COVID-19 highlighted many growth opportunities, particularly as they relate to business’ tech stacks and practices therein. As seen in a recent study, business owners that used cloud accounting technology during COVID showed a higher likelihood to thrive during the pandemic; unfortunately, additional data shows that 56% of small businesses globally do not use an external accountant or bookkeeper. The industry has reached a pivotal point in which accountants and bookkeepers need to prioritize having a more holistic cloud-based approach in order to help small businesses digitize and grow their business. There is a prime opportunity to help business owners leverage the right tools and technologies that save them time, improve operations and empower them to do what they love to do - while facilitating growth and building client relationships that last long into the future.
Enter client accounting services (CAS)
CAS is not entirely new, but it is more timely than ever. Traditionally, we have seen larger firms offer CAS services to their bigger clients. However, as many firms saw throughout the pandemic, the array of client needs was never more pressing — from navigating government assistance to negotiating collections and payments. Today, we see a tremendous opportunity for firms to help bring CAS services downmarket and better reach the millions of small businesses that make up the backbone of the US economy.
The ABCs of CAS
CAS is an evolution of the core bookkeeping services that many accountants and bookkeepers have long offered to businesses – with an expanded level of advice as client needs become more intricate than tax filings. CAS is any service outside of filings and audits that helps business owners meet their accounting compliance obligations and gain valuable insights into their businesses’ financial performance. This positions the business owner to make better business decisions and the accounting professional or bookkeeper to further increase their value to the client.
When thinking about how to implement CAS services at your firm, step one should be building the right tech stack to help clients improve both operations and their business practices. The firms that implement CAS are the most successful when using the following:
- Documents and data processing apps. These encourage streamlined processing of client documents such as bank statements, bills and invoices.
- Dashboard and reporting apps. These allow accountants to build customizable reports and dashboards to show their clients valuable financial information about their business.
- Client engagement apps. These ensure the client engagement process is seamless, including that related to engagement letters, client invoicing & e-payments processing.
An important point to take note of is that the accounting firm and the client will have different tech requirements so the “stacks” will vary. A firm's tech stack will be a culmination of the tools they use to work on their client's businesses, but a clients’ tech stack will be a culmination of the tools they use to run their business. Keep in mind the underpinning of both will be the accounting platform, so it’s essential to find a partner that can help build a digital ecosystem that supports the needs of both.
The move to digital, combined with a complicated economic inflection point, has presented a unique gap and growth opportunity for accountants and bookkeepers – and as a result, offering the combination of cloud technology and human advice is no longer a nice to have but a need to have. Small businesses have had to deal with a large amount of “do it yourself” moments throughout COVID, trying to keep their businesses afloat with little external help. It’s time for accountants and bookkeepers to embrace a “do it together” approach by evolving their core offerings, and becoming more holistic advisors to help business owners gain a competitive edge in the process.
Author Bio: Latisha Carter is Head of Partner Services at Xero where she oversees a team focused on regional and enterprise partner consulting, practice tools implementation, and voice of customer and industry evangelism. Prior to joining Xero, Latisha spent 19 years at Sage where she held different positions across marketing, sales and professional services.