Tax and Tax Audit Services Need More Automation

While the April tax deadline is the highest theme on accounting firms’ minds this week, accountants must work equally hard to prepare for the audit services that will assume the highest level of importance in the weeks and months beyond the tax deadline, according to Avii. Avii is the provider of Avii Workspace, the Unified Workspace for accounting firms.

Research data for the Big 4 firms shows Audit and Advisory being the biggest source of revenue for three of the big firms. (The one exception, Deloitte, is remarkably strong in Advisory Services, making it the single largest earner of even the big four.) In every case, notes Lyle Ball, Avii co-founder and CEO, these outcomes speak to the reasons the Accounting Service industry has grown steadily over the five years to 2019, buoyed by economic growth, rising equity markets and an increasing number of new businesses, according to research. In all, revenue for accounting services is estimated to have reached nearly $114 billion at the end of 2019.

“Although accounting is one of the sectors with the highest needs for efficiency, accuracy and specialized workflow and automation, it has been insufficiently supported by software solutions to date,” Ball notes.

“The need for better tools is important for all practices, but particularly important for the vast and underserved market of more than 10,000 accounting practices that employ 20 or fewer Certified Public Accountants,” Ball continued. “One recent report indicates that many owners of the smallest practices earn no more than if they were working as a senior accountant in a traditional job,” he said. “Avii can give these practices a significant boost by providing them with automation and efficiency that has been unavailable or cost prohibitive in the past.”

In all, these findings point to the accelerating need for automation and efficiency in accounting platforms. Avii is an increasing answer, says Ball, who has recently guided Avii’s first external funding event to accelerate growth in accelerating the arrival of better solutions in every aspect of accounting, but particularly in answering the need for efficiency and excellence in audit services and the review and preparation of financial statements to prepare and support successful funding events and preparations for IPOs.

“All signs point to the growth and the pressure on the accounting services sector through 2020 and beyond,” Ball said. “Organizations and accounting service providers at all levels should prepare now to increase their efficiencies and abilities to meet these needs, not only to keep pace with client demand, but to gain further strength in this increasingly competitive market. Staying on par is no longer enough – at every size, firms must increase their capabilities in order to grow.”

In the coming year, Avii anticipates growing by as much as double, as it continues to add new capabilities to its unified platform as well as additional integration with familiar applications such as Box, Microsoft’s One Drive and XCM and in an upcoming announcement will introduce support for Microsoft Office 365.

“Avii Workspace provides a suite of apps across four service areas of Client Portal; Secure Document Exchange; Projects, Tasks and Workflows; and Resource Planning. With these integrated apps, we’re helping practices of every size become stronger and more profitable in answering their customers’ growing audit, advisory and consulting needs,” Ball continued.

For more information about the Avii Workspace platform and its functionality developments, readers can visit www.Avii.com.