Digitalising an accounting firm is a management responsibility

A sole practitioner and a firm with several hundred accountants may face very different day-to-day challenges. Yet in the AICPA’s 2026 survey, managing change driven by advances in technology and artificial intelligence ranked as the most important issue for the next five years across all six firm size categories. The survey by the US professional accountancy body drew responses from 629 accounting firm representatives.

For firm leaders, this responsibility extends beyond choosing software. They need to decide how to use new capabilities in everyday work, which skills their teams need and how to assess the results of a change. That requires visibility into work that the finished report does not reveal.

Technology also changes the accountant’s role

Alongside technology, the AICPA survey highlighted staff retention, recruitment and changing skills requirements. Larger firms were also concerned with using technology to improve client services.

As repetitive data entry decreases, the nature of the accountant’s work changes. Accountants can devote more attention to handling exceptions, checking results and answering clients’ questions. These tasks, in turn, require knowledge and judgement.

Every significant technological change therefore calls for a review of the employee’s role. Which activities will the software perform, what will the accountant check and when will they need a colleague’s help? This connects training to specific tasks and helps employees understand what the new way of working requires of them.

Software capabilities need to become shared working practices

For example, software may allow recurring purchase invoices to be processed automatically using a posting template. If this is used for only a few clients, other invoices that could be processed automatically will still be handled as before.

Firm leaders need to understand why practices differ. One client’s accounting may require a tailored approach. For another, the necessary settings may be missing, or an employee may not yet have started using the feature. A justified exception and manual work that persists through habit call for different responses.

Agreed working practices give the team a common starting point. Where clients’ needs allow, the same working methods, settings and templates can be used. Employees should help develop these practices because they know what works in everyday use and where exceptions arise. Clients also need to understand what information they are expected to provide and how it should reach their accountant.

Firm leaders need to recognise internal blind spots

A tax return filed on time shows that the work was completed. It does not reveal how many times a document had to be requested from the client, who needed to respond before the work could continue or how much earlier work needed correcting.

These are the firm’s internal blind spots. As long as deadlines are met, recurring extra work can go unnoticed by management. The completed return does not show how much time the team spends on this extra work. This makes it difficult to decide whether to change how the firm works with the client, improve internal processes or redistribute the workload.

A shared workspace and visibility into progress help identify the causes. If an invoice is awaiting approval, it becomes possible to see whose action is needed next. If the same obstacle recurs every month, there is reason to review the agreement or the relevant stage of the work.

Comparing time spent is useful only when the reasons behind the differences are understood. The complexity and quality of the work, along with the completeness of the information received from the client, all need to be considered. Work delayed by incomplete documents requires a different solution from work that takes longer because an available software feature is not being used.

The firm leader’s responsibility is to act on these differences. Sometimes a client needs clearer guidance; sometimes an employee needs support. A comparison may also reveal an effective working method worth sharing with the whole team.

Value grows with actual use

A shared workspace becomes more valuable when it supports most of the firm’s everyday work. Documents need to be accompanied by the relevant explanations and agreements. The next person working with the same client can then build on what is already known.

The same principle applies to the firm’s professional expertise. When an accountant finds an effective way to record a recurring transaction, this method can be saved in a shared template. A common chart of accounts and agreed accounting policies help colleagues use the same approach. One person’s effective method becomes part of the firm’s practice, making it easier for colleagues to take over work for that client.

A useful starting point is to choose one recurring stage of the work and review it with the team. Where is time spent searching for information, where are activities repeated and which existing software capability could help? The team can then agree on a change, assign responsibility and set a time to review the results.

Digitalisation delivers value for firm leaders when it helps them understand where their team’s time goes, distinguish between the causes of recurring problems and apply effective solutions across the firm.

The client dashboard in Trigon Partner helps firm leaders monitor the status of work for each client and identify work that needs attention. Shared accounting settings and templates support agreed working methods throughout the firm, with document management, accounting and automation in the same environment. Book a Trigon Partner demo.