Winning the race for talent - 3 reasons why firms must invest in tech

Andrew Bone - CEO and Co-Founder of Dayshape

Accountancy practice management software has come a long way. Today, features like automated billing and reconciliations are easily integrated into the day-to-day practice workflow of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK customers.

Our employees work side by side with our customers to create and manage these solutions – driven by a deep understanding of their needs and addressing the rapid changes in their environment.

However, it’s often hard to look beyond improving performance in day-to-day operations. Amid Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptions, accountancy practices and their clients are dealing with an unpredictable economic landscape. Future business planning can appear daunting.

However, technology can support accountancy practices (and their clients) in making informed business decisions, and planning for the future. In the first part of our Accountancy Practice Management for Future-Fit Growth series, we’ll explore how they can use technology to define and easily track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Doing so gives practices closer control of performance tracking, and deeper insights that will inform strategic growth plans.

Saving Time

For several decades, business technology platforms have enabled practices to track performance metrics that they have customised. This highlights areas that qualify for improvement and underpins strategic planning.

Contemporary technology, such as CCH KPI Monitoring, makes setting up KPIs faster and easier for accountancy practices than ever before. This is vital today. The current business landscape demands that firms assess and amend KPIs more frequently, based on fresh market variables. KPIs such as client retention rate and business time-to-recovery have become increasingly prominent performance indicators in the past year. If clunky technology makes KPI management difficult, practices have less time and insight to plan future growth.

Reducing Risk
CCH KPI Monitoring makes it far easier to track KPIs and report on them. This is fundamental in minimising risk. For example, if a KPI is set to track and escalate debt filtered by overdue dates, the ability to easily set alerts and automatically generate reports is critical to practice performance management.

Some practices are manually running monthly reports to measure KPIs. Others are running real-time reporting engines, a key feature of CCH KPI Monitoring. This latter solution allows practices to review essential data at any time – covering both performance management and compliance requirements. They can do so remotely or on-premise.

This means that firms can assess issues before they become problems, and thus act proactively. Real-time reporting is a true asset in building a future-fit practice.

The Proof is in the Practice
A number of Wolters Kluwer customers have been using CCH KPI Monitoring for several years now. Our customers look to us when they need to be right. Ryecroft Glenton has successfully integrated CCH KPI Monitoring with its own system. This consolidates information from several sources, including CCH Central and CCH Practice Management.

“We can use the year end date to trigger a sequence of reminders. Have we asked for the books? Have they been received? If a request to a client has been outstanding for a certain period, the partner will receive an alert via email. For limited companies, we can monitor the corporation tax and Companies House filing deadlines – as well as the different deadlines for pension schemes”

– Ian Smith, partner at Ryecroft Glenton

Corporate events agency who benefited from greener graphics initiative

“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”

Corporate events agency who benefited from greener graphics initiative

“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”

Corporate events agency who benefited from greener graphics initiative

“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”

Corporate events agency who benefited from greener graphics initiative

“Apogee are not just aprinting company, theyconsult with us and go onto deliver a full end to endservice from concept toinstallation. They go aboveand beyond and we lookforward to continuing ourjourney with them”

The accountancy profession is facing disruption from all directions. The ongoing skills shortage and the race to secure talent is having a profound impact across the industry. Faced with the ongoing cost of recruitment and the impact of replacing people, firms at all levels have recognised the need to overhaul their retention strategies and enhance their employee offering.

A key theme to emerge has been the need to embrace technology as a way to increase flexibility, reduce burnout, and make people’s working lives easier. We asked industry thought leaders to share their perspective on why firms must prioritise their people and invest in the right technology to support them.

1. Firms cannot attract talent with compensation alone
Firms are recognising that they cannot sustainably compete on compensation alone. A top concern for firms competing for talent is keeping on top of the right technology and solutions to support, manage, and enable their teams. With their skills in high demand, talented individuals can be more selective and match potential employers against their wants and expectations. To attract and retain talent firms must continue to proactively embrace technology with the employee experience in mind.

“My advice would be to think long-term but act now. Talk to your employees, ask them what they actually need and what changes to systems, culture, or processes would help to make their lives better, feel compelled to do their best work, and valued enough to stay.”
Jeffery Hales, Chair of SASB Standards Board

2. Firms will not retain the top talent with outdated systems
Employees, and digital natives in particular, are less likely to be attracted by outdated systems, ‘hand-me-down tech,’ and unnecessarily manual processes. A talented and ambitious accountant looking to advance is unlikely to find fulfillment if limited to working on low value, repetitive tasks. Talented individuals should be equipped with the right software and systems to allow them to work efficiently and recognise the value oftheir work.

“To succeed in today’s market, firms should make investments in the right technology and systems to support and enable a high-performing culture. Without that, teams will continue to be burdened with manual tasks that could be solved via automation. If high-performing individuals see that the work they are doing is not as valuable as it could be, they will seek opportunities to progress their careers elsewhere.”
Carsten Nielsen, Partner at KPMG Denmark

“Establishing a process and expecting it to age gracefully is no longer a viable model due to the changing nature of your workforce. The ability to evolve with your workforce is key to creating a sustainable process that can scale with the growth of your organisation as well as with the personal growth of your people.“
Christine Robinson, Resource Management Director at Baker Tilly US

3. Firms must do more with less without putting the burden on teams
A report from Hays showed that 19% of firms admitted that their organisation does not have the talent needed to achieve its current business objectives. This means that firms must continue to drive efficiencies and plug existing skills gaps while minimising the impact on their teams to avoid burnout. For this reason, the need to embrace automation (and do more with less) is at the forefront for firms.

To win the race for talent and succeed in today’s market, firms must make investing in the right technology a priority. Deployed in the right way and within the right culture, technology can reduce the burden on teams, allow them to be more productive, and enable them to deliver more valuable and strategic work. By listening to and addressing the needs and daily frustrations of their teams, firms can cultivate a better and more competitive employee experience.

Read the full insight report to discover how leading firms are using people-inspired initiatives to attract and retain the talent they need to succeed.

About Dayshape
Dayshape is an AI-powered planning and scheduling platform developed specifically for accountancy firms. With over 30,000 global users across 20 countries, including two of the Big Four, Dayshape is leading the way in resource and engagement management software innovation.

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