Why It’s Sexy to Be a Cloud Accountant

July 22, 2014 Yoseph West

When one thinks of accountants and bookkeepers, it’s often of the prototypical person in a dimly-lit room, wearing a visor, pencil in ear, plugging numbers into a typewriter-esque accounting machine.

But no more. Accounting, I can now say with confidence, is sexy. I’m just as surprised to write that as you are to read it!

The fact is the future has arrived and has brought with it modern, beautiful software in the cloud. And, this future has enabled a number of truly exciting opportunities.

1. Cloud accountants and bookkeepers can work from anywhere!

We often have calls with accountants who just spent a month working from the beach in Brazil, or at a lakeside house in New Zealand.

Thanks to cloud software there is significantly less need for face-to-face meetings with clients. Most cloud accountants and bookkeepers give their clients a checklist of documents and information they need to perform their services and that’s their main need for client contact.

From that point, they often check in once a quarter to once a year to let their clients know that everything is running smoothly and to see if there’s anything else they can help with.

2. More $$ per client than ever before.

In the old days, accounting and bookkeeping was all about the billable hour. The more time you put in, the more revenue you’d generate. This meant that to build a million-dollar+ revenue practice, you had to add bodies and attract a significant number of high value clients.

This has changed completely. The model is focused on a high volume of low-touch clientele at reasonable, fixed prices.

Instead of leveraging more bodies, modern practitioners are leveraging technology to maintain the books and deliver accounting services at extremely high levels of efficiency. Combining this with a minimal need for face-to-face client contact, today’s cloud accountants and bookkeepers are scaling their practices with unprecedentedly low head counts. They’re taking on more clients and generating more revenue with a lower cost basis. Higher revenue per client and per staff member. This isn’t your grandparent’s accounting practice!

3. No more data entry!

In the past, a bookkeeper’s work involved a lot of data entry – probably the least sexy aspect of the accounting world.

With the advent of bank feed technology, where data from a client’s bank statement connects directly into their accounting system, there’s become an aversion in the marketplace to paying for data entry work.

Modern practitioners are leveraging software-as-a-service tools, like Xero, Hubdoc, and more, to automate this manual work, increasing their efficiency.

They’ve said goodbye to data entry (at least as much as they can)!

4. Last but not least – They are a go-to source for strategic & operational advice.

Business operations have challenges which range from strategic challenges, to managing tax obligations, to human resources. Instead of hiring a dedicated chief financial officer, many business owners are leveraging their cloud accountant for strategic and operational advice, as a part-time controller or CFO – a trusted advisor for their business.

It’s a far cry from the old world of accounting and a great example of how the landscape has changed.

Summary

Cloud technology is streamlining the less fun parts of the accounting world. Now, you can literally work from anywhere, generate greater profits per client, you don’t have to do boring data entry and get to work with entrepreneurs as a trusted advisor and source of strategic and operational advice. That is sexy! And, it’s all thanks to the cloud.

 

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