What drove practice success in 2023? Five insights from Xero’s industry report

This content is brought to you by Xero.

Business boomed for accountants and bookkeepers across the UK – despite global economic uncertainty and soaring inflation rates.

According to Xero’s 2023 industry report, 72% of practices have reported increased revenue and a growing client base in the last 12 months. This coincides with the increased use of cloud-based software, which has delivered a range of financial and non-financial rewards for practices.

But some practices aren’t getting the most out of digitalisation. In fact, many are missing out on the time savings, service diversification, and growth opportunities that come with fully integrating cloud-based software.

To help you benchmark your practice and identify opportunities for growth and development, we’ve spoken to over 600 accountants and bookkeepers from practices across the UK. Here’s a taste of what we learned. 

UK industry performance: A snapshot

Accountants and bookkeepers have shown immeasurable resilience over the past 12 months – withstanding economic uncertainty, the battle for talent, and regulatory change.

Based on our conversations with UK practices, we identified five headline insights on working experiences, performance, and what’s driving success:

1. Practices of all sizes are growing – with an average of 31 new clients added per practice in the last 12 months.
2. Service portfolios are expanding, and practices believe their new service offerings are to thank for increased profits.
3. 95% of practices have adopted cloud-based software, but not all are using software to its full potential – particularly smaller practices.
4. Practices that report increased revenue and profit tend to use cloud-based software for multiple tasks (not just one).
5. The benefits of cloud-based software are real. From improved client services and more time for billable tasks to greater job satisfaction and more time saved on manual admin.

Getting the best out of practice tools

The outlook is positive, but there’s plenty of room for growth. Practices of all sizes can benefit from better software integration – and taking full advantage of the features.

For example: our research shows practices only use connected bank feeds for 37% of clients, data capture tools for 31%, and payment tools for 30%. Yet, practices using payment tools with clients are more likely to report an increase in profits than those who don’t.

It’s clear to see that accountants and bookkeepers already have the right tools for the job – they just need to take advantage of them.

We explore how you can do just that in this year’s industry report, uncovering:

• Which factors contribute to practice growth and success
• How practices are diversifying their service offerings to boost revenue
• How to improve business performance and productivity with cloud-based software – so cloud adoption (literally) pays off

To discover how to make cloud-based software work harder for your practice, deliver a better service for clients, and provide higher quality work – read our Accounting and Bookkeeping Industry Performance Report today.

This content is brought to you by Xero.

Xero offers a cloud-based accounting software platform for small and medium-sized businesses..