The rise of accountancy robotisation
From the perspective of SME’s, speed is the number one desired trait in accountants according to recent research carried out by Exact. However, even those firms that have succumbed to using technology or online accountants to speed up their internal financial operations are wary of the ‘robotisation’ of their organisation.
A large proportion of the accountants surveyed have recognised IT and software knowledge as the most vital areas for development (37%) above technical accounting knowledge and communication skills in order to keep up with the changing environment in which they operate.
As many as 67% of SMEs have honed their efforts towards improving their integration with admin software, becoming a paperless business (62%) and improving working from home functionality (43%) over the past year. With the number of online accountants tripling since 2015 and a large drop in spreadsheet accounting to just 20% as of 2016, 23% of those surveyed believe that automated competitors would pose a real threat.
However, according to the customers of the SMEs, only 10% would trust a robot to do their accounting and 60% of the individuals surveyed believe that ‘robotisation’ is a very real issue that is undoubtedly on the rise. That said, according to Gary Turner, Xero UK’s managing director, “The power of being a financially literate professional will never go away.”
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