The accounting industry is always rapidly changing. Today, it’s becoming increasingly more challenging for accountants to operate due to increased competition, adhering to fast-evolving regulations, adapting to new technological changes, and meeting increased client demands. Accountants need to take the right measures in order to stay afloat. It’s important to find ways to operate more efficiently by reducing manual processes and free up time to focus on other higher-priority work. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the main challenges affecting accountants today.

1. Staying on Top of Fast-Evolving Regulations

In many industries, especially healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, and finance, there are many standards and regulations organizations must adhere to. With new regulations and updates to existing ones, it poses a challenge for accountants to stay on top of everything. Accountants and their clients need to explore and evaluate ways to quickly stay updated on current regulations. Utilizing technology, such as accounting solutions, will inform you on new legislation or changes to existing ones and automatically apply them to your processes, so you are compliant to industry standards.

2. Meeting Deliverables in Less Time

Of course, accountants need to accomplish a lot within tight deadlines. There are always new firms using automated tools to complete more work in less time. In order to keep up with the new competition, try automating your processes through accounting software! It will help you operate more efficiently. You will be able to meet your deadlines with time to spare! By minimizing your manual and tedious tasks, you can focus on the things that require more care instead. 

3. New Technology and Innovation Changes

Modern. new technologies and innovations are always entering the marketplace. Organizations who adopt new technology tend to outperform those who don’t. But even new technologies that help with efficiency can pose a daunting task. It can take some extra time and effort to adopt the new technology and its processes, but in the long run, it will be worth the investment. With new technology, you can:

• • Reduce manual tasks and human error
  • Automate processes to work more efficiently
  • Have better visibility into essential business data in one central location
  • Generate quicker results / Improve performance, sooner
  • Establish greater collaboration with stakeholders

Before tackling new technology, make sure to evaluate your needs and ensure that the solution fits your requirements. You don’t want to invest in a solution that is so cumbersome that it doesn’t help your business. To find out how you can choose a perfect solution for your organization, take a look at our blog, Six Key Areas to Consider When Choosing a Payroll and HR Solution. 

4. Changing Demand and Increasing Competition

Clients’ needs are ever-changing, especially with new regulations and technologies that come up. Pair that up with increased competition in the marketplace and clients will be expecting a lot more than just the basics from their accountants! To stay on top of their rapidly-changing responsibilities, accountants need to be able to focus on the highest value-added tasks. That can be difficult with their typical day-to-day activities. By finding ways to minimize manual effort and eliminating repetitive tasks, accountants can save time to focus on higher priority tasks instead. Accountants can use innovative technology to automate tasks and streamline processes to accomplish this,  so it’s definitely an area to consider.

5. Cyber-Security Threats

With a great reliance on technology, there is an increasing number of cyber-attacks, targeting various industries for employee and company information. Accounting information is an especially large target, because it can contain high-value data, such as bank account numbers and credit card information. Accountants need to be able to protect their data and ensure they are taking proactive measures to prevent such attacks the most they can. Accounting software is a safe solution to store your confidential information, but simply just using a tool isn’t enough. Follow these steps to make sure your sensitive data is secure:

• • Always keep your accounting software up to date
  • Limit access to sensitive data to authorized users only
  • Move your financial records to the cloud. The cloud is more secure than traditional data centers, according to Gartner. 
  • Remove unnecessary records from your files, such as old financial records or information from former clients

These are some of the biggest challenges facing accountants today and it’s important to find ways to tackle them in order to provide your clients with the best service. Automating processes and reducing manual work to operate more efficiently and put more focus on the most value-added tasks is a step in the right direction. Investing in technology is a powerful start to helping you alleviate these challenges and greatly improve your performance.