there are a few barriers hindering expansion.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
when the thomson reuters 2024 state of tax professionals survey asked 500 professionals in tax and accounting firms what their top priorities were, client services came in fourth, behind efficiency/automation, talent retention/hiring, and pricing/revenue.
more: revenues rising as pricing models evolve | 150 credit hours: helping or hindering? | can’t recruit? retain! | the accountant as a strategic business partner | report: efficiency still the top priority for accounting firms | is tech causing both cpa shortage and low salaries? | audit firms nervous about new tech | what accountants can learn from t-ball | staffing tops list of woes at cpa firms | to replenish the talent pipeline, go back to the classroom | beware the work-life/workload doom spiral | why the dry pipeline? it’s about time
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
note how the top three all might be included in a category called “getting your act together.” they basically deal with fine-tuning the accounting firm machine.
putting that machine to work aims at offering more or better client services and, the fifth priority, growing the practice.
but that doesn’t mean client services are unimportant. quite to the contrary, they have never been more important. and that’s why there’s so much emphasis on efficiency, talent and pricing.
the encroachment of ai
if automation is top priority, it’s because it can help solve the talent problem – the shortage of available professionals – while opening an opportunity to deploy new pricing models, offer new services and expand business.
automation is key because it can already perform many lower-order tax prep functions. as artificial intelligence grows out of its infancy, it will encroach on more administrative areas, including research, communication and information technology.
as tax pros get squeezed out of their rote, low-skill functions, they will be free to (free to or have to) offer a new range of advisory services.
so the question is: what will those services be?
upselling to current clients
generally speaking, business assistance is the wide-open field. according to 66 percent of survey respondents, that’s what clients want, and they want it a lot. most of the rest – 29 percent – just want their taxes done.
what kinds of business assistance are firms upselling to current clients?
logically, firms are expanding from tax prep to tax strategy. almost three-quarters have been doing so for a while, and another 18 percent plan to start within a year. it’s logical because the skills overlap, and new talent and additional training aren’t quite so necessary.
the next logical step is financial planning. it’s still a function involving numbers and the movement of money, but it’s far from instinctive for accountants. only 19 percent of respondents are “very confident” that their firms can do it well. it’s a different ball game – ping pong vs. tennis? – so a good 15 percent of all firms – and 38 percent of small firms – aren’t getting into it. another 42 percent are at least a little reluctant.
decision support services are about as popular as financial planning, though 55 percent of clients are interested in it. overall, 53 percent of respondents rank it as one of their top two services, but it’s only 45 percent of small firms, as opposed to 75 percent of large firms.
hr/organization issues aren’t in much demand. with just 20 percent of clients interested in having an accounting firm help, between two-thirds of small firms and three-quarters of large firms do not plan to expand into that area.
esg (environmental social governance) advisory is even less in demand. very few small firms plan to offer this service, though almost 20 percent of midsize firms and 27 percent of large firms are currently offering or planning to offer it.
the barriers
there’s plenty of potential new business out there, but there are a few barriers hindering expansion.
- lack of expertise is the top-ranked barrier for most services, including financial planning and especially hr/organization issues. as one respondent puts it, “accountants are unable to give financial planning advice without the proper qualifications.”
- lack of staff is the primary obstacle in decision support and business consulting.
- time constraints, which are linked to the staff problem, are a significant barrier, especially in decision support and tax strategy. as one respondent says, “i have enough work. i don’t want to spread my time too thin and not be able to be effective.”
- regulation constraints aren’t much of a problem except in hr issues.
- insufficient demand is a negligible problem in all areas. the demand is out there.
the thomson reuters institute’s view of expansion into new services is “as the task of rote tax preparation is taken over by automation and ai, many firms and even solo practitioners, simply as a matter of survival will have to diversify their service offerings. and everyone – from firm leaders to clients – seems to know that.”