Why larger accounting firms must build systems around staff

With growth comes risk.

When you’re a larger accounting firm in a competitive market, that risk is losing people essential to success.

This is because with more growth comes more work. As this volume rises, hard-to-replace staff get saddled with thankless tasks. Externally, the result is top-tier clients start to feel neglected.

The right system fixes this.

It changes the dynamic by putting staff at the centre of everything. When that happens, processes are more efficient and services can scale with demand.

A staff engagement crisis that affects accounting firms

In the UK, 90% of workers, based on Gallup all-sector data, were not “engaged” with their work.

But highly engaged teams outperform the rest. That means a people-first system is one of the most practical levers a firm can pull to improve engagement and outcomes.

Why “people‑first” is a systems decision (not just part of good culture)

Your system underpins how staff and clients work with you. It decides how data flows, how tasks are shared out, and how easy collaboration feels. When your accounting solutions “talk” to each other and share data, the way teams and clients interact improves. In practice, a people-first system should:

• Save time and improve profit through automation and other efficiencies
• Scale as the firm grows
• Manage data from a single, secured database
• Help you retain staff

Putting people first using tech allows people to do their best work consistently.

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What goes wrong when the system isn’t built around staff and clients

When the setup is wrong, growing firms can quickly find themselves in trouble. Mistakes creep in, data disappears, tasks multiply, and compliance slips. At best, it’s a headache. At worst, you face lost clients, disgruntled staff, penalties, and stalled growth.

The root causes are:

• Software choices made in siloes. Well-intentioned software purchases are made without consulting the wider team. The result is that tools don’t align or share data. Acquisitions can compound this if you add a firm without having a software integration plan.
• Implementation issues. Solutions that could connect sometimes don’t, through lack of awareness or support. Firm-wide roll-outs also stall when software is too complex. This is because there needs to be too much training, and staff only partially buy in.
• Growth outpacing the software stack. As clients, offices, and complexity expand, earlier software choices fail to adapt. Teams then spend time compensating instead of focusing on profitable work.

The practical fix for larger accounting firms: task management that re-centres people

A joined-up task management approach is a unified, effective way to handle daily work. That means client comms, billing, document management, and more stop working in isolation. For larger UK firms, advantages include:

1. Streamlined operations and efficiency (reduce manual tasks, align departments)
2. Data-driven decision‑making (real-time insights into performance, resource, and client comms)
3. Scalability and flexibility (accommodate growth in clients, people, and premises)
4. Improved client experience (e.g., a client portal for documents, comms and invoices)
5. Automation (reclaim time from routine scheduling, invoicing, and task management)
6. Security & compliance (secure document management, audit trails, and automated retention rules)
7. Talent attraction and retention (shift effort from monotonous tasks to value-added work)
8. Cross-sell opportunities (practice-wide visibility into client needs)
9. Managing scope creep (real-time task and budget tracking to protect margins)

These benefits reduce drudgery, clarify priorities, and create capacity for higher‑value activity.

Be flexible, be everywhere: enabling staff with a virtual desktop

Partners want to sit across from clients with real-time data; staff, meanwhile, want to be able to work from anywhere. A virtual desktop brings both together. Here’s how:

• Flexibility and accessibility: access the desktop environment from office, home, on the go, or at client sites
• Enhanced security: robust architecture, advanced encryption, secure access controls, regular updates
• Cost-effective: remove on-premises servers and reduce maintenance/upgrades
• Improved compliance: keep software up‑to‑date, store data securely, gain audit trails and reporting
• Scalable: scale up or down as headcount and services change

When staff can access everything they need, wherever they are, magic happens. They collaborate faster and spend more time delivering value.

Outsourcing (or offshoring) to free your people’s time

As firms grow, outsourcing routine work helps staff focus on high-value services. It improves capacity without high recruitment costs or office expansions. It can also unlock work that requires expertise you may not have in-house, such as auditing.

It’s perfect for admin, seasonal, repetitive and high-volume work, like bookkeeping and payroll. When you outsource, in-house staff can concentrate on their real priorities.

Want to know more?

We have a full guide on how to build a people-first system. It takes you from narrowing your wishlist down to tips on speaking to vendors.

By following the guide, you can createa joined-up network of solutions that “talk” to each other. This system can save you time through automation, scale as you expand, and keep data in a single, secure place.

The best news? This guide is completely FREE.

Download today.