Revealed: Accountants’ biggest pandemic challenges

The COVID crisis has had a colossal impact on businesses around the world, with many pushed to breaking point.

The ramifications are likely to last for a long time to come for many organisations.

Some industries and professions have been hit harder than most – hospitality, retail, and leisure among them.

Accountants’ reveal their experiences

But what about accountancy practices here in the UK?

How have they been faring during the pandemic, and what have been the problems that have caused the most trouble?

IRIS sought to find the answers by conducting a survey of nearly 1,200 customers around the country, including many leading accountancy firms.

New report provides insight

We have compiled and analysed the results in a report, which is free to download here.

You can discover:

• How confident accountants are of a fast bounce back
• Their levels of optimism for the future
• Their priorities for the next phase
• What business’ clients said about their challenges

Toughest challenges laid bare

Inside, you will find out in detail what accountants’ top challenges have been.

But to give you a summary of this, we found out that there were three challenges that were clearly the biggest:

• Being inundated with client queries
• Cancellation and delays of client work
• Late payment of invoices

You can see which was top and how many accountants listed these among their barriers in the guide: ‘Accountancy in the next normal – thriving amid rapid change’.

Accountants swamped with questions

Looking at those responses, it’s little wonder that accountants have been swamped with questions by their clients. After all, there has been a tsunami of  Government announcements detailing a myriad of financial packages available to businesses and the self-employed, from near the outset. Arguably, never before has the role of the accountant as trusted adviser been greater.

We know that apart from the sheer volume of calls and queries, accountants have faced an emotional impact as well, listening to some very difficult, sometimes heart wrenching, stories from clients whose companies have been struggling to survive, as we discussed in this article HERE.

Clients put work on ice

Clients either cancelling or pausing work has also clearly been a major concern for practices. With so many hard-hit firms facing a cashflow crisis, it appears many decided that they would have to cut back, or delay work they gave their accountant.

Linked to this and the cashflow issue is late payment of invoices; a major headache for any business at any time if it builds up.

Among other challenges raised were:

• Trouble with technology and remote working
• Difficulty in understanding or implementing furlough legislation

Want to learn more?

If you’re keen to discover even more about what accountants have been telling us about their experiences of working through the coronavirus crisis, read the report in full.

Looking for help with any of the challenges above? IRIS has solutions that can help you. Give us a call on 0344 844 9644 or email hello@iris.co.uk.