Many large firms, even the Big Four firms, are getting back into the bookkeeping business. This may seem counterintuitive for anyone who has been hearing about the “death of bookkeeping services” in recent years. Some say that bookkeeping is being made irrelevant by robots and artificial intelligence that automatically perform bookkeeping tasks. And it’s true that the actual work required to provide bookkeeping services has been greatly reduced, thanks to technology. However, the automation of bookkeeping is actually a fantastic opportunity for accountants.
It takes more than just technical know-how to successfully automate your firm's bookkeeping practice. Our research has shown that there are eight keys to success for bookkeeping automation. The eight keys to success for bookkeeping automation are:
- Appoint a Bookkeeping Automation Officer (BAO)
- Understand Your Bookkeeping Processes
- Adopt Incrementally to Ensure Long-term Success
- Use a Pilot to Build Your Business Case
- Manage Expectations; Don’t Oversell It
- Adopt Organically, but Make It Mandatory
- Provide Training to Reduce Resistance and Increase Adoption
- Adopt Value-Billing to Ensure Revenue Continuity
In this whitepaper, we’ll explain each of the keys to success in detail and provide practical examples of how each one affects the success of bookkeeping automation.
Original publish date: July 2017