18 countries where Silverfin operates. Accountants who can scale their advisory work alongside compliance are thriving and those who can’t are struggling to keep up.

Our VP of Product, Martin Lysholt Nielsen, recently outlined how we’re responding to these market dynamics: invest heavily in technology that reduces time spent on compliance while helping firms deliver more advisory services. Not because advisory is new territory for accountants – you’re already having these conversations with clients – but because you need better tools to do it consistently across every client file as your firm grows.

2026 market trends driving our product roadmap

1. Firm consolidations aren’t slowing down

Your technology stack has become a critical factor in M&A. Acquiring firms need platforms that accelerate integration. Firms preparing for sale need modern systems that demonstrate operational maturity. We’re building for both scenarios.

2. AI works best when accountants stay in control

The last two years have transformed what’s technically possible. But here’s what we’ve learned from deploying AI across thousands of accounting firms: the technology works best when it augments human expertise rather than replacing it. That’s why we’re focused on ‘with AI’ solutions – tools that make you faster and more confident, not systems that try to do your job for you.

3. Compliance alone won’t differentiate your firm

Compliance is rapidly becoming table stakes. Your clients expect you to handle their statutory obligations efficiently – and then they expect more. Cash flow advice. Help understanding where their money actually goes. Strategic input on growth decisions. Firms that can’t deliver this level of service are losing clients to those who can.

4. User experience is a competitive advantage

We’ve always prioritised user experience, but we’re doubling down because great UX isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about getting new hires productive faster in a tight labour market. It’s about reducing errors. It’s about making complex work feel manageable.

5 core product investments

1. Closing the gaps in our compliance offering

Different markets have different regulatory requirements, and those requirements constantly evolve. We’re committed to staying ahead – expanding our support for corporate tax filings, statutory accounts, and compliance templates across all regions. This is foundational work that never stops.

2. Dramatically reducing time to compliance

Compliance is becoming commoditised while governments demand more information and documentation from businesses. We’re resolving that tension by making compliance work radically faster through automated data flows, efficient workflows, smarter templates, and Agentic AI that handles the tedious parts of review work.

The Silverfin Assistant is evolving into a significantly more powerful co-pilot. The goal isn’t to eliminate accountant involvement – it’s to free you from repetitive tasks so you can focus on judgment calls and client conversations.

3. Portfolio intelligence that scales with your firm

Managing hundreds of client files shouldn’t mean hundreds of individual decisions. When legislative changes hit, you need instant visibility across your entire portfolio. When patterns emerge – margin compression, cash flow strain, tax optimisation opportunities – you need to spot them once and act on them everywhere.

We’re building portfolio-level intelligence that works at firm scale. Proactive alerts surface issues before they become problems. Pattern recognition identifies opportunities across similar clients automatically. And managers can cascade insights, actions and discussion topics across entire client segments with a single decision. This is how you maintain quality advisory at scale without burning out your senior team.

4. Company advisory and data visualisation

Advisory isn’t one thing – it’s a spectrum. The challenge isn’t just delivering these services, it’s doing it consistently across every client file, regardless of which team member owns that relationship.

We’re building the complete platform for client conversations – from preparation through execution to follow-up. Everything you need lives in one place.

That’s why we’ve launched Talking Points – a significant step forward in how Silverfin supports advisory work. It solves a real problem: in growing firms, managers and partners can’t personally oversee every client conversation, but they need confidence that key topics get discussed.

Talking Points surfaces relevant discussion points directly from your review work and notes inside Silverfin. Before a client meeting, you see exactly what needs addressing – all the issues flagged during review, contextualised with the data to back it up. During the conversation, you can navigate seamlessly from talking points into specific accounts and supporting documents. After the meeting, it tracks follow-up actions automatically.

The real power comes from portfolio-level management. If, for example, margins are compressed across 20 client files, managers can flag that topic for discussion across all 20. The next time each relationship manager opens their file, they’ll see that prompt. This is how you scale quality advisory across an entire practice.

We’re also fundamentally improving how you visualise and present data to clients. Our reporting capabilities have always been strong – they’ve been used 4.5 million times over the past year. Now we’re rethinking how we present financial information, moving away from static charts towards narrative-driven visualisations that answer the question every business owner actually cares about: where did my money go?

From compliance data to client meeting to follow-up tracking – it’s the full circle of advisory work, all in one platform.

5. Enabling assurance services

In several markets, accountants offer light assurance services – compilation reviews, extended reviews, and similar work that sits below full audit. We’re building tools to support the documentation process for this work, recognising that requirements vary significantly by region.

The foundation supporting these investments

Two critical capabilities underpin everything we’re building:

• Extended quality data and integrations: Better advisory depends on better data. We’re expanding our integrations and improving data quality across the platform so you have the complete, accurate information you need for meaningful client conversations.
• Next-generation content production: About 80% of your time in Silverfin involves working with templates – working papers, compliance documents, review procedures. We’re investing in tools that dramatically accelerate template development. Our ambition? Reach the point where you can describe what you need in plain language and AI builds the template automatically.

What this means for our Global customers

These five core investments form the foundation of where Silverfin is heading over the next three years. But the specific features, timing, and priorities vary by market – shaped by local regulations, market maturity, and what you’ve told us matters most.

For our Platform global customers, here’s what our product investments translate into:

Currently in development

• Enhanced consolidation features to better support multi-entity company structures
• Better visibility across your client portfolio with improved period filtering
• Our latest AI-powered feature, Talking Points, helps you prepare for client meetings, supports seamless navigation during conversations and tracks follow-up actions afterwards. Managers can also flag discussion topics across multiple client files at once – if margins are compressed across 20 clients, that topic gets flagged for all 20 automatically.

Coming in 2026 and beyond

• Better tools for managing your entire client portfolio more efficiently
• AI-powered reconciliation that generates proposals for your review, keeping you in control while automating tedious tasks
• Simpler navigation to reduce context switching and help everyone work more efficiently
• Improved reporting and data visualisation capabilities
• Enhanced user management functionality
• Next-generation content production tools that let you build and maintain customised templates faster and more efficiently, preserving Silverfin’s unique ability to deliver agile, market-specific solutions at pace

Everything on this roadmap comes directly from your feedback and our product strategy. We’re committed to making Silverfin the platform you can rely on for the long term.

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This isn’t just an efficiency problem. It’s a growth ceiling that prevents firms from scaling advisory services, sharing resources across borders or successfully integrating acquisitions. And it’s costing far more than most firms realise.

The hidden cost of ‘local flexibility’

On paper, most global firms have invested heavily in technology. They’ve moved to cloud platforms, deployed various tools across different offices and built custom solutions to handle local compliance requirements. In theory, this should create operational consistency and enable resource sharing across geographies.

In practice, most firms are trapped by fragmentation: every office works differently, even when using the same platform; acquired practices maintain their own workflows for years after integration; data structures vary so dramatically that cross-office reporting is a manual exercise; teams can’t share resources because processes don’t align – and quality varies depending on which office handles the work.

The result? Firms with 200+ staff operating like a loose federation of separate practices rather than a unified organisation.

Why acquisitions fail to deliver value

The global accounting services market reached $736 billion in 2025, driven partly by aggressive consolidation. Yet many acquiring firms struggle to extract value from their investments. The technical reason is simple: even firms using identical platforms work completely differently.

One office maps chart of accounts manually. Another uses automated tools. A third has built custom workflows that reflect their legacy system. Multiply this across financial statements, working papers, tax processes and client communications, and you’ve got operational chaos masquerading as ‘local flexibility’.

Best practice firms plan standardisation as part of the acquisition strategy, harmonising core financial data structures early. They aim for 80% standardisation with 20% genuine local flexibility – enough consistency to enable resource sharing and quality control, enough flexibility to handle legitimate local requirements.

Most firms never get there. They defer the difficult conversations, let acquired teams ‘do things their way’ and wonder why the promised synergies never arrive.

The advisory paradox

Here’s what 80% of firms are experiencing: clients demand advisory services, but compliance workflows consume all available capacity. Partners know advisory is where the margin lives, but the firm’s operating model makes it impossible to scale.

The firms breaking through this paradox share one characteristic: they’ve standardised their compliance processes so thoroughly that advisory becomes the natural next step. Consistent data structures enable automated insights. Standardised workflows free up senior capacity. Connected systems make it possible to identify opportunities across the entire client base.

Advisory doesn’t scale without standardisation. You can’t build repeatable advisory offerings when every office works differently. You can’t leverage technology when underlying processes remain fragmented.

The four-stage transformation pathway

Having worked with 1,000+ firms across 17 countries, including all of the Big 4, we’ve identified a proven pathway to operational excellence:

1. Connect – organise data across all offices and systems, creating a single source of truth
2. Standardise – create fixed workflows and templates that reflect your methodology while accommodating genuine local requirements (the 80/20 rule)
3. Automate – build custom automation that eliminates repetitive compliance work while maintaining quality standards
4. Advise – leverage consistent data and processes to identify client opportunities and prepare strategic conversations at scale

The firms winning today are building solid foundations systematically, then accelerating once those foundations are in place.

Technology amplifies systems, it doesn’t fix them

AI-powered tools are accelerating transformation for firms with solid foundations. Automated chart of accounts mapping delivers 98% accuracy in minutes rather than hours. Intelligent file checking flags anomalies instantly. Custom analytics turn client data into advisory opportunities.

But here’s the critical insight: AI only delivers value when your data is connected and your workflows are standardised. Technology amplifies good systems. It can’t fix broken ones.

The competitive reality

Markets are shifting toward advisory-led accounting, and firms that eliminate operational friction will move faster, deliver more value across their entire client base and win better work. Those who don’t will be forever managing a fragmented portfolio of practices that operate independently despite sharing a name.

For most global firms, the cumulative cost of manual data entry, inconsistent processes, inability to share resources, post-acquisition integration challenges and lost advisory opportunities runs into millions annually. Not in theoretical ‘efficiency gains’ but in hard costs: billable hours lost to manual work, margin erosion from quality issues, acquisition value that never materialises, advisory revenue that never gets built.

If your firm is still deferring the difficult conversations about standardisation, the competitive gap is widening faster than you think.

Take the next step

Want to understand where your firm sits on the digital transformation journey? Download our whitepaper ‘Grow without the chaos: Your 4 stage digital transformation guide‘ for the complete roadmap built specifically for global practices using the Silverfin Platform.

Or speak with our Platform specialists to discover how global firms are building standardised, automated, advisory-focused operations.

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Silverfin, 29 May 2025 – Silverfin, the cloud-first accountancy SaaS platform, is pleased to announce the appointment of Stephanie Dechamps as its Vice President of Marketing, joining the company’s leadership team to help drive the next phase of international growth and brand expansion.

Based in Brussels and reporting directly to Silverfin CEO Lisa-Miles Heal, Stephanie will oversee Silverfin’s global marketing strategy, with a focus on scaling brand visibility across all markets, enhancing go-to-market execution, and building a growth marketing function to support international expansion.

Stephanie brings a wealth of global marketing expertise to Silverfin, having led high-impact marketing strategies across Europe and Asia-Pacific at global software giants Oracle and Boomi. With a background that spans journalism, digital media, field and portfolio marketing, demand gen, integrated campaigns, public relations and analyst relations, Stephanie brings a unique, cross-functional perspective on how marketing can serve as a strategic lever for business transformation.

Stephanie Dechamps, VP of Marketing at Silverfin, said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Silverfin at such a pivotal stage in its growth journey. Its mission to transform how accounting firms operate, making accountants’ lives easier and their work more impactful, resonated with me from the start. I’m looking forward to evolving and expanding Silverfin’s high-performing marketing function to deliver on its ambitious growth targets and scale sustainably.”

Lisa Miles-Heal, CEO of Silverfin, said: “Stephanie’s experience leading integrated marketing efforts across global regions makes her the perfect fit for Silverfin as we move into the next phase of growth. Her expertise in building brands, accelerating international expansion, and amplifying platform visibility will be instrumental as we grow across both new and existing markets. I’m delighted to welcome her to the leadership team as we continue to accelerate at pace.”

About Silverfin

Silverfin is a cloud-first SaaS platform that transforms accounting processes, helping firms run efficiently today and in the future. Founded in Belgium in 2013 and acquired by Visma in 2023, Silverfin serves over 1,000 leading accounting firms (including all of the Big 4) across 16 countries. The platform brings together live client data, automated accounting, and compliance workflows into one solution, enhancing efficiency, quality and profitability. Learn more on our website, or visit us on LinkedIn.

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From May 14th to 16th, Silverfin had the pleasure of attending the PKF EMEI Conference, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Marrakech.

As strategic partners of PKF Global, we were invited to join this inspiring gathering of professionals from across the EMEI (Europe, Middle East, India) region.

For me, it was not only a professional milestone—my very first global conference—but also an eye-opening look into how a global network like PKF builds meaningful connections across borders.

A unique blend of insights and experiences

The conference offered a rich program that combined strategic sessions with cultural experiences, perfectly reflecting the vibrant spirit of Marrakech.

It was fascinating to witness how PKF brings together its global members to collaborate, share knowledge, and align on future opportunities.

These face-to-face interactions were valuable to all involved and made a difference in getting to know each other better.

Silverfin was proud to contribute to the agenda. Together with my colleague Petar, we hosted two sessions that were well received for their originality and relevance. We were humbled by the positive feedback and inspired by the many engaging discussions that followed with network members.

What topics did we cover? We wanted to paint strong images in the minds of attendees. In doing so, we talked about maintaining your garden filled with different exotic flowers (customers with different needs) and bridges that carry your employees towards future growth in your company.

Believe me, it made sense if you attended the session

Exploring Marrakech beyond the conference room

Beyond the professional value, the event organisers thoughtfully included local experiences that allowed us to explore the beauty and culture of Marrakech in truly memorable ways.

Beyond the professional value, the event organisers thoughtfully included local experiences that allowed us to explore the beauty and culture of Marrakech in truly memorable ways.

We took part in a camel ride, enjoyed a magical dinner under the stars in the Agafay Desert, wandered through the historic Medina with a local guide, and even attended a session with a local herborist to learn about the production and uses of argan oil.

These moments not only gave us a deeper appreciation of the city, but also offered a relaxed setting to connect with fellow attendees on a more personal level.

Building stronger partnerships

One of the many highlights of the conference was the opportunity to speak with other strategic partners of PKF.

These conversations provided new perspectives on the market and helped validate and expand our own ideas.

The openness and thoughtfulness of these exchanges reinforced the value of being part of such a dynamic network.

Looking ahead

We’re grateful to PKF for the invitation and the incredible hospitality throughout the event. The combination of business insight, cultural exploration, and genuine human connection made this an unforgettable experience.

We’re excited to continue deepening our collaboration with PKF and contributing to the growth and innovation of their global network.

Until next time, Marrakech! Choukran (thank you) for your hospitality!

Petar & Tim.

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An Maes: Leading the Netherlands and Platform to new heights

An Maes has assumed her role as General Manager of the Netherlands and Platform, following nearly six years of outstanding contributions to Silverfin. Having been instrumental in setting up the Netherlands business unit in 2021, An has an in-depth understanding of the region’s unique needs, challenges and growth potential.

An’s vision for the future is clear:

“I’m thrilled to be part of the team leading Silverfin into the next decade. My main goal is to ensure we continue focusing on international expansion while solidifying Silverfin as a globally trusted brand.”

An’s focus on expanding Silverfin’s footprint globally while continuing to innovate our platform perfectly aligns with Silverfin’s ambition to not only meet but exceed our clients’ expectations. With her expertise in both product leadership and regional strategy, we are confident that Silverfin’s presence in the Netherlands will flourish under her leadership.

Louis Verbeke: Steering Belgium to new opportunities through experience and relationships 

Meanwhile, Louis Verbeke has transitioned into his new role as General Manager of Belgium, having previously led the Netherlands business unit. Louis has been with Silverfin for nearly a decade, and his deep understanding of the Belgian market and his early involvement with some of our foundational clients make him uniquely positioned to lead our operations in Belgium.

Louis is excited about the opportunities ahead:

“Joining Silverfin’s leadership team excites me because it allows me to directly influence the next phase of our growth journey. I’m eager to contribute to strategic decisions that will not only strengthen our position in Belgium but also enhance the value we deliver to our customers. Maintaining our Silverfin DNA while continuing to innovate is at the heart of my mission.”

Louis’s dedication to growth while keeping Silverfin’s core values intact means our clients can expect the same quality and innovation that have been at the heart of our success in Belgium.

Always evolving leadership at Silverfin

Lisa, Silverfin’s CEO, shared her thoughts on the leadership changes:

“Both An and Louis have played vital roles in Silverfin’s growth over the years, and I am confident that their combined expertise will lead us to even greater success. They each bring something unique to the table: a passion for innovation, a customer-first mindset, and a deep commitment to driving our international growth. With An and Louis now joining the other leaders at the helm, the future of Silverfin goes from strength to strength.”

As we move forward with An and Louis leading these key business units, the focus remains on growth, innovation and enhancing the customer experience. These appointments not only reflect Silverfin’s commitment to nurturing internal talent but also signify our ambition to strengthen our leadership as we continue to scale globally.

With both An and Louis now fully integrated into their roles, we’re excited for what’s to come – new opportunities, a strengthened foothold in key markets and continued success for our clients.

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Silverfin will enhance MYOB’s cloud offering through the integration of its advanced financial reporting, work papers, and AI-driven advisory tools into MYOB’s platform where they will be tailored specifically to meet the compliance and regulatory needs of the Australian market. 

This partnership highlights Silverfin’s commitment to revolutionising accounting compliance globally, enabling more markets to benefit from access to its cutting-edge, cloud-first technology.

Silverfin CEO, Lisa Miles-Heal, said: “Artificial Intelligence will transform client accounting compliance and advisory – from enhancing data accuracy, to providing forecasting analytics and actionable insights, automated file reviews and faster identification of errors and irregularities. At Silverfin, we’re committed to humanising these digital advancements and ensuring the accountant of the future remains relevant and respected. Through our partnership with MYOB, we are supercharging performance today and shaping the future for accountants across Australia.” 

With Silverfin integrated into MYOB’s offering, features will include a centralised data hub that integrates seamlessly with other accounting software platforms, an AI assistant for automated file reviews, an insights and analytics tool for trend identification and client benchmarking, and in-product collaboration capabilities to ensure a single source of truth for client files, actions, and reviews.

MYOB CEO, Paul Robson, said: “We are incredibly excited about partnering with Silverfin to accelerate our delivery of a fully integrated, cloud-first suite of solutions for accounting professionals across Australia. Silverfin is a true leader in technology-driven accounting solutions backed by a strong track record. Our partnership will deliver leading innovation that empowers local accountants with a comprehensive solution that will help them to deliver exceptional client services and really thrive in a digital age.”

This strategic partnership is a further proof point for Silverfin’s global relevance and its ability to deliver next generation solutions that accelerate the growth and success of accountants around the world. By joining forces with MYOB, Silverfin continues to pursue its goal of empowering accountants to enhance the performance of over one million end businesses.

For more information, please contact: 

Lara Businaro, Marketing Manager | [email protected] | +44 (0) 7931454733

About Silverfin 

Silverfin is a modern, cloud-first SaaS platform that significantly enhances client accounting processes. Founded in Belgium in 2013 and acquired by Visma in 2023, it has over 180 team members across the UK and Europe and delivers solutions to over 900 leading accounting firms (including all of the Big 4) across 15 countries. Silverfin improves the efficiency, quality and profitability of compliance services, supports impactful advisory conversations with live client files and connected data and, since 2021, has operationalised AI to increase the value accountants deliver. For more information, visit silverfin.com or follow us on LinkedIn. 

About MYOB 

MYOB is a leading business management platform with a core purpose of helping more businesses in Australia and New Zealand start, survive and succeed. MYOB delivers end-to-end business, financial and accounting solutions direct to businesses employing between 0 and 1000 employees, alongside a network of accountants, bookkeepers and consultants. For more information visit myob.com or follow MYOB on LinkedIn.

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Partnering at a global level will empower PKF member firms with the technology and tools they need to grow and achieve the next level of digitisation. Silverfin’s cloud platform will improve the accuracy, efficiency and profitability of PKF members’ compliance and reporting services. In addition, it will unlock opportunities drive the development and delivery of new advisory services.

The values of PKF and Silverfin are well aligned, as both organisations have an unwavering focus on quality and the client experience. Using Silverfin’s digital workflows and customisable templates will allow tasks to be streamlined, eliminate errors and ensure the highest quality outcomes for PKF clients.

Theo Vermaak, Chief Executive Officer at PKF Global, said, ‘By partnering with the brightest minds and embracing the latest technology, we stay ahead of the curve, and the competition. This deal with Silverfin creates many exciting opportunities and helps our members deliver world-class services Silverfin brings a proven track record with several of our member firms in Europe and Africa, giving us confidence that our global strategic partnership will bring tangible benefits and create value for even more of our members and, critically, their clients.’

Lisa Miles-Heal, Chief Executive Officer at Silverfin, said, ‘We’re thrilled to be partnering with PKF Global and building our existing relationships further across this network. We see great synergies in our operating values, our progressive outlook and our shared focus on ensuring client value and high-quality reporting. We’re a technology partner that PKF member firms can trust for their current and future needs. It’s an exciting time to transform the accounting industry together.’

Participating PKF member firms will gain access to a range of benefits including specialised support from Silverfin. Silverfin will offer tailored resources, customisation and training to ensure PKF advisors optimise the value from using Silverfin’s cloud platform and products.

ENDS

About PKF Global

PKF Global (PKF) is a global family of legally independent firms bound together by a shared commitment to quality, integrity and the creation of clarity in a complex regulatory environment. The network’s 214 member firms operate under the PKF brand in 150 countries across five regions. PKF has over 21,000 professionals providing high-quality audit, accounting, tax and business advisory solutions. The network is a member of the Forum of Firms, an organisation dedicated to consistent and high-quality standards of financial reporting and auditing practices worldwide. PKF International Limited administers the family of legally independent member firms and does not accept any responsibility or liability for the actions or inaction on the part of any individual member firm or firms.

About Silverfin

Built by accountants for accountants, Silverfin is a cloud software business founded in Belgium and now a part of the Visma group, with market presence in 16 countries. Silverfin supports over 340,000 end clients for Accounting Office customers improving the accuracy, efficiency, and profitability of their compliance services. Its cloud Data Hub enables access to real-time data and eliminates errors so that preparing and submitting end-of-year accounts and corporation tax returns often takes 50% less time, while powering the development and delivery of advisory services.

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The Visma Group currently includes 185 companies from around the world and last week those MDs and Founders gathered in Oslo at the annual MD Summit. At the accompanying awards ceremony, it was fantastic to see Silverfin as a finalist in two of the seven awards categories; AI Pioneer and Best Newcomer.

And it got even better because Silverfin won Best Newcomer!

This fantastic achievement was even more special considering that Visma acquired 32 companies last year. These businesses included some with higher growth rates or profitability than Silverfin. But we won because of our overall business strength and growth roadmap, alongside Visma’s confidence in our future potential.

This recognition from people who see amazing software companies every day, both the ones they acquire and ones they turn down, is an amazing achievement for the entire Silverfin team. Making the shortlist, never mind winning, would not have been possible without the amazing team that builds and supports Silverfin and our customers every day.

Sindre Talleraas Holen, Head of M&A, Visma said; “We have been super impressed by the whole Silverfin team after they came onboard to Visma. Amazing dedication towards their customers, products, and employees – and already overperforming on growth!”

So, if you’re looking to join a winning team or your accountancy practice needs a cloud solution to solve consistency or capacity challenges, please get in touch.

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With AI continuing to be on the rise, thanks to the likes of image generation tools and ChatGPT, we have been constantly hearing the term AI almost everywhere over the last year. As we become more familiar with AI, we are understanding the power of it but one thing that is not quite as clear is in the professional application. 

What exactly is the difference between AI and machine learning and why is it important to understand? A beautiful quote I recently came across is:

“If it’s written in Python it’s Machine Learning. If it is written in PowerPoint, it’s probably AI.”

Essentially, something that is branded on the cover as being AI, when you look under the hood it is machine learning. Overall however, these are the same thing with the names used interchangeably generally based on who the audience is.

In relation to accounting, it is outcomes from machine learning, along with data analysis, that we as accountants can use. From structuring and standardising data and gaining insights through to automating processes and informing clients, these are all actions by accountants that can be aided by machine learning.

What are language models, or Large Language Models (LLM)

In principle, a language model with AI works very simply. You provide text as an input which is then processed by a magical Language Model, you then receive output in text from the language model. These language models are very useful in practice, for example for automatically generating a text or a translation. But language models can also be used to indicate the probability that something is or is not correct, to categorise information, or to give approval about the value of, for example, a review. 

Once you make this model larger (with more parameters), they become so-called Large Language Models because of two discoveries that happen at a large scale. I call them discoveries, as opposed to inventions, because AI experts spend lots of effort and creativity in solving scaling issues, but what capabilities emerge are often truly unexpected. The first discovery is that simply by training these models to predict the next word, they start to learn complex capabilities such as reasoning, abstract understanding etc. So these models are able to help in tasks they were not trained for. Secondly, already with a few input examples (or sometimes even a single one!) these models are able to learn generalisations quickly. So size does matter!

Lessons from using AI in accountancy

While AI is taking its first steps in many places in accountancy, we at Silverfin are lucky that we’ve been integrating AI in our platform for many years, including language models and deep learning. Here are the key lessons we’ve learned so far from AI use in accounting.

Start with efficiency
Starting with the area that will provide the best efficiency means that you get an easier win at the start of the process of introducing AI. This also helps you to see the power and benefits of what you are implementing. We first started with account mapping when we began using AI for accounting purposes. That doesn’t always seem exciting, but it is actually something that yields a lot of efficiency. If we were to do the account mapping manually, it would take much more time and manpower than if AI did it for us. Additionally, it saves much time by automating where possible because the meaning of each account is known.

A change in the UX
But it’s not just about gaining efficiency. A lot of the software that accountants have been using looks and feels the same. It often tends to have the same mechanisms working in the background that software has had for years. These software tend to work on an excel-like principle of data ingestion, calculation and data presentation. However, as AI is becoming more prevalent, the user is presented with uncertainty in the outcomes. Where previously they were able to see an excel formula, for example, with AI they are not able to see the background workings as easily. This means that users need to be more comfortable in accepting the uncertainty of the result. Furthermore, when AI is being introduced, we must be careful as to how we display and interact with these probabilistic outcomes.

Overall, a good rule to follow is ‘focus on value, not tech’ when it comes to the efficient use of AI in accountancy. By this we meant to focus on what the benefits are that the AI application can bring to your firm and employees, rather than focusing on the technology itself.

Build trust first
Like anything, when you are learning something new there is always some hesitancy. When people don’t know exactly what they are doing when they are learning a new system they often have an extra critical attitude. Even if the system gives the desired result 20 times but it does not on the 21st time, the user’s confidence can immediately drop again. It is therefore important to guide people in the introduction of AI applications. Here the right UX helps as well, as mentioned above. At Silverfin, however, we see that our users often master everything in about five sessions and that accountants are generally not that suspicious of AI because they then experience how it works.

Assist instead of automate
Like any impactful probabilistic system, it is important that the user remains in control. Generally the aim is that AI can help the vast majority of the time. We never aim for AI to be able to assist in 100% of what is done because the user needs to remain in control, rather than handing that control over to AI. Therefore, when AI is introduced, the focus should be mainly on assisting, not on automating. This also allows the accountant to clearly explain the process and the result of the AI system to their customer, step by step. It also allows the accountant to get used to, and trust, the information that is being generated from the AI. For new graduate accountants in particular, this allows them to still do all the on-the-job learning that they would normally receive whilst also learning how AI can assist them.

What impact will AI have on accountancy?

Without us often realising it, AI is already increasingly present in the professional office environment. This is because new tools are added to existing and trusted applications such as Microsoft Word, Teams, or Zoom. A very basic example of this is if you are typing in a Google Document you may have noticed that common words and phrases may come up as suggested text that you might want to use. As we get used to this type of AI, it is up to the providers of these types of software and technology to make sure that they match what their competitors are doing. If they do not do this, users will quickly switch to a competitor that does offer the AI ​​tooling that people expect.

No accountancy firm is big enough for its own AI applications
Adding tooling to existing and trusted software applications also now applies to accounting software. No accounting firm is large enough to build a complete AI application itself, therefore it is mainly up to the software suppliers of the accountancy sector to introduce AI tooling. An example of this is how the likes of Xero with JAX and Sage with Sage Ai are releasing AI tools which are becoming the norm in accounting software.

The question now is what AI is going to suit each firm, and to what degree will it be adopted. As AI starts to become more frequently used, it is good for a firm to have an idea about how they can make the most of it in their firm so that accountants are able to focus on the real value-added tasks that are not able to be outsourced to AI. These value-add areas tend to be the ones that involve the most collaboration and work directly with clients. 

Destructive or transformative?
The fear of the destructive effect of AI on certain professions may be great, but is not always justified. Seeing what amazing images AI can generate, we might also have expected photographers and designers to disappear in early 2023. However, we see that the opposite is true. Companies like Adobe are building AI into their products to assist photographers, rather than replace them.

Whilst no one can see into the future, one thing for sure is that human contact is crucial for trust, and people need to have trust in their accountants. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the accounting profession will certainly change and the challenges and possibilities will also change with it. While the field has mainly had changes in the field of digitalisation in recent years, in the future it will be much more about the human side. In other words, how do we as accountants enter into more and (even) better conversations with clients based on the things that the AI ​​assistant will offer us?

“The big challenge may be that some partners are not yet really open to the use of AI. This may put you at a disadvantage compared to competitors who already embrace AI. But ultimately, I suspect that the work of the accountant itself can only become more interesting and that there are certainly no reasons yet to embrace this special and promising development.”

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After a long flight, it was great to land in Nairobi and instantly be thrown into day-to-day life in the city. With the purpose of my trip being to attend the Africa Regional Meeting in Maasai Mara, I was lucky enough to also be able to celebrate 60 years of PKF in East Africa. 60 years is such a huge achievement! I won’t share too many of the details of the party here but it was a fantastic event and so great to meet Ritesh Mirchandani, Alpesh Vadher, Asif Chaudhry, Nishith Shah, Michael Mburugu, Larian Abreu, Kunal Bharadva, Charles Mukunu, Mustansir Gulamhussein and Kennedy Mokay, who are all partners at PKF in East Africa. There were so many more of the team that I met, I could list them all here but this would become a very long blog!

A couple of standouts from the party was being able to meet some of PKF in East Africa’s clients who attended. They all sung the highest praises of the firm. The other standout is that there were not only current partners of the firm attending but also previous partners. This really shows how the firm is moving forward with the times but also that there was so much hard work done by previous partners to get PKF in East Africa to where it is today.

The following day was the one thing that I was not looking forward to on this trip, taking a flight on a tiny plane (or what I call a flying pencil). But the reward made it worth it as we landed in the truly incredible Maasai Mara National Reserve. What an incredible place to have an event!

The Mara Serena Safari Lodge, located in the Mara triangle, had amazing sweeping views over the savannah and down towards the Mara River. 

Over the three days that the event was held, it was really enjoyable to be able to sit in on many of the sessions that were held on such a range of topics. One of the topics that really resonated was that the PKF network has identified how critical it is for accounting firms to be able to innovate and keep up with the constant changes in technology, as well as in accounting in general. This is something at Silverfin that we really champion as well, particularly with the work we are doing in SAIL, the Silverfin AI Lab.

The Regional meeting brought together partners and directors from all over Africa, as well as event partners such as Silverfin. I was lucky enough to be able to present to all the attendees of the event in a panel discussion that was hosted by Papa Bathie Gueye from PKF Rubiks. Papa was a great panel host and we were joined on the panel by Caseware and Greatsoft. The topics that I touched on were how it is essential to have a single source of the truth when it comes to data used in compliance and reporting. I also spoke about the potential for all of the PKF firms in Africa to be using the same platform for their compliance and reporting needs but that it can be tailored to their particular legislation or firm-based needs; as well as how AI is going to be able to do some of the more monotonous accounting tasks and leave accountants to do the real rewarding work that they have trained to do.

Another of the sessions that I found very interesting was from Waldek Wasowicz from PKF Octagon entitled AfriGrowth. Waldek discussed how as growth is shifting through different countries throughout the world, the need for people to work in those countries is growing. This means that there is a lot of talent that is currently leaving Africa to go and work in Europe but there is still the need to have those talented people in Africa as well. It was a real insight into how that talent can be fostered in Africa and help both those people, and the region, grow. 

From learning about the amazing work that PKF Zambia have been doing in their community (and how staff from PKF Arsilon and PKF Octagon are going to be heading to Zambia to help further this work) through to learning how the power of the PKF brand has helped PKF Djibouti grow in leaps and bounds, it really was a regional meeting to remember!

And of course I cannot forget some of the stars of the show, the wildlife.

It really was a crazy experience to be able to call something like going on safari work, but it was truly special. Seeing the animals for the first time in their natural habitat was really breathtaking. Every day was a new experience and I would wake up not knowing what animals I was going to see that day. Thankfully the lions were not too hungry when we would see them as I am sure some of them were eyeing us up for dinner.

There are so many people who would have been working behind the scenes to put on this wonderful event but some that I want to thank in particular are Debbie Dell, Theo Vermaak, Doug Woolley, Yolandi Peach and host country PKF in East Africa. We could not have asked for a better location or a more superb event. I cannot wait to attend it again next year!

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Recently we bid a heartfelt farewell to Tim Vandecasteele, our co-founder and the visionary leader of our Product since the company was founded in 2013. As Tim steps back to embrace the next phase of his adventure, we are thrilled for him and immensely grateful for the legacy he has left at Silverfin, our people, our customers and our industry at large.

In his own words, Tim reflects on his experiences:

“Although I will always remain one of the two founders of Silverfin, the time has come for me to take a step back and observe Silverfin’s journey from the sidelines.

We’ve come a long way since Joris and I started Silverfin as ‘a simple reporting tool for accountants’. I’ll forever be grateful to everyone who helped us go way beyond that proposition:

• Our earliest customers who trusted these two naive guys.

• Our first employees, for their commitment and belief, even when we had little to show for it.

And most of all, I’m grateful to Joris, for all his patience, understanding and candour throughout all those years.

This farewell is tinged with both sweetness and sorrow. Nevertheless, I leave Silverfin with nothing but pride and confidence. The team and product we’ve built over the years are strong foundations for the future. I have genuinely fallen in love with the accounting industry and the community that propels it forward every day.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

As we turn the page, we remain in an exciting phase of continued investment in our product – both in our technology and the market specific content that we package up in a cloud first, user centred application. We’ve been offering AI functionality to accountants for several years now, and with the huge momentum and mindset shift underway, we are in a leading position to leverage this for enhanced operational excellence and client satisfaction.

Silverfin CEO Lisa Miles-Heal said “We extend a warm welcome to Martin Lysholt Nielsen, the newest addition to our leadership team. Joining us as our VP of Product, Martin brings a fresh perspective, vibrant spirit and a wealth of expertise to Silverfin that promises to drive our vision forward.”

With over 15 years of experience in product management, particularly within the SaaS domain, Martin has demonstrated an unparalleled knack for crafting commercially successful digital products. His pragmatic approach and complementary skills will help make our offering even stronger.  This will ensure that Silverfin remains a leading solution for accounting firms in Belgium, across Europe and the UK and as the preferred platform for our international networks as far afield as Canada and South Africa.

“I am super excited to have joined the success story of Silverfin and I am looking forward to further accelerating the growth of this Ghent success story” Martin commented. “My immediate priorities are a combination of supporting our talented product management organisation and strengthening the value delivered to accountants globally via innovation and customer focus”.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of the Silverfin adventure so far. We can’t wait to embark on this new phase of our journey, confident in the strong foundations we have built and excited for the future we will create together.

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One of the most defining moments in this remarkable journey has been the recent acquisition of Silverfin by Visma. This acquisition is a testament to the incredible efforts and dedication of each and every one of you. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the entire Silverfin team (past and present) for making this moment possible. Your commitment and hard work have not only built a successful company but have also been instrumental in shaping our unique culture, which has been the key to our success.

Culture is the heartbeat of any organization, and at Silverfin, our culture is something truly special. It is the driving force that leads us through the challenges and celebrates our successes. Our culture of innovation, collaboration, and a relentless pursuit of excellence is our secret weapon, setting us apart from the competition. I am confident that under Visma’s guidance, this culture will continue to thrive and evolve.

I also want to express my sincere gratitude to our clients, the early adopters, the believers, and the strong partnerships we’ve built over the years. Wow, what a ride this has been! Without your trust and support, our journey wouldn’t have been possible. Your feedback, patience, and unwavering belief in Silverfin fueled our growth, and for that, we will be forever grateful. The relationships we’ve nurtured will undoubtedly last a lifetime, and I look forward to seeing how they continue to flourish in the Visma family, and I look forward to staying in touch.

As I step away from Silverfin, I am taking some time to reflect and consider what’s next. This moment affords me an opportunity to spend some absolute quality time with my family and friends. They have always been the driving force behind my endeavors, and I am excited to have this time to create more memories with them.

Looking ahead, my next adventure will involve helping founders and founding teams in building the next wave of kick-ass tech companies, although I don’t know in which shape or form yet. There’s never been a more exciting time to embark on the journey of entrepreneurship. The world is hungry for innovation, and I am eager to share my experiences, insights, and support with those who are ready to make their mark.

In conclusion, I want to once again thank every single person who has been a part of this incredible journey. Silverfin has been my life’s work, and it has been an absolute honor to lead and work alongside such an exceptional team. Our future is bright, and I have every confidence that Silverfin will continue to thrive and challenge the status quo in the industry.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being a part of this remarkable journey. I look forward to staying in touch and witnessing the incredible future that lies ahead for Silverfin.

With gratitude and warm wishes

#buildtheopportunity

Joris

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Q. As co-founder, how do you reflect on the last 10 years?

A. I’m incredibly proud of what Silverfin has become.  It does feel a little surreal to think that this whole thing started with me, Joris, a white board and a big idea that accountancy was ready for digital disruption.  And now here we are…  10 years later, Silverfin is a successful multinational technology company with a market-leading cloud platform.

The numbers speak for themselves really: 850 firms around the world today use Silverfin, from the big 4 to local single office firms, all of whom are supporting over 320,000 businesses on the platform.  That’s no small feat.

Q. What do you think has been key to Silverfin’s success?

A. It may sound like a cliche, but you can have the best tech in the world, but it’s the people that really make the difference and have made Silverfin what it is today.

The team here are just so passionate and committed, and it shines through in everything they do.

Accountants, no matter where they are, value personal relationships.  All along, we wanted to avoid being just transactional, and focus instead on connecting with the people we’re trying to help.

Q. And what about technology… how has Silverfin carved out a niche in the market?  
A. There are obviously lots of dimensions to this, but I’d pick out four things which have helped to differentiate us.

1. Silverfin is customisable.  We wanted to build a solution that was country-agnostic, so it could handle the different tax and accounting standards in each region. We came up with this idea of having a platform with core functionality, and a customisation layer that allows either Silverfin or our customers to easily build content for local market needs.  That’s how we’ve scaled across 15 countries until now.

2. It’s an open API-driven platform too. We wanted the platform to be easy to integrate with. So partners can build products to work with Silverfin, and customers can easily connect it into their tech stack and different data sources.

3. We wanted to ensure a user-friendly experience that made it easy for non-technical accountants to get started.  A lot of legacy software is a bit ‘clunky’ to say the least, and we felt accountants deserved better.

4. The last point is around structured data. This is really what Silverfin is all about. Connecting and automating compliance workflows, firm-wide reporting and analytics, AI… this is all made possible thanks to having data standardised into a single, queryable source of truth.

Q. Looking forwards, what factors are going to shape the next few years?

A. Two words… Artificial Intelligence!  AI is obviously going to bring rapid and significant change to the profession, and all other sectors too.

From a product development perspective, we’ll be exploring all areas to see where AI can help accountants day-to-day – automating and speeding up tasks, uncovering insights, freeing up capacity so that more time can be devoted to creating new value for clients.

And of course this rapid progress in cloud-based technologies is just going to accelerate the demise of on-premise solutions. Any firm left relying on desktop software is going to be left behind.

From an industry perspective, I expect to see consolidation continue. And this is a trend which actually plays into our sweet spot:  we’ve seen how after any merger or acquisition, standardisation is critical – of data, of processes and systems.

And not forgetting the battle for talent. Accounting, perhaps more than most sectors, faces a skills shortage.  This challenge of how to attract, train and retain the right people will continue to be a defining factor, and underscores just why new technologies like AI are so critical.

Q. What can we expect from Silverfin moving forward?

A. In short, we’ll continue to do what has proved so successful so far. This means…

• Strengthening our market-leading position in Belgium: adding more powerful capabilities in areas like Silverfin Assistant, Insights etc to help our existing customers get more value from their ongoing investment in our software.
• Expanding our footprint in the UK. It’s exciting to see more and more firms joining us, a testament to our growing product portfolio. Recent launches of Corporation Tax and Silverfin Assistant have really helped build momentum, and there’s much more to come.
• Growing our product offering and presence in key emerging markets like the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• And finally, continuing to be the partner of choice for large global firms who need the ability to develop localised compliance solutions for their markets – but crucially, built on a core cloud platform which can service multiple geographies in a standardised, repeatable way.

This is exactly why we created our unique low-code approach and ‘developer accountant’ tools, and we’re eagerly looking forward to expanding into new markets over the coming months with this proposition.

Exciting times ahead!

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This is a huge milestone in our 10 year journey as a company. It’s a testament to the dedication of our entire team, the trust of our customers, the vision of our founders, the support of our investors and, of course, the power of our software.

Joining the Visma family signifies an amazing opportunity for us to strengthen our market-leading position and bring our unique cloud technology to even more accountants around the world.

Tim and Joris, our co-founders, built the Silverfin platform to transform the post-accounting world: connecting siloed data, automating compliance workflows and streamlining reporting.

Today, we’re incredibly proud that nearly 850 firms across 15 countries are able to maximise their efficiency, productivity and profitability using Silverfin software. More than 320,000 businesses are supported by their accountants on the Silverfin platform – that’s already a huge impact!

But we feel like this is just the start and there’s so much more potential!

We’re fired up to continue leading the market globally, with innovations in Artificial Intelligence, automation and data insights. Always looking to unlock new value and opportunities for our customers.

The great news for us is that Visma shared this vision, and we can now turbo charge our efforts as we head into this next exciting phase on the Silverfin journey.

For more information, please contact us.

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Luxembourg, August 9, 2023 – Silverfin, a leading post-accounting platform provider, is excited to announce a significant milestone in its expansion strategy. In addition to its head office in Ghent (Belgium) and offices in Voorschoten (Netherlands) and London (UK), Silverfin is proud to open a new office in Luxembourg.

With a team of 200 dedicated employees spread across four offices, Silverfin has been on a remarkable growth trajectory as a Rule of 40 SaaS (Software as a Service) company. Currently, the platform serves 847 accountancy firms across 14 countries, managing a total of 316,000 client files.

The decision to establish a new office in Luxembourg is a strategic move to strengthen Silverfin’s presence in the European market and better cater to its diverse client base. The expansion will enable the company to extend its financial, tax and legal services to multiple industry players, and better serve our existing customers in Luxembourg, among which are renowned  Big Four firms, mid-tier players, and local boutique accounting firms.

“As the CEO of Silverfin, I am incredibly excited to share the news of our new office opening in Luxembourg,” stated Lisa Miles-Heal. “This expansion is a testament to our unwavering dedication in delivering cutting-edge solutions and personalised support to our esteemed clients in the region. Luxembourg’s strategic location and thriving business environment perfectly align with our ambitious growth objectives, making it an ideal destination for our next chapter of success. We eagerly anticipate building stronger partnerships in the local market, further solidifying Silverfin’s position as a leader in the industry.”

Lisa Miles-Heal, CEO, Silverfin

“I am absolutely thrilled to share the incredible news of our new office opening in Luxembourg,” said Bassam Alaoui, Regional Manager of Silverfin Luxembourg. “This expansion is a critical milestone as it showcases our strong commitment to our clients and partners in the region. We are dedicated to offering cutting-edge solutions and providing personalised support that empowers our clients to thrive in their financial endeavours. I am genuinely excited about the opportunities this new chapter brings, and I can’t wait to witness the flourishing partnerships we will forge in the local market.”

Bassam Alaoui, Regional manager, Silverfin Luxembourg 

As Silverfin continues to advance its innovative post-accounting platform, this expansion reinforces its position as a leading player in the industry. The new office in Luxembourg will serve as a hub for fostering collaboration and delivering enhanced services to clients in the accounting sector.

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To learn more about Silverfin’s platform and how it could work for your firm, book a demo using the link below.

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The idea of Silverfin originated in Belgium in 2013 from co-founders Joris Van Der Gucht and Tim Vandecasteele. During his years working for top accounting firms, Joris noticed he and his team were spending too much time on repetitive, low-value tasks such as data entry, reconciliations and manual reporting while constantly fighting against human error and a lack of standardisation within their processes. This frustration synched perfectly with Tim who was a software architect looking for a tough problem that could be cracked using the cloud. Together they turned their thinking to how both data and the cloud could make life easier for accountants.

So what was the opportunity? To embrace digital automation and capitalize on where it was missing in the work that accountants do. Cloud and low-code developments that suggested to Joris and Tim that accountants could be freed from many repetitive tasks and that those tasks could then be amplified by automation.

From the practical and useful data hub through to the birth of Developer Accountants (one of our unique selling points that can aid firms in retaining and attracting staff), Silverfin has been transforming accountancy workflows and building a culture of efficiency for an increasing number of firms globally.

Today, Silverfin is a cloud-based platform providing a centralised financial reporting and compliance solution for accountants across the world. The software offers a range of features that enable accountants to work more efficiently, which includes automatically extracting data from a variety of sources, such as ERP systems, Excel files, bank statements and invoices, which are then used to generate financial reports and other documentation. Once the real-time homogenised data is available in the cloud, the platform offers automated workflows that deliver accurate and standardised reporting and insights.  

The co-founders had the foresight to know that the nature of different businesses and their unique accounting requirements needed a flexible solution that could be tailored to firm and client needs. Therefore, they set out to create a customisable cloud software solution that could be tailored to the needs of each individual client. 

Ten years later, Silverfin is proud of its international presence working with 800 firms ranging from small up-and-coming firms to established members of the Big 4. Silverfin has grown beyond its native Belgium and is now in firms in countries as varied as Denmark, the USA, Canada and South Africa.

The story of frustrations with inefficient processes throughout their accounting careers didn’t stop at our founders. Today, one of the distinct aspects of Silverfin is its hiring approach with more than 80% of our solution architects having a financial background often including an accounting degree or professional qualification. Silverfin has built a team that is uniquely qualified to continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible in the field of accounting and develop a software solution that truly meets the needs of the industry.

Meet Dries and Agustin – Silverfin’s Developer Accountants
Both Dries and Agustin would identify themselves as Developer Accountants having qualified as accountants before making a move towards a more Developer mindset, focused on problem solving and coming up with efficient ways of simplifying accounting workflows.

Dries graduated 10 years ago with a Master in Accountancy and started working for one of the big four in Belgium. During that time he saw a lot of inefficiencies in the way they worked, with lots of room for improvement. Then 5 years ago, he decided to join Silverfin to be at the forefront of providing improvements built around a cloud and low-code philosophy. Today, as a Solution Architect, Dries is able to use his experience as an accountant to support our clients on a day-to-day basis transforming their businesses and existing processes.

Agustin has a very similar story, also studying Accounting at University, then joining a firm mainly preparing financial statements and tax returns for clients. He also noticed inefficiencies around manual processes and repetitive tasks – and especially how this role took time from data analysis and providing consultation to his clients. He too wanted to be at the forefront of the change and joined Silverfin in creating automated templates for our customers. As a trained Accountant, Agustin better understands the why behind certain design choices, compared to other technology-educated developers. As a result, he is able to challenge or make comments during the development stage, which is something that is rarely done with other accountancy software, if you don’t have any content experts involved during that phase.

Over the years, Silverfin has continued to evolve and innovate by building a team that is uniquely qualified to push the boundaries of what is possible in accounting technology. A cloud-based accounting platform that was built by accountants, for accountants, Silverfin is truly helping shape the future of the accounting profession.

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With presenters and delegates from across Flanders, Wallonia and even some from the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the day generated some fascinating discussions around growth and innovation in accounting.

One standout star of the event was the Silverfin Assistant, brought to life by some dedicated members of the Silverfin team in shiny blue. Our AI-powered Assistant is currently hard at work in Belgium making life easier for busy accountants there. Keep an eye out for product news in the coming months though, as we look to expand this functionality to other geographies.

Our vision is to give the Silverfin Assistant superpowers, thanks to recent huge advances in AI. Silverfin recently launched a new prototype (LINK), which uses GPT-4 to automatically prepare a financial analysis of a client file, putting a whole host of up-to-date insights at your fingertips, in just seconds.

Silverfin Assistants striking a pose

Connect the dots was chosen as the theme for this year’s event to symbolise how technology and the accounting industry can benefit from working closely together. For accountancy firms, keeping one step ahead of the latest tech trends and developments can be hard, but that’s where we come in. At Silverfin our responsibility, as a technology partner to innovative firms around the world, is to ensure our customers always have access to the best technology and tools, at all times.

However, we also believe it’s critical that alongside being ready and doing the technology heavy lifting, we’re also always focused on being human. We strive to be a human technology partner for the future, because we believe the best technology exists to serve human needs.

Our next-gen AI development embodies those ambitions. On the day, Ken Bastiaensen, Silverfin’s Director of Special Projects & Innovation also took to the stage to share Silverfin’s plans and vision for development in this area and more – watch out for that in blog form shortly.

Proving just how critical the accountancy tech sector is considered, we were delighted to welcome a host of leading speakers including Vincent Van Peteghem the Belgian economist and current Minister of Finance, futurologist and author Rik Vera plus industry heavyweights including Peter Verschelden, Chairman at Moore Belgium and Philip Lodewyckx, Partner at BDO among others.

Ensuring attendees could maximise the value they got from attending, we also worked with a host of leading partners including Yuki, that compliments Silverfin in helping accountant digitize their work, Horus Software, which offers an innovative software solution to trustees and accountants based on Artificial Intelligence and behavioural analysis, and ING the global bank with a fantastic reputation serving European businesses.

So, check out our short recap video here or get in touch to discuss how Silverfin can help your firm.

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You’ll see a new tab “Audit logs” added to the communication pane, alongside the existing notes, to-dos and checks that can be accessed whenever you’re in a template. Much more convenient, we think you’ll agree. And, because this change was so well received, we decided to add audit logs to the workflow review screen too.

Managers can now quickly and easily see what has changed at the same time as reviewing workflows, without having to click anywhere else, making it so much simpler to identify what’s changed. Obviously, the more relevant information you get without searching or clicking, the faster you can do your job and the more streamlined your review process will be.

Another notable usability improvement is in the layout of the audit information, audit log / template column. You can now easily see the name of the account or reconciliation in a separate column, making it easy to understand what the audit entry relates to.

Finally, users can also take advantage of our neat new shortcut for adjustments. The platform shows an ‘Adjustment’ button when hovering over an account link and when looking at the accounts in a collection. Click that button and we’ll fill in the account in the New Adjustment page. Moreover, when you’ve added the adjustment, we’ll redirect you back to the reconciliation you were working on, so you can continue where you left off. Another little time-saving trick we’ve added!

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In the first part of this blog series to accompany that presentation, I’ll discuss what we mean by the term ‘Developer Accountant’ and how they benefit Accountancy firms large and small around the world.

So, let’s meet the {developer} Accountant…

For starters, I would identify myself as a Developer Accountant, and my journey is the more common path – Accountant by training moving, by varying degrees, towards adopting more of a Developer mindset.

I graduated about 10 years ago with a Master in Accountancy and started working for one of the big four in Belgium, in both the audit department and M&A departments. During that time, I saw a lot of inefficiencies in the way we worked and lots of room for improvement. Five years ago, I joined Silverfin to be in the driver’s seat to provide those improvements.

Now a Solution Architect, I combine what I learned at University and my experience at the accountancy firm to support our clients on a day-to-day basis with transforming their business and existing processes. By implementing Silverfin’s low-code solution, we improve the accuracy and efficiency of routine and repetitive tasks. I help clients free up resources and make additional capacity available. It also becomes possible to unlock new opportunities for their business along the way.

Agustin’s career path is similar, but subtly different as he chose to be more technical ultimately than me. He also studied Accounting at University and then joined a firm mainly preparing financial statements and tax returns for clients. He also started to notice the inefficiency of manual processes or repetitive tasks – and how that stole time from data analysis that would lead to more valuable information for clients. Like me, he wanted to drive the change and joined Silverfin as a Liquid developer creating Silverfin templates. Meanwhile, Agustin has continued his journey from Accountant to Developer and has evolved to become an Integration Engineer, using Silverfin APIs while supporting clients to do the same.

About Silverfin

My experience and views on Developer Accountants are influenced by the work I’ve done with many Accountancy firms while working at Silverfin. So, it’s worth understanding a bit about Silverfin and how it enables Accountants to become Developer Accountants.

Firstly, it’s a cloud based platform that focuses on providing a centralized solution for post accounting services. Being fully cloud compliant is key to exploiting opportunities to distribute work, share workflows and create control. Importantly, it pulls in data from many different ERP systems or from Excel files.

One of the core principles of Silverfin is customization. From a distance, the process to prepare and generate financial statements, tax returns and management reporting looks the same across different countries and firms. However, the devil is in the details. Being able to configure this process to adhere to the rules and regulations of your country and the specific needs of your firm is crucial. Silverfin provides this flexibility via a customisable layer on top of the Silverfin platform. This layer uses Liquid, a low-code templating language, also used by Shopify. This is also the area where Augustin and I operate on a day to day basis with our clients, collaborating with Accountants and Developers.

Keeping a foot in both camps

When we talk about what makes a ‘Developer Accountant’ it can be tempting to think about someone who has fully switched into programming or developing. But, we see it in a different way. We think that Developer Accountants are still Accountants, they just choose to adopt a different mindset. A more proactive mindset, often looking at the repetitive tasks or issues mentioned before and trying to come up with generic and uniform solutions that can benefit everyone in the firm. That search for solutions leads them to acquire some Developer skills, used to customize existing platforms or systems. The skills from both roles then benefit this new role.

For example, if we think of Accountants, those individuals are often very analytical. A handy skill when you consider how often programming requires breaking complex problems down into smaller steps.

The Developer Accountant mindset is mainly about problem solving. We also think it is not a hard choice between these two roles. And there is also not a single place to be positioned in the middle. It’s a spectrum, with different variants along the way, and different benefits depending on where on the spectrum individuals land.

So, I am in charge of scoping and designing workflows and finding new solutions to the challenges Accounting firms face. But, because I understand the development of code process better, I am more informed regarding what is possible or not and how to materialize those ideas together.

Further towards being a Developer, Agustin, works closer to the actual implementation of those ideas. Translating those ideas into the Liquid code in Silverfin.

But as a trained Accountant, Agustin better understands the why behind certain design choices, compared to technology-educated Developers. As a result, he can challenge or make comments during the actual development stage, something which would rarely happen if you don’t have any content experts involved during that phase.

As a result, if you are building an investment template there are a lot of accounting questions that could pop up. For example, are we going to be dealing with a trial balance or are we going to be fetching accounts from under which type of accounts are we going to be using? Do we need to consider amortization and what are the calculations that we need to apply? All of those things are not related directly to the development but are really useful things that the Accountant brings in here.

The Developer Accountant benefits

I hope this has gone some way to explain what a Developer Accountant is and why the benefits of this new mindset are maximised when combined. We have also seen it deliver consistently higher-quality end products and significantly reduced delivery times as the number of iterations needed to build the right solution falls. And, we consistently see these benefits arrive in firms regardless of their size or the country they operate in.

Watch out for part 2 where I will cover how to find and use Developer Accountants in your firm.

Interested in learning more?

You can download a complete copy of the Developer Accountant whitepaper or watch the webinar recording here.

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The fast track to a successful digital transformation is through becoming a developer accountant. Innovation driven by accountants, with their accounting knowledge and firm experience, is most likely to be successful as they understand what is needed by both their teams and their clients.

Building something completely from scratch by coding yourself is an option but not always a good one. The barriers to entry to doing this, not to mention the risks and associated maintenance, make it unrealistic at best for most firms. It’s also important to balance innovation and creativity with the real need for IT governance.

Accountants should not be responsible for security or error checking for example. Nor should every workflow across the firm be custom. Standardization is key to automation and quality control. However, customization at a firm or departmental level can solidify a particular firms’ USP.

Therefore firms should actively seek out platforms that can not only be tailored, but that actively encourage it. Software providers must simultaneously provide out-of-the-box technology while also making it easy enough for development minded accountants to modify it. By partnering with a software provider like this, accountants are circumventing the need to acquire an entirely new skill set, whilst still achieving their innovation objectives and providing a better service to their clients. 

Silverfin has compiled a detailed guide that sets out how its platform works, shows how it helps users to develop on it with Liquid, and explains how the company supports them on their digital transformation journey.

Get started today, kick start your digital transformation and begin to maximize the value that Silverfin provides your firm.

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Laying the key foundations for future success

First and foremost, accountants need to have their clients’ data in a digital format. There is little point in investing in a new piece of technology without having data digitally ready and stored. If it’s all manual then they will have to physically enter this data themselves – a process that will obviously take far too much time and effort. 

Next up is the cloud

Everybody uses the cloud whether this is Gmail, Spotify, or Netflix. Cloud-based solutions allow organizations to store their key data online and have it accessible at any time and any place. In the past, when accountants used on-premise software, this data would be at risk of system failures. If a computer broke down or the software stopped working, then it was lost – and might not be retrievable. Not to mention the cost of maintaining your own systems was considerable.

The cloud changes all this for good. Data is always stored on the cloud until it’s deleted. It can be accessed from wherever, at whatever time. Of course, with COVID-19 forcing most practices to work remotely, the vast majority of accountants will already be using cloud-based solutions. This isn’t set to change any time soon.

Accountants also need flexibility. They need the flexibility to be able to be both an accountant and a developer at the same time – dedicating energy to learning and mastering both skills. More importantly, they need flexibility from their cloud-based digital tools. The best providers offer customizable solutions. For instance, organizations can fine-tune Silverfin – tweaking it according to their specific preferences – and make it more suitable for their particular goals. 

But, just because accountants might learn key development-related skills, doesn’t mean that they have to do this customization on their own. Leading platforms, like Silverfin, help firms fine-tune their software by working closely with them. They might have an implementation team—or perhaps the account manager is able to help the firm themselves. Whatever their method, they’re invested in making sure the tool is as valuable as possible to you. This means they’ll move heaven and earth to make your chosen customizations a reality.

By working with a provider that’s willing to help you customize a solution, firms can more easily modify their software and gain maximum value from it going forward.

Interested in learning more? Download your complete copy of The Developer Accountant.

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Managing and analyzing data

Accounting starts with data. It’s the foundation to accounting success. The ability to access up-to-date client data from multiple sources in a single location is intrinsic in offering value to clients. Without this process automation then trend analysis and finding insights is impossible.

Ensuring data is at the accountants’ fingertips is easy to say but hard to do. With multiple bookkeeping and financial systems available to clients. Accountants are finding themselves having to work with an overwhelming number of different technologies and data sources.

This invariably means hours spent manually downloading data into spreadsheets made up of complex formulas and macros, switching between files and tabs, and checking calculations and data integrity. Only to find the data has changed and the process begins again.

This is just the start of the problem, since critical financial data doesn’t only reside in bookkeeping systems.

According to research from McAfee, companies with fewer than 1,000 employees run an average of 22 custom applications. Customer or supplier information, business or financial data are spread across these separate apps or cloud services, making it seemingly impossible to get all the data in one place. That’s not to mention dealing with those legacy paper-based data sources which are still rife across many firms.

What’s needed is a structured data hub, with data standardized into a universal chart of accounts. One that has the connectivity, tools, and functionality to retrieve, store, and manage multiple data sources in real-time and for the whole firm. One source of truth for all client bookkeeping data, irrespective of its source which updates automatically when the source data changes, so you know it’s always accurate. and standardized into a common chart of accounts everywhere.

Improving workflows

Once all of an accountant’s data, both current and historical, is centralized, standardized and always available – they can start to think about automation. Great processes make great practices—and standardization is a key part of this. Having standardized ways of working helps ensure that every one of the firm’s accountants is operating to the highest possible level. This means that all clients will receive the best possible service—no matter how many of them there are. It also means you can do more, faster and to a consistent standard. Be better if you like.

 Therefore, it’s crucial that firms create processes that will deliver the maximum impact—and require minimal time, effort, or stress.

Without standardized workflows across the firm, teams can often find themselves bogged down by spreadsheets—and they end up spending too long on manually intensive reporting processes. This leaves little time for valuable activities, such as forecasting, analytics, or providing genuine business advice. It also creates an unwanted margin for human error, which is a huge risk if the result is misreporting crucial figures.

So, what’s the solution?

To better use the technology at their disposal. By possessing the right technological skills, accountants can customize software to produce standardized workflows that everybody in the organization can follow. They can fine-tune their off-the-shelf software and make it specific to their business. They aren’t programming—they aren’t changing the core functionality of the program—but they are changing the way in which it operates throughout their organization. In turn, this increases the value that it will have.

This process requires having a development mindset. It’s not enough for accountants to simply bend their processes and ways of working around the software they implement. To become as efficient as possible, they need to recognize where the technology is not performing up to their way of working. They must then identify ways to remedy this themselves, or by working with the software provider’s team. The right platform gives accountants an accessible way to build their own processes.

In other words, they need to become developer accountants.

Interested in learning more? Download your complete copy of The Developer Accountant.

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Checking the workflow status across your client files arrives with the ability to add, change and view the workflow status of your client files with our Insights module*. With this new improvement, you also have the option to search for a specific status of workflows, or check all client files up to or from a specific status.

Using this new workflow status feature in combination with the client files you’re following gives you an overview of the status of everything that’s relevant to you. Helping to avoid bottlenecks and making the process of reallocating work to different centres or departments easier, which keeps you ahead of deadlines.

Staying with workflow status, you can now automatically update other systems you’re using with the status of your Silverfin workflows.  For example, if you already use a separate tool where you set the status per deliverable (Corporate Tax, VAT, Annual Accounts, etc.) and only some of those deliverables are done in Silverfin, using our workflows you can use the new API to update the deliverable status in your separate tool as well from your Silverfin interface.

Find more details of this change and its functionality here plus our updated our API documentation here. 

Finally, our recent update for period-specific documents improves the way documents are handled in Silverfin. It’s now easier to see where a document has been attached and to which period. We’ve also made it simpler to attach a document to multiple places at once. Read more details here.

This is only a quick snapshot of changes to the Silverfin functionality, so if you’re interested in timezones or a full list please visit our product changelog.

*Contact your Customer Success Manager if you’d like more information.

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Developers, on the other hand, are at the forefront of new technology and technical skills. Developers are responsible for creating the building blocks that power today’s digital economy.

But developers and accountants are actually a lot closer than you might think. From building or editing macros to carrying out data analysis – there are similarities that exist already.

Technology is reinventing the accounting profession.

Whether it’s the ability to create working papers in a matter of clicks, or to dive deep into large data sets and derive key insights, accountants in 2023 simply must use technology. Accounting technologies are making the profession more efficient, improving accuracy, and making the work faster, easier and more enjoyable. Access to technology is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have.

You certainly don’t need to be a developer to use the array of innovative accounting technologies available. However, having a few basic development skills does help.

Every practice has its own goals and challenges. They have a wide range of clients, each with their own preferences, requirements and ways of working.

If accountants want to customize their software according to their practice or firm, and their clients’ specific requirements, they need to become what we describe as ‘developer accountants’.

But, how far do accountants have to go?

Do they need to fully retrain? Not necessarily. Being a ‘developer accountant’ doesn’t require you to be both developer and accountant. Instead, it means that accountants should adopt a developers’ mindset and learn a few key skills that will make a tangible difference to their firm. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for what these skills are—it varies from firm to firm, from accountant to accountant.

Importantly it’s good to know that this won’t detract from the day job—it will instead enhance it. By becoming better developers (or rather, by becoming more of a developer), you can increase the value that you drive from solutions. In turn, this will deliver more value to clients—and to the firm in general.

Becoming a developer accountant is a win-win for everybody.

In this whitepaper, we will outline the benefits of using technology to make accountants’ lives easier and discuss how taking a development mindset can help to further increase efficiency. We will also dive into the skills and programming knowledge that accountants need to learn to get the best use out of the Silverfin cloud platform.

Interested in learning more? Download your complete copy of The Developer Accountant.

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He takes over leadership of our go-to-market and customer support team in our home market having previously led our professional services team globally.

Commenting on the appointment Lisa Miles-Heal, CEO said, “Domien has a unique perspective on our business, team, customers and our product born out of his years in senior roles with the company. He will now shift gears and focus our team in Belgium on continuing the growth and success of our business in our home market.”

Domien Claeys said, “I joined Silverfin after many years in accounting. I saw first hand the challenges these professionals face on a day-to-day basis in just getting their important work done. I shared the frustrations many felt that there had to be an easier way. Also that technology played a key role in making life easier but also in accelerating the shift from a focus on compliance reporting to delivering value-added advisory services. There’s a lot of talk about digital transformation but Silverfin is actually delivering this – we are providing the foundational technology our customers rely on to advance their business – to build a more digital future on.”

He continued, “Silverfin was born and raised in Belgium. We work with an outstanding group of accountancy firms in the country. We have a lot to be very proud of. But there is plenty more work to be done. There are many firms who are struggling with digital transformation that need our help, and many looking to accelerate their progress. Technology needs to support them in doing this. So I’m excited by the potential to continue our growth in Belgium and the opportunity to lead our team here.”

Domien started his professional life as an accountant in 2003 and has been a chartered accountant for 10 years. He joined Silverfin in 2017 from a leading Belgium firm, and customer, Vandelanotte. He met with the company’s founders Joris Van Der Gucht and Tim Vandecasteele while in an IT role at the firm tasked with matching the needs of their accountancy team and the technology available in the market. After a period as a project manager and analyst in the business transformation team, he joined Silverfin as he was impressed by the technology the company was building. He could see how the shift to the cloud, and automation of key compliance tasks, was key to an effective digital transformation of the profession. His first focus was to lead Silverfin’s professional services team globally. This team has responsibility for project management and content development for customers. He then joined the company’s executive leadership team in 2019 and was promoted to General Manager for Belgium in September 2022.

Joris Van Der Gucht, co-founder at Silverfin added, “Domien has been a key ingredient in Silverfin’s success in Belgium and globally. He joined us very early on and has brought his deep understanding of the life and work of accountants to our business, and product development. His never ending energy and commitment to helping our customers succeed with our technology is the same today as it was when Tim and I met him at his accounting firm. We’re excited to see what he does next with our team and customers here in Belgium.”

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Here in the UK at least the economic outlook is gloomy at best.

Inflation’s at 10.1%, the highest it’s been for 40 years. Rising costs are hitting consumers and businesses hard—and many accountancy firms’ clients are struggling to stay open. It seems like only yesterday that they were grappling with Covid-enforced lockdowns and layoffs, and yet here we are again, facing another existential economic threat.

Accounting firms can use this economic downturn to showcase their advisory capability, to provide services that move the needle for their clients, suggesting strategies to keep them afloat or even keep them growing.

So, just as with Covid, it is time for accountancy firms to step up to the plate as advisors. They have a crucial role in helping their clients thrive—not just survive.

Use what you learnt from Covid

The pandemic was a monumental, once-in-many-lifetimes event. When it first hit, many business owners were left scrambling, unsure of how to protect their business’s futures.

Accountants were an economic emergency service, acting as trusted advisors by helping clients navigate intense uncertainty. There’s inherent safety in the nature of numbers. So, when business owners were faced with so many intangibles, accountants focused their attention on what they did know (e.g. their company’s financial performance, government funding, sector expertise) and what they could do to protect their cashflow going forward.

We’re facing similar challenges right now. Double-digit inflation is placing intense pressure on businesses—indeed, many of us will have never experienced such fiscal challenges before in our lives. However, firms can draw upon their experiences of helping clients through Covid to be similarly supportive throughout 2023 and beyond.

Harnessing your firm’s existing body of knowledge

While junior accountants might be more tech-savvy than senior colleagues, there’s one thing they lack: experience. Today, this experience is more valuable than ever. Firms must draw upon the wisdom of their senior staff and partners who’ve seen this before, who’ve lived through similarly turbulent economic periods and come out the other side.

However, accessing this knowledge is just the first step. Firms must then package their team’s expertise and insights into practical advice to help clients predict, plan for, and perhaps even profit from, economic downturns. In other words, they need to turn internal wisdom into external results.

But it’s not just about internal expertise—firms should also draw on historic as well as sector-wide knowledge to help their clients pave a path for the future. To learn from the crowd.

Accountancy has been around for thousands of years, with the first records dating back to ancient Mesopotamia. Economic downturns are nothing new. Accountants have dealt with similar challenges in the past, and the profession has developed a rich body of knowledge that today’s firms should tap into.

Tools and tech might play an increasingly important role in the industry. However, firms can’t neglect human knowledge—this is the key to helping clients chart their way through turbulent economic waters.

Turning data into insights

There might be safety in numbers—but not everybody understands what their numbers mean. Firms need to translate their clients’ data into actionable insights before communicating to them in an easy-to-understand manner. They need to apply their clients’ numbers to patterns they’ve seen in the past and explain why X figure leads to Y outcome, and how doing Z will help.

Technology’s great—but it can’t do it all alone. Business owners need advice on what to do next, blending technology-driven insights with rich accounting knowledge and wisdom. Accountants need to provide what Google searches and Excel can’t do. In other words, they need to bring their clients’ figures to life and chart a way forward, while considering each company’s unique context, industry, and goals.

Data leads to insights, insights lead to conversations, and conversations lead to valuable advice. It’s as simple as that.

Focusing on what truly matters

Compliance work isn’t going anywhere. While clients will undoubtedly require forward-thinking advice, they’ll still need firms to create and file their end-of-year statements (among other activities). Therefore, firms should work out how they can prepare compliance-oriented work as efficiently and accurately as possible, gaining rapid access to insights that will fuel advisory conversations.

There’s little point in vastly experienced accountants spending their precious time pulling data sets together, finding small errors, or even drafting emails and communicating with clients virtually. Their time is far more valuable than this—both to your firm and your clients.

So, what’s the solution?

Firms should implement automation-based tools (like Silverfin) that accelerate the time it takes to complete error-free compliance work. The quicker and easier this process is, the more time accountants can spend speaking with clients. They can focus their energy on turning clients’ numbers into ‘Here’s how you’re performing, here are your major challenges, and here’s how to prepare for the future’-type conversations.

Be generous with your intellectual property (IP)

Firms must take action now to ensure that when clients ask for their help, they’re ready. So, what does this process entail?

First, they should be chatting internally, working out how they can use existing resources to fuel their advisory services. Which tools can help? Which team members are particularly adept at speaking to clients? How will the firm advertise its advisory services, and which approach will it take to delivering them? What can be given for free to support clients in this difficult time and what should be charged for? The last is something that Covid taught many firms is an important distinction to make quickly.

For example, firms might consider a one-to-all approach, such as hosting a webinar for multiple clients simultaneously. Ask each team member to write down the 10 most common questions that clients ask them. When you do this, you’ll see significant overlap between the questions and answers—this will reveal what clients are yearning to know. You can then either host a webinar related to the topic or create a piece of advisory content to showcase your firm’s expertise.

I’d strongly advise firms to be more open with their IP than usual. While they might be hesitant to provide value-add advisory services for free, hosting webinars and publishing guides will help them demonstrate their credentials. In turn, this will convince clients to pay for more personalised advice tailored to their business.

Using this as an invaluable learning opportunity

The best firms use crises as opportunities. Tough times bring everyone together under a shared purpose—in fact, this period might even help firms rebuild relationships that have become somewhat fragmented since the onset of Covid (and remote working in general).

What’s more, it’ll be a fantastic learning opportunity, especially for junior accountants. They’ll learn how to hold clients’ hands in tough times and will gain the soft skills necessary to become trusted business advisors. Rather than simply focusing on compliance work, they’ll learn how to package, sell, and deliver their expertise to clients. This will stand them and their firm in good stead moving forward.

That said, don’t expect the world right from the word go. Many accountants appreciate the black-and-white nature of numbers. Providing advice, however, can be grey—there’s no way for sure of knowing whether or not it will work. Therefore, the more risk-averse members of your team might struggle to step into the unknown when telling clients how to run their businesses. This is only natural. Over time, however, they will become increasingly comfortable using their financial expertise to provide forward-thinking advice.

Remember your value

Some firms hesitate to charge cash-strapped clients for valuable advisory services. While there’s a certain logic to this, it doesn’t mean it’s the right approach. Business owners might be struggling financially, but if your advice generates more money for them than it costs, then it’s still well worth the investment.

Focus on the return on investment (ROI) that clients gain from your advice. If possible, start generating case studies as early as possible to demonstrate the impact of your advisory services. You might have helped some clients thrive during Covid—if so, use these examples to demonstrate how valuable your advice is.

Accountants don’t need to be salespeople to convince clients of their value. Instead, they need to do what they do best: focus on the numbers. If you can demonstrate that your advice delivered a 2x multiplier of what you charged clients, there’s no reason to shy away from charging clients.

Take action today

Things will likely only get tougher from here on out. Leading firms use crises to their advantage, finding novel ways to help clients generate value. They adapt, respond, evolve, and profit.

Start planning for an advisory-led future today. Map out your internal resources, both human and technological, and create a roadmap for how you’ll provide these services at scale to your clients. Build out case studies from happy clients who you’ve advised in the past and start providing the relevant training to help your team be as comfortable as possible when transitioning into the role of trusted business advisors.

Remember: mindset is everything. If you believe your firm can help clients succeed despite all the odds, there’s a strong chance it will be able to.

Get in touch to see how our accounting platform can help you deliver better advisory services.

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In the new era of connected technology and instant communication, accountants must evolve their business model to make the most of new automation technologies. Clients expect that the routine administrative tasks, which would have occupied a large part of accountants’ time in days past, will now be achievable in minutes. Though technology makes accountants’ lives much easier in this respect, it has also completely re-written the way they service their clients. With online tools, customers can get admin done themselves. What they need now is a higher level of service – a business advisory accountant.

Insights

As a result, accountants need to understand how to use automation to become trusted business advisors, which in turn will help them avoid being left behind by digitised competitors. They must update the way they provide their service, using deeper integration with clients’ systems to provide strategic business insight as well as accounting advice. Those firms which use automated insight into clients’ systems to drive astute business guidance will be well positioned to ride the new technology wave, rather than being crushed by it.

With all this in mind, below are three key areas for development which accountants must put into action if they are to become fully integrated business advisors and move away from the dead-end of backroom administration…

• Collect as much data as possible

Collect a steady stream of client and market data in order to gain as complete a picture as possible of coming trends in your customer’s fields. You’ll also get an early heads-up on clients’ needs and their performance against targets. In other words, you’ll have the means to broaden your skill set beyond balancing the books into deeper business intelligence and consultancy

Relevancy

With automated practice management tools, for example, it’s possible to access client data streams, books, documents and communications alongside your own within a single platform. This enables you to get regular updates on any anomalous events which might indicate a need for a strategy change or countermeasures. If your system flags up an unexpected hiccup in a client’s cash flow, for example, if you’ve got comprehensive insight into their company data you may well be able to pinpoint why the problem has arisen and suggest a fix before the client asks for it. With this extra level of information on hand, it will be easier for you to give valuable insight to clients, encouraging them to see you as an advisor rather than an operational expense.

• Get a single view over everything

Make sure you keep a single integrated system to handle all client data streams and integrate your information to help make admin processes fast and achievable. There are two main benefits of adopting a single-platform system: ease of use and depth of insight. You’ll be able to manage all the various aspects of your assignments from one dashboard, with everything laid out in front of you at once, rather than having to bounce between windows and platforms, online and on-premise. But as we investigated above, you’ll also be able to see deeper into both your clients’ affairs and your own.

Giving the client the information they need

Take an example. If you know that a particular month-end is set to be rough for a particular client’s finances, previously you might have had to engage in a series of calls and emails, supported by a plethora of documents, to get to the bottom of the problem. If you operate from an integrated system in the cloud, by contrast, you’ll be able to report on everything from sales and purchase orders to revaluation of stock, margins and project progress from your own workstation, cutting out a huge amount of admin time and, more importantly, providing clients with an on-point advisory service at the point of greatest need.

• Make the most of analytics

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much information you have at your fingertips – if you don’t analyse it, you won’t get any value out of it, and neither will your clients. Automated client advice dashboards are the key to this. By moving your and your clients’ data into automated cloud-based tools, you can start to use a ‘management by exception’ model. Essentially this means that the system will constantly scan incoming information on work in progress, stock, sales, quotations and so on, as well as your own billable hours and time capacity, and highlight any immediate or upcoming pain-points you’ll need to address. You can also turn these insights into visuals to help present your recommendations to clients in a more engaging and straightforward format than pages of numbers.

Times are changing. Clients need to be provided with a tailored, on-time service which addresses their wider business concerns as opposed to just their book-keeping. As such, automation is going to be increasingly essential for accountants looking to stand out from the competition and win over new business in the coming year. The simple question is: which accountants will implement intelligent systems and overhaul their client services before they are overtaken and left behind by their competitors?

author credit

Jan Lamaire is General Manager Cloud Solutions Belgium & Luxemburg, Exact. He wants to give accountants the tools and insights necessary to help SME’s make smart business decisions – and in the process, help accountants become trusted business advisors.

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Accountants are the customers for whom all of us at Silverfin get out of bed in the morning. Every day we work on making our connected accounting platform better. In SaaS, ‘better’ always means ‘better for the customer’. So, after getting out of bed for our customers, I also eat my portion of customer centricity for breakfast

It was exciting to hear Van Belleghem talk about so many things that we’ve already built into Silverfin, or that are on our roadmap for the near future.

In general, when I hear people talk about how ‘digital’ has become a superfluous word, I can’t help but thinking that this might be the case for many professions, but in accounting binders and paperwork are often still very much part of a day’s work.

Even when scanning and accounting software is used, which takes away the pain of dragging paper invoices around, the actual accounting work, where accounts are reconciled and where costs and benefits are explained, is often still a manual and somewhat analog process. Of course, computers are used, and Excel and Word are a huge step up from suspension files, but a lot of the work that accountants do has to be done over and over again at the time of year closing.

With Silverfin we’re at the forefront in helping accountants make the transition to digital when it comes to improving the workflow and reporting within accounting firms.

Digital transformation means much more than moving from paper invoices to scanned images. For Silverfin, digital means connected, where many aspects of the value chain become connected in a way that adds value.

Back to Steven Van Belleghem, here are a few quotes and how I found them to relate to my daily work as Product Manager at Silverfin.

“Machine learning has found its place in society”

While the exact definition of machine learning is food for thought, this quote did make me think of Silverbot. That’s the Silverfin robot who is currently being trained to notice unexpected behaviour in the books. When Silverbot spots something out of the ordinary, like as a large sum being booked on an account for Small Computer Purchases, it will ask if perhaps that cost shouldn’t go on Investments. (Disclaimer: we don’t actually have a physical Silverbot running around the office :-), it’s more like Slackbot or the Facebook bot, a small tool working in the background).

“Wouldn’t it be great if my accountant sent me a direct message to let me know there was a problem with my numbers”

With Silverfin, accountants add a layer of automation and uniformisation on top of the data that comes from accounting software. What comes in through accounting software is simply booked data, there hasn’t been any reconciliation. It’s the process of reconciliation that Silverfin streamlines, making it already possible today for accountants who work with Silverfin to send reports outside of the ‘set accounting calendar’ range. In other words, business owners don’t need to wait until the end of a book year or fiscal period to get insight in their real numbers. Where accounting software stops at the level of ‘invoice booked’, Silverfin goes much further after that, and allows accountants to check the bookings, audit the data and always have up-to-date and correct financial info to share with their clients.

“It’s not about Digital First, it’s about Digital Now”

There’s no need to wait for a new generation of accountants, the change need to take place in the accounting firms of today.

Accounting has been around for thousand of years. The profession has seen the clay tablet come and go, accountants transitioned from the abacus to the calculator at some point. Surely, a profession with such a great history and such a valid reason for existence, is bound to adapt to the digital world we’re living in now.

“Convenience is the new loyalty. Aim for extreme simplicity.”

Compliancy and working within the existing set of rules and regulations is standard practice for all accountants. You’re not going to win customers by being compliant. On the other hand, firms that offer convenient ways for their customers to see their numbers and to communicate with their accountant, differentiate themselves from the pack and will win the loyalty of their clients.

“Contextual understanding is key. Content + context = value”

Accountants need to discover value adding ways to work with data. Technology offers them a lot more information and data, but the question is what they do with that data. As soon as ‘having data’ gets translated into ‘offering extra service to my client based on data’, you get a winning combination. Van Belleghem also says: “One size fits nobody”, and it’s true that accountants can’t offer a general service towards all of their clients, everybody has different needs and deserves a different approach. That’s why Silverfin offers a white label and generic framework, with ample room to customize content and features.

“The rise of technology is increasing customer expectations.”

As more and more processes get automated, people increasingly value the experience of human contact and interaction. Whereas one used to have to go to the bank for even the most basic transactions, we nowadays go there when we need expert advice. The same goes for accounting. The role of the accountant should be to be good at those things where technology fails:

• Empathy
• Passion
• Creativity

Technology is great, but humans smile… it’s precisely the human part of business where the magic happens.

My conclusion? Future-proof accountants let technology work on the operational tasks, and focus their personal efforts on human, creative and value-adding work. Accountants are digital, now it’s time for accountancy to become human. (#ConnectedAccounting)

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The accounting industry has been fixated upon advisory with a capital A for many years now. The creation and delivery of a discrete set of specific services labelled as Advisory, paid for separately from compliance and perhaps even delivered by different people in the firm. However, when we spoke to our customers about Advisory, their overwhelming response was that things had (or needed) to move on. Many are no longer speaking or thinking about advisory in this way.

Why ‘A’dvisory is dead

Advisory has become a very loaded term, with everyone in the industry talking about the topic. It’s been proclaimed as the future of accounting since we started Silverfin 10 years ago—but hardly anything has actually changed in that time.

Our Technology Trends research shows that every year for the past three years, most firms have said that in the future, the bulk of their revenue will come from advisory. But every year, the number of firms that achieve this has pretty much stayed the same. So is advisory all talk and no action? Is it just a myth? Or is it indeed, dead? Do clients really want these services?

Yes clients need advice, they just might not need ‘A’dvisory services.

Conversations are the new advisory

When we say advisory is dead, this doesn’t mean that firms should solely focus on compliance. Instead, we need to reframe how we perceive advisory, understanding that any additional non-compliance-related value that accountants provide first starts with a conversation. Conversations might not be as exciting or new as advisory once was, but conversations are the catalyst to unlocking greater value for clients and for your firm. Once we recognise this, everything else falls into place.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a conversation as a “talk between two or more people in which thoughts, feelings, and ideas are expressed, questions are asked and answered, or news and information is exchanged”. The key aspect to remember is that conversations involve exchanging and developing ideas. So, when firms speak to their clients, they need to remember that a conversation is not a one-way street—it’s not about accountants talking and clients listening. It is also a time when news or new ideas are shared and explored.

Conversations seek to build understanding and mutual respect, to exchange benefits, insights or experience. Firms might ask their clients what their long-term goals are, while clients might ask how firms have helped similar companies grow in the past.

These questions will spark ideas, which can then spark revenue-generating (or cost-saving) opportunities. The most important element of these conversations isn’t just to pass on information or explain some numbers, but to make it a meaningful interaction.

That sounds a lot like advice or advisory to me.

So what about the issue of using advisory conversations as a new revenue stream. Think about it. If having a conversation in a meaningful way creates an opportunity to sell new services or bill for more time, then it follows that if you want more revenue, you should have more conversations. Once you develop your relationship with your clients and master the art of having valuable conversations with them, you should have them all the time. The more you talk with your clients, the more questions it will spark, the more revenue it will generate, and you’ll deliver more value to your clients.

It’s a win-win situation for client and firm.

How to become a conversation-led firm

You can’t have more conversations unless you’re continuously on top of how your clients are performing. If you want something to talk about, your clients’ numbers should be up-to-date all the time—not just once a year. You should be talking about what is happening now, not what was happening months ago or even last year. Plus if you keep your clients up-to-date all the time, not annually, you benefit from more consistent and steady work load across the year. An end to the intense pressures associated with annual submissions not only means a more healthy balance for your teams but it also makes resourcing a lot easier.

Armed with constantly up-to-date data, you’re able to look at what is happening now and also explore how lessons from the past may inform the future. This will help you have meaningful, two-way, structured conversations. That last point—structure—is crucial.

Client conversations are rarely structured. They may be structured on an individual basis, with each partner applying their own framework according to their style and personality, and sometimes that structure is passed on from the partner to the junior. However, there’s rarely a standard format for the conversation across a firm.

We’re not saying that the conversation should be scripted, stilted, controlled, or even robotic. Not at all. We’re all humans, so our conversations need to be human. But if there is a shared structure, toolkit and data created to drive these conversations with enough flexibility to make it natural, then that conversation becomes repeatable.

A common structure for these advisory conversations (with a small ‘a’) means all of your clients will have a consistent experience and know what to expect from your firm. Most importantly, it means that the success of any given conversation isn’t solely dependent on an individual’s style or personality.

Beyond ensuring conversations are repeatable and deliver a consistent experience, having a structure ensures the relevant questions are triggered. You can’t always predict what advice you will give each client in advance—but you can provide them with information that enables them to ask the right questions for their business.

Structure also helps you to efficiently train your people, providing juniors with a set framework, data and toolkit to follow. Associates shouldn’t have to go through an undefined rite of passage before they can start having these types of conversations with clients. Or worse still – have to defer the right to an advisory conversation to the partner or senior on their account, delegating their contribution in the minds of their client. And minimising your opportunities to advise.

Ensuring your conversations follow a repeatable structure, are informed by data and the collective wisdom of the firm in report form, you can iterate on your approach and continue to optimise it. Tweak something here, change something there, and see how these changes affect the final outcome.

Conversations are the key to advisory success

We should no longer be talking about advisory as this discreet (somewhat ill defined) set of services delivered by specific individuals in the firm authorised to dispense insight and knowledge. We should instead focus on having the whole team engaged in continuous structured conversations with clients informed by easy access to the data, insights and experience they need to serve the needs of their clients.

We’re incredibly excited about this idea at Silverfin, as it’s a logical extension of what we’ve been working on all along. Building powerful data stores that drive insights. Automating complex compliance work to free up time to dig into this data to unlock insights. And finally creating the analytics and reporting tools – not to mention collaboration tools – required for the delivery of advisory conversations at scale.

Book a demo
with a member of our team to find out more about how Silverfin can spark valuable client conversations in your firm.

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I was joined by Andy Mackey, Azets Transformation Director, Fay Bordbar, Mazars Operations Manager for Accounting and Outsourcing Services, and Sophie Parkhouse, Albert Goodman Technical and Training Partner.

This is a summary of our conversation. We look at the key topics our panellists discussed, and share their recommendations on how accounting firms can get the most out of tech as well as people during complex change initiatives.

Best practices for successful digital transformation

No two digital transformation initiatives are the same — every firm has its own context and culture, hurdles and objectives. However, there are a few best practices that firms should keep in mind when implementing digital transformation initiatives.

Get leadership buy-in, but distribute accountability

For Fay, it’s crucial that leaders get behind the project and publicly express their support. “As a manager, I can’t sell complex transformation projects to my team without buy-in from the top. It’s virtually impossible”.

But while buy-in from the top gets your foot in the door, digital transformation projects will only succeed with the entire organisation’s support. That’s why Fay recommends picking a single champion for each team who’s personally responsible for ensuring the firm’s new technology delivers its intended benefits. “When you give people responsibility, ownership, and trust, they shine. We have people who’d never coded before who now code in Silverfin and absolutely love it”.

Andy agreed that distributing accountability was key, emphasising that it takes a whole team to transform large organisations. He even suggests bringing in non-accountants to help with the process — after all, accountants are busy enough dealing with client work.

Prioritise communication

To ensure change projects are successful, managers need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. They must ask for their team’s opinions and genuinely want to hear about the problems they’re facing.

As Fay puts it, “Look, it’s not always nice to hear, but you have to listen, welcome the negatives and have those challenging conversations. Digital transformation inevitably requires ripping up the rulebook to some extent. You’re ditching systems and processes that people have become accustomed to, so there’s always going to be some pushback. Dig into what your team is afraid of and always lead with ‘why?’. Get to the heart of why they feel the way they do. Not only will this show you care, but it will also help you identify and overcome specific hurdles that stand in your way”.

Andy backed this up, saying: “It’s not easy changing people’s day jobs, so put yourself in the shoes of those on the ground. Sell the benefits to your staff. Emphasise that you’re transforming your processes because you want to create efficiencies, not make people redundant”.

He continued, “Automation has somewhat of a negative connotation, but this is completely illogical when you think about it. Firms use automation because they want to free accountants from the boring, low-value tasks that they hate doing anyway. Digital transformation will make your staff’s jobs significantly better—not worse”.

Change leaders should communicate clearly and often, checking in with their team, updating them on progress, and answering any questions they might have. As Andy puts it, “Change is hard, so do it with your team—not to them”.

Start small and grow

Sophie highlighted that many projects fail because firms go too big too soon. Instead, change leaders should create a small pilot in one part of the business and focus on generating tangible results on a small scale. If this is successful, they can then share this example with other departments to gain buy-in throughout the firm.

“Get a proof of concept before asking everyone to jump on board”, she suggests. “Remember: people trust their current systems and processes. You won’t get them to change their ways of working unless you can prove it’s worth the hassle”.

Common digital transformation pitfalls to avoid

Over the years, Fay, Andy, and Sophie have learned what to do when enacting digital transformation projects — but equally important, they’ve discovered what not to do.

Attaching specific labels to the project

Fay explained that firms should be careful with how they label transformation projects. At Mazars, they initially rolled out Silverfin by saying it would be a replacement for Excel. Except, that wasn’t the best comparison. Silverfin and Excel aren’t like-for-like tools, so employees began to question why Silverfin didn’t include certain features that they relied on when using Excel.

“I realised we’d made a mistake with how we labelled the project. Rather than making it seem like Silverfin was just replacing Excel, we should have instead framed it as a new way to approach our outsourcing work”, she said.

Keeping the same mindset as before

Sophie highlighted the mindset shift involved when implementing new tech. Firms that typically rely on legacy systems are used to big annual software updates that have to be proactively deployed but today’s tools are continually developing.

“Some colleagues grumbled that they could never keep on top of the tool as it keeps changing. Except, they failed to understand why it’s always changing: to solve the very problems and issues they used to complain about when using it. It’s evolving, but it’s improving”, she added.

Sophie also reinforced that change doesn’t just involve tech and systems — it’s also about people, mindsets, and attitudes. Remind staff that they can no longer get away with doing CPD once a year. Instead, they need to continually upskill to ensure they’re fit for purpose for their current role. New technology can help them do that as they learn new ways to do things but also technology can free up time which they can use to develop soft skills that are critical to the delivery of advisory services.

Building a business or benefits case

Andy told the audience that when he first started working out the business case for transformation at Azets, he discovered that, in common with most firms, their client data was spread everywhere and this impacted how these cases were built. Crucially, it was clear they had a goldmine of client data that they’d not been using —meaning the business cases they’d previously created needed a rethink.

“Do a deep dive into your company’s data and make sure you have everything in one place before you build out benefits cases”, he suggests. “Also, remember that benefits cases change—this is fine. In fact, you should expect it to happen”. This was a point that resonated with me as we’ve seen this with other Silverfin customers who’d achieved the most success from their digital transformation – they didn’t lock the project into single benefit cases but were willing to adapt them as the project evolved and more opportunities were identified.

Top tips for keeping staff engaged in change

Change management or digital transformation projects will only succeed if everyone is engaged throughout the process. Of course, this is easier said than done. So, how did our panellists ensure maximum engagement from their colleagues during complex digital transformation initiatives?

Gamification

Fay described how Mazars used gamification to boost engagement when implementing Silverfin. Each team was scored on how well they were using the tool, and they shared the results publicly. There was no naming and shaming teams that lagged behind—instead, they focused on championing those at the top.

The result? Teams at the bottom quickly focused on narrowing the gap, and Silverfin digital working papers were soon successfully embedded across all Outsourcing teams.

Linking the project to individual goals

For Sophie, it’s crucial that change leaders reinforce why people should buy into the project, linking its overall objective to individuals’ goals. “We’d tell employees that if they wanted to progress, they’d have to achieve a certain goal. For example, improve their recoveries or become more efficient and how could they do that by using Silverfin”.

Keep on checking in

Change projects can quickly lose momentum as employees become distracted with their daily duties and responsibilities. That’s why Andy consistently checked in with his colleagues at Azets, hosting regular webinars that were as engaging and relaxed as possible.

“I wanted to make the webinars interesting, useful, and very low-key. I was honest about how the project was progressing, sharing timelines, goals, next steps, and welcoming two-way discussions. It gave everyone an opportunity to speak their mind and be open about how they felt”. Andy’s approach worked wonders—over 2,500 staff attended the three sessions he put on.

Our team has seen this first hand. Those customers that have successfully implemented Silverfin shared one common trait: transparency. Managers kept their teams in the loop at all times and welcomed feedback, even if it wasn’t always positive.

Empower everyone from the bottom-up

Lastly, Sophie highlighted that firms must empower everyone from the bottom-up to ensure maximum engagement. There were instances at Albert Goodman when senior leaders would ask an employee to revert back to an old way of working. For example, to print a document so they could sign and scan it.

Their Silverfin implementation would’ve failed if juniors gave into these types of requests. Instead, they did just the opposite, reminding their managers that the firm now did everything within the Silverfin platform.

Embrace change, don’t shy away from it

An open mind about change is required in today’s fast-moving world. Firms of the future understand this, embracing the opportunities change brings while learning from previous projects that haven’t gone as intended.

It was great to hear the experiences of our customer experts at the Digital Accounting Show and to learn more about how they’ve successfully transformed their own firms, using Silverfin to increase efficiency, profitability, and the quality of their work.

Book a demo  to see how our accounting platform can help you deliver successful transformation at your firm.

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Client expectations are changing and technology means they want compliance and reporting to be done quickly, accurately and be competitively priced. So the profession has to call time on the hours spent working on complex spreadsheets or manually preparing accounts, reporting and compliance.

With the help of technology, this work can be automated and thereby liberate accountants from endless number crunching and give them the time (and tools) they need to deliver valuable insight to clients – securing their role as trusted advisor.

Accountancy will no longer be driven by number crunching. The technology will do that. What will matter is client service, advisory and cultivating relationships, all supported and informed by technology. Clients need accountants to help them prepare for the complex challenges of the current and future marketplace. They want, and value, advice and that’s a people business, augmented by technology.

The future belongs to those who choose to become connected accountants – trusted advisors armed with data and a platform that automates common accounting work, identifies trends, predicts problems, and highlights areas for growth for clients.

Technology is a chief driver of change and 85% of accountants recognise they need to pick up the pace of technology adoption to remain competitive.

We’ve helped many firms internationally with their digital transformation. Showing them how technology can support positive change in their business and client service. We looked at these firms and their approach and identified the four steps that successful strategies for transformation all shared. We call them the four sights of connected accounting. You will be a connected accountant when your firm has successfully passed through these four key stages of digital maturity as seen below.

Connected accounting begins with Fullsight. Fullsight is all about consolidating and standardising client data. Then comes Hindsight – using this data to make the automation of common accounting workflows possible. Now Insight is where you start to develop value-added advisory capabilities. Armed with historic and real-time data you use benchmarking and analytics tools to extract the insight that sits behind the numbers and turn that into powerful advice. Finally, you complete your transformation with Foresight. You move on from looking at past performance to using advanced data and analytics tools to predict the future and power the development of new value-added client advisory services.

As you obtain each of these sights your firm, team and clients are more connected; you unlock new opportunities for greater productivity; develop new services; improve your competitiveness and unlock more revenue.

We’ve turned what we’ve learnt from working with these leaders in accounting into a simple roadmap for digital transformation that any firm can follow. So if you’d like to learn more about connected accounting and how you can build your own plan download our eGuide or contact us to see how Silverfin can help you deliver your digital transformation goals.

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Since last September when Silverfin acquired Artificial Intelligence (AI) firm Boltzmann and its impressive Ludwig Assistant, we’ve been working on embedding AI technology into our platform.  We already have a large number of customers using Ludwig Assistant for Silverfin and have ambitious plans to go much further.

We set up a dedicated AI team with a mission to give accountancy firms easy access to the benefits of this technology. Too many solutions out there require specialist skills, extensive customisation, or setup time. We’ve made it an out-the-box solution. 

Today we’re announcing the launch of our new Silverfin Assistant, which offers two AI-powered modules:

Standardisation Assistant

This takes the pain out of mapping your bookkeeping ledgers to a standard chart of accounts, completing this work in just a matter of minutes. This initial step allows for a smooth and – where possible – automated process of your work in Silverfin. It also includes some basic data hygiene checks, to make sure that you are working with complete and accurate data to start with.

Working Papers Assistant

This module goes even further and performs a fully automated review of your client files to spot unexpected values in balances, transactions, reconciliations etc. Not only for data quality and time savings, but also to identify opportunities for client advisory.  

Using AI in Silverfin is another example of how we’re making the life of an accountant easier.  Time-intensive and repetitive tasks can be completed quicker. This means accountants can spend more time on more profitable, and let’s face it, more interesting activities – like advising clients. 

The rollout of our AI products will be phased across different countries.  

In Belgium, the full Silverfin Assistant is available from today.  In the UK, we’ll shortly begin rolling out the Standardisation Assistant and then start working with select customers to develop the Working Papers Assistant, based on our success in Belgium. And, later this year, we’ll be launching the Standardisation Assistant in the Netherlands too. 

And that’s not all.  There is lots of other AI development going on too.  As we combine the Silverfin Assistant deeper within our Insights module, we’ll give users advanced tools that will enable them to provide proactive advisory work. These are exciting times and we’re only just scratching the surface of the potential that AI can bring to accountancy. More to come very soon.

Ken Bastiaensen
The AI Team

Please contact us to find out more.

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We’ve spoken at length about why firms need to embrace connected accounting. That’s why we’re always delighted to speak to customers who’ve successfully managed to do this. Take the UK’s flinder, for example. This accounting, consulting and data analytics business has used Silverfin to transform their clients’ businesses by becoming trusted business advisors.

At our recent ‘Fast Forward Studio’ event, we were fortunate enough to speak with Alastair Barlow, founder of flinder, about how they’ve done this — and to pick his brains about what advice they’d give to other firms looking to do the same. 

Find a gap in the market

flinder looks, feels, and operates quite differently from most accounting practices. That’s because they’re not traditional accountants per se, by design. 

“My co-founder and I saw a huge gap in the market”, Alastair told us. “We were analysing how multinationals run their finance functions and suddenly wondered why nobody had brought these same principles, and that same technological infrastructure, to fast-growing SMEs. So that’s what we do — we build and run smart finance functions for complex, high-growth businesses.”

flinder’s core proposition for its client services revolves around something they term ‘the flinder effect’. “The flinder effect is the manifestation of our vision of what the finance function should look like for any business. It’s focused around a few core value-drivers: efficiency, control and insight, supported by a set-up that allows our team to focus as much time and energy as possible on interpretation and insights.” This is very familiar to us at Silverfin – we call this connected accounting.

Where Silverfin comes in

flinder quickly realised that it could only provide a full finance function-type service by working with best-in-class tools. “Silverfin has played an absolutely pivotal role in our success. Take our monitoring procedures, for example. Silverfin gives us the tools to constantly monitor our clients’ data with minimal effort. There’s no need to waste time conducting monthly monitoring sessions and relaying these insights to our clients. Instead, we have one ongoing, smooth, efficient monitoring process that allows us to always stay on top of our clients’ businesses. This is pivotal when working with high-growth, fast-changing organisations.”

It’s important to note that flinder isn’t just dealing with fast-growth businesses — it’s actually one itself. And while growth is great, it brings a number of challenges, such as standardisation. “Setting up Silverfin right from the get-go was one of the best decisions we ever made. Everything’s automatically standardised and consistent, whether we’re onboarding a new tech startup or are completing working papers for one of our oldest clients. Having this level of reliability provides an immense amount of control and efficiency. In many ways, this has been the bedrock of our rapid growth over the past few years.”

Top tips from a leading firm of the future

It was great to hear at Fast Forward Studio about Silverfin’s significant impact on flinder. That said, we knew we’d be remiss not to ask Alastair what he’d tell other firms looking to have a similarly wide-ranging (and valuable) impact on their clients. 

“Invest in people”, he commented. “If you’re fortunate enough to be working with tools like Silverfin, your technology will already sort out most of the preparation side of things — whether that’s creating working papers or end-of-year accounts. This means that you can let the tech do its thing while you focus on developing amazing financial advisors. Rely on your tools to do their job and teach the team the soft skills they need to build long-lasting, valuable relationships with clients. We’re not living in a people versus technology era — it’s people and technology.” 

This is probably obvious for forward-thinking firms, but it might seem slightly daunting for those that are still yet to digitally transform. However, Alastair believes it’s now or never when it comes to digital transformation. “Look, you’re just delaying the inevitable — and you’re hurting your firm’s growth. Digital transformation might be painful, but it’s less painful than seeing your clients leave you so they can go work with another more advanced firm.”

So what would Alastair advise firms to do who are yet to tackle their own digital transformation projects? 

“Figure out your baseline. Understand where you are today and identify where you want to be after you transform. Hone in on specific areas of your service that can be improved fairly easily and that clients will really appreciate. These quick wins, or low-hanging fruit, are the best place to start. Your wider digital transformation project will quickly gain momentum if you begin knocking off improvement by improvement. Eventually, you’ll gain the confidence to tackle even the most complex of roadmaps. Starting small doesn’t mean that you’ll end small.”

He also reiterated that you need to consider the people aspect of change management as opposed to merely focusing on the technological hurdles. “You can implement all the new technology that you want, but unless you also have team-wide buy-in, you’ll unlock no benefits whatsoever. Remember: it’s up to your people to use your technology.” 

And lastly, don’t feel the need to go it alone. “Look, it’s your digital transformation — so you need to take ownership of the process. But don’t be scared to enlist help from outside the organisation. If you’re implementing a new tool then work closely with your provider’s onboarding teams. They’re invested in making sure you derive as much value as possible from their tool and they’ve seen all sorts of implementation hiccups before. In other words, they’re a fantastic resource to help you get complex projects over the line.” 

Join flinder in your own digital transformation

flinder is an inspiring firm of the future. It shows us all how you can adopt a connected accounting approach to provide clients with a great and progressive service and one that’s efficient, competitive and profitable too. But while they might be spearheading the connected accounting movement, that doesn’t mean that your firm can’t also get stuck in.

So if you’re looking to embrace the future of accounting, find out more by watching Fast Forward Studio or contact us to book a demo to see how Silverfin can help you. 

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2022 is set to be another year of exciting change or transformation for the accounting profession.

In our world, innovative technologies, from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to blockchain, are reinventing how work is done, the nature of client services and the work of accountants.

But transformation is not all sunshine and rainbows. Firms will face many challenges throughout the year, just as they have in the last two — whether they’re embracing new pieces of legislation or regulation like Making Tax Digital (MTD) in the UK, or adapting to ever-changing employee expectations and a war for talent.

We met with many leading firms at the end of 2021 at our Fast Forward Roadshows to discuss their views of the future. So let’s dive into what they had to say was occupying their minds most as a new year gets underway.

1. Increasing the value from technology – both for their firm and for their clients

Technology has been praised for its transformative impact on the accounting sector. Firms are increasingly realising that if they want to improve productivity and performance, they need to embrace technological solutions wherever possible. It is also creating fantastic opportunities for the creation and delivery of new client advisory services.

To a certain extent this is old news for accounting firms. But moves to drive more and more activity online by various governments around the world like the extension of MTD in the UK, means accountants must also help their clients go digital in their accounting. They need to know what technology is right for their firm and be the digital expert for their clients too. In the UK, from April 2022, all 1.1 million UK-based businesses that fall below the VAT-taxable income threshold will have to comply with MTD requirements. In other words, they’ll have to keep digital records and use third-party software when submitting their tax returns to the authorities.

Most accounting firms are already well-versed in using accounting software themselves, both for their own practice as well as for their clients. But in 2022, they’ll play a key role in ensuring all their clients, big and small, successfully adopt accounting software. So not only will they need to understand the technology available in order to advise their clients, they will also need to ensure that their own investment in technology is enabling the growth of their own business.

2. Attracting and retaining talent

This year, recruitment and employee retention will be a top priority for accounting firms of all shapes and sizes. But why is this such a hot topic?

Well, there are a few reasons. Fewer people are qualifying than in the past. In fact, just 1 in 4 candidates successfully passed the 2021 CFA Level 1 exams. Despite this, demand is increasing — creating the perfect storm. The Financial Times reports “growing ‘white-collar’ labour shortages as businesses fight it out for top talent”, with recent salary increases expected to continue moving forward.

We heard how salaries are going up and firms are struggling to beat out the competition for the pick of the talent — and job seekers are being more selective than in the past because they can be.

Most sectors have experienced the Great Resignation that started last year. Accounting seems to have been less affected according to a number of recruitment firms we spoke to, with fewer people changing firms. It was felt in discussion that rather than this being a signal of stronger loyalty it was more likely to be that accounting is just experiencing a delayed reaction – that an increase in movement is expected in 2022 as talent stayed put last year but will make a move this year. As a result, firms looking to grow will need to work much harder to attract new talent whilst also investing in culture and salaries to keep the people they already have.

Younger generations expect more from their workplace than their predecessors. If they don’t enjoy working somewhere, they’ll quickly look for opportunities elsewhere. They have no qualms about moving to find somewhere that provides what they’re looking for. 

Attracting and retaining talent has become trickier than ever before. This has led to a complete role reversal, with firms now going into sales mode. To steal from JFK, rather than asking candidates what they can do for a firm, firms have to make clear what they can do for candidates.

Salary inflation management, recruitment and employee retention are now business priorities. Firms that can keep hold of their best employees in 2022 will benefit from better client relationships, stronger leadership and avoid additional costs associated with recruiting replacements and training, whilst at the same time ensuring business continuity.

3. Identifying how to charge for advisory services

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely transformed how businesses view advisory services and the role of their accountant.

On the one hand, it has had a positive impact, demonstrating how valuable these services can be. When faced with sudden lockdowns and economic uncertainty, where did business owners turn for help? To their accountants. Firms might not have saved lives during the pandemic — but they certainly saved countless livelihoods.

But there was also a big downside: accountants felt compelled to offer up these advisory services and largely did so for free. Their main concern was making sure their clients’ businesses survived — so they weren’t going to charge for crucial advice that could help keep the lights on.

Unfortunately, clients have now simply come to expect advisory services for free.

There are two problems here. First, as restrictions ease and we learn to live with Covid-19, accountants have to convince their clients to start paying for advisory services. Second, firms need to work out which billing model to use. Should they adopt an hours and costs-based model? Or would a subscriptions model work better? Then comes the issue of scaling — how can firms digitise these services so that they can be scaled successfully and cost effectively?

The answer might well differ from firm-to-firm. However, our attendees identified four main steps to successfully rolling out — and billing for — advisory services:

• Standardise and automate all existing compliance work;
• Identify clients that want — and need — advisory services;
• Prioritise this list based on potential revenue and strength of relationship and use a subset as testers to refine and standardise services;
• Then, pitch these services to all other clients when you have them well defined.

But this will only be possible once accountants embrace a new role, repositioning themselves as genuine growth partners. Firms must embed themselves within their clients’ companies and do everything they can to help them grow. Implementing the right tools — those that turn data into advisory conversations — will play a key role in allowing them to do this.

4. Increasing firm-wide data and technology or digital literacy

Clients want more than just a P&L — they want bespoke reports and dashboards that allow them to drill down into the details. To interrogate the data and explore scenarios before making decisions. This is more complex than it might seem. While accountants are fantastic at digging through datasets, their expertise usually doesn’t extend to gathering data from multiple sources, reformatting it and creating customised dashboards or interactive reports and forecasting tools for their clients.

Well, it didn’t use to be.

Accountants are increasingly looking to learn programming and data science skills. The ICAEW sums it up as follows, saying “It’s time for accountants to unleash their inner computer programmer as technology paves the way for greater efficiency, better data insights and more streamlined ways of working”.

It’s not enough to have separate data scientists. To unlock maximum efficiency and value, accountants must themselves be data experts — after all, they’re the ones who work with the data and relay key insights to their clients, so it’s up to them.

Firms are recognising that they need to arm their people with data science skills as soon as possible. We heard how firms are running coding programmes for graduates, and encouraging more senior members to get involved too.

5. Maintaining culture and learning opportunities when working remotely

Remote working means firms’ cultures have taken a hit and remote working has made it harder for firms to manage, train and mentor their employees. Learning opportunities have been slashed. Now junior accountants can’t easily ask their managers a question face-to-face when they run into an issue. The informal ‘can you just check this’ conversations are just not as easy as they used to be.

It appears that hybrid working is here to stay — even industry heavyweights like PwC and Deloitte have told their employees that they can work remotely if they wish. So firms must therefore identify ways to ensure that remote working doesn’t impact learning opportunities and culture in 2022.

Kickstart 2022 the right way

Whether your firm is looking to win the war for talent, improve its data literacy and skills, or maintain a successful culture, one thing’s for certain: you need to adopt the right technological solutions to support your journey. Tools that put you in charge of your clients’ data and automate time-consuming workflows, making your team more productive and freeing up time for that all-important advisory.

Tools like Silverfin.

To learn more about how we can help your firm succeed in 2022 and beyond, book a demo and see how our accounting platform works for yourself.

The post Accounting firms’ top 5 priorities for 2022 appeared first on Faster, easier and better automation for your core accounting work..

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, this is nothing new — the industry has been talking about the power of automation for many years now. It’s rightly been described as the key to helping accountants transition into providing advisory services, rather than focusing solely on compliance-related work.

By automating data-heavy, time-consuming, repetitive processes (such as producing annual accounts or working papers), accountants will have more time to focus on advisory work — and they’ll provide their clients with more value.

But according to Silverfin’s Technology Trends in Accounting 2021 report many firms are still failing to harness automation’s true potential.

So how do you take action now to embrace automation?

Follow these three steps to harness the true power of automation within your firm. Free yourself from time-consuming, number crunching and make bold steps forward in your ambitions to be a trusted financial advisor for your clients.

1. Lay a good foundation – create consistent working practices

Automation is fantastic but it will only work when your firm has consistent, standardised working practices and processes that reflect best practice. Think of it like a car — a car is a great tool to get from point A to point B, but you still need the driver to control it (for now at least) and a route if you want to get there quickly and safely. Automation will only work wonders for your firm if you have already established how you get from point A (receiving your client’s real-time data) to point B (for instance, producing a set of annual accounts).

So before you go ahead and invest in an expensive piece of automation-heavy software, first sit down with your colleagues and agree standardised, firm-wide ways of working. Once these have been decided, you can then mirror these processes in your automation-based tool and generate consistent, reliable results. This will result in greater efficiency and speed of course but also quality – less errors, rework and risk. Automation can deliver huge benefits but it can’t deliver miracles — it can’t transform a myriad of bad processes into a good one. If you want automation to optimise a process, it has to be a solid process in the first place.

Fortunately, there’s some good news: 74% of respondents in Silverfin’s recent report believe they have consistent, firm-wide ways of working. The first step to success in automation. But it’s only an improvement of 4% on last year’s report and that means a quarter of all respondents still don’t have consistent, standardised working practices.

I have a standardised way of working that is consistent across the firm for key accounting workflows eg. production of working papers

Not only do inconsistent ways of working affect the client experience, but it also makes effective automation difficult, if not impossible.

So if you want to harness automation to its fullest extent, make sure you first have defined and implemented consistent working practices for key work based on firm and professional best practice.

2. Pick the right technology partner

Automation is best when it reflects best practice and is adapted to your own approach where necessary. Your workflow might be different to that of another firm — and your platform should be able to accommodate this. The best platforms offer accountants the flexibility to automate as and where necessary, in a way that suits them. But as things stand, too many platforms are not giving accountants the capabilities they need.

I can develop my own workflows, reports and services using my technology platform

54% of respondents agreed that they can develop their own workflows, reports, and services using their technology platform. However, the number of respondents who strongly agreed (18%) was down 3% year-on-year. Personalised automation isn’t simply a nice-to-have — it’s a must. If your technology provider promises automation but only on their terms with no flexibility for you to make it your own when you need to or don’t give you the tools to develop additional automated workflows on their technology, then consider looking for an alternative provider.

There’s no excuse to continue using tools that constrain your firm’s ability to do what it does best by following your preferred method.

3. Be brave, be bold — baby steps are not enough

It takes time for innovative technologies to be widely adopted when they’re first introduced to the market. This is especially true, and understandable, when it comes to technology in the workplace. Experienced professionals have often used the same processes for decades and so are hesitant to suddenly change.

Perhaps this is why only 4% more firms strongly agree with the statement that they have automated key accounting practices. Improvement is great — but it’s time to take bold action. Firms that hesitate will quickly fall behind more disruptive, innovative competitors. Neglecting automation is akin to firms that neglected the power of computers a few decades ago.

This hesitancy will simply hamper firm-wide efficiency, accuracy, and keep accountants spending too long on low-value work.

I have automated key accounting workflow and processes eg. working paper, accounts production or tax

You get out what you put in

While automation makes firms and their accountants more efficient, accurate, and productive, it does require some work to get it set up correctly.

Workflows must be consistent and standardised across the firm. Your tool can only automate a set, well-established procedure. If your firm doesn’t even know which steps to follow (and in which order) for every given deliverable, then how will your tool?

Once these processes are nailed down, the next step is to choose the right software. Automation-heavy tools are great, but what you really want is one that can automate according to your specific wants and needs as we saw with our customer Deloitte. Don’t limit yourselves to the boundaries imposed on you by your tool. Instead, seek out providers that offer personalised automation. Benefit from the experience and learning of others with off the shelf workflows if they work for your firm but don’t underestimate the value of having technology that can grow with you as you seek to automate more of your work.

Finally, having established standardised working practices and picked the right software provider, firms must then take bold action. The opportunity is there for the taking — and firms that embrace automation will leap ahead of the competition. Effective automation will enable those firms to devote more time and energy to advisory services which, with increased margins, can underpin successful growth.

To find out more about the biggest changes to have affected the accounting industry in the last 12 months, download ‘Technology Trends in Accounting 2021’ today.

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Accounting technology has come on leaps and bounds in a matter of years. Calculators and manually updated spreadsheets are on their way out — and cloud-based, automation-heavy tools are in with artificial intelligence and machine learning on the near horizon. Why spend hours manually compiling working papers when a tool can do it in an instant?

Some initially saw this giant technological leap forward as a threat to their profession. Most, however, quickly realised that technology is opening the door to a better future — accountants aren’t going extinct, they are just evolving.

Professionals no longer have to spend their days making sure the right numbers are in the right place. With this process now entirely automated, they can instead turn their attention to what the numbers actually mean and suggest: where their clients are performing well, where they’re performing poorly, what the future holds in store, and how they can maximise their chances of success.

This is liberating, high-value work. Accountants can put their expertise to good use and transition into becoming trusted business advisors.

Firms of the future will use technology to deliver powerful advisory services. They’ll use their technology to reach beyond automation to support real-time activation and predictive intelligence, and be well-placed to help clients grow their business the right way. In fact, according to our latest report, ‘Technology Trends in Accounting 2021’, 55% of firms expect advisory services to be their biggest revenue earner in just five years’ time.

That’s interesting and ambitious but is it possible? Despite this clarity of purpose in the profession only 14% say that advisory services are already their biggest revenue earner. Let’s dig into why this gap exists — and most importantly, how firms can use the two ‘A’s to close this gap: access and automation.

It’s all about access to data

Accountants might be geniuses, but they’re not genies. It’s impossible to provide advisory services unless firms know everything about their clients’ performance. They need access to crucial financial data – the historic and real-time. This data is the foundation on which insights are built and show what’s really going on behind closed doors.

54% of respondents of our recent survey stated that they have “access to data and insights that enable me to deliver advisory services for my clients”. But there’s a significant difference between being able to provide generic advisory services and really diving deep into how a client is managing their business — and spotting what needs to change. This also means that 46% don’t have the data they need of course.

Compiling an annual set of accounts or working papers will certainly reveal the broad brushstrokes. But accountants can only demonstrate their true value by diving into the detail. That’s why they need access to all financial data — for instance, data hidden in other systems. Yet only 35% of respondents can access financial data in other systems that their clients use for business management.

Imagine your firm sees that a client’s wage bill is far higher than other industry competitors with a similar headcount. On the face of it, it’d be easy to tell them that they need to reduce their headcount. This could well be right, but it might also be too simplistic a piece of advice.

You decide to check out their salary and bonus structure. Suddenly it hits you: their loyalty program, where they increase employees’ salaries by X% for every Y years they stay at the company, isn’t working. They’re retaining employees but the ones who have been there for years actually become less productive over time.

So yes, this particular company might need to reduce their headcount or cost base — but if they do then they should make sure to focus on longstanding employees who have actually been underperforming. Or perhaps they can keep the same headcount but scrap the loyalty bonus. Not only will this reduce their expenditure, but it also safeguards employees from becoming complacent, safe in the knowledge that time served — rather than value provided — will be the key to their next pay increase.

These are the types of next-level insights that accountants can offer their clients, so long as they have access to all financial data.

Automation has its own role to play in advisory

Much of the discussion around compliance versus advisory work has lumped accountants in two separate buckets. It has also constrained the benefit of automation. In one bucket, there’s compliance (and the traditional focus for automation): data-heavy and repetitive tasks that need to be completed without errors. And in the other bucket, advisors: experienced accountants whose expertise and insight can be put to good use when advising clients.

Only, there’s a significant crossover benefit from automation. This is a simplistic view.

It’s true that automation makes compliance work fast, easy, consistent and accurate. That means you can manage more clients and faster. But it also means that the time typically consumed by this activity can be reinvested in client advisory. Not just by the most senior and experienced members of the firm but potentially by all that work with clients.

Accountants can’t focus on everything at once. If they’re busy dealing with one client, they’re not going to notice if another client suddenly makes a bold (and perhaps unwise) financial decision. Accountants are well-placed to provide key financial advice — but this doesn’t mean they can stay on top of everything at all times.

Advisory services are still by and large manual, ad hoc processes. Accountants have to be on the ball at all times in the hope of noticing key insights. If they catch them, they can then provide their clients with the advice and guidance they need. But not all insights will be noticed — meaning not all clients will receive the crucial advice that they require.

This is where automated notifications come in. What if you could automatically be notified any time a client suddenly ends up in the red, makes a large-scale investment, reaches a key development threshold or their cash flow suddenly dries up?

If you could, you’d be able to provide all your clients with the maximum value possible. They’d know that you’re there at all times, monitoring their finances and ready to offer up counsel when needed. Unfortunately, a mere 25% of respondents can create automated alerts or reports from their clients’ data — this is just a 3% increase from last year’s survey.

There’s little point in recognising the value of automation for compliance and manual reporting tasks but then ignoring its potential when it comes to high-value advisory work. Clients are increasingly looking for firms that use technology to glimpse into the future and provide proactive business intelligence. By setting up something as obvious as automated alerts, you’re ensuring that no key insights will go unmissed.

The clock is ticking

If you’re like 55% of firms, you predict — and likely hope — that advisory services will be your main revenue driver in five years’ time. But predictions and hope matter for little unless you take action.

You can’t be that indispensable financial advisor if you lack access to real-time data across your client portfolio. It’s not enough to simply use the data that they hand over at the end of each financial year-end. You need to be able to see the ins and outs of their organisation at all times. Whenever money is spent or received, you need to know about it.

Once you’ve gained suitable access, you then need to move to step 2: automation. Use automated alerts to make sure that no key insights go unnoticed. Stay in the know at all times and provide critical advice as soon as it’s needed.

If you do, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an advisory-led firm and all your work on compliance will only strengthen the quality of your advice.

The post The two ‘A’s underpinning advisory appeared first on Faster, easier and better automation for your core accounting work..

We’ve come a long way since we first opened our doors back in 2013. Silverfin now has 185+ employees who serve more than 700 customers worldwide. We’ve helped accounting firms embrace the future of connected accounting, making their work easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable. Oh, and we like to think that we’ve also played an important part in helping the profession transition towards becoming less compliance-orientated and more focused on advisory services.

At our recent ‘Fast Forward Studio’ event, we heard from An Maes, our Head of Product for Benelux. She spoke about our product priorities, how these have shaped our recent developments, and what we are working on for the future.

She was joined by Ken Bastiaensen, the founder of Boltzmann, a machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) leader that we recently acquired. He gave us his perspective on why we should all be so excited about the future of AI in accounting and explained how this technology will help take Silverfin to the next level.

So let’s dig into some of what they shared with event attendees.

The product pillars that define Silverfin (and where AI comes in)

1. Working with real-time client data
We believe every accountant should have access to their client’s real-time data, whether that’s from their bookkeeping software or other financial systems. This is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a must. This is key for efficient and accurate reporting — accountants can’t provide valuable strategic advice if they lack reliable and up-to-date data. Only seeing a clients’ numbers once a year is a recipe for disaster.

Along with ensuring our platform synchronises data from leading systems used by accountants, we are also looking at how AI can help. In particular, the mapping of data when it is centralised in Silverfin. This is normally a very time and labour intensive task for accountants. Not to mention boring and repetitive. Not with Silverfin. By utilising AI, we’ve made the process of mapping real-time data to your chart of accounts as quick and easy as possible. With all client data in our platform, you don’t have to worry what system the client is using: no more manually transferring data from one system to another or logging in and out of different systems. What would have taken hours per client file in the past can now be completed in minutes and clicks. Plus once it’s done, it’s done. Future data is uploaded or automatically synchronised and mapped for you.

2. Analytics and reporting
Getting live data into Silverfin is just the first step. Once there, data automatically pre-populates not only your working papers and year-end accounts, but your management reports too. This means, in just a few clicks, you can build customised professional looking reports for your clients. We recently added charts to our reporting capabilities to help you produce even more impactful reports.

For firms expanding into advisory, Silverfin also lets you go even deeper into the data with our Insights module. Create powerful queries across the entire portfolio to benchmark your clients, track sector performance trends or spot opportunities to improve your client’s financial management.

All of these tools ultimately mean you now spend less time crunching numbers, and more face-to-face time with your clients.

3. Workflow automation
There are significant future opportunities to grasp from advisory. However, that doesn’t mean that compliance is no longer important or no longer necessary. Firms can only focus on advisory if they have accurate data and use standardised workflows to speed up the process of creating working papers, end-of-year accounts, quarterly reports, and so on.

That’s why we place such a huge emphasis on workflow automation. By automating mundane, data-heavy tasks, accountants can then use their time and expertise to dig into what the numbers mean — and to offer up their strategic advice. Automation of previously manual tasks also comes with the added benefit of accuracy as you reduce the possibility of errors. So we continue to improve (and add to) the key processes our platform automates and streamlines. Aside from ensuring they remain up-to-date with changes in legislation we continuously improve the best practice workflows at the heart of Silverfin.

We are also looking for ways that our platform can help here. Beyond simply streamlining and standardising this common work in firms, we want the platform to monitor and highlight to managers when it sees issues, missing or contradictory data, delays or deviations in process. Another place we expect our AI development to play a key role going forward.

4. Collaboration
As the proverb goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others”. Here at Silverfin, we believe that collaboration is the key to success. Colleagues need to be able to collaborate with one another on large, complex projects. They also need to be able to collaborate with their clients, getting questions answered, and walking them through their numbers or pinpointing areas for improvement going forward.

The best way to collaborate is to use a single source of truth. Keeping everything within one system — all projects, all data, and all back and forth in communication — this increases visibility and decreases the risk of mistakes or misunderstandings. It also means that everybody has the full context for all discussions. There’s no “which document are you referring to?” or digging around in endless emails. So this year we’ve also made improvements in our communications and collaboration tools built into Silverfin. Accountants get a single integrated inbox to see messages, to-dos and topics of interest across their entire client base – no need to log in and out of specific client files. Clients can collaborate on their file with the accounting team too. People work on files in Silverfin just as they work on shared Office or Google Docs with comments and messaging built right into the workflow. Got a question? Tag a colleague or client and get the answer (or additional) information you need. And importantly, save the communication with the client file as a clear paper trail should you need it in the future. No more email or portals to contend with.

5. Data syncs, APIs and developer tools
Accountants don’t typically work with just one financial system and neither does Silverfin. It’s therefore crucial that we play nicely with other tools. We place a huge focus on developing our APIs to ensure that Silverfin complements whatever other tools our customers might be using within their firm. It’s an area of continuous development. Finding new integrations. Updating existing ones to take advantage of any new developments at other companies. It may not be the most high profile change that happens to any product but it is foundational, particularly at a data level. It’s critical that whatever the data source an accountant needs to work with we have a way of supporting that within Silverfin. So we will continue to add new sources and improve our syncs.

Many of our customers also build their own workflows and reports on our platform – taking advantage of the client data and our core functionality to deliver new digital services to their clients. So here too we invest in improving our templating framework, Liquid, and we develop training and services to support the growing community of developer accountants.

Our recent product developments

We want to thank our product team for their tireless work over the past year. They’ve tackled a wide variety of projects, from small(ish) wins that are important but might go unnoticed, all the way through to glitzy large-scale product updates or releases.

Examples of the 100s of improvements to Silverfin this year were explained in our Fast Forward Studio event, but here are just a couple to give you a flavour of what our team have been working on.

On the smaller side of things, all draft messages are now auto-saved. This means that if you’re adding a note or a message within a client file and accidentally click off the pop-up, your message will still be saved. It might not be the most exciting update but it’s certainly made collaborating within Silverfin even more user-friendly than before.

And then there’s our new review screen. I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of our customers have noticed this development. When speaking to Silverfin users, we were shocked to realise that many of them were reviewing workflows in our platform on paper! They found it difficult to conduct final reviews in Silverfin itself. So we’ve fixed that — saving trees and printer ink in the process. Thanks to our new review screen, you can compare two different periods (such as your clients’ 2019 and 2020 accounts) side by side and we even highlight the differences. So reviewing working papers is as easy as creating them in the first place in Silverfin.

So what’s coming up?

Ken and An talk a lot about what the future holds for Silverfin but the summary would be that aside from continuous improvement to the platform, we will be focusing on building out our AI roadmap so that we can provide even more value to our customers, giving them richer insights and saving even more time.

For instance, we’re currently working on a ‘smart’ forecasting functionality that will drastically speed up the process of creating a budget. We’re also looking to improve our benchmarking capabilities by making it easier for accountants to compare performance and common data points across all their clients.

More generally, Ken explained that our ultimate aim is to integrate AI even further into the platform. We want it to act as an invisible assistant, constantly analysing the data, providing autocomplete suggestions, and adding value at every stage of an accountant’s various workflows. It shouldn’t be its own feature as such, but it should be the guiding force shaping everything that our platform does (similar to the ways in which Gmail, Netflix and Spotify use AI).

If you’d like to learn more about anything that we’ve mentioned in this product update, watch Fast Forward Studio or get in touch to chat with a member of our team.

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The importance of good data and getting our hands on it is far from a new concept in accounting. It’s the bread and butter of the profession and its services. But in recent years we’ve seen the volumes and sources of data we work with grow fast and the importance of it being accurate and available real-time grow too.

Accounting is not alone here. For years, everyone seems to be talking about how “…data is the new oil” in every part of our economy and society. Data proliferation. Data science. Data fragmentation. Big data. In accounting we’ve been told again and again that access to data and the ability to use it effectively is the backbone of accounting excellence. It’s key to accurate reporting but it also helps accountants focus on what they do best: advising clients on how to improve their financial situation. Data may be the new oil – but it’s of no use if it’s not refined and definitely not useful if you can’t get to it.

But despite all this data talk many firms are still battling to keep up. Struggling to unlock the potential in their client data to support new ways of working and develop new data-driven advisory services. Many have avoided centralised data stores, preferring to stick with their old ‘team centric’ ways of working: disparate client data and spreadsheets siloed across the firm. This hurts collaboration and slows progress in business or digital transformation.

But in real terms – did this old approach really hurt their businesses? Perhaps not – at least not until the pandemic opened all our eyes to the importance of technology in keeping our firms working. Core to that is not the collaboration tools we have all learnt to love (important though they are) but the ability to access client data wherever you are working so you can… well, keep on working.

When offices shut around the world, accountants had to suddenly try and maintain their standards of excellence while all working with each other, and clients, remotely. They were forced to embrace the power of digital data storage and to find ways to collaborate virtually. This was the only way they could support their clients.

But just how much of an impact did the pandemic have in changing fundamentally how the profession works? Where have the great strides towards increasing its data-centricity been made, and which areas still need attention?

Silverfin’s Technology Trends in Accounting 2021 report took the pulse of 200 industry leaders across 5 countries, examining how the last year has impacted accounting firms across the globe.

Let’s take a look at some of its key findings…

Not all firms are on board with tackling data and digitising

To collect, analyse, and put data to good use at scale, it must be digitised. It’s as simple as that. Digital data is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s essential.

When asked “All of my client data is stored digitally”, 9% of respondents disagreed in 2020. That means almost 1/10 firms were still using physical data in some form. Some good news here as this year, that was down to 6%.

This is an improvement but it’s still worrying that there are firms (and their clients) out there that are not using digital data. Of course, some might say “We’d love to have our clients’ data in a digital format, but the clients themselves refuse to play ball”. We understand that issue particularly in the SME client space. But maybe it’s time to take on the responsibility of educating clients about the overwhelming benefits of them joining you on a digital journey. A conversation about the digital tools available to clients to help them speed up and simplify their own bookkeeping and the positive impact this can have on their business performance usually does the trick e.g. better cash flow management; faster payment of invoices and improved forecasting and planning. And if that doesn’t work try telling them that making a small move like this to digitisation now will enable you to be faster, more efficient and more helpful – this might be all it takes.

You don’t need to start ditching clients because they are slow to adopt digital tools but a commitment to educate clients about the range of tools they can use will pay dividends in the medium term. Rest assured those of us working in the accounting software industry are more than happy to help you with this.

Data consolidation is the foundation to success

There’s little use in having digital data at your disposal if it’s spread here, there and everywhere. Aside from the impact this fragmentation has on efficiency in the reporting process, this raises significant concerns about risk factors like data security. If accountants want to be as efficient as possible, they need to consolidate their key data in one single (and secure) place. This guarantees that nothing ever gets lost and accountants can quickly get to work without having to waste precious time digging around for the right data.

Fortunately, over the last year, 10% more of Silverfin’s survey respondents agree that they have consolidated all client data into a single, firm-wide, cloud-based data store (up from 37% to 47%). Double digit progress is great — but it’s not enough. The majority of firms still don’t have a single cloud-based system where all their clients’ data is consolidated.

Not only does this significantly decrease firms’ efficiency, accuracy and speed, but it also opens up a far greater risk of human error or repeat work occurring as teams are at risk of working with the wrong or out of date data.

All of my client data is stored digitally

Get real-time with data

Consolidating data might be the foundation to success — but if you want to fulfil your firm’s potential, you need more than mere foundations alone. Most importantly, you need to work with up-to-date data.

Think about it: you wouldn’t drive a car with a fuel gauge or speedometer that wasn’t showing real-time data. Likewise, in business, accountants need to know what’s happening within their client’s business right that very second. This is not just about ensuring compliance reporting is accurate it clearly plays a very important role in delivering effective advisory services.

Fortunately, accountants seem to now be on board with this idea. When asked whether they agreed with the statement “I have a live link to client data that keeps it up-to-date automatically”, 39% of last year’s respondents disagreed. This year, that was down to 17%. Better still, last year only 13% strongly agreed — this year that was up to 23%.

I have a live link to data that keeps it up-to-date automatically

Collaborate your way to success

This is where things get interesting. Working from home meant collaboration became more important than ever before — there was no way to operate without it. And when it was no longer possible to all huddle around a single screen when working together on projects, it was crucial that accountants could access, and collaborate, on client files virtually.

Unsurprisingly, there was a 19% uplift in the number of firms that made sure all client files could be worked on collaboratively (from 39% to 58%). We expect this figure to increase further in the next few years as it’s likely that hybrid working will continue for some time yet.

Client files can be worked on collaboratively and viewed by anyone in my team

There are silver linings from a tough year

The pandemic has been tough on everybody. However, without minimising the toll that it has taken, there has been one silver lining for the industry: it’s sped up digital transformation at least in data and collaboration.

The circumstances that have driven this progress are incredibly unfortunate — but this long-term impact of the pandemic may well be beneficial for the entire accounting profession.

To find out more about the biggest changes to have affected the accounting industry in the last 12 months, download ‘Technology Trends in Accounting 2021’ today.

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Benchmarking is a powerful tool. Just ask any kid who suddenly learns that their friend beat them in an exam or that they just beat their school’s 100m sprint record — or any business owner who realises that their competitors are bringing in three times the amount of revenue with the same number of staff.

We all compare ourselves to others, whether consciously or not. Plenty of us even compare ourselves to who we were in the past. This is especially important for businesses. Benchmarking allows companies to keep tabs on how they’re performing, and how they’re performing in relation to their competitors. It enables them to get to the heart of whether their business is fulfilling its potential — and if not, why not.

While a wide range of benchmarks exist, all the way from a company’s customer experience with measures like Net Promoter Score (NPS) to their social media engagement, there’s one category that’s arguably more important than all others: financial benchmarks.

Accountants have a key role to play in helping companies benchmark their performance. They have a view on their clients’ historic and live financial data and should have it to hand. They are also highly likely to have some key insights into the industry as a whole across their client base.

The insights that firms gain from benchmarking are invaluable, both internally and externally. All too often, however, they’re simply invisible or it is just too hard to do.

Our latest report, ‘Technology Trends in Accounting 2021’, shows that benchmarking is still failing to truly make its mark.

Understand your whole client base in greater detail

Clients want results. Gone are the days when firms were hired to simply take care of compliance. These days, accountants are truly invested in their clients’ success. They actively use their expertise to advise on potential tax savings, conduct cash flow management analysis, and support forecasting and business planning (among other tasks).

When a firm has multiple clients, however, it can be difficult staying on top of which clients are sinking and which are swimming. It’s easy to get wrapped up in your success stories. A young company takes your advice and goes from strength to strength. They come back to you for more and more advice, keen to keep the momentum going, and fully trust your expertise. It’s a great feeling and you’re over the moon to see one of your clients doing so well, so you duly oblige.

But if you lack a simple means of gaining insight into your client base by benchmarking data across your client portfolio, you might not notice that another of your clients is quickly falling behind and needs your help more. Perhaps they hired a bunch of new employees but are yet to see the ROI — in fact, they’re losing more money than ever. Or maybe they decided to open a new shop but this one isn’t performing as well as the others.

Benchmarking data across your portfolio is the only way that you can keep tabs on all your clients. Investors don’t simply pay attention to the stock that’s performing best on the day — they analyse their entire portfolio. Similarly, if you want to give all your clients the time, expertise, and attention that they require, then you need to have a single portfolio-wide view of how they’re all performing.

Last year, 28% of respondents in our survey said that they can gain these levels of portfolio-wide insights. This year 31% agreed or strongly agreed. Progress has been made but not enough.

You will want your firm to be there for both your high-performers and low-performers. Every client deserves your best. If you can’t benchmark across your entire portfolio and identify clients that need the most help, then you may well end up missing key red flags — and your clients’ businesses might suffer.

Systems that serve you

Well-designed systems are the key to success. This is nothing new. For years, firms have been investing heavily in digital transformation efforts to ensure that they have the technology infrastructure to handle more work, more efficiently, and more accurately than ever before.

Perhaps your firm has introduced new payroll software to expedite this task for each of your clients.

Or maybe you’ve introduced a new tool that allows your clients to simply take a picture of their receipts before uploading them automatically, instead of sending you endless shoe boxes of paper at their financial year-end.

The best systems serve a purpose, fulfilling both your firm’s and your clients’ needs. But systems can go beyond simply handling routine core tasks. They can actually provide the insights that accountants need to take the much-discussed leap into becoming genuine financial advisors.

Imagine you’re sitting down with a client to discuss their recent performance and to identify opportunities going forward. The first step would be to look at their financial data — the numbers don’t lie. But what if you can’t complete a detailed analysis of each client’s account? If your system doesn’t allow you to rapidly analyse every single piece of client data, you’ll either have to:

• Dig around various systems trying to find each piece of data, put everything together into one place, and then begin your analysis.
• Work off limited information (which will result in inaccurate analysis and poor recommendations).

Neither one of these options is ideal. Firms must be able to rapidly analyse each client’s performance, using all the data that the client has generated to do so. So why do only 41% state that their current systems allow them to complete detailed analyses of each client account (or portfolio of accounts)?

Disappointingly, this figure is only up 4% from last year. Accountants will never become trusted business advisors if they work with systems that hinder their ability to conduct rigorous analysis.

Being able to complete a detailed analysis of each client’s performance is one thing. But you should also aim to benchmark clients against each other so you can advise each of them on how well they’re performing compared to their peers as well as share learnings across their sector. This will enable you to deliver an added layer of value to your clients and strengthen your position as a trusted advisor.

Bring benchmarking back into focus

Accountancy is developing fast —there’s always an exciting new tool or massive new regulation (yep, that’s right MTD in the UK, we’re talking about you) to focus on. This means that benchmarking can sometimes fall out of focus.

But if your firm cannot effectively benchmark its clients’ performance, then you’ll be missing a significant opportunity to add value.

You need visibility into the status of your clients’ workflows. You need to be able to monitor your internal performance to ensure all clients are receiving the help they need when they need it from all of your teams. You need to ensure that you are consistently completing work to the quality and efficiency you need. You need to benchmark your clients’ performance across the board too. This will allow you to spot areas for improvement and to assess the ROI of recent projects.

It’s time to bring benchmarking back into focus. The first step? To implement the right tools and to consolidate all the historic and real-time data so it’s at your fingertips. Get in touch to learn more about how Silverfin makes benchmarking easy for firms and for their clients.

To find out more about the biggest changes to have affected the accounting industry in the last 12 months, download ‘Technology Trends in Accounting 2021’ today.

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Take working papers for example. After they’re prepared, complex excel spreadsheets are typically printed for review by senior managers. These paper copies are marked up by hand, with notes and actions. Associate accountants then fire off emails to colleagues or to the client, updating reconciliations as they go. Then this print and review process is repeated…

A waste of time, money and of course, a lot of paper.

The Silverfin platform offers accountants a better way. Our digital working papers module has off-the-shelf templates, directly linked to your client’s bookkeeping data, together with integrated collaboration tools, to make it faster and easier to prepare work paper packs – entirely digitally.

And now we’ve made the working paper review stage better too.

We saw that some of our customers’ partners were still opting for paper-based reviews. They liked being able to compare the current working papers with the previous ones, using printouts side-by-side on the desk.

But this traditional approach brings several problems. You lose the important digital audit trail of changes or comments for tracking and transparency purposes. Moreover, the reviewer doesn’t get to see the accompanying messages, completed tasks or attached documents and invoices, all of which are stored digitally within the client’s workflow.

It’s this built-in collaboration capability in Silverfin that is critical for firms aiming to streamline the end-to-end compliance process.

So what did we change?

We’ve introduced a side-by-side comparison feature in Silverfin. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Reviewers can now open up the working paper, or annual accounts file, and choose the period they want to compare against.

The previous period is shown side-by-side on screen, and all differences are clearly highlighted for the user to spot straight away.

Not only that, but any wording changes to schedule names, descriptions or text are highlighted too, giving a useful snapshot of any regulatory compliance changes since the last period.

It’s like someone has already helpfully gone through your printout with a highlighter pen.

Reviewers can add comments or to do’s next to entries, mark the whole thing as reviewed or even share with the client via the same secure portal.  Not a printer in sight.

The end result is faster, more efficient reviews, and ultimately lower costs for your firm.

We’re not stopping there of course. We get valuable feedback from hundreds of customers on how our technology works for them. With that we can refine the end-to-end experience, and help accelerate the switch to connected, paperless accounting.

More to come soon!

Please contact us to find out more.

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This was a great way to end 2021 – it’s always nice to get recognition for all our hard work over the years building our business. But you never achieve this kind of thing alone. Our success is a product of the fantastic support we get from our customers, the commitment of our partners, and the hard work of our employees past and present. So I would like to thank you all for making this possible.

Awards are also a reminder that the challenge of building a business is measured not just by what you achieve in one year but what you achieve year in, year out. So recognition that we are a leader in sustainable growth is all the more satisfying to receive.

Tim and I founded Silverfin with the goal of making accountants more successful through technology. We started in Belgium but now our team works with firms across the world. We have come a long way but there is so much more opportunity and work to do. So you can forgive us, I hope for taking a moment to enjoy this recognition from Deloitte before we get back to the job in hand – helping our customers to achieve their goals and plans for future success.

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The pace of change in business has never been this fast and it is not slowing down either. Accounting firms understand this sentiment better than most. Whether it’s the rise of cloud-based software, legislation like MTD, and trends like cryptocurrency or ESG, accounting firms constantly have to adapt and evolve.

Change might be a constant, but that’s not to say it’s easy—especially when implementing new technology.

We all like what we’re used to. We get comfortable with processes, tools, and ways of working. Unfortunately, this means that firms often struggle to onboard new systems—even if doing so will increase productivity and performance.

This is an issue I’m all-too-familiar with. If there’s one area I know well, it’s project managing tech deployments. During my decade as an accountant, I focused primarily on digital transformation, helping my mid-size firm transition from desktop-based systems to cloud-based software. I then left to join Xero, where I was responsible for helping their portfolio of accounting partners successfully implement (and make the most out of) the platform.

Today, as Head of Customer Success in the UK, I’m supporting our customers as they deploy Silverfin. My focus is on ensuring that the process is successful in terms of a smooth migration, uptake and delivering value. I speak to customers daily about their implementation projects: their goals, challenges, progress, and what they’ve learned throughout the process.

My experience has given me a unique insight into how accounting firms can successfully implement tech change. In this blog, I’ll shed light on the top challenges that firms face when embarking upon tech deployments before offering up my top tips on how to overcome these common hurdles.

Top team challenges impacting tech deployments and how to overcome them

Generally speaking, firms face four major challenges: time pressure, a hesitant team, a lack of proper planning, and project managers who unintentionally act as their own bottlenecks. Let’s dig into each of these in more detail.

Time pressure

Accountants are always up against the clock. They’re constantly working against a deadline, whether having to file a client’s accounts, calculating payroll, or conducting a myriad of other time-sensitive responsibilities.

So when you announce you’re going to roll out a brand new tech system, your team might say they simply don’t have the time to get to grips with the software. This is understandable—but it’s missing the point.

Project managers need to emphasise the bigger picture. Yes, implementing a new system will undoubtedly require some short-term time investment. However, when it’s successfully up and running, the software will save them time over the long run. They’ll be able to create working papers in just a few clicks rather than a few hours. They can then spend this extra time on advisory work—or rather, on having meaningful conversations with their clients.

Reinforce the project’s main aims and give your team time. It’s important that you allow them to devote time during normal working hours to the new project, rather than expecting they’ll somehow fit it in on top of their already time-pressured day job. Be conscious of the impact this will have on business as usual (BAU) and plan for a potential reduction in billable hours. Most importantly, ensure everyone understands that while your team might have to take a step back in the short term, they’ll be taking two steps forward in the long run.

A hesitant team

Remember that tech change is ultimately a people change. It doesn’t matter how many innovative features a new system offers if your people don’t know how to use it—or are unwilling to learn. So before embarking on a complex tech deployment, project managers must get everyone on board.

Take the time to do the upfront work, as this will pay huge dividends further down the line. Invite team members to ask questions or raise concerns. Explain the project’s ultimate goals and sell them on the ‘promised land’ (how much better their day-to-day work will be once the new system is properly up and running). Don’t chastise colleagues who seem determined to object. Instead, understand why they have reservations before reiterating how the system will ultimately benefit them.

Make it clear you’re by their side—it’s a journey that everyone’s going on together. Answer queries, welcome feedback, and collaborate throughout.

Lacking a clear plan

Many teams charge ahead with change projects without a clear plan. They don’t know which processes they want to change or how. They have a vague idea that they need to move with the times, but the details are woolly at best.

These projects are inevitably doomed to fail. Without clear goals, employees will simply revert to their old ways of working as soon as they hit a bump in the road.

Ensure you have a clear plan in place before you begin. Dive into what your team is struggling with, identify specific software that will alleviate these pain points, and determine your success metrics as well as what life will look like afterwards. This will give you a clear picture of what you’re aiming for.

Follow these three key steps when creating a plan for tech change.

1. Establish a project team

Getting the team right is critical. You need to have the right representation, which usually encompasses everyone from technical or subject matter experts, to end users, to executive sponsors. Your team should include a cross-section of anyone who’ll be impacted by the new software. This will ensure you address all stages of the process change, not just what managers believe to be the problem and solution.

Determine accountability from the start. Identify who’s responsible for what and when each step needs to be completed. Give your team a sense of ownership over the project. This way, you’ll change the narrative from “we’re forcing this change upon you” to “you’re changing your own ways of working for the better”.

2. Set clear deadlines and goals for pilots or testing

For any project to be successful it not only needs to achieve its defined outcome but it needs to do this on time and on budget – so deadlines are vital. It’s advisable to run a pilot or test the new system within one area or one team before a wider deployment. That way you tackle any initial blockers up front but can also demonstrate the value to other teams in order to get them onside. You should have a defined schedule for the roll out of pilots of the new system. It’s best to select your more innovative, forward-thinking clients for this pilot or testing stage. They’ll likely be more willing to get involved in supporting progression underpinned by tech than your more traditionally minded clients, who may not be comfortable with change.

3. Ramp up

After you’ve rolled out pilots and ironed out any kinks in your processes, you can then ramp up your efforts to include other clients. Determine clear milestones on usage metrics, customer satisfaction, and so on. However, know that these metrics will likely adapt over time depending on how your project progresses.

Project managers must not be the bottleneck to success

Last but not least, make sure you’re not unintentionally acting as your own bottleneck. This is something I struggled with when I first started. Project managers often feel like they have to do everything themselves—after all, they’re ultimately in charge of tech deployments. If things don’t go as intended, they’re the ones to blame.

However, by taking on too much responsibility, you could unintentionally hamper your chances of success. Delegate tasks to other team members. Don’t think you have to do everything yourself—provide clear briefs, set deadlines, and trust others to do their job well. As a project manager, your job’s to ensure everything runs smoothly. Getting lost in the details might mean you miss the bigger picture.

Bonus tip: work with tech vendors willing to support your transformation

I’ve outlined how you can overcome internal hurdles: time pressure, a hesitant team, having no clear plan, and project managers unintentionally acting as their own bottlenecks. But we also need to remember that it takes two to tango and the same is true for successful tech deployments. That’s why it’s crucial to select the right vendor.

Leading software providers, like Silverfin, work closely with their customers throughout the implementation stage. They provide key materials to get teams started, train your super users, check in regularly to troubleshoot any implementation problems, and are always available to answer any questions. They are also willing to share their experience of how to ensure your deployment follows best practice they’ve seen with other customers.

In other words, they are your tech deployment allies and should want to be an extended member of your team – one who has a vested interest in the success of your project. So pick your vendor carefully to ensure that they will partner with you for success and be right there beside you throughout your project.

To learn more about how Silverfin supports customers throughout the implementation stage, speak to a member of our team today.

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But this work is really just the tip of the innovation iceberg. There is so much more potential beyond improving the speed, accuracy and productivity of accountants with the help of machine learning as we have seen with Ludwig Assistant. Advances in this technology will radically improve the nature of advisory, forecasting and planning and support Silverfin customers in their goal to offer clients powerful advisory services based on the analysis and interpretation of complex data.

Boltzmann has been working with accounting firms, and leaders in other industries, to identify how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to improve manual or complex processes and make it easier to capitalise on the rapidly growing volume of data businesses have access to now. This is not only to improve how existing work is conducted but also to drive innovation and open up whole new approaches or create products and services that exploit the potential of this technology.

So we are delighted to have the Boltzmann team join Silverfin. We have made great progress bringing the benefits of machine learning to our customers already with Ludwig Assistant but we’re excited to see what more we can do together to transform the work and client services of accountancy firms.

If you’d like to know more about the acquisition check out our press release. But more importantly, if you’d like to get started with utilising the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning in your own accountancy firm please get in touch.

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Last year’s research gave us a fascinating insight into the digital transformation of accounting. 76% of firms said then that they expected their main source of revenue to come from advisory services within just five years – and technology was identified as key to success.

So what progress have they made in the last year? It’s time to chart the profession’s progress, measure firms’ digital maturity levels, and assess the impact of the global pandemic.

Download this infographic as a PDF

By increasing their use of technology, firms have made some progress in terms of digital maturity. Digital storage and collaboration on working files, for example, have improved. However, these are relatively basic digital capabilities, and on their own will not help firms to transform their core service delivery.

Firms need to accelerate their progress to ensure their shift from bookkeeping and compliance to advisory services gets back on track. After an extraordinary year of unforeseen delays and re-prioritisation to business continuity, it’s time to put transformation plans into top gear.

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The second edition of our annual research into the trends driving business and digital transformation in accounting is out now.

It’s important to put these findings into context by comparing the results against last year’s report. While this year’s survey makes for fascinating reading, it’s only when we identify patterns and trends over time that we begin to see the stories hidden within the data.

So let’s remind ourselves of the headline themes and numbers from last year:

• 76% of respondents believed that advisory services would be their biggest source of revenue by 2025.
• But bookkeeping delivered most revenue for firms today (42%).
• Advisory was only the main source of income for 14% of respondents.
• 22% said they could create automated alerts or reports from their client data to help give proactive advice to clients.
• 47% said they had the access they needed to data and insights that enabled them to deliver advisory services for clients.
• 52% saw access to new technology as the biggest threat to their future success, followed closely by skills of the team (45%) and access to new talent (44%).

In 2020 the message was clear: firms understood that future success lies in transforming their business to deliver more advisory services. Clients are increasingly unwilling to pay top price for bookkeeping and compliance services that they believe can be done by themselves or view as easy to do with the help of technology, but are more than happy to pay for insightful business advice.

However, this time last year firms were largely ill-equipped to deliver real-time, data-driven insights. We saw a lack of workflow automation, standardisation of financial data, and data benchmarking – to name just three vital capabilities – and this meant firms were not yet in a position to transform their core service delivery with the help of technology.

Strategic progress in business transformation is delayed by the pandemic

When looking at how far firms have progressed with their business and technology transformations it was impossible not to consider the impact of the pandemic. How did this change how firms operate, and what impact did it have on their move to advisory and their digital transformation?

This year’s survey results reveal a profession that recognised the need to act fast and the importance of technology in their response. Faced with office closures and social distancing regulations, 88% of firms say they increased their usage of technology in response to the pandemic.

When asked to select all the reasons for this increase, firms said they focused on:

• Remote working (87%)
• Communication (84%)
• Collaboration (64%)

However, only 5% increased technology investment to improve data analysis. Just 17% concentrated on data storage, and 22% on automation.

This strongly indicates that the priority for firms was to enable remote working and keep in touch with clients and colleagues. Keeping the lights on was the key objective, with less focus being put on long-term investments designed to streamline compliance work and open up advisory opportunities.

Feeling the benefits of increased technology usage

The good news is that this investment has delivered positive results that also support a successful business and digital transformation.

• 78% now store all client data digitally – an increase of 16%.
• 87% can work on client files collaboratively.
• 47% now consolidate all client data in a single cloud-based data store.
• 88% can file reports electronically with the authorities

However, important as these capabilities are, they are foundational, and at the earlier stages of our digital maturity curve for accounting. While it is encouraging to see progress there is clearly a lot of work still to do.

Was this a missed opportunity to exploit this technology investment more?

Could our respondents have taken advantage of the need to review how they use technology to open up new capabilities? To not only prioritise their use of technology to maintain operational continuity, but to drive more profound change supporting their longer term development objectives at the same time?

The results indicate that the focus of technology investment this year was almost solely on short-term wins and operational continuity, not mid to long-term strategic transformation. It is understandable given the challenges of this last year but it is potentially a missed opportunity to make these investments work harder and make greater progress in the maturity curve.

• Only 5% focused on boosting data analysis capabilities.
• Just 22% increased technology to improve reporting or to enhance automation.

When we look at the answers to the questions that show greater levels of maturity around unlocking and delivering data insights for advisory services, we can see that little progress has been made. One result in particular stands out: just 13% strongly agree that they have access to data and insights that enable them to deliver advisory services – and this has not changed in 12 months.

When we take a closer look at remote working abilities, we can also see some more worrying implications. For example, 74% say they can now work on client files from anywhere and on any device. At first glance, this doesn’t seem too bad. But last year this figure was 73%. Considering 87% of firms that increased technology usage did so to improve remote working, why has this figure not really moved since last year?

The way forward: a marriage of technology and people

Firms have reiterated their desire to transform the nature of their revenue and client services so that advisory becomes their biggest source. The data suggests no forward progress on this objective this year and significant challenges exist despite increased pressure now with a year’s progress lost.

In the previous report, respondents said they faced three main threats to future success:

1. Access to the right technology (52%).
2. Skills of the team (45%).
3. Access to new talent (44%).

This year the picture has reversed. The priorities are now acquiring new:

1. Talent (59%).
2. Skills (47%).
3. Technology (41%).

Technology is a driver of change but it is clear that this is matched with the need to address the development of new skills and the acquisition of talent. When you have access to great data and tools you need the people to use them to uncover insights into the client’s business and effectively communicate them. These are specialised ‘soft skills’ that every accountant may not have today with the profession’s historical focus on the development of technical or mathematical skills.

A successful transformation to advisory means marrying advances in technology with the addition of new talent and skills. Firms clearly recognise this.

Rapid acceleration is required to get business and digital transformations back on track

This is the message that must be top of minds for firms in 2021. How do we get our business transformation plans back on track?

The pandemic has clearly caused huge disruption to everyone and meant an understandable shift in priorities but it did place technology under the spotlight. Progress has been made in digital transformations in accounting but the focus has been on communication and collaboration. Now attention needs to shift to workflow automation and the development of technology-enabled advisory.

It’s time for firms to accelerate their transformation plans, arm their people with the skills and technology they need, and plan their roadmap to becoming trusted business advisors.

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So perhaps we should then say “A picture makes the point in data”. Turning data into engaging charts will significantly increase the impact of the message or advice you are giving to a client. They make seeing the implication or action in the data easy. Strong, beautifully designed charts bring insights and client reports to life.

Silverfin accountants have been using our cloud platform to store client data and automate their accounting workflows like working papers, accounts production and corporation tax. They’ve also been publishing management reports. Many have also developed their own branded management packs and advisory reports on our platform. We wanted to support them with an easy way to turn the great client performance data they have access to into compelling charts that can be shared directly or included in reports in just a few clicks. All without ever having to leave Silverfin or use another application to create them.

So now it’s easy to use Silverfin to design the charts you want and to brand them to reflect your client or firm’s look and feel. When you’re finished with our easy to use charting tool, in just a few clicks you can create, and share, your new charts with your client. Plus you’ll have the final chart template sitting waiting for you in Silverfin ready to use again and again.

But why limit your great new chart and report to one client. Share the templated report and chart with the whole firm on Silverfin and make them available to everyone at the click of a button. Silverfin will pull the required client data and drop it straight in automatically. No need for each team to reinvent the wheel. Less time finding data, designing charts or reformatting old ones, more time discussing the insights they show with clients.

We think customers will be very pleased to see how we’ve enhanced our charting. Turning client data into engaging charts is easy to do and adapt to your specific requirements. It’s also easier to brand and then share with clients within Silverfin or in PDF exports.

Effective and engaging reporting is an important part of the advisory conversation with clients. They highlight points for discussions. They give an opportunity to introduce advice and explain the value of new services. At the heart of a good report is well presented data. Clients don’t want to trawl through raw data or be forced to learn how to use a new technology or tool just to see your advisory point. So include great new charts in new advisory reports or share them in a dashboard format within Silverfin.

When you make reporting easier there are other significant benefits too. Firstly it allows you to increase the frequency of when you share reports with clients. If it takes clicks, there is nothing to stop you sharing insights into their performance on a quarterly, even monthly basis. Why only offer this kind of service annually, and link it to statutory reporting, when you don’t have to. This means your client is getting a better service and access to the critical insight and data in time to make a difference to their business. With the data presented in such an easy to understand way they will have a much better feel for what is happening and come to rely on these reports. It also means that you are creating regular opportunities for an advisory conversation that will improve your relationship and unlock new client service revenue.

So give your advisory services, reporting and management packs an upgrade not just in how they look but more importantly, in the impact they have on your clients. Our charting features are available to all customers as a free update now. Contact us to find out more.

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Our three speakers gave us insight into advances in cloud computing, AI and more.

Data is the cornerstone of success in digital transformation

The first thing Adrian wanted to make clear was that today, access to comprehensive, even real-time, client data is an absolute necessity. According to him that is exactly what makes cloud computing so crucial. “There is a huge amount of data available,” he said. “Cloud makes this data more accessible. It also allows you to work in real-time which in turn makes it much more actionable.”

Like other professions, accountancy is seeing a rise in interest in machine learning and AI. Applications outside accounting are using these technologies to enable contract analysis or prediction of payment behaviour, Ken said. But looking more specifically into the accountancy industry, identifying patterns is a crucial element in success in advisory services. “Silverfin can help interpret the meaning of numbers by looking for patterns,” he explained.

Technology is making the accountant more important not less

As technology continues to advance will accountants risk becoming obsolete? In short, no. Tim explained that technology serves the needs of the accountant and will never be able to replace humans. Also that a growing demand for advisory services brought clients even closer to their accountant, “A machine can never replace the human touch or decision-making process,” he said. Adrian added that “Trust can’t be automated. At the end of the day, what truly matters is good service. And the best way to deliver that just happens to be by using technology.”

So technology will automate a great deal of an accountant’s traditional work but this should not be seen as a threat, in fact it is an opportunity to support business and client service transformation. With reporting and compliance made easier, and a wider range of data at their fingertips, technology supports accountants in their role as trusted advisor as they now have all the data to develop powerful insight and the time to share it with clients. “Automation can fully handle compliance and AI can make predictions, but it takes the critical reflexion of the user to work with all that information,” explained Ken. Technology is an enabler of advisory.

Your technology is only as strong as your action plan

So if technology is transforming accounting, what’s your best strategy to apply it effectively? Should you reinvent or integrate it into your existing workflows? “You always need a connection,” said Ken. “To put that in place you need to fully map your process and then automate your workflows.” A major pitfall here is to consider technologies like AI a plus just because it’s AI and a new thing. “You should always ask yourself how AI can serve you and what problem it can solve,” he concluded. “When working with clients of our own, we always ask ourselves: how can the process be improved?”

“Change should always be grounded in reality,” confirmed Adrian. When introducing a new system, it should give you as an accountant more credibility and on top of that, it must generate more money for the firm. Taking these ideas into account, it’s always good to look at your options with a healthy amount of scepticism.

Tim also pointed out another important consideration “Cloud can help you enhance collaboration, accessibility and connection, but you should always make sure to work with correct data. Dirty data is no good,” he added.

We were interested to temperature check the digital transformations of our audience at Fast Forward so our live poll question revealed that many were already well underway. In fact 42% said they already apply AI. This was a welcome surprise for Tim. But despite this, 31% of the group also indicated that they didn’t use AI yet and – more importantly – that they don’t have plans to get started either. To these people, Tim had a very clear message. “Everyone should have plans. It’s not an easy step but it’s absolutely necessary.”

A glimpse of the future

To round off the session, our three experts looked to the future. In the short term, everyone should take a look at how they will use the cloud in their daily workflows. “Re-evaluate yourself and adapt to the cloud,” Tim recommended. “We help clients to achieve this by looking at what they do and what they need and then trying to bridge the gap between their current situation and their goal,” Ken confirmed.

But if one thing was certain, it was that machine learning – with technology like virtual assistants – is the future. So make sure you are ready for what lies ahead.

Want to find out more of the conversation with our technologists at Fast Forward 2020? Watch the full recording of our live show with Adrian, Tim and Ken on the Fast Forward Studio website.

Do you want to make sure that you’re prepared for the future and get started with or accelerate your firm’s digital transformation? Contact us today and we’ll work on it together.

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This is our second year at the top of the ranking. It’s exciting of course. It’s also a time for us to celebrate how far we have come with our colleagues, customers and partners but it also reminds us how much opportunity and work is out in front of us.

Tim and I founded the business with a simple goal in mind. To help accountants transform how they run their business and their client service through the use of technology. Now we have over 650 customers around the world. But there are many more firms and countries we are yet to help.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank every customer, partner and of course employee (past and present) that has played their part in helping us achieve this landmark. We will take a moment or three to celebrate this achievement before all getting back to the task in hand – developing the best cloud platform for accountants. A platform that enables them to be a number 1 success.

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B8ta is quite a step up from the world of store loyalty cards and is an excellent example of the potential of Big Data – as well as an indication of the huge volume of data each of us generate as we go about our daily lives.

Accountancy firms are no exception – data is the key to their future as well. Applying analytics to big data creates many opportunities for businesses to gain greater insight, predict future outcomes and automate tasks. For the accountancy profession it gives a golden opportunity to deliver greater value through analysis and insight that helps client businesses transform the way they work and achieve greater success. Data (and reporting and analytics) is the key to enabling accountants to expand their offering from compliance and reporting to high-value advisory services.

What’s driving all this data creation?

Essentially, the vast capacity and relatively low cost of computer power and storage these days has made it feasible, and affordable, to collect and process data from a myriad of sources. If it can be collected that is.

Today businesses of all sizes regularly use sophisticated systems and apps to manage their finances, HR, supply chain, customer relationships and ecommerce. These all create critical data needed in accounting.

That’s before we even start to consider the huge volumes of data social media platforms have on their users. Mobile technology and wearable devices generate location data and analytics tools like Google collect and aggregate information about online behaviour and buying habits of online customers.

The Internet of Things has also made it possible to generate massive amounts of data on how other appliances at home or work are used. 

There is also a great deal of open or public data of use to clients in their business planning and forecasting. This is usually generated from the public sector about things like market and currency performance, government finance, transport data and public service information. 

Businesses are also generating structured and unstructured data from within their own organisations by using digital technology in a wide range of business functions from sales and marketing, internal comms and supply chain activity.

Bottom line – there is a lot of data that could be helpful to accountants and their clients.

Making sense of all this data

It’s one thing to have access to endless data; it’s another to be able to use it effectively and get value from it. To excel in their role as advisor, accountants now need to make sense of it, and create insights from the data that improve the performance of their clients.

A good data strategy identifies relevant data sources, links them together and builds a consolidated view to power insight. Armed with this data-driven insight accountants can help their clients improve their performance and inform their own future strategy.

For accountants, this data and analysis can help improve forecasting and can link financial and non-financial data which in turn can give them vital information about cost drivers and operational processes. It’s this type of information that can help them identify pain points, opportunities and move further into the advisory field as they help clients with every element of their operations.

With big data, and powerful analytics tools, accountants can predict the future. Seeing the future is the most valuable kind of advice. These technologies enable them to identify and plan for future outcomes indicated by trends in the data. Then turn those trends into actionable advice in good time to make the maximum positive impact on their clients’ businesses.

In the ICAEW’s publication Big data and analytics it explains the impact on the accountancy profession: “Exploiting big data requires greater knowledge in the theory and practice of statistics than many accountants currently have. While the degree of knowledge will vary, accountants will need at least enough statistical knowledge to be an ‘intelligent buyer’ and ask good questions of suppliers or other parts of the business.”

The paper also highlights the skills that accountants are developing to exploit the advisory opportunities big data presents working in partnership with data scientists. These include:

• Understanding the opportunities and limitations of what can be achieved through data and how data science can add value.

• Understanding and defining the business problems data can help to solve.

• Interpreting the outputs produced by data analytics. This includes understanding data provenance, modelling assumptions, inherent biases in the analysis and, perhaps most importantly, what decisions can justifiably be made based on the analysis.

• Presenting and communicating the results to the business, including the use of visualisation.

• Awareness of the data landscape, different data types, what data might be useful and where and how it can be obtained.

Accountants need to supplement their existing skills in order to make the most of data and data analytics. It’s not just about technology the skills matter too. If accountants are to be valuable business advisers, powered by data – they also need the soft skills to communicate to the client what the data is saying and convince them to take the recommended actions.

Learn more about the benefits access to real-time, standardised data brings your firm – and how to achieve it – in our Fullsight eGuide.

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There are times in your career, when an opportunity comes along to be part of a business that is genuinely transforming an industry and making an impact. Silverfin has attracted similar like-minded professionals who all want to be part of making a difference.

Silverfin was co-founded by an accountant who was frustrated with the challenges and inefficiencies of his day-to-day work and believed there had to be a better way. Joris partnered up with Tim, a technologist, and together they have taken this vision and translated it into reality. They have established a successful SaaS company that’s delivering on its promise to help accountants be more successful today and show them how technology can be core to their future success.

Accountants are looking for technology partners to help them become more efficient and offer more modern ways of working across their business and services. Up to now significant change has been seen in pre-accounting and bookkeeping but it’s time for technology to change the wider accounting profession. It’s time to drive improved productivity through data and automation and then accelerate a shift to higher value advisory services powered by data and technology.

The opportunity for Silverfin, and its customers, was very evident to me after talking with the team and it brought me back to where it all began for me in a software start-up which had an uncanningly similar mantra and culture, business drive and, most importantly, market opportunity. I may not be an accountant but I could clearly see the opportunity here and so when the chance to work in a company driving change like this came up I couldn’t turn it down.

There is a lot of talk about digital transformation in accounting, and other industries for that matter, but Silverfin is driving actual change. Customers are putting our technology at the heart of their business strategy. What could be more exciting than that.

I am thrilled to join the company at this exciting time as Chief Commercial Officer and I look forward to working with the team and leading our international growth.

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The lessons they shared with us proved very helpful for firms whose digital transformation is yet to take off and those where it is well underway. All of our speakers were strong advocates of digitisation and put forward the many advantages it offers such as improved compliance; increased flexibility and speed; and a significant improvement in accuracy and efficiency. However, the focus of the session was not so much on if you should start your digital transformation but rather how you should manage it when you do.

Success demands you take people with you

All our speakers believed that a very important starting point is to communicate properly to your co-workers about what changes you are going to make and what it will all mean for day-to-day life at your firm. Dawn from Azets said taking your people along with you is crucial and that there are various ways to do that. “You need to be consistent in your message and values,” she said. “Talk about the benefits and always tell your people why you’re making a certain change.” Martin of 216 Accountants agreed: “Take all your co-workers along on the journey. They need to understand what is happening and why,” he said.

The accountants’ profile is changing

Brian from Deloitte pointed out that it’s not just the work environment that is changing. Technological change means that the skills and personality profile of the typical accountant is changing too. “Analytical and problem-solving skills are becoming crucial,” he said. “Moreover, accountants need to be open-minded and willing to embrace technology.” All our speakers indicated that in order for a successful digital transformation to take place, retraining your people is a necessity. Not only do they need to get familiar with the new processes, you also need to teach them new skills. At PWC, consulting activities have gone up considerably, confirmed Jorgen. “Where tax and compliance used to be all about deliverables such as reports, nowadays clients expect to get advice on tax,” he said. This shift in client expectations has a considerable impact on the people, requiring them to realign and hone new skills, but it also offers new and exciting opportunities. “…it is extremely important to think about how you will train, coach and encourage your people,” Dawn pointed out. Accountants now have more engaging and meaningful contact with clients. “And this is a crucial area where people will need help through coaching in order to adopt a new type of behaviour,” she believed.

Don’t be afraid to shuffle your cards

Looking at it from a practical point of view, a transformation process requires a good plan. At Deloitte that plan was three-fold, explained Brian. The first step was standardising all data and then centralising it. For this to work, Deloitte created central delivery centres. Finally the firm moved on to automating core work. But moving on with your transformation plan without first looking back on progress to date is not a good idea. “It’s important to regularly step back and look at how you want to do things,” warned Brian. Equally important is getting your change management right, which is only possible when your people are on the same page as you. “So you must ask your people what it is they want,” he concluded.

Think big

It’s also important to think how you might need to change your internal strategy. “Keeping your internal organisation unchanged is not beneficial for change,” Martin said. “Nowadays a firm needs to be lean and mean and titles shouldn’t get in the way of that.”

PWC’s journey lasted many years, Jorgen recounted. They got the team comfortable with transformation through visualisation, developed a value proposition and learned a lot from their failures. PWC’s change had its ups and downs of course as it meant reimagining what’s possible. Along the way they created a centre of excellence and evolved from a retrospective to a more risk-based approach. None of that would have been achievable without reimagining what’s possible and having a clear plan from the start.

Those seem to be the key elements for a successful transformation for others too. When asked what the first step in a transformation process should be, Brian was very clear. “You need to think big,” he said. “Imagine what you want and then build it, not the other way around.” This approach has led Deloitte to working with a more advanced method for audit, creating more meaningful reports and working a lot more efficiently in general.

Choose your partners wisely

However, thinking big doesn’t mean being reckless. Martin urged us to consider carefully what’s best: spending a lot of money on a full-blown in-house project or collaborating with external experts. These experts can reinforce your operations without you having to spend a fortune but you must choose them wisely and to do that you must keep an open mind, “That’s how we came across Silverfin,” said Martin. As a final note, Dawn added that external partners are not the only ones that can bring in added value. “Don’t be afraid to bring in new people with different expertise. It’s always good to think about different skills,” she concluded.

Want to find out more about Fast Forward 2020? You can watch the full recording of our live show including Dawn, Jorgen, Brian and Martin on the Fast Forward 2020 website.

Ready to get started with or accelerate your firm’s digital transformation? Contact us today and we’ll work on it together.

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Having worked as an accountant himself before he co-founded Silverfin, Joris is familiar with the challenges faced by accountancy firms – putting him in the perfect position to offer solutions to how work can be done more effectively and greater value can be offered to clients.

People, business model and technology

Joris is convinced that, if we want to work more efficiently and offer greater value to our clients, connected accounting is the way forward. Connected accounting is about three essentials: people, business model and technology.

First of all the people. The most valuable coworkers are able to use their collective intelligence to solve problems and deal with new situations effectively. This is only possible when the right tools are available to allow them to communicate and collaborate with each other effectively. They also need to have a central hub where all the necessary information for decision making is available and where they can work with each other in context.

Next there is your business model. This defines how you work with your clients. As compliance and reporting are becoming commodity services, you need to shift the focus of your work from quantity to quality. Nowadays it’s not the amount of hours that you spend on a client that counts, it’s what you can deliver. Clients will happily pay you more if you can offer them advisory services that really help them to grow their business faster and this will benefit your profit margins too.

Finally, the role of technology is to support progress in the two other pillars. “But right now, there is too much focus on just technology,” believes Joris. Technology should enable change. This is why Silverfin is about much more than the centralisation of client numbers or process automation. Yes, it’s a structured data hub which aggregates client data but it uses this data to power workflow templates that automate the process of common accounting work, and tools to support advisory services. In other words, it makes it easy for clients and accounting teams to work together in new and powerful ways. It is the cloud platform leading firms are using as the foundation of their digital transformation as well to support their transition from reporting and compliance to advisory services.

Success needs a step-by-step plan

When talking to accountancy firms about their business and digital transformation, Joris sees that, while many of them know all too well they need to do something, they hesitate because the whole endeavour seems too daunting. “Accountants are fully aware that change is needed,” said Joris. But change management and doubts about return on investment seem to be two big stumbling blocks. “For change management to be successful, you need to build a plan and find the right partners,” he continued. That’s where Silverfin comes in with its roadmap for success in digital transformation: the connected accounting maturity curve.

Firms can use the maturity curve to guide them as they build their plan for digital transformation. It consists of four stages:

• Fullsight: standardising and centralising all real-time and historic client data
• Hindsight: automating common accounting processes
• Insight: getting a deeper understanding of the numbers and using it to power advisory
• Foresight: using data, reporting and analytics to predict the future.

Moving a firm through the entire maturity curve does take time, planning and commitment but it’s worth it. “…keep going, the change will happen,” Joris believes. His message was backed up by the results of a poll amongst Fast Forward Studio viewers too: 58% acknowledged that their efficiency has increased due to their digital transformation.

It’s not about being big or small

A final message that Joris shared with us in his session is that digital transformation is not just for big companies with big budgets. “Bigger and smaller companies alike are facing the same challenges,” he said. It’s all about people: attracting, training and retaining the right employees is crucial. Once you have the right people, the next step is correctly handling your change management. 

If you’re new in the market and can start fresh with digital, it is definitely a lot easier to move forward on that path. But for more established firms there is no way back from digital transformation now. New business models are already emerging, be they subscription-based options for low maintenance clients such as freelancers, or big companies investing significantly on a fully digital model. All of these digital players will eventually cannibalise the traditional system. This means that digital really is the only way forward for firms of all sizes.

So what should we do to be successful and future-proof our firms? “For a digital transformation to be successful you first need to build a plan and then execute it step by step,” concluded Joris. “Learn from others, be persistent and focus on what matters.”

Want to find out all the details? You can watch the full recording of our live show with Joris and other experts on the Fast Forward Studio website.

Ready to get started or accelerate your firm’s digital transformation? Contact us today and we can work on it together.

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Olivier Constant, VP Sales Global at Silverfin, explains that: “Silverfin works with many leading players in accounting to serve the technology needs of firms around the world. We are delighted to be working with IBGraf and to bring the benefits of our cloud accounting platform to firms in Luxembourg.”

IBGraf: a one-stop-shop for accountancy software

IBGraf group was founded in 1982 and is active in accounting and management software. The company concentrates its efforts on Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, and Luxembourg. With 2000 clients in all types of industries, 500 in accountancy, IBGraf has unrivalled knowledge of the market. In the last five years the company has been focusing on the accountancy profession, making them a perfect match to work with Silverfin.

Matthieu Moor, Sales & Marketing Director at IBGraf: “We pride ourselves on being the one-stop shop for accountancy firms looking for the best technology. We want to help them with their digital transformation and bring together into a single solution the different building blocks they need for success. We already had a portfolio of pre-accounting and accounting solutions and now with Silverfin we have added the best post-accounting platform to give customers a complete solution to all their needs.”

Luxembourg’s shift to digital makes this the right time

The partnership between the companies might be new but the connection isn’t as they share a number of customers and an enthusiasm about the potential of the platform. “Silverfin has revolutionised post-accounting processing within the profession, streamlining what is historically a heavy and time-consuming burden during the closing and control processes specifically,” says Matthieu Moor. “Silverfin has ensured it integrates effectively with leading accounting production software and management solutions, several of which are already partners of IBGraf too.”

Olivier Constant, Silverfin: “This is the perfect time for us to be working together in Luxembourg. Changes in tax legislation and a growing enthusiasm for technology and digital transformation mean there is a lot of opportunity in this market. IBGraf is an ideal partner for us here with its knowledge and expertise in accounting.”

Dedicated accounting workflows for Luxembourg

“With the growing demand for post-accounting software, we are looking forward to enabling accounting firms in Luxembourg to consolidate their client data into a single data hub and use that data with our workflow templates to streamline their common accounting work. Our platform supports firms looking to automate their compliance reporting and spend more time on advisory services. We are excited about the opportunity to support Luxembourg firms in their digital transformation.” concludes Olivier Constant.

At the same time as announcing this partnership, Silverfin has also released a dedicated set of working papers templates on its platform specifically tailored to Luxembourg legislation and there will be more developments in the coming months.

Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how Silverfin and IBGraf can help your firm in Luxembourg.

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All three companies have vast experience in the use of technology to drive innovation and customer service either as a provider of financial services themselves or as a developer for others. Our speakers were in the perfect position to tell us about the meaning of technology in our daily and professional lives as accountants.

Customer experience is key

When it comes to the most important benefits of technology, Sophie, Nathalie and Jeroen, all agreed: technology should always be of service to the client and customer experience is the key to success. “The mobile trend will change all kinds of relationships,” said Jeroen, “so in the short term, we need to work on the customer experience. The question to ask yourself is: can my clients interact with me when they want to?”

Nathalie couldn’t agree more, and she knows what she is talking about. During the Covid-months earlier this year, her company experienced rapid change as people significantly changed their payment behaviour. Mobile payments went up by 60% and contactless payments increased and now make up to 37% of all payment transactions. In January this year, only 15% of all payments were contactless.

When serving such a large audience, it is essential to make customer needs a priority. At Bancontact Payconiq, they try to make this happen by offering a payment experience that is easy and has a good security level.

Digital is here to stay

Payment services were not the only domain where digital transformation has exploded. According to a report from McKinsey on the changes in digital behaviour, in the past few months, the customer has clearly discovered the digital path. And even more important, 75% of the people want to maintain the digital trend. Also according to the report, companies have acted upon this evolution and have accelerated their digital agenda. The best confirmation for this trend came only minutes later during the session, when the results of the first poll question of our viewers came in. It told us that 88% confirmed that their digital strategy has changed due to Covid.

But what should firms and companies be focusing on when making the digital shift? According to Sophie, data, security and customer centricity will be crucial for companies in order to future proof.

However, warned Jeroen, companies shouldn’t be using technology just for the sake of technology. Mindlessly piling up technologies on top of technologies will not do your company any good. “Always think about the added value,” he said, “At In the Pocket we call this design thinking.” And design thinking sometimes means you have to rethink the DNA of your firm, he admitted. Nathalie sided with him once more and urged us not to just jump on any technology. “Wait until a technology has proven its value,” she said.

Another important factor for success from all three companies is that you should maintain a good balance between internal and external expertise. The way to go is to have some knowledge in-house and to fortify that knowledge with the expertise of solid external partners. “Especially now it’s important to stay flexible,” as Sophie summed it up.

Technology: a partner for success, not a competitor

As both Payconiq and Cake are active in the payments and financial services industry, the inevitable question that needed answering was: is technology a threat for banks? Both our experts were convinced that it shouldn’t be. Technology can help you to offer added value services and to improve the user experience. Apart from that, it also drives innovation and competition, which is only beneficial to customers, as competition helps improve quality.

So, what should you be focusing on in the short term? Jeroen encouraged us all to focus on user and customer experience. “Take care of your mobile touchpoints and the website of your firm,” he said. “And finally, make sure to rely on trusted technology but keep an eye on the trends too.”

Want to know more about what our experts said? You can watch the full session with Sophie, Nathalie and Jeroen on our recording of our live show over at the Fast Forward 2020 website.

Can we help you to get started or accelerate your firm’s digital transformation? Make sure to contact us today and let’s get going.

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On 17 September we had our yearly Fast Forward event for accountants. A live event as usual in Belgium was not an option for obvious reasons but our digital alternative turned out to be equally inspiring.

Check it out for yourself here but in the meantime here are just some of the great observations from our experts.

Always remaining focused on the customer is key

During the first part of Fast Forward, Nathalie Van De Peute (Payconiq), Sophie Docx (Cake) and Jeroen Lemaire (In the Pocket) shared insight into the impact of technology in the financial services sector.

When asked which technologies would have the most impact in the years to come, Jeroen was very clear – A.I. It is clearly breaking through and will gain more and more importance in the next five to ten years.

A.I. will also have a considerable impact on the nature of relationships with clients and this brings us seamlessly to one of the main takeaways from this session, that remaining focused on the customer is key.

Another important message from all three guests was don’t jump onto any technology without giving it some serious thought. “You need a strategy and a plan for your digital transformation,” Jeroen summarised. “Make sure you have sufficient internal expertise and reinforce it by choosing strategic and solid partners,” added Nathalie Van De Peute. “And keep in touch with the market and the needs of your clients,” concluded Sophie Docx.

Going digital: it’s do or die

Next we took a deep dive into accounting with our own co-CEO Joris Van Der Gucht. He took the stage to share his vision for connected accounting. Being a former accountant himself, he knows the profession and the challenges it faces well. As Joris sees it, when getting into connected accounting, firms should consider three topics: their strategy for people, the future of their business model and the technology they will use to make it happen.

Connected accounting is changing the way people in a firm work together, both internally and with clients. It also has an impact on the business model of the firm as classic manual tasks are being automated to make way for more lucrative activities such as advisory services, placing the accountant in a more engaging role with clients. The technology, as he put it, is essentially there to make a connection between the other two strategic points.

He also shared Silverfin’s digital transformation or connected accounting maturity curve. This gives accounting firms a step-by-step plan for a successful transformation journey. Embracing this, and moving fast, is important because, as Joris said, digitising your firm is no longer a “maybe” but a must – “It’s do or die.”

Evolution not revolution

Next we turned to leaders in accounting for their perspective and practical stories about the daily reality of driving change and achieving connected accounting. We spoke with Dawn Marriot (CEO, Azets, UK), Jorgen Broothaers (Partner, PWC Belgium), Brian Murphy (Engagement Lead, Deloitte, Ireland) and Martin De Bie (Advisor innovation, 216 Accountants, The Netherlands).

All four agreed that their digital transformation has improved the efficiency of their compliance activity as work can be done faster, error rates have dropped dramatically, and flexibility increased. However, they also stressed the importance of not rushing things and why taking all co-workers along on the digital transformation journey is so important. “You need to upskill your people so they can become evolved professionals,” said Jorgen Broothaers. “After that, there will be more room for creativity.” Brian Murphy also pointed out how crucial it is to step back and look at how you want to do things. “You have to first imagine what you want and then build it, not the other way around.” Martin De Bie agreed and added that it can be a tough job when you have a big company with a vast legacy to contend with. “Don’t hold on to titles. You need to be lean and mean,” he advised. “The best way to do this is to partner up.”

But key to it all are the people who get the work done. All speakers agreed that people are crucial in the process. “Tell your people why you are making these changes,” said Dawn Marriott. “Have a clear plan and allow everyone to evolve at their own pace. There is no need for a revolution, but rather a consistent evolution.”

The technology driving the future of accounting

The last discussion had Tim Vandecasteele (co-CEO Silverfin), Adrian Blair (Receipt Bank) and Ken Bastiaensen (Boltzmann) talk about emerging technologies in accounting. Cloud-computing they felt has had a substantial impact on all sectors and accounting is no exception. “Accounting used to be a retrospective activity”, Adrian started off. “The potential of cloud-computing is that you can do the accounting in real-time, which makes it much more actionable.”

Adrian also reassured us that the job of the accountant is not in jeopardy because of technology. “Accountants will become trusted advisors and trust cannot be automated.” Tim added that even though a lot of activities can now be automated, the accountant will always have a crucial role to play. “The human touch, and decision-making, cannot be replaced,” he explained. But he also warned not to jump into technology just for the sake of technology. “Cloud-computing offers limitless possibilities in terms of collaboration, accessibility and connection,” he elaborated. Ken agreed with him that the technology your embrace has to have a purpose, it must be “…something clients can use. It’s a tool to solve problems.”

Also, the key to successful change needs to be a strategy grounded in reality. Change management should always look at how to improve the process. That’s why it’s a good thing that accountants maintain healthy scepticism and ask critical questions of their technology strategy. Be open minded to change and innovation but always ask challenging questions.

Digital transformation and connected accounting is an opportunity for everyone

So, finally the audience got to put their tough questions to our founders. Starting with is automation and technology bad news for accountants? “It’s an opportunity,” said Joris, “We want to educate clients so they can see technology as a partner.”

Joris should know, his motivation to start Silverfin was born from his own frustration as an accountant. For Tim, the motivation was somewhat different. “What I wanted to do was to bring simplicity to a complex thing,” he explains. “It’s fun to see that we can help both big and small companies.”

That’s what we hope Silverfin is in the eyes of our customers: a partner for accountants. A partner that is helping them use technology to innovate and change for the better. To make their own business, and their clients, more successful.

So if you missed Fast Forward Studio, and would like to hear more of what experts had to say, don’t worry you can register now and watch our recording of the live show here.

In the coming weeks we will also take a deep dive into each of the sessions and some of our additional recorded breakouts here in our blog so keep coming back.

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Could you tell us a little bit about MHA Carpenter Box and your role there? Congratulations on your recent nomination in the Accounting Excellence Awards.

Thank you. We’ve been nominated in two categories; Practice Pioneer and Large Firm. I’m a Partner at MHA Carpenter Box which is a mid-tier firm based in Sussex. We’ve been around for nearly 100 years, growing the business to 180+ employees and with that you tend to inherit a lot of legacy systems and processes. I’m responsible for cloud and digital solutions, so my role is dedicated to innovation and bringing new perspectives to solving issues and inefficiencies. It’s my job to be the person that says “just because we’ve always done it this way doesn’t mean it’s the right way”.

Not a small challenge. I understand as a firm you’ve recently undergone some structural changes. Could you tell us about that? 

We’ve recently split our business services into micro or small companies and larger corporate companies. This has meant that we’ve been able to develop new processes more appropriate for each size of company –  rather than having a business services department with a single process that isn’t really fit for purpose for either. The needs of a client that turns over £50,000 vs £10 million are fundamentally different and this structural change has meant that we can deliver services that are appropriate for the client’s size. If you have a single department catering for all clients you tend to lean towards the larger clients and that means you overlay too much administration on the smaller ones.

That’s quite unique, how did you come to that approach? 

We were seeing compliance become increasingly automated and smaller more agile firms were able to offer services at a lower cost than we were. They don’t have the overheads and are able to take a slightly more client by client approach. We have around 1,500 clients that sit in the smaller category. It’s allowed us to tailor our services to fit the client’s needs. Larger clients benefit too as our corporate team specialises in the disclosures that are fundamentally for larger firms (holiday accruals, lease commitments etc). You’re overlaying a different set of questions for a different type of client as opposed to one size fits all approach which isn’t relevant for everyone. We’re able to serve our clients – both large and small – better.

Has that been a conscious decision to evolve the business model of the firm? 

Yes – we have around 65-70 people in our business service department and we found that we didn’t have a consistent way of working. In the new model, managers and below specialise in a particular size of client which means we can set up our systems and processes to support that way of working. It’s meant I’ve been able to look at the technology we use and tailor it to each arm of the business – it’s also meant our digital transformation has worked better. There were tools out there that we wanted to use but we couldn’t because of the way we were set up and now we’ve gone through this change, we’ve been able to get the benefit that tools like Silverfin brings.

How did you decide to make this change?

We had quite a disjointed process from when the client data came in to when our work left. We had systems to support things like the production of working papers, but it was one system on top of another and it led to a lot of inefficiencies. There were lots of layers of technology to support an over-engineered process that wasn’t fit for all our clients. We recognised there was a clear opportunity to do something different, but we struggled in the early days to find a solution that was fit for purpose. We didn’t want to oversimplify our offering, and so for us Silverfin was perfect as it’s allowed us to tailor our own solution rather than taking something else that somebody else has done and trying to make that work.

Are clients expectations changing? Did you in part make this change to support that?

Technology has led the client to expect a different experience and we needed to be in a position to support that. Traditionally an accountant would have say 4 touch points with a client over a year but we now have well over 40 because it’s so easy to just send an email. Clients expect answers faster, they’re sending us spreadsheets and data and the expectation is we should have a process to support giving them answers in almost real-time. Our systems have all been engineered to support this. The goal will be full real-time information and transparency for the client.

What we think will happen is that 40 touch points will turn into 400 before long and this will all need to be supported by technology. There now isn’t a limit on how we collaborate with clients, we are all able to dive into the same system and work together even down to a year-end process. We can deal with queries and questions for the client and keep them up-to-date within the same system. As the client is so involved in the process it means when those accounts do get finalised we have less push-back and final questions because the client knows what they’re expecting to see.

How has this affected your relationship with clients? 

It’s made them better. We have more interaction and work more collaboratively. Clients also know what they are getting for their money, they know what stage we are at with their accounts so they’re not needing to chase us to understand progress.

We’re also in a position to offer more services as we have real-time information so are able to proactively advise clients. We can say to them let’s look at some insights or some benchmarking, management accounts or tax planning etc. All these things are much easier now and we can quickly identify the clients that need these services. It’s not easy when you have a lot of clients to identify who might need which services, so it’s been a big thing for us to be able to use data to understand this better.

What was the catalyst for this digital transformation?

Well it’s a number of things. It started off with my frustration that things were just taking too long and not being able to give clients as good a service as they want and deserve. We just wanted to provide a better service, and help businesses be better as a consequence.

It’s also a lot easier to look after an existing client than to find a new one, so we were keen to look after our existing client base and extend out that average client life by a year or two as this makes a significant contribution to our business. We want to keep our clients happy and offer them more.

Was it just a desire to look after existing clients? 

No we also wanted to speed up the process of acquiring new clients. There’s an opportunity cost associated with the time it takes to onboard a client. We need to gather lots of information, a true likeness and all the rest of the onboarding requirements. The whole process could take as long as a few weeks, and that’s not right in our instantaneous world. The digital transformation meant that we are now able to onboard clients faster and that means our staff have more time to do other work.

Who has been involved in the project so far? 

It was originally driven by me and my frustrations which certainly started things moving. I proposed initiatives that benefitted my department but obviously the needs vary department by department. We now have an IT Working Group which is made up of members from every department who decide on the priority of projects from the whole firm’s perspective.

How do you prioritise projects? Is it ROI, business need? 

We try to assign a monetary value to these projects. Our client Portal saved us £40,000 in postage alone. We look for our biggest problem areas, what’s urgent and mandatory and those take priority. Below that almost becomes the wish list of each department, feeding in what they would ideally want.

How did you get buy-in from the other Partners? 

That’s been my biggest challenge over the years. We’ve had such a sporadic approach historically to systems, and we’ve prioritised technology based on which Partner had the loudest voice essentially. We needed to refine the approach, we had lots of legacy systems that didn’t interact with each other and were inefficient. I started small with trialling technology and presenting back to a small Partner group with evidence on how and why it worked. We didn’t include everyone initially as this would’ve presented its own difficulties in getting the wider Partner network to understand the concepts and the value of the capabilities you’re talking about. It’s challenging because an audit Partner will care about different things to another Partner from another department. So it was almost two phases of trials and approvals. Initially with a small group, then a wider group with evidence of how and why it works. The evidence can’t be conceptual either, it has to be very tangible to get buy-in.

So is that what you’ve learnt about leading change? 

The fundamental thing is you can only lead change if you bring people with you, that is the biggest thing I’d say. In the past I kept running into a brick wall by trying to make changes on my own and in a partnership that doesn’t work. Those checks and balances are there for a reason and so you have to involve people early in the process to be successful.

How has COVID affected this project? 

It’s obviously increased the tension between evolving the firm for the future and the short-term priority of increasing chargeable hours. My argument is that we need to be accelerating our digital transformation efforts so that we can be successful post COVID.

Any advice for other firms looking to lead a project like this? 

It depends completely on the size of the firm. What I will say though is it’s essential to fully scope out any project before you start. You need to understand what you’re trying to achieve and how you can get there.

Building the right team is also very important. Sometimes in professional service organisations these types of projects get given to those that have the capacity to manage them, and don’t necessarily get handed to the person who is the best for the job. The Project Manager needs to be able to navigate the business well, that’s understanding stakeholders and champions whilst also managing timelines, deadlines and other competing priorities. What I’ve learned is don’t focus on the billable hours of the individual running the project and you need a proper plan, involving the right people at the right time.

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Register here for #FFStudio20 to hear more leading accountants share their digital transformation stories. 

You’ve been active in the profession for a while. How have you seen accountancy change in the last few years?

Looking back it’s fair to say that our world has changed quite significantly.  

There is a huge variety of clients and services in the accounting industry so my answer to this question must be given in a more personal context. Within PwC my focus is on helping larger, multinational organisations manage their compliance requirements in an efficient and effective manner, not only in Belgium but also around the globe. 

If I look at those clients, their needs have changed significantly over the last years, mainly as a consequence of three trends. First of all the business environments our clients operate in have changed. We have seen increasingly fast global expansion which has brought the need for faster reporting, better insights and more focus on being in control of financial data, these are just a few examples. These evolving needs require us to continuously evolve our services and provide added value to our clients.

The second trend is that many clients are going through finance function transformation projects. They are increasingly centralising more and more activities into shared service centres, outsourcing and managed services firms. This obviously has had a big impact on the accounting needs of our clients and often reduces the traditional finance function. Similarly the evolution in the ERP landscape with the shift to cloud-solutions makes the localisation of processes for managing some of these requirements a real challenge. As a service provider we are now often more an extension of our clients’ finance teams which requires different skill sets amongst our teams, such as a more global perspective, better communication skills and digital capabilities.

Finally, there’s the changing tax landscape. On the one hand there is an increased focus on controls and transparency, while on the other hand in many territories there are more reporting requirements – just think of all the SAF-T (standard audit files for taxes) we see being introduced. As accountants we are increasingly acting as the bridge between these requirements and our clients.

I’m looking forward to seeing our profession evolve even more. In the coming years I expect to see an evolution towards more transactional data-driven compliance; the need for a more risk-based approach as part of, for instance, a tax control framework, and a heavy impact of new technologies used by all stakeholders. The future will certainly hold great opportunities for our profession if we adapt.

What is the role of technology today in the sector and how do you see it evolving in the near future? What challenges does this present for accounting firms?

For many years technology has played a very important role in the accounting profession. Traditionally we have seen a very slow response to change which I found frustrating but recently we have seen an ever-increasing pace of digital transformation. Technology has become an essential part of each and every project. At PwC we have redesigned many of our global processes to become digital first and data centric. Digital first is all about redesigning around simplification, standardisation and automation, while Data Centric drives better cross-functional solutions, a more modular and flexible approach, and accelerating the leverage of both established and emerging technologies. The result is an acceleration of the standardisation and automation of the overall process even if the client’s data landscape may still be in a very dispersed state.   

One of the biggest challenges we’ve experienced has been how we train the next generation of accountants in this new world. We had to redesign our junior training programmes around the fact that the typical processing activities have reduced significantly so the on-the-job learning doesn’t happen in the same way anymore. Our people now start working with data files rather than boxes of documents. Within PwC this is part of our larger efforts on upskilling our people for the digital world, a programme called ‘Your Tomorrow’.

Do you think advisory services are now playing a more important role? Do you think the needs of the customer, the companies, have changed?

Absolutely! Clients no longer want their accountants to update accounting records, produce statutory financial statements, tax returns and present the figures once per year. They are looking for a trustworthy business partner, identifying risks and opportunities, providing the insights needed to make their business thrive and supporting internal projects.

As an example, we get more and more requests to help our clients with the implementation of the newest cloud based ERP-platforms and with setting-up more advanced reports and dashboards to drive operational efficiency. In Belgium we have a global Center of Excellence on what we refer to as GAAP 2 STAT conversion. How do you approach this challenge from a people, process and technology perspective? The real value is not just in efficient processes but more importantly how it tackles structurally one of the key data challenges many of our clients have with their downstream processes, very often tax-related. In my view the role of the accountant has to shift towards advisory services as most compliance activities will get automated. This advisory role needs to use the newer technologies to deliver the value our clients are looking for.

At Fast Forward Studio, you’ll have a session with other leading accountants, sharing their digital transformation stories. Could you tell us briefly what the viewers can expect from you?

We often refer to digital transformation as a journey. I hope that by sharing feedback on our journey, the choices we made, the lessons we learned along the way, and the path we have ahead, we can provide some insights for others as they choose to embark on their journey.

Which individuals or companies inspire you today? What have they done and why do they inspire you?

There are so many different people that inspire me each day. Whether it is a great article, a client talking with passion about their business or new technologies being presented with great opportunities. My team also greatly inspires me, particularly some of the more digital members. If I see the things some of these youngsters do, they are really amazing! Whenever they present something they developed independently you know that digital transformation is happening. I must admit it makes me really envy them – I would just love to be 20 years younger and back at the start of my career in today’s world.

What advice would you give to companies who want to transform digitally?

There is lots of great advice out there but personally I would recommend firms starting by upskilling their people and then boosting the odds of success by taking a people-led approach which we refer to as ‘citizen led-innovation’. I’ve seen great examples of how the enthusiasm, drive, and innovation of young people has really brought about some great solutions.

A great start for organisations who want to start on this journey is PwC’s digital fitness assessment app. We initially used it internally to upscale our people but it is now available for everyone for free on the Apple app store or Google play so I would certainly invite everyone to have a look.

One of my favourite quotes is that luck is where opportunity meets preparation. If your organisation is prepared for the many opportunities that lie ahead, I am convinced that we have great value to offer as a profession to both clients and our teams.

Register here for Fast Forward Studio and don’t miss out.

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Cash and liquidity means everything now. During the recession after the global financial crisis, some businesses that were fundamentally sound went bust because they couldn’t find the cash they needed to operate day to day.

It’s going to be important for a number of reasons to learn that lesson and help clients to plan and manage their cash flow now. Banks will be reluctant to lend; alternative sources of finance might also be restricted; it might be more expensive to borrow; and businesses that have got by with help from their government, landlord or supply chain will see that stop and those loans will have to be paid back or normal commercial service resumed.

Accountants have been key in supporting their clients through the pandemic and most have been urgently working through the issues and helping their businesses respond to events as they change – often overnight. Cash flow has always been one of the cornerstones of successful management but, thanks to the pandemic and the huge economic fallout it prompted, cash flow issues have become increasingly concerning for clients. Accountants need, more than ever, to play a critical role at this time as businesses return to work in a challenging operating environment significantly impacted by months of uncertainty. Data and information play an essential role in helping accountants develop quick and effective planning tools for clients.

Managing risk

In times of crisis, cash management is a key element of risk management. Quickly defining concrete actions and anticipating the possible developments according to different scenarios will help your clients overcome difficulties.

Businesses that are currently struggling for liquidity and profitability —those with low cash reserves or unstable revenue — are particularly vulnerable. However, even businesses that appear to be in good financial shape may not be immune, depending on how the situation progresses, and how long it takes for demand and supply chains to return to normal.

Some sectors are struggling more than others. Tourism, hospitality, entertainment and air transportation were hit particularly hard right from the start, with lockdown shutting them down almost entirely. Businesses in consumer goods and retail have also been at higher than-normal financial risk, especially those in seasonal businesses where demand may be lost, such as perishable consumer goods and seasonal clothing.

Cash flow management needs to be an integral element of a company’s overall Covid-19 risk assessment and action planning in the near term.

How do you protect liquidity and make sure you have enough cash to get through? There are several options:

• Keep costs under control
• Keep on top of supplier payments and customer receipts
• Release cash trapped in the business if you can (accountants can help to find it)

Cash flow checklist

Regardless of the size of your client, there is a checklist of common sense measures to take that will equip them with the knowledge they need to navigate through choppy cash flow waters.

Businesses need to manage their cash inflow and outflows, communicate with suppliers and find out when they are anticipating payment, contact lenders and landlords and seek support on interest rates, capital repayments and terms of a current overdraft. Their existing lender could be their fastest source of additional liquidity.

Governments across the world have responded to help business during the crisis in ways relevant to their local economies and (almost) every type of business has had access to government-backed support, in the forms of things like cash grants, loans, business rates holidays and VAT/GST deferral.

The importance of insight and data in developing strategy

Accountants can help their clients review fixed and variable costs carefully to determine what costs they actually need to run the business. By assessing expenditure requirements using real-time and historical data (not to mention looking at trends within their wider client base) and then deferring non-essential spending, and exploring how to reduce fixed costs, gives critical flexibility in a time of crisis.

In the same way, businesses need help and insight based on data to be strategic about cost management so they don’t execute cost-cutting initiatives or kill spending that could compromise revenue generating capabilities or that risk diminishing value in the business.

A recent report from Deloitte – COVID-19 Managing cash flow during a period of crisis – offers some best practices and strategies that businesses can use to manage their cash flow issues. These include having a robust framework for managing supply chain risk so that you understand the financial risks of your key trading partners, customers, and suppliers. It also suggests practical tips like make sure your financing remains viable – what was available to you before the crisis may not be available now.

Alongside the practical business advice is the suggestion that automation holds the key to controlling cash flow issues. Now is the time to use tools to deliver information in real-time with easy to understand dashboards that share critical information with team members. We’ve released two Silverfin templates to identify, and then track, clients under pressure from COVID-19 and to make critical cash flow planning faster and easier. These are free to all customers and available for download now on our Marketplace.

With these templates you can:

• • Identify COVID-19 measures and apply them to a specific client file (currently available for the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands). This includes government measures and the ability to add other actions relevant to a specific client file e.g. a change in premises costs or payment terms.
  • Complete critical cash flow forecasting and scenario planning. Identify clients at risk and work with them to look at how different measures will impact their performance over time. You can also see the impact any COVID-19 measures will have on them.
  • Accountants can use insights to run liquidity measures across their whole portfolio of clients, by industry and organisation size, and then create a plan with them individually if showing signs of distress.

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At Fast Forward Studio 2020, Brian will be sharing his own digital transformation journey. Make sure you register here to find out more.

You’ve been active in the profession for a while. How have you seen accounting change over the last few years?

If we look specifically at the audit department, which is the area I specialise in, you can see how much has changed, seven or eight years ago everything was very much paper-based and now everything is electronic. It’s very unusual for any paper files to be used to store information. Everything is now gathered, stored and addressed electronically. More recently everything has become cloud-based, even in terms of how we do our audits, our methodology, the systems we use. Everything now sits in the cloud including how we prepare accounts and how we then interact with our clients. Using that cloud-based functionality has obviously been a great development over the last few years.

I suppose another huge change we’ve seen is in terms of the audit process, the focus years back was about getting samples of information and now it’s all about getting full data sets from clients where you’re able to do a full and thorough analysis. That’s certainly where things are heading to in the next couple of years.

What is the role of technology today and how do you see it evolving in the near future? 

It’s been absolutely instrumental and every firm is having to move with it. Plus with COVID, it completely changed how we work and had a knock-on impact on making that shift through technology. It’s changed what is to be expected to be in place over the coming years. We’re even seeing the changes it’s having on audit testing, some of those are already being done by robots. Everything from the perspective at the start to the finish, how we even interact with clients, it’s really all being done now through technology. It’s just so instrumental, it’s difficult to see how a firm will evolve without bringing technology on the journey.

What challenges does this present for accounting firms?

The first major challenge I see here is in terms of people. Most accountancy firms are training firms building up accountants over three or four years, they would now be doing a very different role from where they started. In terms of doing all the testing and audit work, they will be doing more review type work. I think they’ll need to be a lot more trained and a lot more conscious of data and analytics and what that all means and what it represents. There is certainly a thing there around keeping our people trained and ensuring they’re still getting the right kind of experience to make sure they will be able to hold themselves as a chartered accountant.

The second challenge I think will be something we’ve found particularly over the last month with COVID and remote working. The technology is fantastic to have in place to be able to do your audits remotely and be able to tap into client information from wherever you are but it’s important to be able to keep and nurture those relationships as well. How are we able to make sure we keep the interaction from a human level as well as interacting via technology to make things a bit more efficient.

Do you think advisory services are now playing a more important role? Do you think the needs of the client have changed?

Certainly, we have seen more appetite from clients for advisory services. We do a lot of work with clients now in actually showing and demonstrating to them the kind of information they do have and how they may analyse that a bit better and how they might be able to use that information to run their business a bit more commercially. 

Even from an audit perspective, the expectation now from us as auditors is we do our audit as we have always done with an auditor’s report as the key output but the insights we’re able to provide to clients are very important and becoming even more important. As we are now beginning to get into streams of say, proposals or new jobs coming on stream it’s very much what kind of insights and analysis from the analytics you can provide to the client that they’re looking for. I think there is an increasing expectation of more from the auditor because we do have all this technology, we do have all these tools, so the value of what insights you can now provide is instrumental to businesses and I think they want that.

At Fast Forward Studio, you’ll be sharing your digital transformation story. Could you tell us briefly what the viewers can expect from you?

I’m going to be talking about the journey Deloitte is on worldwide but specifically in Ireland. The journey we have taken over the last five to six years has seen a huge shift from paper-based audit to now where we are immersed in technology-driven auditing. Having all this technology allows you to have a much more bespoke approach depending on what the requirements are from the various different clients. I’ll give some examples about what we’ve done differently, how we’re using analytics on our files, and how we are generally using technology. From interacting with the client to closing out some files and what we had to do there from a digital perspective.

What advice would you give to accountants or accounting firms who want to transform digitally?

I think you need to think big. Often we put obstacles in our own path to say we can’t do that, or we can’t afford to do that, but I think when you do step back and look at how you’re currently doing things you’ll look at what you want, what is the ideal scenario, what are the blockers to efficiency in the firm. So step back and ask yourself – what does an ideal process look like? How would I like things to be done? Then source the various different technologies that are out there to help you in that kind of journey. 

I think certainly when you do start looking into things there’s always that sort of mindset that everything is very expensive and it works as it is. But when you start getting into it, it turns out things are not as expensive as you thought they were. There’s also an element of look around, seek what’s out there, see what other firms have done, see what companies can do. This Silverfin event is perfect for people to come and do exactly that and learn from top firms. 

At the start of Deloitte’s transformation, we would have looked at what aspect of our digital journey is around how we assist our clients with accounting and how we assist them with the preparation of financial statements. That’s how we started interacting with Silverfin. So we had done a lot of work, we had looked at loads of other different options, weighed them up and then decided Silverfin was the best fit for us.

If you want to hear more leading accountants share their digital transformation stories, join us at Fast Forward Studio on September 17th.

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We have carefully designed this event to inspire and educate accounting and other financial professionals across the world. Take part in interactive games with the chance to win one of three prizes, learn from the experts on how technology is the future of successful accounting and become part of that change. We hope that you will join us for this spectacular event.

Here are the 5 inspiring topics we’ll be looking at:

15:30-16:05

What all these new technologies really mean for financial services.

We’re hit with a never-ending list of acronyms … AI, QC, IoT, VAR, 5G, DLT, API, and BCI. We hear that all these technologies are going to transform our firms and client services – or that’s what the ‘futurists’ believe. Find out what these technologies really mean for you as we delve into practical ways your firm can use them to meet changing client demands.

16:10 – 16:35

Why is Connected Accounting the new normal?

Technology has changed bookkeeping forever by automating and simplifying financial tasks. Accounting is now undergoing the same transformation. We call this the era of connected accounting. To win at the new rules of accounting, firms need to use technology to transform their services and to give them more time, data and tools to deliver value-added advisory services. So what is connected accounting all about? What does a good technology strategy for connected accounting look like? Find out this and more.

16: 40 – 17:05

Leading accountants share their digital transformation stories.

Four prominent accountancy firms who are taking the lead in digital transformation share their perspectives and experiences. They’ll share how you can begin to transform your firm, explore what has changed in the profession and how client expectations have changed. This session will answer those important questions about what firms need to respond and how technology can help.

17:10 – 17:35

Bringing modern technology to accounting: how cloud, AI,
machine learning,… can serve accountants today.

COVID-19 has accelerated the much needed digital transformation within the accounting profession. The data we previously relied on for financial forecasting has also been impacted by this uncertain operating environment. In this session, we’ll explore how modern technology is harnessed by the Silverfin platform to achieve dynamic financial planning. We’ll showcase technical developments for accountants from Silverfin Marketplace partners in artificial intelligence and machine learning, benchmarking and cash tracking.

17: 40 – 17:55

Fireside chat with our founders Joris & Tim

Attendees will have the opportunity to put their questions about the future of accounting and the role of technology to Silverfin founders Joris Van Der Gucht and Tim Vandecasteele. They’ll discuss their experiences as an accountant frustrated with inefficient processes and a software architect looking for a problem the cloud could solve and how this led to the creation of Silverfin.

Get your free ticket here 

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Here are 3 reasons you don’t want to miss out on this event:

1. A whole new experience

This year’s Fast Forward Studio offers a very new and unique experience. Our live show will be completely digital giving you the chance to join us and learn from the experts from the comfort of your own home. You’ll have the choice to dive into any of our 30+ breakout sessions that will be exploring the different stages of digital maturity. These sessions will be made available on-demand after the event to help further guide your firm through your digital transformation.

2. Get inspired by industry and technology experts

2020 is the year of the connected accountant. We’ve seen the necessity and importance of being able to work and collaborate digitally. At this year’s event we’ll hear from industry leaders and technology experts on the importance of digital transformation in the accounting profession as well as practical strategies for you to put this into action.

Learn from the experts about the latest trends in accountancy and how to cope with them as the leaders of change in your firm. Be inspired by our industry-leading keynote speakers as they share the successes and challenges they face and learn more about the solutions of Silverfin directly from our founders Joris Van Der Gucht and Tim Vandecasteele.

3.  Expand your knowledge and find solutions to problems

In today’s fast-changing accounting landscape the demands of firms and their clients are ever-changing and we understand the many challenges that come with this. Whether it be overall challenges such as hiring and retention of the right people, or just finding solutions for error-free bookkeeping, Fast Forward is the ideal event to learn practical solutions for implementing technology into your business. Our 20+ technology partners, 14 keynote speakers and panel discussion will give you a holistic view of this topic so you feel ready to become a connected accountant.  

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How to unlock the value in your data to power the development of leading advisory services

Accountants have access to – and also create – huge amounts of client financial data. Locked up in that data is highly valuable business intelligence that the leading accountants of the future will use to power their advisory services and their success.

Currently, most accountants only use that data for retrospective reporting, audit and compliance work. Our research puts that figure at a worryingly high 84%. Why are we worried about this? Because thanks to automation and cloud-based platforms such as Xero, Exact and Quickbooks, clients increasingly see reporting as low-value work. To them it seems like anyone can do it and at the touch of a button. Why should they pay for it, especially now that some firms are giving these reports away for free?

Digitally or technology mature accounting firms can afford this give-away because they are making better use of their data – to generate new revenue from advisory services. They know this is what clients really value. In fact, the Big Four have already made the switch. KPMG and Deloitte now make more money from their consultancy services than they do from audit.

It’s not that accountants don’t recognise the need to change. More than three-quarters of accountants we asked said that they plan to make most of their revenue from advisory within the next five years. Many just lack the means to transform. 85% believe they currently lack the technology to remain competitive in this new world.

So what tech do you need to unlock the value in your data and develop competitive advisory services?

Access to real-time data and data monitoring

Many accountants are simply drowning in financial data – the volumes are overwhelming and they can’t make good use of it. That’s because it’s locked away in departmental silos, disparate spreadsheets and their clients’ various enterprise systems. Even paper files.

Silverfin consolidates all that data, irrespective of source, into a single structured data hub, securely accessible by those who need it from wherever they are. So it doesn’t matter what platforms the client uses, Silverfin draws in all their financial data, in real-time. Whenever the client makes a change or inputs new data, the accountant has it too. Now both clients and accountants have live access to a single source of truth – all real-time and historical data available on demand.

This is a foundational capability, which we call Fullsight – the first step towards digital maturity and connected accounting. But it’s only when you achieve Foresight – the final of our four stages in digital maturity – that you have become a connected accountant; a proactive, trusted business partner for your clients, with advisory at your core.

Access to real-time data is critical but it’s what Silverfin enables you to do with this centralised, standardised data that takes you to this highest level of digital maturity. With Silverfin, you can put markers on this data according to what is important to the client. For example, your client might be concerned about cash flow, so you mark their data for when liquidity drops below a certain level. Our platform monitors that data constantly and you can set it to automatically alert you when that threshold has been breached.

This real-time data monitoring enables you to establish an early warning system for your client, so that you can reach out ahead of time with advice and a solution. This is the kind proactive advisory that clients are willing to pay more for.

From data analysis to business intelligence

Developing advisory services rests on the ability to analyse your client financial data and turn it into business intelligence.

Silverfin provides the analytical tools to help you intimately understand each and every client – how they work, what’s important to them, what delivers success and what impacts performance.

Furthermore, it allows you to do that across your entire client portfolio so that you can benchmark performance and best practice across similar companies. This way you can identify trends and patterns to better understand how some clients are succeeding and why others are performing poorly. You can then use these insights to inform your advice.

With these intelligence capabilities, you have reached the level of maturity where you can begin to offer advisory services based on historical data. We call this stage Insight. But it’s at the final stage, Foresight, where you evolve from looking at the past to forecasting and planning for the future – developing predictive intelligence and Silverfin gives you the means to get there.

Seeing the future and data-driven advisory services

Predictive intelligence is the ability to see future trends and advise clients proactively on strategic activity to mitigate risk or capitalise on opportunities. Silverfin’s analytical tools and capabilities enable you to see trends in the data that define the future so that you can develop a strategy to benefit your clients.

For example, you know that upcoming regulatory changes are going to impact a number of your clients. However, every client is different and has their own needs and issues to address. With Silverfin, you have an unprecedented depth of knowledge about them. Now you can pinpoint exactly the kind of advice each client needs and when it would be of most use to them. You can also develop new services around these insights, knowing what would be of likely value to your clients in the future. Not only can you provide them with timely advice today but you can offer solutions to problems they don’t yet know they have.

Build these factors into Silverfin’s automatic alert system and the platform will proactively prompt your team and your client into action when it has the most impact.

Start on your path to Foresight today and see how you can use data and data analytics to advise clients, predict the future and develop new advisory services delivered with the help of technology. It’s time to use technology to win in the new rules of accounting.

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Automation is changing everything about accounting.

For accountants, automation has eliminated many burdensome administrative tasks to make compliance and other common reporting work fast, easy and accurate. For clients, it’s given them the means to manage their own bookkeeping without accountancy expertise.

The cost savings and efficiency gains are so attractive, that the global accountancy software market is growing at 8.6% per annum. But there’s a big catch here. Research has shown that 74% of accountants currently generate most of their revenue from compliance and bookkeeping. Competition is intensifying, prices are falling, and clients see less value in this work.

But clients have never needed their accountants more. Faced with global instability, regulatory changes and market complexity, clients are looking to their accountants for answers.

Accounting is transforming – undergoing a fundamental shift in focus towards advisory services. In fact, our research found that 76% of accountants expect to generate the bulk of their revenue from advisory within the next five years. Forward-thinking accountants have already made this leap and are turning an investment in automation and technology to their advantage.

They have moved beyond driving efficiency gains to using their technology to develop sophisticated data-driven advisory services where they proactively keep ahead of client demands, increase client loyalty and open up new revenue sources.

Here’s how to unlock this opportunity for yourself.

See into the future with predictive intelligence

Just as data analytics can open up a view of the past, it can also open up a view of the future.

When all real-time and historical financial data is consolidated and standardised into a single secure hub, and key workflows and reporting processes automated, accountants have a full view of where a client’s business has been and where it’s at now. In our technology maturity curve we call this achieving Fullsight and Hindsight.

With all client data in one place, analytics tools can be used to compare performance over time and against other similar clients across a firm’s portfolio to benchmark best practice, spot trends, uncover insights and identify opportunities to sell in additional advisory services. We call this having Insight.

Foresight takes this one critical step further – from seeing trends in the past to using data to predict the future or to evaluate the impact on a client of different scenarios. Armed with a plan, accountants can use technology to monitor any key indicators and set up automatic alerts as an early warning system for when threats emerge or opportunities arise that need immediate action. This is how accountants can make the move from reactive reporter to proactive business advisor.

With automated alerts, accountants, and their clients, will never miss a potential issue or opportunity but most importantly they will know to act in good time.

For example, you may have a client with an ambitious growth strategy, where keeping on top of cash flow is critical. When they are about to reach a new growth milestone, an alert will trigger your team to notify your client of the funding sources for which they now qualify and offer help with tax liabilities.

Predictive intelligence is the ability to use real-time and historical data to constantly monitor financial performance so that you will be the first to see when action is needed.

Take immediate action with real-time activation

Real-time data is the foundation of Foresight. Whenever a client makes any addition or amendment to their financial data, it should feed into the accounting platform, no matter what software platforms they are using. Because the data feed is live, you can set up real-time alerts to prompt an immediate response.

What’s more, because you can see across your entire client portfolio, you can monitor what is important for each and every client. Alerts can be personalised to watch for their particular threats, challenges and opportunities. Every client will know that you always have their back.

You can also react swiftly as a team because all communication and collaboration takes place in real-time on Silverfin’s centralised platform. Any changes, instructions and progress updates are securely accessible from the one single source of truth. No critical team member is ever left out of the loop.

Real-time activation vastly improves the client experience, helping you build trust along with client loyalty.

Grow your business with advisory services

Foresight is where all digital capabilities come together for maximum impact – historical and real-time data, collaboration, automated reporting, data analytics and predictive intelligence – to develop high-value advisory services.

Having completed their digital transformation, these ‘connected accountants’ now have the time and tools they need to analyse data and identify advisory opportunities and new revenue streams. With a 360 degree view of their clients – past, present and future, and across the portfolio – they have a far deeper understanding of their clients’ needs, the key drivers of their businesses and their path to success.

Now accountants can develop a far closer and more valuable working relationship with their clients, acting more as a business partner who can shape strategic direction and future opportunities, all based on reliable real-time financial data.

Our customer Arjan Schipperus, Managing Partner at RS Finance, described the benefits brilliantly. He said: “In a traditional accountant client relationship – the client drives somewhere, arrives successfully, or gets lost, and only then does the accountant show up with the map to show where they are. With us, we are there with you in the car. We will tell you where you are at that precise moment, what route you’ve taken to get there, and we will show you what choices you have on the road ahead to help you take the best route to your destination.”

Once you have achieved Foresight, you can painlessly deliver sophisticated advisory services to all clients. Expertise is no longer trapped in the head of the individual accountant. Instead, it is centralised, standardised and data-driven so it can be easily monetised as future-facing advisory.

Foresight is the final stage in achieving connected accounting. It means that you have reached the peak of digital maturity for accountants and are best placed to lead in the new rules of accounting as an advisory-led firm. No matter where you currently are on your digital transformation as an accounting firm, Silverfin can plot a course for success.

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“We want to help companies grow in a complex and challenging economic climate and we try to do that by making sure running a business is simple, attractive and challenging,” explains Johan Peeters, CEO of Bofidi.

To turn that mission into a reality, they have decided to go fully digital. They opted to work with Silverfin because the platform offers everything they needed, including new reporting and financial statements as well as a firm foundation for client files. Thanks to Silverfin, they can also work in a more structured and efficient way. This means Bofidi is no longer tied to a specific office, or even a particular employee, for processing client files. Everything can be completed independent of the person or location. Moreover, they can still deliver the output in the same way regardless of the clients’ software.

From the perspective of the Bofidi employees, Silverfin essentially offers three main advantages. “The big advantage of Silverfin is that you can find all the information about a client in one place,” says Kira Lataire, accountancy manager. “You also make fewer mistakes, which saves you time,” adds advisor, Ward De Vliegher.

These three advantages are Silverfin’s fundamental strength, but what may be even more important than those three selling points, are the added benefits that follow. Bofidi’s advisors can increasingly spend the time saved by using Silverfin on the second aspect of the service they provide: tailored advice.

Working in real-time offers benefits

Kira Lataire is convinced that working in real-time is the way forward. “It is useful to work together with colleagues and be able to anticipate unresolved issues,” she says. She also finds it useful that customers can log into Silverfin and directly work with all their financial data in real-time.

Bofidi advises other offices wanting to take the step towards digitalisation not to rush in head first. Johan Peeters stresses that you should “take it step by step, and put your clients and employees first. The technology is there to support them.” Ward De Vliegher adds: “Think carefully about how you want to use the technology and get your employees and clients involved in the process.”

Creating a good foundation and a well-considered implementation process are crucial for the project’s success. Once the switch has been made, you will reap the benefits of this new way of working. Because, as Ward concludes, “The software offers many opportunities to resolve common problems.”

Would you like to hear more about what Bofidi employees think of Silverfin? You can watch the full video below.

Theo Vermaak, Chief Executive Officer at PKF Global,said, ‘By partnering with the brightest minds and embracing the latest technology, we stay ahead of the curve, and the competition.

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Desperate for insight

All businesses are drowning in data and accountants are no exception – and this situation is only accelerating. In its Data Age 2025 report, IDC forecasts the global datasphere will reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. That’s more than ten times the amount produced in 2017.

While many accountants recognise that this data holds the key to their future success and the development of their advisory services, many are at a loss when it comes to how to use it. Much of their data is held in disparate locations (even paper files), siloed within specific teams and is not easily available for insightful analysis. As they add more clients to their portfolio, all using different types of bookkeeping solutions, the problem is only made worse.

As a result, many firms are struggling to deliver more than standard compliance, auditing and financial reporting work. Keeping data just for that purpose alone, even deleting it and then moving on to the next task.

Data is key to achieving success in advisory services. So all of this disconnected data needs to be brought together so that it can be seen, analysed and compared. It also needs to be held in one place and available to everyone.

By using an accounting platform such as Silverfin, accountants are able to realise the benefits that come with data and data analytics in the design and delivery of their advisory services.

Understand what is happening with descriptive analytics

Descriptive analytics is fundamental to basic reporting – and underpins the traditional role of accountancy professionals. It is creating insight based on historical and live data to draw comparisons.

This is the very beginning of what Silverfin does. Real-time financial data can be collated from virtually any source and standardised in Silverfin’s secure data hub. This gives accountants one version of the truth, allowing them to clearly identify what has happened and drill down into detail as needed.

Understand why it happened through diagnostic analytics

This is the start of real analysis. Diagnostic analytics examines the cause of past results, providing information that accountants can use to begin to demonstrate added value.

Using Silverfin, accountants can compare performance over time, track changes, analyse why things have happened, and benchmark against similar companies to see if they have followed the same pattern. To learn from the performance of the crowd.

Understand what will or could happen with predictive and prescriptive analytics

With predictive analysis, accountants can use their knowledge of why something happened to predict future outcomes, enabling them to forecast or model historical performance and deliver actionable insights for their clients.

Prescriptive analytics means they can also use data to model the likely outcome of a range of different strategies and advise their clients on the best option.

By analysing past data and future trends, accountants can ensure the right course of action is taken in good time – either to mitigate risk or exploit opportunities.

Silverfin enables real-time monitoring with alerts to notify accountants when certain thresholds are met. So, as well as using the data to map out forecasts, plan for different scenarios, identify patterns, and define best practice, the accountant also knows when precisely to take action. Silverfin gives accountants the ability to predict, understand what will happen, and when action is needed.

Predictive and prescriptive analytics unlock the higher value offering that all progressive accounting firms want to achieve: advisory services. Silverfin provides visibility over what’s happened, why it happened, and the circumstances where it’s likely to happen again, enabling accountants to deliver valuable recommendations and benchmarking services to clients.

It’s only with these four types of analytics at their fingertips that accountants can make a full transition to being a trusted business advisor, working in partnership with the client to guide them to greater profitability and performance.

From insight to impact

Pioneering accountants are quickly realising that they need to do more if they want to keep hold of their clients’ business for the long term. Number crunching and reporting are no longer enough – clients want meaningful advice based on real-time data that will help them build a better business.

It’s a move that will pay off for those that succeed – according to UK magazine Accountancy Age, those firms that focus on delivering advisory services can anticipate up to six times the growth of those that focus solely on compliance work. Our own research showed the importance of advisory services is clear to the profession, with 76% of our respondents believing the majority of their revenue will come from advisory in five years.

Silverfin makes a faster move to advisory easier. It enables accountants to uncover trends, benchmark clients and spot gaps in the market quicker than ever before. Analysis is no longer a chore or manual effort – with automated reporting and alerts it can be done in the click of a button and delivered to your clients in the form of easily digestible reports and charts. What’s more, thanks to Silverfin’s in-built communication features, all collaboration can be done without ever leaving the platform.

Ultimately, this means far less manual number crunching and time spent on compliance or reporting, and more time spent delivering the expert advice your clients want and need.

Download our free eGuide to learn more about how data analysis and benchmarking delivers critical Insight, the third step on the journey to success in connected accounting.

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The most effective measure of success

We’re all guilty of making comparisons – with other people, colleagues, neighbours, and even other businesses. It’s a human trait that, whether consciously or subconsciously, we do all the time.

Maybe it’s a jealousy thing. Or a chance to prove that we’re better than others. On a superficial level we love to compare houses, cars, and even salaries with friends.

The more you think about it, the more it’s apparent that we love a comparative list. The Oscars. The Grammys. The World Cup. The Olympics. What are they all if not one thing being benchmarked against another to determine winners and losers?

Benchmarking takes on even more importance in business, as Jorn Lyseggen notes in his book Outside Insight: “Benchmarking is the most honest measure of success,” he writes. “It doesn’t matter how well your company is doing in isolation. It is more important to understand how you are doing compared with your competitors.”

The real trick, though, is determining why one thing is superior to another. If you could tell an athlete exactly why she can’t run as fast as another, and give her instructions on how to surpass the competition, how amazing would that be?

Or if you could analyse a movie and tell the director exactly why his film was inferior to another – and do so using scientific data – how valuable would that be?

Yet this is exactly what accountants can do for their clients – if they have the right data, tools and technology at their disposal.

A new advisory opportunity for accountants

Using the Silverfin accounting platform, accountants can consolidate historical and real-time financial data from each and every client, no matter what bookkeeping solutions they use. Armed with this data they can then benchmark performance in a variety of different ways.

At an individual client level, they can compare specific financial periods, whether months, quarters, or years, and conduct like-for-like data analysis. They can drill into every transaction and track profit margins and outgoings over time.

This puts accountants in a great position of power. With such an in-depth knowledge and understanding of their clients, they can spot risks and identify opportunities specific to a company. They can advise if performance has changed, costs have increased, or payments are consistently late. They can also proactively notify clients of abnormal activity or unexpected changes to finances.

Deliver advisory services at scale

Benchmarking also delivers insights at a portfolio level. Accountants can use Silverfin to identify specific clients that might be impacted by a certain event, so that they can provide targeted advice that can deliver real business value.

For example, accountants can identify, and then track, clients under pressure from COVID-19, then offer targeted advice. Not only can they quickly identify COVID-19 measures and apply them to a specific client file, but they can also complete critical cash flow forecasting and scenario planning. This enables the accountant to identify clients at risk and work with them to look at how different measures will impact their performance over time.

This is just the start. As new measures, taxes or regulations in a specific country or region are about to come into force, an accountant could quickly recognise potential risk to a client and warn them, offering advice on what course of action to take.

It’s time to open the door to a world of new opportunities

Because accountants hold such incredible detail about their clients, they can also discover commonalities across the client portfolio.

Using Silverfin, they can view all client data in a clear graphic-rich format, enabling them to compare clients in a specific industry or area. They can get to the bottom of why one is doing well, and another isn’t, and provide a plan of action to improve business performance. They can benchmark pricing plans, monthly expenses, wage bills, and other financial factors.

Having this information at their fingertips also enables partners to identify precise opportunities for advisory services. This is good for client relationships and good for the firm’s own financial performance – opening up whole new revenue streams.

Ultimately, benchmarking is about much more than grading clients. It’s also an opportunity to sell in high-value advisory services and, as a result, deliver real business advice that will make a huge difference to not only your clients’ bottom line, but yours too.

Download our free eGuide to learn more about benchmarking as part of Insight, the third step on the journey to connected accounting.

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Today we announced a significant investment from Hg, a leading European software investor. While we can’t disclose the exact terms of the transaction, it’s exciting news for us and we think it’s a clear recognition from such a well respected specialist investor of the potential of our technology and team.

Joris Van Gool, Partner at Hg explained their excitement about partnering with us, he said: “After seeing Silverfin in action within our portfolio for a number of years, we were impressed with the technology and the potential it offers the accounting sector. We’re delighted to be able to join the team at this time and support Silverfin as the business continues to scale internationally.”

We couldn’t agree more. Hg is a great new addition to our existing team and investors at this exciting, if challenging, time for accountants.

Technology is driving considerable innovation and change in the accounting profession. The past few weeks in particular have shown why accounting must accelerate its digital transformation. There’s been a rapid move to remote working and a realisation that cloud technology is a key factor in any effective business continuity plan so accountants can continue supporting their clients whatever the operating circumstances. Our technology helps with all of this and much more.

Even before today’s challenges, our customers told us Silverfin has made their firms more efficient and more successful. We’ve given accountants easy access to the data they need to complete their work and advise clients, enabled the automation of core compliance and reporting, and provided the tools, and time, they need to support the ongoing digital transformation of their firms and their service to clients.

We are proud of how Silverfin has helped our customers respond to change and transform their client services, and business, but there is more left to do. We are busy growing our team, and presence internationally, and are delighted to have the support of Hg to help us.

Hg has a long history of partnering with businesses in the tax and accounting software space. In fact Silverfin is Hg’s 14th investment in the last 15 years, a total of around €1.8BN of invested capital in this sector alone. Their considerable international experience in the accountancy sector, and understanding of technology, makes them the perfect new partner for us as we begin the next phase in our international growth.

If you are interested in joining our team check out our careers page we’d love to hear from you.

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Across almost every industry, automation is driving radical change in the workplace. And accounting is certainly no exception. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that around 50% of accounting tasks can be automated using existing technology.

But what is it about automation that is so appealing to business leaders? And what are the consequences of automated tasks for both accountants and their clients?

Let’s look at four key questions to better understand what automation means, and how to get there:

• What are the benefits for accounting firms?
• How does this affect accountants?
• What’s in it for their clients?
• How can firms start their journey to automation with confidence?

Why firms want automation

Our own research shows that there is certainly a great desire for accounting firms to successfully automate workflows and reporting, such as accounts production, working papers, audit and tax. And the indications are that firms are progressing well in their initiatives, with 64% telling us that they have already automated key accounting workflows and processes.

The clear benefit to automation is time. According to findings from Accenture, automation can reduce the time it takes to perform tasks by up to 90%. With standard compliance and financial reporting increasingly seen as a low-value service by clients, reporting needs to be completed as quickly and as accurately as possible.

Instead of undertaking time-consuming and error-prone manual calculations, automation allows accountants to run essential but lower-value activities with the click of a button.

Automation can then enable firms to produce accurate and consistent reporting outputs across the firm, no matter which accountant is working on which client file. Accounting automation will benefit accounts production, tax, audit and even outsourcing or virtual financial controller or director services. Our research shows that 70% of firms have a standardised way of working across the firm for key accounting workflows, which makes the firm’s operations far more efficient and cost-effective. In this way automation is about control as much as speed.

Changing role of accountants

So how does this increased reliance on technology affect accountants? While the McKinsey report might say that 50% of accounting tasks can be automated, only 10% of them can be automated to over 90%. In other words, humans will still need to be involved in the process in some way and 67% of accountants now believe that cloud technology can make their roles easier.

The nature of this change is likely to be dramatic in both scope and nature. An estimated 375 million workers globally will need to upgrade their skills significantly to work in tandem with machine learning and automation.

However, this area of technology or digital transformation is exactly where the opportunities are for forward-thinking accounting firms. The impact of technology on redefining and repositioning the role of the accountant shouldn’t be a cause for concern. It’s a chance to enable accountants to undertake higher-value tasks, such as analysing and interrogating financial data to identify trends and business opportunities for clients. Automation gives accountants the time and the tools to transform from reactive reporter to proactive business partner and trusted advisor.

Increased value for clients

So what benefits does automation in accounting bring clients? Forbes reports that automation enables over 40% of finance efforts to align with more value-driven activities. It allows accountants to dive into granular detail and deliver financial reporting that contains crucial insights into a client’s business operations.

For example, our state-of-the-industry research revealed that:

• 58% of firms can develop their own workflows, reports and services using their technology platform
• 49% can create all their reports in real-time using live data

Clients benefit from real-time data that tells them what’s happening here and now, not just what occurred in the last financial year. They get bespoke reporting, giving them information that’s important to their business and helps them make better strategic decisions to improve business performance. It allows firms to go beyond top-level compliance, and deliver insights that make a tangible difference.

How to make accounting automation happen

This move from low-value reporting to high-value advisory services is the mid-to long-term aim of many accounting firms. However, our research revealed that only 22% of firms can create automated alerts or reports from client data to help give proactive advice to clients. While the intent is there, it’s not yet a practical reality for the majority.

Workflow automation for accountants relies on data standardisation. And that can only be achieved when you have a data platform that sits in the middle, standardising financial data from all manner of bookkeeping and other financial sources.

Downloading into Excel or via a reconciliation sheet means that data is not connected and doesn’t flow through in real-time. As a result, the risk of error is dramatically increased and data can’t be relied on for reporting activities.

When you can import and consolidate data from multiple sources, standardise data, and successfully automate key reporting workflows, you’ve achieved what we call Hindsight. This gives you full visibility of all financial data so that reporting is fast, accurate, and consistent.

Silverfin has the data hub and best practice template workflows to make accounting automation possible.

And with Hindsight unlocked, you can continue on your journey to becoming a Connected Accountant, acting as your client’s most trusted and valued business advisor.

Download our eGuide to learn more about accounting automation, how to achieve critical Hindsight, and how SIlverfin can help you move from top-level compliance to bespoke, real-time reporting.

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It’s not easy being an accountant in today’s rapidly changing world. Technology is constantly evolving and customer expectations are at an all-time high. Our recent blog reveals the weight of the pressure:

• 83% of accountants say their clients demand more today than five years ago
• 67% feel the profession is more competitive than ever

Succeeding in this new environment requires firms to find ways to not only deliver standard compliance or reporting services more efficiently, but to also increase their scope of work and assume the role of trusted advisor.

Visibility of data is crucial here – but limited access to it remains a fundamental issue. Our research shows that just 13% of accountants strongly agree that they have access to data and insights that enable them to deliver advisory services for their clients.

This is a major problem, but automated data management promises a solution. This gives accountants all of the information required to understand every aspect of their clients’ businesses – and gives partners the same level of understanding about what’s going on within their own firm. This enables them to improve productivity and accuracy, compete more effectively, and become far more useful in the eyes of their clients.

Silverfin delivers this critical visibility in five ways:

1. Access everything at all times

With Silverfin, client data is imported, consolidated, and standardised into a single data hub from over 50 sources, going much further than just handling bookkeeping data. This means that customer or supplier information, business data, and financial numbers are no longer spread across disparate apps or cloud services when it’s reporting time or you want to analyse business performance.

Having a reliable and secure store of all current and historical client data ensures nothing can be missed or go out of date. It can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and on any device. So, whether you’re in your client’s building, your own offices, or working remotely, all the data you need is at your fingertips.

2. Ability to deep dive into a client

With all current and historical financial data for each client in one place, accountants can compare information month-on-month or year-on-year according to requirements. Gone are the days when hundreds of spreadsheet tabs needed to be kept open to achieve comparative reconciliation.

With all data in a common format compliance and other accounting workflows can now be automated, improving the speed and accuracy of routine tasks – and enabling branded reports to be created, published, and filed directly with the authorities in just a few clicks.

The speed of automation gives accountants more time to focus on higher value work, while the powerful analytics and reporting tools deliver the insights that make advisory work possible.

3. Accountants can see their whole client portfolio

Silverfin also enables an accountant to see the status of all their clients and activities. This makes it much easier to see which clients’ year ends are approaching and to prioritise work accordingly. Timely reports can be generated exactly when each client needs them, raising client satisfaction rates in the process.

Benchmarking also becomes a much simpler task. Accountants can analyse their entire portfolio to see trends, identify risks, and uncover new opportunities for growth.

4. Partners get a whole firm view

With Silverfin, partners can also see the status of their entire client base in one place. Progress charts show updated status, so there’s no need to rely on staff reports or pull accountants off their work to find out where they’re up to or how long they’ve got left on each task.

Real visibility is achieved at a micro and macro level – breaking down internal barriers and facilitating continuous improvement. This means the best possible service is delivered to all clients, and the accountancy firm is more profitable as a result.

5. Communication

Since your team, and their clients, work together directly in their file on Silverfin, there’s full visibility of internal and external communications. Now in complete control, partners can see who is working on what, prioritise workflows, and see any inefficiencies.

Queries can be raised on any cell, alerts can be sent, and invoices can be attached. This leaves a full audit trail and ensures that collaboration is in context.

With everyone following the same processes and reporting methods, visibility is improved and best practice is consistent. There’s no chance of missed messages and no need for endless emails or the additional collaboration tools you’ve been using and paying extra for.

The path to Fullsight

Achieving visibility of your business and your clients in these five ways will give you Fullsight – the foundation of connected accounting. This is the term we use to describe the digitisation, consolidation, and standardisation of all client financial data, whatever the source, in one central data hub.

Ultimately, Fullsight is about having full visibility of all your client data, up-to-date and available to you at all times. It’s the basis on which all work – compliance or advisory – can begin. It is the foundation of success in connected accounting.

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Compliance is now about speed, automation, accuracy, and competitive pricing. But what clients really value are relationships, analysis, and advisory services. According to our recent research, 76% of accountants believe that advisory services will be their biggest revenue earner by 2025. But just 14% of respondents say that these higher margin services are their greatest source of revenue today.

This represents a significant shift in priority, purpose, and services, and is being driven by changing client needs and the impact of technology. We call this future the era of connected accounting.

To win in connected accounting, firms need to use technology to transform their compliance services and reporting and give them more time, data and tools to deliver value-added advisory services. An effective technology strategy is key to making all this possible and will underpin success in connected accounting.

So what does a good technology strategy for connected accounting look like?

Working with our clients as they build their own digital transformation strategy we’ve identified the four key steps and technologies we all need to deliver connected accounting. We’ve called them the four sights of connected accounting.

Here you can see how these four sights build on each other on your route to connected accounting and the core technology capabilities they build. We call this the connected accounting maturity curve.

As you acquire each new sight your firm, team and clients are more connected; you unlock new opportunities for greater productivity, develop new services, improve competitiveness, and secure more revenue and profit.

So what are these key sights?

1. Fullsight

This is the foundation of connected accounting, and focuses on data. The digitisation and consolidation of all client financial data, whatever the source, in one central and secure data hub. A home for all your clients’ data that is updated automatically, and in real-time, from multiple bookkeeping systems and other sources, even paper files. All this data is securely accessible to you, your team and your clients.

Fullsight is about creating a reliable single source of truth – a complete vision of all your client data, up-to-date, historical and available to you at all times. The basis on which all work – compliance or advisory – can begin.

Benefits:

• Data is always up-to-date
• Eliminate risk and cost of errors
• Remove manual re-keying
• Everyone works from the same file
• Data is ready for automation
• You (and your clients) are free to use whatever bookkeeping software they want.

2. Hindsight

Once you have all your client data – current and historical, centralised, standardised and always available – you can move on to Hindsight. This second stage of connected accounting moves from collating and standardising data, to utilising data in practical ways.

Hindsight is all about applying your data in automated accounting workflows to create an accurate view of the past. To streamline your compliance and reporting processes and improve its accuracy. It also means you can improve productivity and competitive pricing in your core compliance services.

Benefits:

• Consistent processes that reflect best practice and are used by all teams
• More client files per accountant
• Time saved from no more switching between applications and data sources
• Less mistakes
• Faster workflows
• More time for clients, less time number crunching.

3. Insight

Fullsight and Hindsight allow you to transform your workflows. Insight is where you start to develop your value-added advisory capabilities.

Insight is all about putting yourself in a position to offer advice and guidance to your clients based on reliable data. You have the tools to look at the meaning behind the numbers and extract valuable business intelligence. And you’re also able to contact clients directly when immediate action will have the most impact on their business performance.

Benefits:

• Effortless collaboration within teams and with their clients
• Easily identify trends and actions in real-time based on reliable data
• Client knowledge shared between teams to allow for greater resourcing flexibility within the firm
• The ability to tell clients something they don’t know and can act on it quickly.

4. Foresight

Finally, we move from looking at past performance to using data and analytics tools to predict the future and power the development of new value-added client advisory services. Foresight is the final step in the transformation of a firm from compliance reporting to trusted business advisor.

Foresight is about connecting more deeply with your clients’ businesses and building your status as their most trusted advisor.

Benefits:

• Unlock new opportunities for services
• Give advice when it has impact
• Link compliance and advisory services to bring new value to both
• Make it easy for the accounting team to deliver valued advice based on data.

Our maturity curve for connected accounting is built on these four key sights. Each requires the adoption of specific steps in your technology strategy.

You can find out more about Connected Accounting and the four sights in our quick read guide here.

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Grant Thornton is a consulting firm active in all areas of accounting and taxation.

The firm supports its clients with the insights they need to make important decisions about their businesses. They also realise that today speed and data are key. Valérie Rivière, senior manager of Accountancy & Business Process Solutions explained, “Today, entrepreneurs want to see figures much faster and much more frequently. They want to make decisions much faster, so that we, as trusted advisors, have to pick up on things much faster.”

Grant Thornton see technology as an important part of their development as a trusted advisor and they needed a partner that understood their needs. “The three biggest trends I see in the accounting industry at the moment are speed, digitisation and flexibility. We chose Silverfin as a partner because we see we need to jump on the digital train but not at all costs.” Valérie added.

Dirk Beunen partner at the firm explains the benefits of the digital transformation can be seen across the firm from how they work to the service they provide clients, “If you look at our new offices, you can see that digitisation is there.”

Watch the video to learn more about their story and the steps they’ve made with Silverfin’s help to drive forward their digital transformation and use of accounting technology.

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Now you can use the historical data held in Silverfin with new tools from Fintrax to complete specially designed benefit testing. This helps accountants meet the new compliance requirements and provides a significant time saving to the hundreds of firms on our platform. The tool translates the new legislation into various financial assumptions so that a financial projection can then be drawn up for the coming 12 to 36 months. By making use of historical data, financial forecasts, and various digital templates, the manual work is kept to a minimum.
The tools were developed on the Silverfin platform by Fintrax, and are available on our marketplace now.

These new tools illustrate the power of Silverfin to simplify the life of accountants. It also shows the value that can be seen from adopting Connected Accounting – connecting real-time and historical data with automated compliance and reporting workflows and templates like this as well as digital collaboration tools for working efficiently with clients and the authorities.

About Fintrax
Fintrax is a developer of financial tools for finance professionals and accountants and was founded in 2019. Through the combination of financial expertise and software, Fintrax provides financial insight to its users so that they can work more efficiently and there is more room for advice. The profession of Accountants will undergo a transformation in the coming ten years and Fintrax will offer the necessary support for this. The main tools are based on compliance, business valuation, and data analysis.

Liquidity and balance test
https://live.getsilverfin.com/en/public/market_cards/200 

Business plan
https://live.getsilverfin.com/en/public/market_cards/198 

Valuation tool
https://live.getsilverfin.com/en/public/market_cards/68 

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Technology is changing accounting. Opening up a new world, one in which accountants can use data and automation to streamline common accounting workflows and create new value-added client services. But just how far have firms come already in their digital transformation and how ready are they for the future? We asked accountants to assess their own progress.

Our research shows that technology is key to helping accountants improve today’s compliance services and unlock new revenue from advisory in order to meet changing client expectations.

Accountants understand that the profession is changing. And it’s changing fast. The question isn’t where they need to be in terms of digital maturity and service offering, but how they can make the leap from their current capabilities – and how quickly that can be achieved. The time to act is now.

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What does the future look like for accounting and what role does technology play? Those were two key questions we were looking to answer with our technology trends in accounting research. The results have given us a fascinating insight into the challenges and ambitions of accounting professionals.

The majority of our respondents can see where they need to be – 76% believe that in five years’ time, most of their revenue will come from consultancy and advisory services, in contrast to today, where bookkeeping and compliance are their main business.

Yet when we look at the way accountants are using technology to achieve this goal, our survey shows most have responded well to the initial challenges and opportunities presented by technology and changing client expectations, but seem to have lost some momentum in their digital transformation.

Respondents have achieved a good level of digital maturity on foundational capabilities such as migrating to the cloud, data connectivity, and online collaboration with clients and colleagues. However, when it comes to the next stage – automating processes and standardising practices across the firm – the picture is less clear.

While everyone seems very clear about where they need to be – providing proactive advisory services – a small number are doing this today and there are significant obstacles to making progress – namely access to technology, skills, and new talent.

If you are one of those that needs to make progress, the good news is that the insights from our survey will help you develop a practical roadmap to get there, no matter what stage you’ve reached today.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the headlines from the research:

• 62% store all their client data digitally
• 64% have automated key accounting workflows and processes
• 28% can benchmark data across their client portfolio
• 47% have access to data and insights to deliver advisory services to clients
• 76% expect most of their revenue to come from advisory in five years’ time
• 52% see access to the right technology as the main threat to their future success

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Joining the dots

We make connections all the time. Whether it’s connecting with people on LinkedIn to grow our professional network or bonding with a social group, the notion of joining things together to make life better, happier and more successful is universal. It defines being human even. Being connected is good for your business, and technology only makes it easier.

A recent report by research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan shows that companies investing in collaboration technologies significantly increase productivity. Cloud technology allows for easy collaboration and connectivity between employees, and many accounting firms are moving to the cloud because they’re now able to understand the real advantages it gives, such as better mobility and more efficient interaction with clients.

Cloud accounting can streamline workflows, improve communication, lead to better record keeping, and eliminate repetitive, time-consuming tasks. This frees up employees to provide the advisory services that are set to define the future of accounting and helps clients meet the needs of rapidly changing markets.

It also helps firms recruit and retain the best talent, which will prove critical as demand for accountants with enhanced digital and advisory skills intensifies. In a world of automation, tomorrow’s accountants will have little tolerance for manual processing and clunky workflows.

We’re seeing a shortage of talent in the finance industry. New tools are allowing organisations to upskill existing employees and also attract the best new talent. It’s helping to make the right people more effective.

So, with the varied opportunities cloud technology offers accountants, the question is: is the message getting through?

A focus on the future

We’ll soon report the full findings of our state-of-the-industry survey, which analyses how technology and client expectations are transforming accounting.

Worryingly, 52% of respondents in our survey said that the biggest threat to their future success was access to the right technology. This was followed by skills of the team (45%) and access to new talent (44%).

In terms of using cloud technology to become the client’s business partner and trusted adviser, only 14% of respondents said that advisory services are their biggest source of revenue currently, behind bookkeeping (42%) and compliance (32%).

However, a massive 76% said that they expect advisory services to be their biggest revenue earner in five years’ time, with bookkeeping (11%) and compliance (5%) a distant second and third.

Accountants and partners know that accounting is changing and that they should put their focus on providing advisory services. But turning awareness into reality is a different story. Transforming the core nature of the business can seem a daunting prospect. How do partners go about instigating this fundamental change? How can they undertake this process in an efficient, cost-effective way and what role will technology play?

Silverfin can help. Our integrated, cloud accounting platform powers what we call connected accounting. It’s a fundamental shift in purpose for accounting. You’ll be a connected accountant when your firm has successfully passed through four key stages of digital maturity. We call them the Four Sights of Connected Accounting. The benefits are as follows:

Better connectivity

Our platform means accountants can access all financial data, no matter what the source. All digitised data is then consolidated in a single, secure data hub, giving a complete vision of all your client data. Information is up to date and imported in real-time, giving one version of the truth. Accountants always have the latest figures to work with, available at all times.

Dedicated client portals also connect accountants with colleagues and clients. All correspondence and data are held on the client file, so everyone has access to what they need. It also leaves a clear communication history, helping with compliance requirements.

Improved automation

Silverfin’s platform standardises all data, making it accessible and workable from a single dashboard. Standardisation allows automation – the ability to create one-click workflows and reporting, removing hours of laborious manual work from the accountant’s day.

Automating in this way will streamline accounting workflows and processes, eliminate errors and liberate accountants to reinvest the time saved in their clients.

Insights and analytics

By automating previously manual tasks, accountants then have the time – and the tools – to delve deeper into clients’ data and find actionable insights and start to develop value-added advisory capabilities.

Silverfin’s powerful analytics and reporting tools allow accountants to benchmark clients across their whole portfolio and against best-practice. Automated alerts prompt proactive guidance, giving clients advice at the right time to enable them to take strategic business decisions.

These are services clients really value, and the services that accountants tell us will represent their biggest area of growth over the next few years.

Accountancy will always be about the numbers. But technology and automation are putting the focus away from creating numbers to interpreting them. Using our people skills to build long-term relationships with clients and our expertise to find the insights in the numbers that result in great advice for them – and that means opening up valuable new revenue streams in advisory services.

Balancing success in compliance with leadership in advisory services will be key to success for firms of the future.

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Technology has already changed bookkeeping, making it easy for small businesses to digitally manage their finances with the minimum of effort and with no accounting expertise.

Similar technology is also set to transform the lives of accountants. Accountancy will no longer be driven by number crunching and standard compliance tasks. Automation and technology will do that. What will matter is client service and cultivating relationships supported, and informed, by technology. This is because the client’s world is being disrupted by new technology as much as accountancy is. Clients need accountants to help them prepare for the complex challenges of the current and future marketplace. They want, and value, advice and that’s a people business, augmented by technology.

Clients will value accountants who can act as their most trusted and valued business advisors. Their accountant will become an extension of their management team – using real-time data to explain what’s going on in their business, inform their decisions, and solve problems, even before they arise.

Success in the future will come to those firms that use technology to connect real-time client data with automated workflows or processes, and then collaborate and communicate with clients to get their compliance work completed efficiently. Freeing up valuable time to invest in understanding their clients’ businesses and using the data and insights their technology provides to power their advisory services. All within one, integrated cloud accounting platform.

We call this connected accounting – a fundamental shift in purpose for accounting firms from delivering a transactional, compliance service to the creation of an advisory relationship founded on a deep understanding of the data that drives their clients’ businesses and insight gained from that.

The four sights of connected accounting

You will be a connected accountant when your firm has successfully passed through four key stages of digital maturity. We call them the Four Sights of Connected Accounting. As you pass through each stage your firm, team and clients are more connected; you unlock new opportunities for greater productivity, the development of new services, improved competitiveness, more revenue and profit.

1. Fullsight

This is the foundation of connected accounting, and focuses on data. The digitisation and consolidation of all client financial data, whatever the source, in one central data hub. A home for all your clients’ data that is updated automatically, and in real-time, from multiple bookkeeping systems and other sources, even paper files. All this data is securely accessible to you, your team and your clients.

Fullsight is about creating a reliable single source of truth – a complete vision of all your client data, up to date and available to you at all times. The basis on which all work – compliance or advisory – can begin.

2. Hindsight

Once you have all your client data – current and historic, centralised, standardised and always available – you can move on to Hindsight. This second stage of connected accounting moves from collating and standardising data, to utilising data in practical ways.

Hindsight is all about applying your data in automated accounting workflows to create an accurate view of the past. To streamline your compliance and reporting processes and improve its accuracy.

3. Insight

Fullsight and Hindsight allow you to transform your workflows. Insight – the third stage of connected accounting – is where you start to develop your value-added advisory capabilities.

Insight is all about putting yourself in a position to offer advice and guidance to your clients. You have the tools to look at the meaning behind the numbers and extract valuable business intelligence. And you’re also able to contact clients directly when immediate action will have the most impact on their business performance.

4. Foresight

Finally, we move from looking at past performance to using data and analytics tools to predict the future and power the development of new value-added client advisory services. Foresight is the final step in the transformation of a firm from compliance reporting to trusted business advisor.

Foresight is about connecting more deeply with your clients’ businesses and building your status as their most trusted advisor. Only by efficiently connecting with all financial data in real-time can you connect with your clients in a way that will deliver tangible benefits to their business, as well as unlock new services and revenue streams for your firm.

These are the four sights of connected accounting.

To discover how to unlock these sights, and to learn about the benefits they deliver, download our new eGuide.

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Most of us have a general grasp of the theory of evolution, even if we’re not experts in evolutionary biology: species change over time and only the fittest survive. Indeed, the idea that species gradually evolve over many generations, adapting to changes in the environment, is a scientific cornerstone.

Likewise, unless we adapt and evolve with the changing corporate landscape, we risk getting left behind. But more positively, if we do grasp the opportunity to change before we are forced to, we will make our businesses fitter, stronger, healthier and more likely to succeed.

The changing role of the accountant

Technology is one of the great disruptors in accounting. It’s not only changing the way in which accountants do their work, but is having a seismic impact on the type of work they are – or should be – doing in order to be in the best shape they can be for the future. Not to mention being ready to tackle the threat from competitors.

Using exciting and innovative technology to create new value-added services is a key response to the changing role of the accountant, specifically the shift of client priority from compliance to advisory services – and the role of accountants as trusted advisors.

Accountants are getting the message

According to the ACCA report, Professional accountants – the future: Drivers of change and future skills, in the next seven years, over half of the global study respondents (55%) identified the development of intelligent automated accounting systems as the factor likely to have most impact, while 41% highlighted the impact of cloud computing. Smart software and systems will replace manual work (such as bookkeeping), and automate complex and multifaceted processes (such as the financial close).

Accountants are spending less time on basic bookkeeping and compliance stuff, freeing them up to use their expertise to offer value-added services and advice. This means they can help their clients make the most of their business, navigate new legislation and become more tax efficient.

Even the Big Four, who 20 years ago were called audit firms, are looking beyond what was once their bread and butter. The percentage of revenue that the Big Four receive from the (previously) core service of auditing financial statements has fallen to an all-time low as they see growth in advisory.

It’s all about the client

This focus from backwards-facing reporting to future-predicting consulting and advisory work is client driven. They’re demanding better pricing on core accounting and compliance, and looking to pay well for advisory services. Put simply, accountancy is less about reporting what has happened, and more about helping businesses prepare for now and the future.

The availability of technology has played a big part in this change. But despite this 92% of accountants say they are not future ready.

To evolve a firm from a compliance focus to prioritising providing value-added services to clients, means firstly freeing up time that was previously spent doing the number crunching. The nuts and bolts of financial reporting. Silverfin can help accountants save time here in a number of ways – data consolidation, data standardisation, automated workflows and so on. By standardising your compliance practices across every client and with every employee at your firm, you can automate your processes and make them all digital. Making them faster, more consistent, more accurate and easier as a result.

Seizing the opportunities change creates

With the luxury of time thanks to the automation of administrative tasks, forward-thinking accountants can do much more than create opportunities for competitive pricing and greater profitability for core services. They can also start to build value through advisory services. We call this connected accounting.

Connected accounting simplifies today’s core tasks and unlocks tomorrow’s business opportunities. With less time spent on monotonous compliance and workflows, there is more time to focus on advisory services – identifying valuable insights and trends within your client data; benchmarking clients against best practice and top performers; setting up automated alerts and triggers so you’re the first to know about any changes in circumstances, risk, or time-sensitive opportunities. All made possible, and easy, thanks to innovative use of technology.

Survival of the fittest means that firms have to make sure they are in the best possible shape, and the right technology can help them do just that. Accounting is evolving from reporting the numbers to doing something meaningful with them to understand clients’ key drivers and trends. Armed with meaningful data they’re in a position to act before the client has any idea that action is needed. And that’s insight clients are willing to pay for.

Going forward, connecting with clients on a deeper level in a long-term relationship based on a solid foundation of trust and communication not only helps them maximise their potential, but allows accountants to maintain a business-critical role in an increasingly competitive world.

Being an accounting practice that just provides bookkeeping and compliance services is just not enough today. In order to be successful, it is essential to start focusing on evolving beyond this to provide value-added advisory services to your clients too.

Download our new eGuide to learn more about connected accounting and how it can help your business and open up valuable new advisory revenue streams.

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For any tech founder being placed on such a prestigious list is a moment of pride. You can even be forgiven for taking a moment to look back and celebrate where you’ve come from. Before turning quickly back to the day job and building what we will become.

Rankings are nice but what is most important about them is that they are a reflection of all the work our team has put in over the years to develop our technology and work with customers to make it benefit their businesses.

So I wanted to do just that here. To thank all our customers, partners and team members who have given the company their support over the years. That have made us the success we are today and will help us fulfil our future potential.

Tim and I founded the business with a simple goal in mind. To help accountants transform how they run their businesses through the use of technology. Now we work with over 600 customers in multiple countries around the world and help them do just this.

So at some point today Tim and I will grab a coffee and indulge in looking back at where we have come from but when the coffee is finished we’ll get straight back onto the job with our team of building the future.

Thank you to Deloitte for the recognition and a massive thank you to all our customers, partners and the Silverfin team who have made it happen.

Now where’s my coffee cup?

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Shifting your firm from a heavy focus on compliance to a broader range of advisory services is not an easy or quick move. It takes time, planning and the right talent and infrastructure to deliver.

To help you kickstart (or accelerate) the transformation of your firm we’ve outlined some of the key areas we believe you’ll need to focus on – and suggested the practical steps you need to make to guide your planning.

1. Drive value with your best clients

Growing your focus on value-added advisory services won’t resonate with all your existing clients, at least not straight away. So it’s important to review your existing client base and target the client prospects who are most open to a deeper kind of accounting.

To help you do this, grade your clients into three categories;

• Grade A – valued clients with good relationships (and the right systems) who are already using, or can be easily upsold, your new value-added advisory services. Talk to these clients and find out which services they’re looking for, the specific areas where they need help and their viewpoint on pricing.
• Grade B – clients who will need some time and effort to convince, but who could prove valuable (and profitable) if you can change your relationship and service mix. Meet with these clients more frequently and have more in-depth conversations with them to isolate the main additional services they will need and use the data you have on them to instigate advisory conversations.
• Grade C – clients where there’s little opportunity to extend the relationship into advisory services and a deep reliance (and interest) only on compliance.

Now market your services to the right targets – don’t waste opportunity or time on talking to clients about services they are unlikely to be interested in. Staff these clients according to the opportunity too – put your best advisors on the clients with the greatest need and opportunity. Increase the number of compliance-only clients you manage per team member. Make sure your marketing is carefully targeted too to attract more of the clients you want, and less of those you don’t.

2. Make compliance cheap (or even free)

At a time when the perceived value of compliance work is low, it’s important to position it in the right way – where compliance is required but not central to the value-add services you’re asking clients to pay. There’s a growing belief among many accounting firms that compliance is a necessary feature of any accounting relationship – but one that should be very competitively priced, even free, to all clients.

To make clients understand the value of compliance work explain the foundational role bookkeeping, data entry and core accounting workflows play in producing the vital financial and business data that feeds into your value-added advisory services. Ensure you show a direct link whenever possible between this compliance generated data and the advice you are giving that is perceived as having high value – lock the two services together at every opportunity.

3. Have your data workflows in one place

To make your advisory services work successfully, you need the right software and systems infrastructure driving the firm – and, in most cases, this will mean aligning your accounts and practice systems around one centralised platform.

To make your data work harder:

• Ensure you have full integration across all solutions, and look for software that offers the right APIs (application programming interface) and integrations to connect up your practice tools and port data effectively between sources.
• Centralise all your client data into one main data hub so you have fast and easy access to the information you need, and it is easy to see emerging trends across your client base you can act on.
• Run your various compliance workflows and reporting from a single application, so you can manage tasks, analyse data, pull off real-time reports and communicate directly with clients efficiently. This will help you increase the number of clients a team member can manage too.

4. Automate your compliance work

Completing compliance work is one of the main drains on your highly qualified staff’s time and productivity. Using technology to automate time-intensive areas such as bookkeeping, pre-accounting and data entry frees up time and allows the team to focus on advising.

To embrace automation fully:

• Automate your bookkeeping using optical character recognition (OCR) technology and data management apps like Receipt Bank or AutoEntry to smart scan clients’ paperwork, digitise the outputs and pull the resulting data through into your accounts software and workflow platform.
• Automate clients’ credit control by using the debtor tracking tools in your software, or integrating with automated debtor apps such as Chaser or Fluidly to automatically chase up your client’s late payments and improve their aged debt numbers.
• Automate reminders and notifications to clients using the smart reminders in your software solutions to communicate with clients when VAT information is needed, tax information needs to be submitted or payroll run requires review and sign-off etc.

5. Get proactive with your insight

Technology can increasingly do much of the low-level analysis by itself, with machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities expanding at pace within accounting.

To get proactive with your advice and client conversations:

• Define the positive and negative elements to tag, and set up your software to automatically analyse and filter data to pull out key issues and opportunities.
• Produce regular reporting and insights, and add your own personal commentary to the trends analysis, red/green flags and insights produced by your reporting software.
• Make this a conversation starter, sit down with the client to talk through the commentary and insights, and define what additional services or work they may need.

6. Have the right team and skill set

Hiring, training and retaining the right people is fundamental to delivering any new services. The ability to hold meaningful advisory conversations with clients is a key skill – so if you’re aiming to deliver advisory services, it’s critical to have the right talent in the firm.

To create a team that meets the challenge:

• Define the key roles you need, and how they will deliver your upgraded services.
• Promote or hire the best people for the job, expanding your talent pool.
• Educate your team to expand their knowledge, increasing their value to clients.
  Build meaningful rapport with clients, so they trust and value your staff.

7. Deepen your client relationships

According to Xero 30% of small businesses place accountants at the top of their list of trusted advisors – and providing value-added services can add considerably to this level of trust.

Accounting may once have been a numbers game, but building a truly great 21st century accountancy firm, a firm of the future, is increasingly about your ability to build deep relationships. It’s these long-term connections and partnerships that will drive your move to advisory.

To build and nurture these relationships:

• Spend more 1-2-1 time with clients whether that’s in person, on the phone or via video conferencing apps like Skype, Zoom or Webex. Increasing your interactions is a key way to make clients feel they’re getting more value from the relationship.
• Get to know their business inside and out and listen to clients’ goals, worries and what their current pain points are. The better you know their company, the more advice and value you can add for them as a trusted partner.
• Personalise your advice and services so your client feels they’re getting a bespoke service that’s properly focused on the numbers, KPIs and goals that matter to them.

To discover how to fully embrace connected accounting and become the accountancy firm of the future, download our latest eGuide.

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But why? Well the easy answer is that we are a provider of innovative technology to the accountancy sector and are helping firms, many in the Ranking in fact, to transform their services and grow. So we wanted the opportunity to celebrate their progress.

But beyond that as Austin Clark, Accountancy Age’s editor said himself, “Over the decades that the Top 50+50 has been running, it’s clear to see how firms who innovate, automate and invest in the future continue to perform well and climb up the league table…” So as an innovator ourselves helping firms to do just this, we were excited by the opportunity to play our part in recognising the achievement of these innovators in the profession.

So good luck to everyone in with a shout of making the Ranking this year and we look forward to seeing what’s driving change when it comes out. But my prediction, based on nothing more than the conversations we are having with firms of all sizes every day, is that a continued focus on client service innovation, the role of technology and automation, and an increase in advisory revenue will feature. But that’s just my opinion – we’ll all have to wait until October to find out if I’m right. The Rankings will tell their own story that everyone, big firm or small, can learn from.

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We’re living through what the World Economic Forum has termed ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’, a shift towards digital working, online interaction and software automation that has impacted all industries. It’s a time of unique transformation in the business world, and is driving significant change in the accounting sector too.

In recent years accounting has seen an increasing dependency on technology, and specifically software, within the accounting firm and their clients. This has brought with it a host of benefits to the efficient running of a firm, but it can also add complexity.

The key technological shifts we’ve seen that have driven change are:

• The move from paper to digital – traditional ledgers and paper files are fast becoming relics of the past, with most firms already moving to a mixture of desktop, cloud and enterprise software to run and manage their practice.
• Direct integration with clients’ systems – to carry out your work, you need to connect with the software platforms, data and solutions used by your clients, with many using industry-specific or specialist tools, and the latest in mobile business apps, to manage their company.
• Working from mobile devices – your clients, and your staff, are increasingly used to ‘working on the go’, using smartphones, tablets or laptops to access the software tools they need 24/7 from anywhere that has an internet connection.

Efficiency and the need for speed

Finding ways to continuously improve the efficiency of your business, your workflows and your team’s productivity is key to success. And that’s not just driven by the capabilities of new technology, but also by responding to the needs of your clients and your desire to make the firm more profitable.

The need for ‘everything to be faster and easier’ manifests itself in a range of ways – but in our experience, for the accountant, this generally breaks down to three core objectives:

1. Increase your workload. Do more with less so your team’s productivity is maximised.
2. Deliver your work to clients faster. Get your clients the important numbers they need to manage their business and minimise the effort taken to complete compliance tasks.
3. Complete more jobs. Make it easier for the firm to service a greater number of clients, and a greater number per accountant.

Charging for your work used to be simple. Time was recorded against each job, then charged out to the client at an agreed hourly rate for each member of staff on the project. But there’s an emerging interest from clients in ‘value pricing’. What your clients are willing to pay is no longer defined purely by the time taken to complete their basic compliance work but by what they feel is of most value to them – compliance accounting is the starting and not the end point for any client relationship.

Value is now more likely to be measured by:

• The range of services you offer the client, usually within a defined package model.
• The amount of support you provide and the depth of your client relationship.
• The insight and added value you bring to the client i.e. how integral you become to their success.

Changing client expectations

Clients expect to be getting (and paying for) advice from their accountant – and that, in turn, is having an impact on the nature of the services your firm must supply. 37% of small and medium-sized business owners think accountancy is becoming more automated and that they can complete a range of tasks themselves, according to the The State of Accounts report from Xero.

More worryingly, the same report found that 59% of small businesses don’t think they will need an accountant in 10 years’ time. Client interest in just getting compliance services from their accountant is in decline. Many clients now expect bookkeeping, accounts and tax returns completed as a matter of course. They want it done quickly, painlessly, faultlessly and for the best price.

But if compliance is a core service that’s becoming price sensitive what other higher-level or advisory services do clients want where greater value (and profit) can be created?

Key areas where business leaders want advice

• Business and financial performance
• Management accounts and KPI reporting
• Managing cashflow and cash forecasts
• Debtor tracking and reducing aged debt
• Spend management and expenses
• Software and systems advice
• Strategic planning and goal setting
• Access to finance and funding
• Outsourced financial director (FD) services
• Business coaching and mentoring

As client demand shifts the landscape of accounting towards advisory services, so the rules of accountancy need to shift to meet these new expectations.

Want to learn more about the new rules of accountancy, and how connected accounting will transform the way your practice operates? Want to see how you can build the accountancy firm of the future? Download our eGuide to get the full picture.

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Silverfin is pleased to announce our partnership with KPMG Belgium to provide their team with access to our cloud service for powerful financial reporting, collaboration and a centralised client data hub 

that will support them in the delivery and development of valuable client advisory services.

KPMG combines a multi-disciplinary approach with practical industry knowledge to help clients respond to opportunities. The firm is committed  to making a long-term difference to its clients. To make this possible it invests in its team to ensure everyone has access to the tools, data, knowledge and skills they need to be effective.

René Philips, head of Tax & Legal at KPMG said: “To provide a top-class service to our clients we must have access to up to date information and be able to learn from the collective experience and knowledge of the many excellent team members that make up KPMG. With Silverfin, we have the opportunity to harness their knowledge, enable collaboration and consolidate client data across our firm into  one powerful data-hub. With Silverfin we will drive greater efficiency and consistency in how we work across the firm and, importantly, use it to power our advisory services. Silverfin will be a key tool for our team as they identify ways we can help our clients to succeed.”

Silverfin, the connected accounting platform

Silverfin is the cloud service for powerful financial reporting developed by accountants for accountants. Best practice templates automate accountancy processes and reports using transaction data imported automatically from bookkeeping software. It enables better collaboration and eliminates document portals, Excel files or email. It’s the single source of truth for live and historical financial data making it the ideal platform to build advisory services on. Silverfin calls this Connected Accounting.

Find out more about Silverfin at silverfin.com

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We’re living through what the World Economic Forum has termed ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’, a shift towards digital working, online interaction and software automation that has impacted on practically all industries in the developed world. It’s a time of unique change and transformation in the business world, and this industrial revolution is driving some key trends within the accounting sector.

1. Increasing use of technology

To meet the needs of the digital world, accounting has seen an increasing emphasis on technology and software within a modern accounting firm. This technology brings a host of benefits to the efficient running of your firm, but can also add complexity

Some key technological shifts include:

• The move from paper to digital – traditional ledgers and paper files are fast becoming relics of a bygone era, with most firms moving to a mixture of desktop, cloud and enterprise software packages to run and manage their practice.
• Integration with your client’s systems – to carry out your work, you need to connect with the software platforms and solutions used by your business clients, with many using industry-specific tools and the latest in mobile business apps to manage their company.
• Working from mobile devices – your clients and your staff are increasingly used to ‘working on the go’, using smartphones, tablets or laptops to access the software tools they need 24/7 from anywhere that has an internet connection.

2. Efficiency and the need for speed

Increasing the efficiency and productivity of your workflow is at the heart of the modern accountancy firm. And that’s not just driven by the capabilities of new technology, but also by the needs of your clients and the imperative you have to make the firm profitable.

The need for ‘everything to be faster’ manifests itself in a range of ways – but, for the accountant, this generally breaks down to three core aims:

1. Increase your workload – so your team’s productivity is maximised.
2. Deliver your work to clients faster – so clients have the important numbers they need.
3. Complete more jobs – so the firm can service a greater number of clients.

3. Value pricing and what you deliver

Charging for your work used to be simple. Time was recorded against each job, then charged out to the client at an agreed hourly rate for each member of staff on the project. But there’s an evolving shift away from this hourly model towards the concept of ‘value pricing’. What your clients are willing to pay is no longer defined purely by the time taken to complete their basic compliance work – that accounts work is now seen as a standard offering.

Price is now more likely to be measured around:

1. The range of services you offer the client – usually within a defined package model.
2. The amount of support you provide – and the depth of your client relationship.
3. The value you bring to the client – i.e. how integral you become to their success.

4. Changing client expectations of your service

As we’ve already highlighted, clients expect to get more advice from their accountant – and that, in turn, is having an impact on the nature of the services your firm must supply.

37% of small and medium-sized business owners think accountancy is becoming more automated and that they can complete a range of tasks themselves, according to The State of Accounts report from Xero. More worryingly, the same report found that 59% of small businesses don’t think they will need an accountant in 10 years’ time. The desire for compliance work as a sole service offering is on the wane, with many clients now expecting the bookkeeping, accounts and tax returns completed as a matter of course. But with the compliance done as standard, what other higher-level services do clients want?

Key areas where business leaders want advice:

• Business and financial performance
• Management accounts and KPI reporting
• Managing cashflow and cash forecasts
• Debtor tracking and reducing aged debt
• Spend management and expenses
• Software and systems advice
• Strategic planning and goal setting
• Access to finance and funding
• Outsourced financial director (FD) services
• Business coaching and mentoring

4. Choosing the right services — what do you do next?

We’ve seen how the desire for compliance work has waned in recent times, and we’ve also seen how there’s a growing market for higher-level advice, support and outsourcing. There’s a broad spectrum of additional service your firm can adopt – and your end choices will be unique to your practice – but there are core value-add areas that will form the bedrock of your new service offerings.

We have compiled an eBook where we’ll guide you through the key challenges of developing new service offerings, and will take you step-by step through the important stages of the transformation process. Click here to find out more!

Make Silverfin the digital foundation of your advisory service

Silverfin is a centralised data hub designed specifically for finance professionals. We help you work, communicate and interact with clients in the digital space, making your client relationships more productive and reducing the time taken to service each business.

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“More than accountants”

We are excited about partnering with Vandelanotte. For Vandelanotte a strong client relationship is key. Silverfin will play a central role in their organisation as collaborative data hub, in support of their further expansion towards the firm of the future.

In that way, they will be more than ever “More than Accountants”, and be able to increase their role of proactive advisors. “Silverfin provides an end-to-end solution but is at the same time very flexible to adapt to our way of working ”, says Hein Vandelanotte, partner at Vandelanotte Accountants. “We see Silverfin as a technology partner enabling the centralisation of our internal workflows, which facilitates more client engagement.”

Silverfin, the connected accounting platform

Silverfin is transforming the world of accounting with the introduction of Connected Accounting. Connected Accounting allows accounting firms to changing their client relationships from the services they provide to the way that they bill.

By connecting the real time data from multiple bookkeeping providers into one platform in a standardised way it transforms tasks like management reporting and accounts production into simple outputs that can be created at a touch of a button. And what’s more, with the time saved from streamlining and digitising processes by having a connected data hub, it empowers accountants to offer better and more timely advice than before, transforming client relationships from historic conversations to true forward-looking advisors”. 

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“We are very proud to have won Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Fintech sector award,” says co-ceo Joris Van Der Gucht. “It’s exciting to know that we are the fastest-growing company in the sector and that we are on the right path for continued growth. I want to stress that this is an achievement of the whole Silverfin-team, and both Tim and I are looking forward to further changing the sector together.”

Silverfin is offering a real-time data hub, as such transforming the world of accounting and consultancy. “The industry is going through a digital transformation, with traditional services being automated. We see this as an opportunity and offer the accountant/consultant a technology platform to to become that trusted advisor.”

The Silverfin platform automates core processes for hundreds of practices and firmly connects people and technology, helping thousands of businesses get robust and substantial business advice. Silverfin’s footprint is continuously expanding: with a current presence in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Nordics, United Kingdom and Canada. The company is on a mission to support the finance professionals of the future.

About the Deloitte’s 2018 Technology Fast 50

The Technology Fast 50 competition is an annual selection of the 50 fastest growing and innovative technology companies headquartered in Belgium. Public or private companies who develop a technology related product or service and who have experienced substantial revenue growth over the last four years can enter the competition for their chance to be nominated as one of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Belgium.

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“After we named the inaugural Fintech 250 in 2017, they went on to raise $23B including 30 rounds of over $100 million. 22 of the Fintech 250 have already exited with half via IPO. This year, we’ve added 113 new companies to the Fintech 250 using the CB Insights Mosaic algorithm, and the group is broad, covering everything from insurance tech to consumer banking to capital markets tech. We look forward to the success of this year’s group,” said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal.

The CB Insights research team selected the Fintech 250 companies based on several factors including data submitted by each company and their Mosaic Score. The Mosaic Score, based on CB Insights’ algorithm, measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies. Through this evidence-based, statistically-driven approach, the Mosaic Score can help predict a company’s momentum, market health and financial viability.

 Starting today, CB Insights customers can view the Fintech 250 on Stories, the newest product feature allowing teams to easily create beautiful presentations powered by real-time data visualizations.

 Quick facts on the 2018 Fintech 250:

• 30 of the Fintech 250 companies have reached a unicorn valuation of $1B or more.
• Since 2017, these 250 private companies have raised $31.8B across 373 deals.
• There were 82 $100M+ mega-rounds to the Fintech 250 since 2013, with 33 of them in 2018 year-to-date (YTD).
• 113 new companies were introduced to the 2018 Fintech 250 list.
• 44% of the 2018 Fintech 250 list are based outside the United States, representing 31 countries.
• Ant Financial is the most well-funded company on the Fintech 250 list, having raised approximately $19.1B across 4 investments.

About CB Insights

At CB Insights, we believe the most complex strategic business questions are best answered with facts.  We are a machine intelligence company that synthesizes, analyzes and visualizes millions of documents to give our clients fast, fact-based insights. Serving the majority of the Fortune 100, we give companies the power to make better decisions, take control of their own future, and capitalize on change.

Put a cost on every piece of work, agree the remit of each task, and know the time and value implications of carrying out this project. Know how efficient workflow must be for you to turn a profit.

Silverfin: your solution to complex data

Our open, vendor agnostic platform is a centralised data hub designed specifically for finance professionals. We help you connect to multiple data sources and implement truly proactive workflow processes that lead to good financial data, and added value for your clients.  Find out more about Silverfin at silverfin.com

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This move to the cloud and SaaS financial systems has been driven by a number of benefits of the online approach – instant mobile access, real-time data and the enhanced ability to deliver financial reporting that drives your firm’s advisory capabilities.

But one key driver behind the switch to online working is the need to comply with the move to digital tax accounts and the Government’s ongoing Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative. To help your firm meet the challenge of MTD, we’ve highlighted 5 key steps for completing your digital transformation in the most effective way.

1. Get your practice systems digital-ready

The starting point for being digital-ready is to have your client’s financial information available to you as digital data – and that requires you to have the right digital systems at your disposal.

At the bare minimum, this means having an online accounting platform in place across all practices. With clients’ information stored in the cloud, this gives full access to their transactional data from every location in the firm, making workflows more efficient and allowing you to pull out the relevant tax figures, supporting documents and financial reporting.

Incorporating automation into your processes will also add value – including automated bookkeeping, optical character recognition (OCR) scanning software for data input and digital working papers – getting clients’ information into the digital domain quickly and efficiently.

2. Review your workflow processes
For SaaS systems and software automation to add maximum value, it’s important that your workflow processes are set up to make use of the key benefits of a digital system.

Review your internal processes as a firm and look for the efficiencies. Then, post-review, look to systemise the whole process of getting data into your practice platform, pulling this data into digital working papers, and managing the resulting workflow and actionable tasks.

With an effective, systematic approach, you can reduce the workload and quickly have clients’ data in a digital format that can be exported directly to HMRC’s proposed digital portal.

3. Educate your clients
Many business owners are still unaware of MTD and the imperative to be digital ready. To overcome this potential hurdle – and sell the benefits of being digital-ready – it’s important to make use of the firm’s communication channels to raise awareness.

Use your blog, newsletters, webinars and events to get the message out there. All VAT-registered UK businesses must be digital-ready by 2019, according to the latest guidance from HMRC. So there’s a pressing need to communicate the key benefits of a digital approach to your clients and to keep MTD front of mind with their management teams.

4. Work closely with your software providers
The details of HMRC’s digital portal are still sketchy, with very little detail around how your accounting systems will integrate and share data with HMRC’s systems.

With this in mind, it’s important to work closely with your software providers to ensure their API will be ready to connect, and that your firm will have access to the relevant templates for exporting and submitting tax data direct to HMRC.

5. Plan for the digital change
MTD is one of the most significant changes in tax and accounting for a generation. It changes the underlying foundations of how your firm and your business clients will interact with HMRC.

It’s important to work this ongoing move to digital tax accounts into your planning and strategy. It’s a key change in the whole accounting sector, and it’s going to take time, effort and money to get right. The sooner you start the digital transformation process, the better prepared the firm will be when MTD becomes a reality for clients in April 2019.

Working in the digital space
Silverfin is a centralised data hub designed specifically for finance professionals. We help you collate your clients’ data in the digital space, making MTD less of a challenge for your firm.

Find out more about Silverfin at silverfin.com

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But pulling together this management information for clients can become a time-consuming task if your data sources aren’t well connected. So how do you set up your systems to deliver the kind of fast, clear and insightful reporting that modern 21st century business clients now expect?

We’ve highlighted five key elements to focus on – combining the strengths of software efficiency with your firm’s own skills, experience and commercial insight.

1. Make reporting easier with a cloud platform

Having a cloud accounting platform at the heart of your practice systems brings a number of advantages and efficiencies when it comes to preparing management account packs for clients.

Client’s key numbers can be viewed as real-time data and these numbers then be quickly pulled into detailed management reporting – giving the client the most up-to-date view of their finances, and allowing you to offer more proactive and meaningful advice and financial solutions.

2. Automate your bookkeeping processes

Make it as easy as possible to get clients’ key data into your systems and use software automation and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to streamline bookkeeping.

Using the latest data-management solutions and cloud bookkeeping apps, allows the firm to automate clients’ bookkeeping, expenses and document scanning processes. By integrating an automated bookkeeping solution, such as Receipt Bank, the client’s all-important transactional data gets into the books fast – and with minimal involvement from your staff.

This gives you the raw data needed to produce timely and accurate management accounts.

3. Organise clients’ accounts codes and cost centres

Understanding your client’s business model, and how the company works at a grassroots level, allows you to tailor their Chart of Accounts to drive more insight.

Talk to clients and Identify the important numbers and key metrics that form the drivers in their business. Then tailor the company’s Chart of Accounts to reflect these important business numbers and key drivers using separate accounting codes.

By recording and tracking these key numbers within your practice accounting system, you can deliver management accounts that dive down into truly granular detail.

4. Create dashboard reporting that adds real insight

Complex accounts and spreadsheets may make perfect sense to you, but many business owners and management teams want a more immediate way to gauge their financial health.

The latest fintech tools and cloud reporting apps offer clear KPI dashboards and graphical ways to represent your clients management accounts – using the historic actuals and customised codes from your accounting platform as the foundations for these data visualisations.

Using cloud reporting gives your clients, and your firm’s advisers, the real-time overview needed to monitor financial health and help companies make important business decisions.

5. Focus on offering proactive advice and solution

Delivering your clients’ management reporting packs, or setting up KPI dashboards, isn’t the end of the process – the key value you add as a firm is in offering robust, meaningful advice.

Sit down regularly with clients in person to talk through what their numbers mean, review their KPIs, add your commentary and analysis, and offer proactive advice.

Having a cloud-based accounting platform in place makes it easier to review your whole client portfolio, look for the key issues or ‘red flags’ in real time, and then prioritise which clients need your advice and guidance most urgently.

It’s this support, guidance and commercial experience that will help the company improve its financial position, and it’s the analysis and commentary you glean from real-time reporting that drives these trusted relationships.

Better information, Driving deeper client relationships

Management reports and KPI dashboards are the starting point for deeper conversations, upselling of value-add services and closer working relationship with your business clients. So it’s vital to put high-quality reporting at the centre of your advisory offering.

Silverin is a centralised data hub designed specifically for finance professionals. We help you bring your financial data together into reporting that adds real value for your clients.

Find out more about Silverfin at silverfin.com

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With your business clients using an increasing number of online solutions and cloud apps, this results in a multitude of different data sources that your accounting firm must connect to, process and collate in order to pull the right numbers into your clients’ accounts and reporting. So how do you integrate with these multiple sources and make sense of their numbers? 

The problem of complex data

Good quality business data is what drives your firm’s ability to produce accurate accounts, insightful reporting and key strategic analysis for your valued clients. But there are a number of areas that make the collection of this business and financial data into complex challenges for many practices:

• Increased use of technology – the average business uses 13 different cloud apps, with widescale adoption of a range of different business solutions.

• Multiple sources of data – with customer information, business data and financial numbers spread across these varied apps, there are multiple data sources to collate.

• Legacy paper-based data sources – Paper-based businesses spend up to 35-50% of their time searching for information, so locating paper documents is still a big issue.

When combined, these challenges create a significant problem when it comes to accessing and organising the data needed to get client’s accounting work completed. What’s needed is one core platform that has the connectivity, tools and functionality to pool these multiple data sources in one central solution.

Centralised data with instant access and reporting

A fundamental advantage of cloud is the ability to quickly upload data and store it online for easy access and analysis. The answer to the problem of complex data is pull these multiple data sources into one centralised database, with access to the best possible workflow tools. When these data sources can be aggregated and controlled effectively, you have better control over bookkeeping, day-to-day accounting and reporting for all the firm’s clients.

Using a centralised solution to collate client’s data sources means your firm is:

• No longer drowning in data – with all the information you need held in one central database that can then be pulled through into your relevant accounting software tools.
• Saving hours of manual data entry – with all client data automatically connected to your central system, and no need for hours of keying-in and mundane financial admin.
• Reducing time spent searching for information – as all the relevant data and documentation needed to complete tax returns and year-end accounts is freely available.

Time is saved, your systems are more organised, your people can be more efficient and (most importantly) you can deliver a better experience for your business clients.

Silverfin: your solution to complex data

Our open, vendor agnostic platform is a centralised data hub designed specifically for finance professionals. We help you connect to multiple data sources and implement truly proactive workflow processes that lead to good financial data, and added value for your clients.  Find out more about Silverfin at silverfin.com

 If that Guardian headline is the question, then 2017 was the year the market definitively answered: “yes”. Here in 2018, the question isn’t whether we ‘should’ use cloud or not. It is: What’s going to happen now that cloud is increasingly the new normal?

The cloud services company BCSG recently estimated that 8 out 10 British small businesses now complete some aspect of finance management in the cloud. With new applications constantly coming to market, each improving on cloud’s promise, this will shift from ‘some aspect of financial management’ to ‘all’.

Why? Because in 2017 cloud accounting became:

• More cost effective than locally installed software packages.
• Provide greater ease of use.
• Can be used across multiple devices, offering the ability to be productive from anywhere.
• Now offer robust, dependable data security.

Combine these benefits with almost universal access to high speed internet and it’s not hard to see why cloud accounting finally blossomed as a commercial trend in 2017. So it’s worth taking the time to understand how to fit it into your practice. Here’s the key question:

If cloud accounting is the answer, what is the question?

Do you as an industry expert make an informed decision to choose the cloud as your accounting platform going forward based on industry trends and future proofing your firm? Or do you choose the cloud to help you become established as an industry expert in the first place? Chicken or egg, which comes first in your thought process? The famous research psychologist Gary Klein made a career out of studying how experts make decisions. For Klein, it was important that experts should never totally trust their gut. Instead, they should “take their gut as an important data point”. But then, he told McKinsey Quarterly in 2010,“you have to consciously and deliberately evaluate it, to see if it makes sense in this context. You need strategies that help rule things out”. Accountants, as experts, have the ability in 2017 to move far beyond just intuition. Of course, professional insight is vital – but it’s not the only pillar of connected accounting.

The move to the cloud isn’t just another client fad to deal with, it’s the biggest, most potentially lucrative opportunity you’ve had in years.

Picture it: cloud accounting creates an automated, real-time supply of financial data from your clients.

When you plug into it, you move into the realm of expertise that Klein envisions. With cloud accounting, your intuition and professional experience become data points among many others. And that’s great news. All of that information can breed a level of insight that has never existed in accounting, not even a year or two ago.

So what’s the next step?

All of that information creates a commercial hinterland just waiting to be explored. No more begging tardy clients for their papers, no more unkempt records.If you empower yourself with seamless access to that data, you are free to become a trusted advisor. The challenge is that the cloud market is much more diverse and dynamic market than the old accounting software world. It’s not just dominated by a few legacy systems. There are many offerings, allowing clients to indulge in a wider array of offerings. That’s why you, the accountant, will need to be more flexible than ever. It’s crucial that any software you use integrates seamlessly with your clients’ diverse offerings so you can connect to your client.

Otherwise, the promise of cloud accounting for accountants won’t live up to its potential.

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A virtual FD service provides a part-time financial director (FD) for your business clients. This gives clients an experienced finance professional to sit on their board, provide long-term strategic guidance and bring the company the high-level support they need as a business.

 So how can a virtual FD offering fit in your firm’s wider package of advisory services?

1. The impact of technology

Cloud technology is changing the way that accountants work and is transforming the processes, systems and workflows that are needed to complete client work. Cloud accounting software, integrated fin-tech apps and online workflow platforms have made the process of completing clients’ basic accounts and tax returns incredibly simple and efficient.

Some key benefits of online technology include:

• Reduced data entry time – optical character recognition (OCR) software quickly scans and converts client receipts and purchase invoices, removing that keying-in time.
• Automation of key tasks – automation and machine learning can automate areas such as bank reconciliation, coding of expenses and chasing of aged debts.
• Smart AI analysis of financial data – artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can quickly process huge amounts of financial data, flagging up the key issues, concerns and opportunities in your clients’ management reporting.

Your team can be more time-efficient and productive when you apply technology in the most effective ways, freeing up basic compliance time and allowing you to focus on higher value services for your clients.

2. Expanding your advisory services

A focus on advisory services is easier with the benefits of technology – and that allows the firm to review the value-add services that are offered by the practice.

With more time available, you can broaden your services and start helping clients at a much higher level when it comes to their financial management.

This breaks down into two key advisory areas:

1. Business and financial performance – where the firm works with clients to improve their financial management, provides financial modelling and forecasting advice and helps the client to increase its overall performance as a business.
2. Strategic advice and growth – where you advise the client’s board and management team around long-term strategy, access to funding, growth planning and key decision-making regarding the future path of the business.

Going beyond the basics of pure compliance helps to redefine your purpose as a professional services firm – helping you to refine, enhance and update the vision behind the practice.

3. The virtual FD – guiding your clients’ future direction

Having access to a finance director adds real value for business owners – especially once start-ups and small businesses have reached a certain maturity in their growth journey.

What many startups, scale-ups and established businesses really want is an expert on board to guide their future direction as a business. This is where the virtual FD role comes in – providing a part-time financial director role who becomes part of their management board.

 As a firm, being able to offer this virtual FD service is a critical element in expanding your advisory services, and in building deeper relationships with your clients.

4. A better view of key business information

To effectively take on the FD role, your team need access to the most insightful information and financial data – giving you the empirical evidence on which to base your analysis, your detailed reporting and your proactive advice on performance and strategy.

Smart cloud accounting software solutions, like Silverfin, provide you with these vital analytics tools and KPI-driven business performance/reporting tools, giving your virtual FDs a granular level of insight into clients’ financial data.

Having access to this level of detail and actionable insight is what drives your ability to provide the virtual FD role – allowing you to see the challenges, opportunities and pitfalls in the road ahead and to take proactive action to help your client deal with them.

5. A deeper kind of client relationship

As a virtual FD, you’re no longer the kind of traditional accountant who meets their clients once or twice or year. And in today’s market, it’s important for your firm to have made that transition.

 When your team are providing a virtual FD service, they become an integral part of clients’ management team and a key driver in their business. That helps to improve understanding, increase good levels of communication and build a long-lasting valued relationship with clients.

Make Silverfin the digital foundation of your advisory service

Silverfin is a centralised data hub designed specifically for finance professionals. We help you work, communicate and interact with clients in the digital space, making your client relationships more productive and reducing the time taken to service each business.

Find out more about Silverfin at silverfin.com 

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Clients do not want to buy management accounts

The accountants who complain that their clients don’t want to buy management accounts are absolutely right. They don’t. There is little to no value in a report. Seriously. What there is value in is the insight and interpretation of the report. After all if your client is on a package such as Xero they can get several management reports from within Xero. If they are a micro business, e.g. under £150k turnover, they may not need anything more than what Xero provides.

Clients only want two things other than help with their compliance

Your client is forced by law to do their year-end accounts and tax returns. As a result it is much easier to sell these types of services to clients, as you know and they know they need them. However, when it comes to any service which is optional, i.e. they can easily do it in-house or are not required to do it by law, they have no need to buy this from an accountant. As a result there needs to be a compelling reason to buy an optional service. Many accountants forget this when it comes to the sales conversation.

If you are going to sell something other than compliance related services you need to be giving your client insight, accountability or a mix of both. These are the only two reasons that a client will buy more than compliance related services from you. Therefore, the key to selling management accounts is to not sell the accounts but the insight that goes with the accounts. You may find that a client also values the accountability, which goes with sitting down regularly to discuss their management accounts.

You need to identify your clients’ pain points

Given that your clients need a compelling reason to buy management accounts from you, you need to understand their pain points. Where can the insight you provide with management accounts help relieve a client’s pain points? As a result before you start to provide a management accounts service to clients, do your research. For your ideal client – or a segment of your ideal clients – what do they really care about? Is it net profitability because they have an eye towards exit? Is it their day-to-day cash flow requirements because they are a business with a large need for working capital, e.g. retailers.

Once you have identified your clients’ pain points, it’s much easier to ask the right questions to quickly dig down to identify what insight they would value from you. And when they need insight, this typically means which management reports would they want you to provide and give commentary on?

Stop being an order taker

When you sell compliance related services it is easy to become an order taker. After all, you know that they need your compliance related services so you don’t need to dig into their business affairs that much. In effect you can become more akin to a waiter serving customers in a restaurant.

When I speak to accountants who are struggling to get their clients to take management accounts or reports from them, they all insist that they don’t act like an order taker. However, when we dissect their sales meeting technique, they realise that they are acting as an order taker. If you are selling effectively, rather than being an order taker, there should be no need to tell your prospective client about the range of services you can provide them.

If you want to get the right clients to take management accounts you need to propose a solution to them to help them solve their pain points. Rather than tell them about the range of services they could buy from you. In practice this means spending over half of the new business meeting finding out about their business, their goals, their challenges and what they are motivated to do or solve. Only once you have a clear picture of this can you suggest a solution, i.e. providing them with management accounts and reports.

Other people in your practice need to be able to deliver a management accounts service to your clients

Hopefully as a result of reading this article you realise that delivering a sustainable management accounts service is NOT about pressing a button and sending a report across to the client. For clients to get the true value of a management accounts service they will need to spend time with someone from your firm. If you want your management accounts service to be scalable, it has to be able to be delivered by more than just one person in your practice. This means training up more your staff to have the commercial nous to be able to give your clients the insight they require from the management accounts.

Author Credit

Heather Townsend is the Founder of ‘‘The Accountants Millionaires’ Club’. In 2015 the ICAEW decided she was the number one online influencer for the accountancy profession. She is the author of 4 books, including The Go-To Expert, and ‘How to make partner and still have a life’ (co-authored with Jo Larbie).

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Technology is bringing the means to finally speed up the process in this area. However, the emergence of digital raises a number of challenges when it comes to workflow.

There are four big challenges that you need to overcome in order to have an efficient workflow:

1. Reconciling multiple data sources

Firms now have a number of different clients, using a multitude of different financial and business tools, with a huge number of different data sources to reconcile and pool into any kind of meaningful financial data and reporting.

2. Keeping transparency, accountability and the audit trail

With so many disparate clients, accounting systems, data sources and client working preferences, it’s important to have a transparent overview of workflow. With a clear audit trail in place, managing success in a timely and profitable way becomes far simpler to achieve.

3. Moving away from the tick-list methodology

Historically, workflow has been seen as a checklist – a static list of tasks to be completed. Many workflow tools merely mirror this approach, reminding you and your team to carry out a task, but not giving a workable platform where the work itself can actually be viewed and carried out.

4. Drilling down into the data

To move from being a reactive accountant to a proactive business adviser, you need access to clients financial data in one place, in the clearest and fastest way possible. And you also need the tools, reporting and analysis that will help you spot issues for the client, and provide opportunities to add value through resolutions to those challenges and issues – whether that’s cash flow dips, looming compliance deadlines or sector-wide problems in their industry.

How to overcome these challenges and build a workflow and service delivery that meets client expectations?

Read the 9 steps that you can take towards a proactive workflow in our ebook, click here on the link.

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But what does this mean in principle for your accountancy, financial advisory firm or finance department?

Key takeaways:

• The value of data is in knowing how to turn it into actionable advice
• Predictive analysis tools combined with client data can lead to better forecasting
• The future accountant will have expert analysis skills, like a data scientist has

From paper to the cloud

In its simplest analogue form, accounting data was traditionally all a company’s receipts, spreadsheets and financial statements. They used to be recorded on paper, then along came desktop software, and now you have cloud accounting.

The cloud has a few benefits. Traditional paper-based accounting can often lead to “people making assumptions and mistakes” says business advisor Amanda Hoffmann, writing for Xero. And while cloud accounting isn’t error-free, you have access to sophisticated tools to improve accuracy that you didn’t previously. Second, it frees you from your desk and your data is no longer chained to a certain computer – you now have access to it anytime, anywhere, as this Zoho Books blog points out.

Cloud accounting, though, is more than just about fetching transactions automatically, scanning receipts and extracting other data, pushing all the information into one easy-to-access system. Advances in technology mean that data analytics can help you make forecasts, identify blind spots and change and improve the services you provide to your client.

Mining for data isn’t anything new

Analytics is nothing new. Back in 1997, an article appeared in Business Finance magazine highlighting how software is an effective way to “spot relationships and predict behaviour in a sea of data”. Twenty years on and the nature of business has simply changed, the volume of data has got much bigger and you have better tools to mine and understand it.

Thanks to software today, you can aggregate data from all your clients, even within a specific sector area, and use it to set realistic performance benchmarks.

But there are still challenges. When you’re trying to deliver a great service to your clients and keep up to date with regulations and tax laws, it can be difficult to keep on top of technology and innovation in the first place, says Matt Jagst, writing for Thomson Reuters’ tax and accounting blog.

If you find your firm is in this position, a possible solution could be to create a new role and assign someone the responsibility of making sure the firm is on top of the latest trends and has the latest software updates installed.

Think about big data

Another advantage of the cloud accounting software options on the market today is that they can handle bigger sets of data, both structured and unstructured.

A basic example of unstructured data is a bunch of emails. Whereas previously you may have gone through them with a red pen or highlighter, you now have tools that can scan them for keywords and extract the information you want.

“Big data has started creating ripples in business, and it is only a matter of time before a new accounting paradigm emerges in the form of big data accounting,”

Suresh Sood, a data scientist at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. 

Look at the even bigger picture

Having access to an unprecedented volume of data is all well and good, but you need to know what to do with it. You need to work out its value, says Andrew White, an industry analyst at Gartner.

So how do you get value out of an intangible asset like data? You have to understand how it can be used and how much it can contribute to the revenue of an organisation. So, rather than simply collating it – which is only part of the equation, says Jason Bramwell, editor at AccountingWEB – need to turn it into actionable advice and help your clients make better business decisions with it.

For example, you may have a small gardening or horticulture client who isn’t overly concerned about gross margins. By using data to show them how other businesses in their area of work are performing, they may start to take more of an interest in their costs.

The birth of the ‘connected accountant’

As software continues to become more sophisticated, you’ll be finding yourself working with, and not against, intelligent tools and algorithms, says Bernard Marr, a business and data expert, writing for Forbes.

Ultimately, as clients become more demanding, wanting better insight from data collated, the skillset of the future ‘connected accountant’ (or financial professional) may be very different. They will be required to have expert analysis skills and be software-savvy, a bit like data scientists and engineers.

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At the end of last year, research from Wikijobs revealed that 32% of accounting graduates are very con cerned that robots will soon be filling suitable accounting vacancies, in the form of some kind of automation. Fewer than half of those polled (40%) admitted that they were unsure about the prospects for a career in accountancy, with around two-thirds of respondents willing to consider a career in an alternative industry.

This doesn’t mean there’ll be physical machines replacing people in the office – there will just be an ever-expanding set of tasks that a computer can take care of. And this will cause the creation of new roles that will be of benefit to your business.

We got in touch with several accounting experts, quizzed them about the impact of robots and automation on their roles, and rounded up their responses. The general consensus was that you’ll need to keep an open mind and be prepared to embrace the changing times.

Robots will free you from menial tasks

Automation is already taking care of menial, repetitive tasks, including the scanning and the OCR of documents, says Scot Justice, who used to run a CPA firm but now works in academia. As automation becomes commonplace at work, you should expect more of the same, particularly when it comes to compliance.

For some, like chartered accountant and cloud solutions expert Heather Smith, this will come as a relief. She says she “hates compliance work.”

Fortunately for her, she doesn’t touch it that much, so when automation does take it over, she won’t be greatly affected by the loss of compliance revenue.

Compliance’s loss will also be your gain

While you may lose compliance revenue when accounting automation takes over, you can use this to your advantage.“While some may see it as a threat to the workforce, I see it as a positive opportunity to better serve our clients and heighten performance,”says Roger Philipp, CEO and founder of Roger CPA Review.

You’ll have time to focus on devoting your knowledge and skills to helping clients (legally) shave money off their tax bill and increase investment earnings. “You can’t do this if you’re stuck doing routine tasks,”,says award-winning journalist Kay Bell, who blogs at Don’t Mess With Taxes. “When these tasks can be taken care of automatically, that frees up time for accountants to do what they do best: provide knowledge, strategy and one-on-one counselling to clients for bigger picture financial.”

Robots won’t replicate the human touch

Strong client relationships are built on trust and automation hasn’t yet mastered the crucial skill of human interaction required. “You should never forget that accounting isn’t just a numbers business. At the heart of it, it’s a people business,”

says Philipp. “You’ll never be able to automate the individual, personal analysis that is key to an accountant’s job. Face-to-face advice and explanations to clients can never be replaced,” Bell adds.

You won’t be able to ignore technology altogether

People skills may be vital to attracting clients, but how you provide them with insight and drive their business forward is key to retaining them.

“The future of accountancy is in the value that accountants can add to business. This includes insights into the efficiency of the current business model and more importantly, where the business can go and how to get it there,”
, says Trevor Hartshorne, a practicing accountant and chairman of cloud-based predictive accounting platform Jazoodle.

The software and information systems available today mean that larger volumes of data can be analysed and more insights can be provided. “This can ensure that nothing gets missed, which lowers audit risk. This information can help firms, businesses, and organisations better understand their demographic and zero in on key pain points,” says Philipp. ”

You’ll work with robots, not against them

Technology exists to “play an active supporting role in carrying out traditional accounting functions,” leading to greater accuracy and efficiency, says Prableen Bajpai, director of FinFix Research & Analytics.

As technology advances there’ll be no need to fear it – you should expect to be working alongside automation harmoniously and not competing against it for jobs. “Automation can be tremendously helpful for the accountants and their clients as long as everyone sees it at as what it is: simply a tool to make the job and results better,” says Bell.

Ultimately, if you’re prepared to embrace automation, then you’ll find you have the space to work on providing existing clients with more valuable services and the time to win new clients by taking meetings online.

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What emboldened this response? Well, I suspect we know the answer: the rise of accounting software and steady encroachment of automation have fundamentally altered accounting and finance. As the influential venture capitalist Marc Andreessen put it:

“software is eating the world.”

The situation within accounting is unique, though. Emerging alongside this software tsunami are numerous regulatory changes effectively designed to speed up digitisation of the profession. The second payment services directive (PSD2), for instance, will make it simpler for business to connect their accounting software to their bank accounts, seamlessly sharing data between the two.

And then there’s the biggie: Making Tax Digital (MTD), the government’s ambitious plan to completely digitise the UK’s tax system. Under it, businesses will report to HMRC quarterly through their accounting software. Self-assessment will fall to the wayside.

What is clearly emerging is a digital ecosystem. Augmented further by AI and machine learning, we will begin to see technology that can confidently perform the bread-and-butter tasks of an accountant; software that can collate, collect, categorise and process.

It’s not hard to see, given these trends, why 59% of business owners in that survey would think their finances will soon be completed by a machine. Indeed, to an extent, they’re correct – for some tasks they won’t. The staples, the must-haves, will one day soon be completed by a machine.

In his fascinating book The Future of the Professions, the Oxford economist Richard Susskind notes we’re witnessing the unpacking or dismantling of not just accounting, but professional, white collar work in general. Things we’ve always assumed as being in the realm of the expert are being democratised and opened up thanks to technology.

But – and this is a huge but – no machine can replace the innate skill and insight of an experienced accounting professional. To paraphrase Mark Twain’s famous quip: the reports of accounting’s death are greatly exaggerated.

The profession actually has every reason to be optimistic. What accounting technology has taken away, it has also added to the profession. That’s not to say the transition towards the profession’s future won’t require some pragmatic adjustment.

The task for accountants now is to demonstrate value to their clients. Thankfully, technology has made this easier than ever. The fact is, analysing data (the really valuable part) will still require a more human touch.

Nick Heller, founder of the AI startup Fractal Labs and a Google veteran, explained this idea wonderfully. Routine tasks can be automated easily – but analysing and contextualising information and data still requires a trained eye:

“It’s the questions you ask. You have to apply it back to a real customer journey and a real set of questions you need answered. Only when you ask the right questions to set up the right experiments will you actually be able to come up with meaningful results.”

This near future will require a new kind of fluency and a different array of skills. The concept of the ‘finance professional’ will need to be transformed, too. Automation will continue to seep into your daily professional life. Ordinary, day-to-day processes will be performed as standard by software and your focus will move onto real time reporting, cash flow forecasts and growth planning.

For all the unknowns of the future, these are the things we can know with a fair degree of certainty. And if you can see what direction accounting’s future is headed, then ask yourself: what am I doing to get ready?

The shift towards digitalisation doesn’t have to be a huge leap into the unknown. There are several things you can do straight away that will help modernise your firm.

For example, you could move your meetings online. It’s a relatively simple move and you might be surprised by the number of benefits this brings.

For those interested, we’ve put together a clear, concise and actionable tip sheet on how to move your meetings online. Just click here to download your free copy.

*This article was originally posted on Director of Finance on June 12th, 2017.

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“If we think back to the late 90’s, many people will remember the newspaper headlines and articles there were about the internet,” said Wood. “They said we’d be banking online, we’d be doing all our shopping online. These headlines seemed ludicrously over the top – yet here we are 20 years later.”

Wood is right, we live in a world transformed by technology. And the pace of change has only increased and broadened in scope. Whole industries and professions have been disrupted and transformed – accounting is no exception.

So what is the state of play in UK accounting? Where is it going – and what are the accounting challenges it will present?

The rise (and rise) of cloud accounting

Tech’s transformation of accounting is further ahead than most accountants realise. Rod Drury, the founder of Xero, put it brilliantly: 

“Every small business, accountant, and bookkeeper now has a supercomputer working for them.”

It’s a bold statement – but also not entirely untrue. The capabilities of accounting software have increased enormously. Not just tax software either. We’ve now started to see the emergence of connected accounting platforms that consolidate and centralise the accountant’s entire workflow.

But none of these applications would work without information. This is where cloud computing has most directly altered the accounting profession. Through the cloud, accounting has seen a user data revolution. Information is changed, sent and manipulated in real time, from anywhere.

And it has dramatically altered the client-accountant relationship. Carpenter Box’s Nathan Keeley noted that cloud increases touch points with the client “by a factor of 10”. That’s because accounting software is creating a real time way of working, requiring a much more attentive accountant. 

To discover how you can become a real time accountant, book your free one-on-one demo of the connected accounting platform, Silverfin, here.

Artificial intelligence

Accounting’s data explosion has fed another – arguably more meaningful – revolution. For many years, artificial intelligence (or, A.I.) was confined to the pages of science fiction novels. But here in 2017, A.I. is quietly transforming accounting.

At its essence, A.I. is the ability of a computer program or a machine to think and learn. The developments in A.I. are spearheaded by the world’s biggest companies – and it has already started to seep into accounting.

Just look at the accounting chatbot Pegg, designed by Sage’s head of artificial intelligence Kriti Sharma. A.I. like this will enable accounting software to become more and more adept at tasks traditionally performed by a human accountant.

With developments like these, the trend of automation in accounting will only increase (probably exponentially).

The accounting challenges of technology

In 2015, NPR set the internet ablaze with its ‘automation calculator’. The calculator looked at specific jobs and estimated the likelihood that the role would be automated. Accounting came in at 93.5% likelihood of automation.

But wait! Don’t throw your hands in the air yet. Unsurprisingly, NPR’s diagnosis was pretty simplistic. As Deloitte’s future of work report points out, technological advances can and have eliminated some jobs. But – and this is crucial – it also creates others.

There’s no reason to suppose that this trend will not continue, says Deloitte:

“We cannot forecast the jobs of the future, but we believe that jobs will continue to be created, enhanced and destroyed much as they have in the last 150 years.”

The accounting challenges that technology presents aren’t necessarily a negative. In fact, it has already inspired the profession to new heights. As accountants’ use of technology increases, so has their ability to analyse, interpret and offer new insights.

Yes, it has never been more challenging to be an accountant. But – for those who get it right – it’s also never been more rewarding.

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On a surface level, it’s a strange one to ponder. But dig a little deeper, you’ll see what Lee was getting at. “Many clients do not really understand what you do for them. They know what outcome you produce. But what you actually do is a mystery,” wrote Lee.

“The client lets you loose on their data – you then do your stuff and the client gets their accounts, their VAT returns, tax returns, and so on.”

The accountant, in the popular imagination, is an almost Elven, mysterious creature. And the process is input and output. In truth, many accountants have grown accustomed to this relationship. But ask yourself this question:

Can this kind of client relationship persist in a digital world? And perhaps even more importantly: If it can’t persist, what comes in its place?

Now we get to the real reason why Lee asked the question to begin with: are you a magician or an accountant? We are living in a brave new world after all. Technology – such as DIY accounting software – has eaten into this way of working.

Your clients are now intricately involved in the process of accounts production and tax filing. Under Making Tax Digital, this trend will only increase. Clients have evolved and changed; in short, the magic show is over.

Accountants understand, though, that this doesn’t make them irrelevant. The task of interpreting data and offering sage business advice is more important than ever – but do your clients understand this?

It’s time for a new definition of client service

It’s now more important than ever that accountants not just understand their work – but know how to explain it.

Good client service isn’t just about timely tax filing and flawless accounts; it means being able to compress complex ideas into understandable bits of information – without talking down to your clients.

As the accounting mentor Heather Townsend put it: “Clients need to understand what you are doing for them. They don’t want to hire another expert to turn your reports into plain English. So, learn to communicate clearly, and adopt your client’s language when you report to them.”

How can tech supercharge your client service?

As an accountant, it would be easy to resent technology. It has, after all, disrupted what had become familiar and safe.

But that’s perhaps a simplistic way to look at it. As David Autor, the MIT economist, explains there’s a distinction between automation that substitutes labour and automation that complements it.

Technology has damaged the value of certain traditional roles of accounting. Yet it has also introduced the capability of being a connected, real-time accountant. It’s easier than ever to get the information you need to offer these services.

But it’s key that you remember here: It’s not the tech that’s important, it’s how you use it. If this sounds open ended and far removed from accounting as you know it – then yes, you’re right.

We’ve now firmly entered the era of real-time accounting.

Demonstrating value means exactly that: actively working with your clients, often at the drop of a hat and outside of the confines of traditional milestones (like the soon-to-be killed self-assessment period). Real-time accounting is a lot more than just January 31.

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If that Guardian headline is the question, then 2016 was the year the market definitively answered: “yes”. Now, the question isn’t whether we ‘should’ use cloud or not. It is: What’s going to happen now that cloud is increasingly the new normal? The cloud services company BCSG recently estimated that 8 out 10 British small businesses now complete some aspect of finance management in the cloud. With new applications constantly coming to market, each improving on cloud’s promise, this will shift from ‘some aspect of financial management’ to ‘all’.

Why? Because cloud accounting became:

• More cost effective than locally installed software packages.
• Provide greater ease of use.
• Can be used across multiple devices, offering the ability to be productive from anywhere.
• Now offer robust, dependable data security.

Combine these benefits with almost universal access to high speed internet and it’s not hard to see why cloud accounting finally blossomed as a commercial trend in 2016. So it’s worth taking the time to understand how to fit it into your practice. Here’s the key question:

If cloud accounting is the answer, what is the question?

Do you as an industry expert make an informed decision to choose the cloud as your accounting platform going forward based on industry trends and future proofing your firm? Or do you choose the cloud to help you become established as an industry expert in the first place? Chicken or egg, which comes first in your thought process? The famous research psychologist Gary Klein made a career out of studying how experts make decisions. For Klein, it was important that experts should never totally trust their gut. Instead, they should “take their gut as an important data point”. But then, he told McKinsey Quarterly in 2010,“you have to consciously and deliberately evaluate it, to see if it makes sense in this context. You need strategies that help rule things out”.

Accountants, as experts, have the ability to move far beyond just intuition. Of course, professional insight is vital – but it’s not the only pillar of connected accounting. The move to the cloud isn’t just another client fad to deal with, it’s the biggest, most potentially lucrative opportunity you’ve had in years.

Picture it: cloud accounting creates an automated, real-time supply of financial data from your clients.

When you plug into it, you move into the realm of expertise that Klein envisions. With cloud accounting, your intuition and professional experience become data points among many others. And that’s great news. All of that information can breed a level of insight that has never existed in accounting, not even a year or two ago

So what’s the next step?

All of that information creates a commercial hinterland just waiting to be explored. No more begging tardy clients for their papers, no more unkempt records. If you empower yourself with seamless access to that data, you are free to become a trusted advisor. The challenge is that the cloud market is much more diverse and dynamic market than the old accounting software world. It’s not just dominated by a few legacy systems. There are many offerings, allowing clients to indulge in a wider array of offerings. That’s why you, the accountant, will need to be more flexible than ever. It’s crucial that any software you use integrates seamlessly with your clients’ diverse offerings so you can connect to your client.

Otherwise, the promise of cloud accounting for accountants won’t live up to its potential.

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The robots are here

This past December I was invited by the EFAA, the European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for SMEs, to speak in Slovenia about the future of accounting in the age of digital innovation and new technology.

I spoke about new robotic applications in the field of accounting and the developments surrounding blockchain* & Bitcoin*. Why? Because I wonder: how many accountants have ever checked whether their clients have a Wallet with Bitcoins? Wake up! Those clients exist.

The fairytale world of accountants

As far as I’m concerned, it’s quite clear and has been for some time: when it comes to change and innovation, accountants and related software suppliers live in a fairytale world. Meanwhile, the outside world is undergoing a significant change.

In my opinion these changes are brought on by FinTech* solutions, and in particular by PSD2*. In this area I see it as an opportunity to develop new services and improve existing ones for our clients

However, the past couple of years PSD2 was not high on the agenda in terms of a Private Equity topic. That’s unfortunate, because consequently it was hard for accountants to bring the topic to attention within their firm. Not to mention actually investing in it. 

Will Small & Medium Businesses still need an accountant 3 years from now?

But ‘what-if’ the “simplistic” accounting needs of the SME will be fully automated within 2-3 years due to innovations in payment transactions? Is this a realistic scenario, or am I just trying to get your attention? Ever heard of Tellow.nl? It’s a one-stop solution for both banking and accounting for independent contractors in The Netherlands. An innovative product from a Dutch bank. Wake up!

And take Germany for example. If I look at how they work with the API*-platform figo.io, I really feel inclined to say that the ‘what if’ mentioned here above might not be so unrealistic after all. Figo.io is a platform that makes use of the first developments in the field of PSD2. The platform provides apps that can deliver real-time added value to the user, based on payment data (behavioral data), provided with consent of the user. Behavioural data can be a good indicator of future behaviour and decision making patterns. The possibilities for innovative services are endless, especially when combining financial data with non-financial data.

For companies like Google and Facebook (under Irish bank licence since October 2016), this behavioural data is long awaited. In the future they will be able to provide their users in the European Union with payment services directly on their Messenger application.

Is the accountancy industry asleep?

Banks view the rise of PSD2 and FinTech as a threat: possibly a part of their services will become redundant, and as a result there will be a need for new business models.

At the beginning of this article I stated: the world is undergoing a significant change. Is our industry still in a state of sleep when it comes to innovation? In our field of work we function based on the premise that the client needs us; for information, reporting and advice. It’s all about our specific corner of the playing field and the related services we offer. But as a result of innovation, (predictive) information is becoming directly available to clients. And then the key question occurs: in that case, what is the added value of the accountant? In the light of new technological developments, our right to exist is not unquestionable.

Will technology also rob accountants from their role as trusted advisor? 

Keeping the perspective of the business owner in mind: what does the business owner actually do at the bank? He pays invoices and from time to time he may need short term finance regarding his working capital. The business owner would turn to his accountant for these kind of matters. Right? Accountants collect the invoices and  combine them with payment data, but by the time that process is complete, the information is already outdated. The customer pays top price for this extra service, but is he satisfied? How will you earn your bread and butter as a  professional service provider when your client can satisfy his daily bookkeeping needs by simply using an app? 

There are some smart new banks out there like Bunq and N26 that have made payments via API available as an accounting solution. Call it ‘Bank connection 2.0’, if you will. This means that the business owner can upload or forward invoices to his accounting program and pay the invoice directly (on the actual date), without having to go through his bank for authorisation. Some providers of accounting software combine these data streams with a chatbot to provide liquidity advice for example; that way there is no need for the client to wait for advice from an “expensive” accountant. Besides bookkeeping, the accountant might also lose his advisory services at that rate!

Don’t be a sitting duck: offer innovative services now!

I cannot predict the future and answer the question if the SME accountant is on the brink of an ‘end-of-life cycle’ despite the digital transformation. All I can do is to offer some perspective. Patiently waiting to see what happens is not a good option, don’t be a sitting duck!

At 216 Accountants in the Netherlands we are continuously looking for innovative ways to offer added value and diverse services for clients. What about you? How are you facing the challenges ahead?

Martin de Bie is new technology & innovation advisor for 216 Accountants. At 216Lab based in Amsterdam, he is involved with innovative technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence and the consequences for the financial services and accounting industry.

*Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a type of electronic currency (cryptocurrency), and also the name of the open source software developed for use of this currency. Bitcoins can be stored in a Wallet or blockchain on a computer, mobile device or on cold storage (USB).

*FinTech: FinTech is a combination of the words financial and technology. The term includes all innovative financial products and services that simplify or speed up the way we use money. 

*PSD2: The Payment Services Directive (PSD, 2007/64/EC) is an EU Directive, administered by the European Commission (Directorate General Internal Market) to regulate payment services and payment service providers throughout the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA). The Directive’s purpose was to increase pan-European competition and participation in the payments industry also from non-banks, and to provide for a level playing field by harmonizing consumer protection and the rights and obligations for payment providers and users.

*API: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building application software. In general terms, it’s a set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software components. A good API makes it easier to develop a computer program by providing all the building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer. An API may be for a web-based system, operating system, database system, computer hardware, or software library.

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For Johnson, pilots already had to contend with an incredibly complex machine without engineers adding to the complications. KISS argues a key goal in any system or design is simplicity. Complexity, wherever possible, should be eliminated.

Accountants would do well to remember the KISS credo. In the past few years, a remarkable wave of software applications have flowed into the profession. Initially under the pretence of simplicity, but instead it has:

• Obscured a full view of a business’s whole by creating data silos
• Created disparate pockets of data
• Made it more difficult for accountants to demonstrate value

Businesses can’t get the whole picture

In business, the term ‘silo mentality’ suggests a tendency for different departments in business to separate from one another. Fixated on their respective niches, workers in their silos lose perspective.

Similarly, software silos can easily form within a business. Different, competing softwares automate different things, each one slicing a new chunk off from a business’s broader whole.

In short, it has become harder for a business owner to get the full picture.

The smart accountant uses tech to pool all this data and sketch a meaningful, cohesive picture of a business.

To tackle this:

• Forge connections between different pockets of data using a smart accounting platform.
• Use your expertise to identify the most relevant information at that moment.
• Package the information in a simple, visually stimulating way.

Using data to simply demonstrate value

The fracturing of data across different accounting packages makes it very difficult to demonstrate value.

To get the information needed to give specialist advice, accountants need to hurdle from software to software. It wastes time and detracts from the bigger picture.

Consolidating information into a central place facilitates the data analytics that’s going to make your services sticky, i.e. clients will return again and again.

As Mike Galarza noted on AccountingWEB recently, through smart use of tech “accounting firms are well placed to crunch unscalable mountains of data into new and valuable insights for their clients.”

“By using analytics to identify and mitigate risks, highlighting positive and negative trends, and taking on a far more advisory role, the accountant transitions from simple functionary in a business, to a well-respected consultant or mentor.”

Actions you can take:

• Pool your client’s data and information. You need every bit to offer insights and mitigate risks.
• Enable ‘decision simplicity’. Consumers decision to buy services ultimately comes down to “the ease with which they can gather trustworthy information”.
• Don’t just file accounts. Make full use of the information to assess where consumers are on their journey to success and guide them.

Make it simple for clients to reach out

In science and engineering, signal-to-noise ratio is a measure comparing the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. In accounting, there’s more ‘noise’ than ever.

The temptation may be to move between different niche software packages. But this detracts from meaningful client contact because you’re always treading water.

By taking all your client’s information and putting it all in one, easily accessible location, it simplifies client engagement. The information you need to create value in client meetings will be at your fingertips and easy to share.

• Smart use of technology means augmenting your skills, not replacing them.
• At all times: KISS. Simplicity during client contact is vital. Business people aren’t accountants, take it easy on them.
• Offer alternative ways for clients to reach you. Online meetings enable the regular, granular client contact you need to become a mentor.

We wrote a guide on how to add value to online meetings and what reports and insights to share, so feel free to download it for free.

Accounting’s red herring

Back in the era of compliance you didn’t need to explain anything. Accounting was transactional; input to output. This transactional, rather robotic work is precisely what DIY software has automated.

But it would be an error to call this accounting’s true digital transformation. As impressive as software’s impact has been on accounting, until now its implementation has been far from cohesive.

Instead, the rise of accounting software has created the machinery and information necessary to spark the real revolution: real time, advice led accounting augmented by concise, simple and specialist technology.

To return to Galarza, smart accountants are “looking into business strengths and weaknesses, cash flow, profits, risks and opportunities, and they now have the technology to give the needed insights to supercharge your efforts and help your company grow”.

That’s hard work, no doubt. But with intelligent technology, hard work has never been simpler.

If you would like to see a beautifully simple and comprehensive digital platform for accountancy firms in action, request a demo and we’ll organise a convenient time for an online demo of the award winning Silverfin platform.

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