Value-added accounting: How technology can strengthen your client relations

Clients don’t only come to you for help with accounting tasks, but they’re often looking for an extra piece of advice. It’s important to provide that extra insight – especially when onboarding new clients – as that additional touch enables you to embrace the trusted advisor role. Your clients will thank you for it.

However, this is unfortunately not always doable with ongoing, repetitive tasks filling up to-do lists. Instead, implementing technology and automating your manual processes can provide you with the freedom and time to either start or expand that advisory role.

Although many perceive accountancy to only be a heavy number crunching role, being a voice of reason and offering advice to clients is crucial to the job. And, as accountants are constantly undertaking more tasks, working towards deadlines, and offering a variety of new functions for clients, it is vital to have solutions to ease the process.

For accountants to make the most of their time spent with clients, streamlining the communication process can unlock new levels of potential. For example, enabling better access to financial data can enable accountants to see real-time figures and, in turn, build trusted connections with clients. With consistent and up to date numbers easily accessible for client meetings, or last-minute queries, having data available can help build those trusted client relations.

With automation and AI-powered accounting technology providing the most up to date information, clients will appreciate the next-level efficiency.

Technology doesn’t just provide clear and accurate data, it can also save accountants time that would otherwise be spent manually inputting data. For example, cloud-based accounting software and platforms can automate routine accounting tasks, such as data entry, transaction recording, and report generation.

Those hours once spent drawing out numbers from old receipts that were collected throughout the month can now effortlessly be extracted with technology. Imagine all the time you’d have to spare if you didn’t need to input receipts and expenses manually.

Introducing technology into accountancy practices enables your workflow to become more streamlined and manageable. By reducing manual intervention, you can rely on technology to improve overall efficiency in delivering results, letting you spend more time honing client services.

With new and improved processes in place, accountants can have a clearer view of financials, data, and the time saved to be able to utilise it best.  And best of all, technology can also give you the opportunity to explore offering more services, new insights, and the latest up to date compliance guidance.

An example of this could be using AI-powered technology to create tailored reports with accurate extraction of figures. AI can analyse vast amounts of financial data in a fraction of the time, which can also translate into a seamless presentation of financial information, giving accountants confidence in their data and helping them make informed decisions to best suit individual clients. Similarly, having a solution that enables seamless integration across a range of providers can ease the process of jumbled pieces of information across a range of tools. Instead, this will allow you to provide your clients with information all in one place, without the confusion.

Technology which helps accountants stay up-to-date with changing regulatory requirements, automating compliance processes, and reducing the risk of errors or penalties, could be the answer. Implementing technology can help with completeness of information, accurate recording of that information, and streamlined processes.  All of which can help reduce the risk of errors.

In a nutshell, with the adoption of accounting technology, accountants can analyse large volumes of financial data quickly and accurately, providing valuable insights to clients for informed decision-making. You no longer need to spend hours completing those tiresome manual tasks. Instead, you can focus on building relationships and guiding your clients with informative and accurate data.

With the help of technology at your side, now is the time to build on those value-added extras that will set you apart from competitors.

How H&T’s attestation process works with Chainlink for stablecoins to ensure not too many are minted. Credit: Harris & Trotter”