Australia’s economic outlook for the rest of 2023 remains unpredictable, with a raft of global economists and surveys split on how far a potential global recession and spiralling inflation will drag down the country.

For accountants helping struggling small and mid-sized businesses weather the storm, the next few months are set to be particularly stressful, but that doesn’t mean they should abandon plans for growth, according to one industry expert.

“What we know from past downturns is that challenging economic environments are the making of some businesses, and this also holds true for accounting practices,” Dave New, Managing Director, APAC for Ignition tells Acuity. “The key to thriving during such a period is to constantly be seeking out further growth opportunities.”

Harnessing those opportunities means focusing on existing clients with tangible projects likely to close fast, and recruiting new ones with robust growth strategies.

Freeing up time

“Even in a downturn, businesses need their finances to be in order,” New says. “So it’s more crucial than ever that they have an efficient client engagement and payments platform that takes care of admin while they focus on the big picture.”

New says that too many senior employees in accounting firms still get bogged down in complex tax reporting, onboarding new clients and manual payroll practices. All of this means they don’t have enough time for the most important response to a downturn: broadening their range of services.

“Identifying diversification opportunities is essential for long-term competitiveness in the face of economic uncertainty,” he reveals. “But before you take that first step, you must bring automation to the forefront of the customer journey to make your team more productive and working at full capacity.”

It also frees up time to strengthen relationships with clients and offer them additional premium services. And if the client engagement end-to-end process is handled by automation, it eliminates awkward discussions about fees and the danger of scope creep.

Team players

A common misstep when embracing digitalisation is not taking staff on the journey.

“It’s not so much a change as a transformation, and every department will be affected. The team will be able to contribute ideas for how data can be used and potential new avenues of revenue.

“It’s not so much a change as a transformation, and every department will be affected.”

“The collective learnings will be crucial in formulating strategy and also improve workplace culture.”

Another reason why buy-in from across the business is vital is the fear that digitising is a threat to jobs. “This isn’t necessarily the case,” New argues. “It’s actually an opportunity for upskilling and career development, and the cost efficiencies prime the business for growth.”

And that growth through diversification has another benefit for accountants – it makes them more influential and more essential to their clients. “There has been a seismic shift in perceptions. Accountancy was once seen as a useful service to do the numbers, whereas now accountants are increasingly seen as trusted advisors.”

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Ignition has helped over 6,000 accounting firms around the world and has just celebrated 10 years of business in Australia. To learn more about Ignition’s award-winning client engagement platform, along with your member benefits, visit info.ignitionapp.com/caanz-acuity. Easily remain compliant in your engagements by accessing the latest CA ANZ engagement letter template in Ignition’s platform.