Silverfin recently hosted a webinar to discuss the AI topics covered in our whitepaper, Beyond The Hype: The Real Benefits of AI for Your Accounting Firm with two experts well-versed in accounting technology. You can watch the complete recording here.

The presenters were; Phil Hobden, UK Senior Product Manager at Silverfin whose experience includes working with accountants and technology for the last ten years, and Russell Frayne, Director of Transformation at Gravita. Quite new to this role, Russell recently moved from a top ten firm where he was also dealing with software implementation and adoption throughout the practice. At Gravita, he is currently running a number of transformation projects within the practice, and helping the firm deliver technology led services for clients at the same time.

Topics in relation to AI included;

• How will accountants’ jobs change?
• Creating capacity de je vu?
• What’s really at stake?
• Does AI make accounting a one flavour suits all?
• The opportunity to pivot
• A first-hand Silverfin implementation journey
• The value of a Silverfin Assistant
• AI and training

To start the webinar, we ran a quick poll to understand current AI usage by accountants;

The attendees split 52/48, with 52% of people saying they are using AI beyond chat GPT. Both Phil and Russell agreed the result wasn’t surprising, but did flag that actually many of the 48% claiming to not use AI beyond ChatGPT probably are, but don’t realise it.

How will accountants’ jobs change?

Russell has a simple but bold view on AI for accounting firms and its impact on accountants; “If you make yourself replaceable, you can be replaced by AI in the future. That might seem scary, but we’re in control of that destination. Plus, if we automate processes that we’re doing manually and if we’ve got unstructured, unaggregated data in different places that we can bring together to pull from, it should give us so much more time back. Then we can use that time saved to do what our clients actually value, which is those added value conversations, really understanding their business, their goals, their needs – rather than just focusing on compliance.

“There’s too much still too much focus on month end, quarter end, year end compliance, and we just run into that. You know? If we gave all this time back to our advisers, the question is, what would they do with that? And, the answer is always better service for clients.

“And you can’t get AI to do that. That is a people thing. So for me, it doesn’t replace you. It replaces the processes that you shouldn’t want to do.”

Creating capacity de je vu?

Russell acknowledged that; “the ‘creating capacity’ claim might sound familiar as reasons provided to adopt cloud accounting. Now, it’s just about AI. But, in both cases, it’s true that technology can’t be the trusted adviser. Only we can do that.”

Responses to our second poll showed 61% of webinar attendees love AI. But, that still leaves 25% who are a bit nervous, and it’s fair to be a bit nervous of any new technology.

Russell adds; “Plus, a degree of trepidation in implementation means you’re probably going to implement it right. I think, people are excited by technology, but there is that slight hesitation of what it could do and how we get to the value.”

What’s really at stake?

Let’s start with some statistics, which can also be found in our recent AI whitepaper;

• McKinsey & Company’s research shows that up to 50% of the activities carried out by accounts have the potential to be automated using current technologies.
• Accenture predicts AI could help accountancy firm boost productivity by 40% by 2034, which is a huge number. 

Both presenters agreed that while we’re talking about technology today, one of the biggest challenges in accounting is still people.

Russell explains his perspective; “Consistency, accuracy and quality matter but, we’re humans. We make a mistake. And I think that’s one of the things people saw with the move from Excel into cloud accounting – some of that human error that you got with Excel was removed.”

“Giving us time back should enable us not to have to put additional hours on our timesheet or pad the day up. We know as a profession, we do this. Timesheets are one of the biggest problems that we have. You take part of that problem away, and you actually give time back to accountants, then we can go and actually speak to our client more often. At the moment, the timesheet and the cost budget dictate how many contact points you have with your client. “So, if AI gives back time used to have contact points with your client, which means you understand them better and ask simple questions of their business, it’s a win. I would absolutely be filling my diary with that type of task.

“Added value and advisory is the big thing and it’s those interactions with your clients, and the additional data you glean, that enable you to spot opportunities. So, that’s where I’d be focusing my ‘extra’ time..”

Does AI make accounting a one flavour suits all?

Russell was emphatic that AI for accounting firms won’t lead to vanilla services.

He explains; “Some worry that AI will result in vanilla accountancy practices, with us all just doing the same thing. But, I see the total opposite outcome. We’ve got so much opportunity to pivot in lots of different areas that I believe you’ll see this whole new playing field of different accounting practices emerge. So for me, capacity given back is only a good thing.”

He adds; “It’s a change not to just throw body bodies at the problem. Now we’re throwing technology.

“Advisory is a blend of compliance with actual support and advice around your business. So automation and AI increasingly help you be compliant and help you improve accuracy and reduce the burden for next year and the ones after that.

“Then, taking that data from the compliance processes, accountants make it more human with reporting and analytics, and then deliver it in a way that actually inspires business owners to do more. 

The opportunity to pivot

If AI for accounting firms can create capacity, it follows that it can also play a key role in how firms and accountants pivot in the future. So, what could AI help us do and what are the steps that accountants need to take to get ready? 

At Silverfin, we identified seven steps covered in the webinar.

Russell shared some advice on how to handle change successfully; “Firstly, change is always complicated, and it’s not given the sort of focus that it really deserves.

“I’ve spent a long time in this space from a small local practice all the way through to a large private equity owned one. And, the days of throw something at the business and hoping it sticks are long gone. Plus, the company mindset shift comes top down too often.

Because, whilst top down gives you the strategic vision, if you want to be a tech enabled, tech led firm you need to get the hearts and minds. You need buy-in from the bottom up as well. The trick is achieving harmony and a balance between the two.

“I strongly recommend focus groups; the champions, advocacy teams as that sort of stuff matters too. With the Silverfin rollout, I spent a lot of time at the front end with the hearts and minds trying to build an understanding around why Silverfin, why the change, what does it mean for you and sharing the future state.” 

A first-hand Silverfin implementation journey

Now, let’s hear from Russell regarding introducing Silverfin at the firms he’s worked with and what he learned. 

Russell explains; “So, the standardisation piece was key in selecting Silverfin. Standardisation is a top priority because it gives you consistency and scalability. And having a product that aggregates in the middle is absolutely key. Because, it then allows you to be front end agnostic with your client base as well. “Also, the company’s AI strength was part of the reason for partnering with Silverfin. I knew about the acquisition of AI Lab and where the plans were heading. I’ve spoken to numerous people within Silverfin and its AI roadmap enables me to start that journey quickly and then take full advantage of the benefits as they evolve and deliver over time.

The value of a Silverfin Assistant

“Before I joined Gravita, that team were going through the Silverfin commercials, and Silverfin Assistant was one of the things that I said they should absolutely include and pay for. For me, it felt right and aligned to the future of accounting – it sets us up to succeed.

“As soon as possible, we’ve taken Silverfin Assistant as part of our training rollout. Everybody gets trained on it. We have regular catch-ups internally. I ask about the good, the bad, and the ugly in terms of what is surfacing, and then we feed that back to Silverfin – planning developments collaboratively.

With AI, it is key to get there early, get it embedded in the mindset of the teams and where they work, and then take full advantage now and as it develops in the future. Silverfin Assistant delivers AI advantages I want now and already has a strong future offering.”

AI and training

For Russell AI for accounting firms offers some opportunities in how accountants are trained too. He explains; “I think too much training is delivered by outdated or well-versed accountants training the way they were trained. I think part of that is what’s leading to the recruitment issue accounting faces, because it’s seen as a boring and outdated as a profession. But, it’s not.

Phil also sees training as adding to the capacity crunch challenge; “I had a conversation with a firm in Sussex and they dispaired that colleges are still training accountants on Sage desktop. Now, no knock on that software, but it’s a desktop product in a cloud based world.

Russell agreed and added; We’re getting people from the business to tell us where they think AI would make the biggest impact in their day jobs. I think too many people look top down in terms of approaching AI. You really need to dig under the bonnet and get people doing the day job to identify where the big wins are. 

“You will free up capacity with AI, and then you have the ability to open up some of those other cool apps that sit within the technology space and use them to go out and deliver a better service to your clients. 

Don’t forget, you can watch the complete recording here.