New Zealand-based accounting firm MGI+MORE has been on a rollercoaster implementing AI into its practice and workflows, but the effort has paid off. It has significantly reduced the administrative burden faced by many of the CAs at the firm and lowered the amount of time it takes to complete everyday accounting tasks.

The group, which is one of New Zealand’s leading accounting networks with more than 200 team members, started trials after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the process has delivered significant benefits, it has also presented its share of challenges.

“Our journey with AI and automation began as part of a broader effort to enhance efficiency and streamline operations within the firm,” principal Megan Plumridge CA says. “We saw an opportunity to reduce the growing administrative workload and improve the way our various apps and systems interacted, aiming for a more cohesive and integrated tech stack.”

The initial idea was to put robotic process automation (RPA) in place, but the numbers didn’t add up for a firm of MGI+MORE’s size and the ROI just wasn’t there. However, interest in RPA remained, and the firm’s business performance manager, Matt Spencer, took it upon himself to learn about any tools available that would enable the business to create small automations on its own.

Getting the analytics and practice management systems right

Spencer’s automation work led him to create tools to smooth Power BI workflows. He developed dashboards using Power Automate, a boon for the firm because previously getting visualisations out of Power BI required someone to download reports from different sources, something Plumridge says was unsustainable.

“The need for a better set-up was clear – there was a reliance on someone downloading reports, errors could occur, or they would forget, or go on leave.”

Practice management was addressed with the rollout of Karbon. Getting Karbon up and running was a large and involved project, but once MGI+MORE got it in place, it began to realise the benefits of workflow management designed to guide the team in delivering repeatable work efficiently.

The firm also gained access to Karbon’s APIs (application programming interfaces) which gave it a way to incorporate data and enabled the development of automations sitting outside Karbon. This meant the firm isn’t restricted by Karbon’s product roadmap and can focus on building the most meaningful automations for its business.

“Amongst other things, we can ensure data is accurate and consistent across our app stack, and we can trigger activity and workflows based on activity across different apps. It really feels like the sky is the limit,” Plumridge remarks.

Change management is not the work of a day

When the firm implemented Karbon and its pre-defined workflows, it became clear that many people had their own ways of doing things and weren’t particularly interested in changing.

“This is where we experienced the steep learning curve that goes with change management,” Plumridge says.

Karbon’s customer service team helped here but the firm also put in the work, doing change management courses on LinkedIn Learning, and asking lots of questions. Plumridge says while team leaders put a lot of effort into change management, it was still a challenging transition and highlighted the importance of having highly motivated project champions to ensure the success of the changes.

Rosie the robot

The firm had also been working with business process automation firm Valenta, having a series of discussions about a bot idea they had, but felt it was too complex and mission critical for them to develop given their in-house expertise.

Valenta had just the tool, and ‘Rosie’, MGI+MORE’s internal robot was born.

“We had a grand idea around the automation of the basic steps that start an annual accounts compilation process. We worked with Valenta on defining what we wanted the bot to do and they did the build.

“Trialling Rosie on several jobs we finessed the process,” says Plumridge.

“Once working, we had the process re-engineered to run a similar process for management reporting jobs. This meant the team were focussed on the real value-add aspects to monthly or quarterly management reporting, rather than attaching support to workpapers.”

MGI+MORE developed Rosie and has since rolled out its capabilities to other offices in the +MORE group. This has meant Rosie is now working at capacity across the group on either annual accounts or management accounts jobs.

“Rosie isn’t just automation, she’s a mindset shift. She represents what’s possible when we rethink how work gets done.”

Lessons for other practices

“One of the key lessons we learned is you must start with solving your internal pain points, rather than just chasing shiny new tools,” Plumridge says.

“We also found adding to your app stack can create more problems than it solves. Why? You must consider how the new tools integrate with your existing ones.”

She says it’s also critical to value-price your work if you bring AI or other tech efficiencies into your workflow and not give the value away. But by the same measure, your team must also understand the value-pricing framework.

Plumridge also emphasises the need for great relationships with your key software suppliers and the requirement for having them provide a roadmap for their products.

And in terms of change management, it’s important to not assume your excitement for a project is matched across the team, she says. People have very different learning curves and comfort levels, and your change management plans need to account for that.

“At its heart, our journey has been driven by the curiosity of a team who believe there must be a better way,” says Plumridge.

For useful links and a press release on a global report on AI and the future of the chartered accountancy profession go to: ‘A Profession Poised for AI Transformation Demands Upskilling and Leadership’.

Acuity columnist Heather Smith FCA, presents a useful series of short videos showcasing how accountants can use AI in their everyday work, ‘Video Guide to Some Useful AI Tools for Accountants’.