How accountants and bookkeepers can drive peak performance in 2025

Competition is hotting up in the UK accountancy profession, compelling practices to keep boosting service levels and efficiency.

Numbers of qualified accountants increased every year between 2019 and 2023, according to Financial Reporting Council data. Meanwhile, fees have struggled to keep up with inflation, shows 2024 research by NatWest.

In this context, your accountancy or bookkeeping practice needs to keep finding ways to optimise the quality of client offerings and improve efficiency to maintain margins.

Fortunately, there are many ways to achieve these twin goals, including applying strategies some practices have yet to adopt.

In this article, we delve into some actions you can take to keep your practice at peak fitness in 2025 and beyond.

Here’s what we cover:

Embrace AI and other new technologies

Accounting and bookkeeping are undergoing an AI-led transformation, helping practices provide a better, more efficient service.

According to 2024 research by Sage and cross-party think tank Demos, 76% of accountants and bookkeepers say AI is having a valuable impact on their practice. Only 3% reported no impact.

The top four AI applications for accountants and bookkeepers in order are:

• Chatbots. Using them for client communication
• Automation. Used in areas such as data entry, invoice processing, reporting, and reconciliation. This helps increase efficiency, free employees up so they can focus on higher-value work, improve work-life balance, and remove stress and obstacles to career advancement. These benefits also help attract younger professionals.
• Insights and recommendations from vast datasets. Using forecasting and scenario analysis to predict cash flows, for example.
• Document processing. Using technologies such as optical character recognition, and automatic data extraction and categorisation.

But AI can also help:

• Reduce fraud
• Improve compliance by predicting risks and violations, and providing recommendations
• Improve accuracy and efficiency of audits
• Draft client communications
• Keep up with tax laws and explore tax planning scenarios. Companies believe AI will dramatically improve their relationship with HMRC through real-time information sharing and help them understand tax updates, according to the research by Sage.

The study also shows AI-enabled practices expect their revenue to increase three times faster, by 18% on average, compared to those not using AI.

In addition, they anticipate hiring ten times more employees, which demonstrates the profound impact AI is having.

But despite these benefits, 46% of practices aren’t using or piloting any AI technologies, perhaps because only 16% feel well-prepared to meet the skills involved.

Andy Gibbs, director of services at TaxAssist Accountants, says embedding AI in software creates huge opportunities, for example, in automatic client data extraction for financial statements.

“It can also provide indicators and recommendations that give clients far greater understanding of their business numbers, and recommended actions to improve performance,” he says.

If you’re just starting your AI journey, do some research and take a look at how others are using it. Start by agreeing a plan with your team and make sure they all understand the importance.

Look to train your employees on:

• The potential efficiency and productivity benefits of new technologies such as AI
• The risks, safety, and data use considerations around AI
• How to use the technology effectively, including prompt construction, critical thinking and how to use AI with clients. For example, studies predict artificial intelligence will increase the role of accountants as advocates for change and improvement with clients
• How to drive innovation and digital transformation more widely.

Della Hudson, founder of Minerva Accountants and a business coach for other accountants, says a common mistake with technologies such as AI is to buy software, then look for problems it can solve.

Instead, start with a problem, then look for the solution, she says.

Della adds, “As with any new software, think about why you need it, what you need to do better, and how AI will help.

“Treat your AI as a junior. It can do a lot, but it needs guidance. Know what it can and can’t do well and get good at prompting and clarifying your requests.”

Julie Smith, ICAEW Head of Practice, recommends talking with peers, attending events and looking around to see how others are using AI and other technologies to their advantage.

She says, “No one individual has all the answers, and every firm will need to assess their client base, needs, and internal capability to determine how much time and resource to invest in technology.

“AI and technology cannot be ignored, and when used effectively, should enable time saving efficiencies at the least.

“But it is crucial for accountants to exercise professional scepticism and be wary of what they are sharing onto public sites.”

Improve your client communication

Keeping existing and potential clients updated regularly on the latest business improvement ideas or legislation changes will help improve perceptions of your service.

But the huge range of options for staying in contact with clients can be confusing. And that includes the following:

• Meetings
• Webinars
• Workshops
• Newsletters
• Blogs
• Help sheets
• Social channels
• Email alerts
• Client events
• Portals.

Review your communications to ensure they’re as clear, succinct and targeted as possible.

For example, use feedback, surveys and click-through data to understand client preferences around receiving information. Use the data you have to customise information as much as possible.

To ensure polished communications and maximise impact, upgrade your digital skills in areas such as customer relationship management, content marketing, data analytics, videoconferencing, and social media.

Andy at TaxAssist Accountants says, “Social media is the best and quickest way to connect directly with potential clients and show how you can help.

“Accountants shouldn’t ignore this highly valuable marketing tool. We took time to understand our target audiences and identified the platforms that reach them. We then invested in content creation to build a calendar with meaningful posts.

“Key events, such as changes to employers’ National Insurance, require multiple posts and articles to prepare clients. You also need to monitor results of this activity consistently and be ready to adjust your strategy.”

Offer value-added services

A further service-boosting step could be to offer training to clients, for example on Making Tax Digital.

“If our clients understand their accounts, that makes our job ten times easier,” says Della at Minerva Accountants. “For example, when setting clients up on new software, we provide videos on how to use it. We also have webinars on finance for business owners.”

Andy suggests appointing a training champion in areas such as Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to lead education for staff and clients.

Consider training your clients via virtual consultations, tailored learning tools, and interactive systems and activities.

Andy recommends segmenting your client base, too, so you can focus on the most impacted clients.

Analysing their records should also help you decide whether to plan to bring their bookkeeping in-house or not to ensure your pricing matches the workload involved.

“Some clients will look for an accountant who can offer training and an effective digital bookkeeping package, so now is the time to invest in [both],” he says.

Other value-adding services you could offer include:

• Specialised advice and consulting on business issues such as how to find funding. Andy says clients will increasingly look for more advisory services to help them look beyond the numbers. Training as a qualified business coach can help, adds Della.
• Tax consulting.
• Niche sector knowledge, for example, in technology or e-commerce. Boost your specialist expertise by linking it to real-time financial insights, predictive analytics, and tailored data-driven analysis.
• Personal financial planning — via a full advice function, or providing or signposting clients to financial planning tools.
• Working more closely with financial planners, tax advisers and lawyers to provide a holistic service.
• Payroll services, which Andy says can bring many potential benefits to clients. “Payroll is a business-critical function that generates good recurring fees, promotes regular communication, and creates stickier client relationships,” he says. With HMRC planning changes to payroll data collection from April 2026, now is a great time to offer help in meeting the new requirements.

Final thoughts

As accountancy and bookkeeping practices compete by offering more and higher quality services, it’s important not to get left behind.

In this article, we’ve shared a snapshot of some of the things you can do to boost client retention and satisfaction, as well as efficiency in your practice.

Talking more widely to your network and peers can bring many more ideas. For example, Della says she has borrowed a concept from the technology sector to hold daily standups (short meetings) to discuss progress on client works and how to overcome any blockages.

This simple change could make a huge difference to the overall service you provide.

Adopting practice software will also help as it empowers your practice to become offer a more human, empathetic and valuable service.

Linked to this is the need to upskill staff, not just around technology, but in wider business and soft skills to support clients more effectively.

Bringing all these factors together in 2025 should help drive peak performance in your firm, and ward off competition now and into the future.