In 2025, rapid advancements in technology, shifting global economic conditions and an increasing demand for talent will continue to reshape the accounting profession. While these factors may pose challenges, they also open doors for growth and innovation.

We spoke to four Xero partners about what lies ahead for them in 2025, and to gain insights and guidance on how to navigate the opportunities and challenges.

What are you hoping to achieve with your practice in 2025?

“We’ve focused on building a brand that appeals to a younger client demographic, particularly online businesses and startups."

“In 2025, we’re exploring ways to further engage this audience, which might include a continued strong social media presence, hosting events, experimenting with educational formats or even trying innovative approaches like online publicity stunts.”

What are the biggest opportunities/challenges for the accounting industry?

“The talent shortage remains a challenge, especially managing expectations around flexibility, pay and work arrangements for younger demographics. It’s a gradual process to find balance.

“While it might be hard to find talent from this demographic, they also bring something different to the table, whether it’s the way that they communicate or their flexibility, or how personable they are with clients.”

Mauro is not alone in seeing a talent shortage as a key factor that will continue to affect the accounting profession in 2025. According to Xero’s Reshaping accounting and bookkeeping report, 65% of firms have experienced challenges with finding and keeping the right staff recently.

What’s one Xero feature or tool accountants should use in 2025?

“Xero offers a payment link feature, making it easier for clients to pay – it’s useful for quick communication through platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp because some clients can be hard to reach via email.”

What do you hope to achieve in your practice in 2025?

“We’re looking to expand through additional services and add some new team members, even though it’s a challenging economy."

“We look for people with exceptional skill sets who are passionate about a certain area and then we try to create roles tailored to them – that way we can match them with our clients.”

What are the biggest opportunities/challenges for the accounting industry?

“One challenge is finding people who have life experience to complement their accounting skills. We are 50% advisory and 50% compliance. We can teach tax, but we can’t teach someone what it’s like to run a café or a store.

“Another challenge is the economy and the cost of living. By necessity, that’s driving opportunities for businesses to reevaluate how they’re doing things because the moment you’re constrained, you have to start thinking a little bit differently about why and how you do things.”

What’s one Xero feature or tool accountants should use in 2025?

“The new Xero Client Insights tool is a standout feature. It gives you an overview of sales and cash flow for all clients using Xero in one dashboard, so you can see who might need some assistance. Coupled with reconciliation data, we can also assess the reliability of the data. It’s a game-changer.”

You’re part of Xero Mentor Match. What do you hope to get out of the program?

“It’s something I’m very passionate about because you can’t be what you can’t see. Historically, there haven’t been many female-led practices.

“I’m an advocate for empowering other people to run their own businesses in their own way, with their own values, where they can back themselves.”

Xero’s report found that 96% of accountants and bookkeepers who have had a mentor say it has helped advance their career. Xero Mentor Match is your chance to build connections, whether you’re looking to inspire your peers or learn from industry-leading role models.

What do you hope to achieve in your practice in 2025?

“We are going to focus on continuing with revenue growth, but also look for career growth opportunities."

“We want to look at the hard stuff – asking both clients and staff what they want in life. Then, we challenge them by asking, ‘If that’s what you want to achieve, then why are you waiting to get started?’”

What are the biggest opportunities/challenges for the accounting industry?

“The biggest challenge is also tied to opportunity. By leveraging technology to increase efficiency, businesses can maintain the same team size and get more done, or use the saved time to create more engaging work for their employees.

“The real challenge for 2025 is working out how to make the most of that efficiency to cover the cost of the technology you have implemented.”

Rapid advancements in technology are creating many opportunities for accounting practices, especially those that develop their advisory offerings. It’s a smart move; according to Xero’s Reshaping accounting and bookkeeping report, three in five practices offer advisory and 73% agree that tech plays a role in their expanded offerings.

What’s one Xero feature or tool accountants should use in 2025?

“Offering customers as many ways to pay as possible is a smart strategy. The Xero Pay Now feature lets clients pay you directly from an invoice in the way that suits them. It takes them directly to a secure payment page and all the payments are recorded in Xero.”

What do you hope to achieve in your practice in 2025?

“We’ve expanded the practice rapidly so, for the first half of 2025, we’re going to look inward. We’ve got a great tech stack in place, so we’re looking to optimise our tech to free up capacity and improve visibility of our performance.”

What are the biggest opportunities/challenges for the accounting industry?

“As predicted, AI is reducing the time we need to spend on manual tasks, so we can focus on helping our clients.

“There’s huge potential with Just Ask Xero (JAX), which integrates automation directly into Xero. With JAX, I know where the data originates from, and it’s a secure Xero environment.”

What’s one Xero feature or tool accountants should use in 2025?

“Definitely Xero Client Insights. It’s a dashboard that lists all clients, allowing accountants to filter by criteria like unreconciled items or overdue accounts receivable/payable. It helps us identify issues quickly, so we can reach out proactively.”

You can  sign up for Xero Mentor Match, to build connections and learn from other accounting professionals: xero.com/au/programme/mentor-match