The State of Accounting in 2022: What Will the Future Hold?

Xero lays out the trends and insights to develop best practices for marketing, advisory services for businesses.

Xero’s mission, from the very beginning, has been to help SMEs and their advisors to succeed. As businesses continue to be challenged by the pandemic, it has become more important than ever for businesses and accountants to work closely to navigate the new normal and move forward. To better understand the trends and opportunities shaping the SME business landscape today, Xero recently surveyed over 500 accounting and bookkeeping practices in Hong Kong and Singapore to gain the insights needed to identify opportunities and facilitate planning for 2022 and beyond.

For the fourth year running, Xero investigates key metrics such as client numbers and revenue growth -- providing insights to develop best practices for marketing, advisory services and more. The results of the latest report will be revealed at the upcoming Xero Roadshow Asia 2021. The event has been deemed as a must-attend for accounting and bookkeeping leaders looking to stay at the forefront of their profession. 

Some topics covered in this year’s report, include:

The growing importance of apps

According to respondents in both Hong Kong and Singapore, digitalisation is fast becoming a key priority, with two of the most popular questions asked: 

• What apps should we be considering for our practice to use?
• What are other practices like ours currently using?’

The report will reveal the top results for the three common practice types (compliance, simple advisory, complex advisory). From data automation to forecasting, find out which apps and functionalities might benefit different accounting practices. 

The evolving metrics of success

The report additionally looks at the metrics which determine a practice’s success. It reveals various revenue streams by practice type, the average annual revenue of respondents in Hong Kong and Singapore and the most popular tactics employed to attract new clients. These metrics can serve as a benchmark for your practice, to help plan and prioritise for the upcoming year. 

The impact of tech adoption and COVID-19

Whilst the pandemic has accelerated the shift for many businesses and practices moving online, some have been more receptive to others. The report examines the common barriers to adopting cloud technology and reveals their perceived disadvantages according to practices and SMEs. With this data, accounting professionals can better understand the hesitations and roadblocks to adoption as well as how to address these concerns so clients can realise the advantages that come with using the right digital tools.

Here are some of the things Xero’s partners have said about last year’s report:

“The report allows me to benchmark my company against other companies in the industry to provide insights on what I should stop, continue, and start doing.” -- Candice Teo, Founder of ASL Advisory Pte. Ltd 

“It's great to see how our revenues, growth rate and hours to serve are tracking against other practices. It inspires us on how to get additional sources of revenue and see where other firms are successful. [It is] also very illuminating to see that "tech-loving accountants" which is what Harvest Accounting is landing at, can get the highest revenue per client, but also the lowest client retention (years). As such, tech-loving combined with humanity is key to good client retention!” -- Bryan Zhao, Founding Partner at Harvest Accounting 

“It gives us a good gauge of where we stand and how our peers are doing.” --Darren Yeo, Partner at D Next Stop

To find out which trends work for your practice from the latest reports, attend Xero Roadshow Asia 2021.