IT SERVICES FOR ACCOUNTANTS
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IT SERVICES FOR ACCOUNTANTS
Fortify Your Firm’s Defences With IT Services for Accountants
The working world of today is scarcely recognisable from those of bygone eras. We no longer rely on primly kept filing cabinets to store our papers, or a moleskin notepad to jot down the details of our working week. We’ve gone digital. Placing our trust in nebulous entities that are nowhere, yet everywhere; intangibles that facilitate the ways in which we conduct work.
The technological age is one of opportunity, businesses are able to thrive in a borderless, digital world. But, this does present new challenges. Your accountancy firm functions around your clients’ financial data, you have been entrusted with ensuring that it is safe and secure at all times. With cyber crime on the rise, this sensitive data has never been more at threat, and the ramifications of a successful breach – particularly for accountants – can be both financially, and reputationally, devastating.
Without the correct IT infrastructure in place, your firm places itself at risk. Not only can your IT ward off malicious threats, it can streamline operations, enhance productivity and, ultimately, boost revenues. It is therefore crucial that you partner with a trusted, expert IT provider, such as T-Tech, to ensure your IT systems are fully optimised.
Key Challenges Faced by the Accountancy Sector
Mobility
While the benefits of having a remotely deployed workforce are vast and wide-reaching, this does come with its own set of challenges. Data security is somewhat of watchword in the accountancy sector, unsurprising given the volumes of data that are produced, and the necessity to ensure it is well-guarded at all times. Accountants have been given the opportunity to be productive anytime, anywhere, but this does present potential security issues when using mobile devices. With a strong cyber security policy and solid governance, this needn’t be an issue.
Security
Due to the nature of the data stored by accountancy firms, they are automatically placed in the cross hairs of cyber criminals. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it is reported that accounting firms have seen a 300% increase in cyber attacks. As a successful data breach is a highly lucrative scalp for cyber criminals, it is of no surprise that during a time where employees were working remotely and often using unsecure networks, these figures soared. As many accounting firms are still operating remotely, or in a hybrid work environment, it is crucial that your cyber security posture is in impeccable shape.
Cloud
While the Cloud can be harnessed to revolutionise the ways your business operates, one challenge is having access to qualified resources who can manage, monitor, and configure these services. It is no longer possible for one person, or team, to be experts across all the technology a modern accountancy practice is running, while ensuring it is secure, robust, and fit for purpose. It is therefore essential, now more than ever, to seek the help of an IT Services provider to navigate the trials and tribulations of the Cloud.
Digital Service Delivery
We’ve all been on a digital transformation journey of some sort in the past couple of years. Digital service capabilities have expanded, particularly with the shift towards smart analytics, online collaboration tools, AI, robotics process automation, and intelligent automation. Expectations of accountants from their clients have become more demanding and fast-paced, which means accountants have had to adapt to the changing digital world.
The only way forward is to evolve or get left behind. Similar to how we’ve had to adapt to remote and hybrid lifestyles, accountants need to be seen to be keeping up whilst adding value.
Big Data
Big data is a term applied to large, varied, and swiftly flowing volumes of data into a business. In this day and age, more data is being produced than ever before on everything from customer behaviour to employee habits. The data can be structured or unstructured and due to its vastness and complexity it is:
A) very hard to draw conclusions from, but
B) very powerful when you do.
Making big data work for accounting practices can be tough. Accountants struggle with data that doesn’t talk between systems, or even still have the old-school paper-filing system. Firms are also edging toward having analytics dashboards and automated reporting, but their processes are often mismanaged from the start, and they are not centralised.
With all this data flying around there are also privacy and security concerns, not to mention legal challenges to be navigated. But with the right expertise, these challenges can all be overcome, and for the businesses prepared to tackle them, there are huge opportunities for accountants.
The tools available are allowing accountants to gain access to live dashboards of analytics across the whole practice and departments, showing data from KYC, to expenses, WIP, and financials. Then taking this a step further, they’ll be able to deliver this data in real time to the client, making the whole operation even more powerful.
For more information on the challenges facing accountancy firms, and IT services for accountants, check out recent eBook, IT Challenges, Trends, & Opportunities in the Accountancy Sector, today.
Business Benefits of Outsourcing IT Services
Mobility
Although with increased mobility your devices are more susceptible to harm, by having the correct IT infrastructure, you can ensure your devices are always protected against malicious threats. This could be through a number of different methods, such as:
- Mobile Device Management (MDM)
- Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)
- Cyber security solution
- Employee training
- And much more
By partnering with a trusted provider, such as T-Tech, your IT services for accountants are always taken care of. Providing your accountancy firms with all the tools you need to ensure your sensitive data is secure, we act as the first line of defence in protecting your systems.
Security
Your cyber security is paramount to the success of your accounting firm. As we’ve touched upon, cyber crime has risen in recent times, and it is now more essential than ever that you are well protected. IT services for accountants will ensure that you always have the most up to date, efficient technology solutions to support your business. With the proper cyber security posture in place, you’ll be well-positioned to fend off malicious threats, ensuring that your clients’ financial data is safe and secure, at all times. There are many precautionary steps to take to bolster your cyber security:
- Educate your workforce on serious cyber security threats and create a cyber security conscious culture with consistent training.
- Constant monitoring and updating of defences can help reduce risk and costs. There are lots of tools available for this.
- An internal audit can provide assurance on controls and policies to govern data privacy and security.
- Implementing an incident management plan will significantly reduce the risk of downtime.
Cloud
Cloud accounting is certainly the future. With much of the industry’s core apps already centred in the Cloud, it won’t be long before everything else follows suit. This is why T-Tech is striving to help make this happen for the sector as quickly as possible. By migrating to the Cloud, your accounting firm can benefit from:
- Increased ease of access, scalability, data sharing, and collaboration for your entire team.
- Significantly reduced up-front costs.
- Far fewer physical and logical space constraints.
- The basis for developing new products and services.
Digital Service Delivery
While the key components of digital service delivery may be tricky to come to terms with, by adopting the help of a trusted IT service provider, you can reap the rewards without having to do any of the heavy lifting yourself! Some of the many benefits of IT services for accounts are:
- Becoming sticky with clients is key, by delivering them insightful data via digital dashboards and reports.
- Adapting to expectations and being future-proof for the modern consumer, e.g. Gen Z. Baby boomers are a less predominant client going forward, so tech expectations in the future will be higher for the next generation.
- Using technology to enhance processes, whilst being user-friendly.
Big Data
With the support of an IT service provider, big data is no longer a challenge, rather an opportunity to propel your business forward. By leveraging the true potential of big data, IT services for accountants enables:
- Increased understanding of market conditions, forward planning, and risks.
- The opportunity to increase business effectiveness and lower process costs.
- Creates a level playing field for small businesses and larger organisations.
- Embracing tools such as Power BI to present digital dashboards for high-level work such as board packs and WIP. With this intelligent automation tool, data is immediate and can be pulled from various practice tools to create a single pane of glass for the customer.
T-Tech: Your Lighthouse in the Storm
T-Tech are accountancy specialists, with years of experience providing bespoke IT services for accountants. Our teams of experts are readily waiting to help you bolster your IT infrastructure and provide the exceptional service your clients expect and demand.
IT Strategy
Like with anything, strategy is key. You’re well-aware of this, your business doesn’t function based on potluck and opportunistically landing on your feet (although... this may be a part of it!), you have an intended purpose, and steps in place to ensure you achieve it. This is also true when considering your IT, it is essential that a well-conceived strategy is put in place. Find out more about our IT Strategy service.
Office 365/Microsoft 365
Staple-parts of any IT infrastructure, Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are extremely powerful tools. When untethered, and utilised to their full potential, both solutions can streamline operations, enhance collaboration with ease and adeptly manage the day-to-day running of your accountancy firm. To unlock the full potential of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 for your firm, read here.
Azure
Microsoft’s platform, Azure, consists of more than 200 products and Cloud-based services, each designed to mitigate and solve every day IT challenges. With highly customisable features, Azure can be tailor-made to suit your accountancy firm. For more information, head over to our site.
Cyber Security
In the ever-changing technological landscape, one constant remains. Your cyber security is of the utmost importance, especially as an accountancy firm. IT services for accountants are centred around your cyber security posture – due to the sensitive nature of the data you keep – and to undermine the significance of it, can be massively detrimental to your business. T-Tech's Cyber Security solutions have got you covered!
Data Management
As an accountant, you generate troves of data every single day. Now, this is no longer encumbering the office floor, or taking up precious room in your colleague’s desk, this is all stored online. “Out of sight, out of mind” is a commonly used proverb, but to adopt this approach to your data would be unfortunate to say the least. This data still needs to be managed. Find out how T-Tech can help with your data management.
Document Management
Much like data, as an accountant you create large volumes of documents in your day-to-day proceedings. A lot of which will contain highly sensitive information which has to be managed and appropriately stored. Discover how IT services for accountants, with T-Tech, can provide you with document management.
Practice Gateway
Traditional accountancy practices are hindered by a legacy of overly manual processes, underpinned by outdated, siloed systems that fail to provide the insight required. However, T-Tech's Practice Gateway is a single, centralized portal for unifying everything in one place while interacting between accountant and client from beginning to end. Explore the added benefits of Practice Gateway, from T-Tech.
Practice Automation
As an accountant, you may experience overly burdensome tasks throughout your day, distracting you from working on the projects that really matter. Practice automation is designed to alleviate the mundane, monotonous tasks that plague your day, leaving you with more time to focus on your core responsibilities.
Practice Intelligence
Native reporting systems are often static in content, meaning manual labour is required to update, change, or refine them., However, with T-Tech's Practice Intelligence, you can extract and unify information across your operational systems, which grants greater insight and analysis across all systems.
Want an IT Service Tailor-Made for You? T-Tech is Here to Help!
While it’s true that technology has - for the most part - shaped the world of work, it hasn’t been an overnight change. There are decades of development, new software, the inception of a solution more innovative than the last... there’s just so much of it. Without the help of experts, it can quickly become overwhelming; so why not grasp our outstretched hand?
We have been working with accountancy firms for years and we understand the common pain points. We know how to streamline your processes, which solutions will best fit your needs and can ensure that your bespoke IT service will be the perfect fit for you.