Almost half of accountancy clients are demanding a cloud-based service, according to a recent poll. The research found that 48 per cent of clients wanted to have the accounts available in the cloud and, in turn, this was driving adoption among UK practices.
The study, carried out by OnePoll on behalf of Xero, found this figure had more than doubled over the last year (23 per cent). In all, 65 per cent of accounting practices said they have adopted cloud-based accounting software or plan to soon.
According to the research, many accountants believed offering cloud accounting would help put them ahead of the competition (42 per cent) and cut overheads (41 per cent), such as the cost of travelling to clients’ offices and manual admin tasks. Over a quarter (26 per cent) said they were aware of the broader shift towards cloud accounting and didn’t want their practices to get left behind.
Compared with last year, adoption of cloud within accountancy has increased, with 34 per cent of practices having switched to cloud accounting compared with 28 per cent surveyed last year. The number of practices planning to adopt rose by five per cent, from 26 per cent in 2013 to 31 per cent in 2014.
Concerns over security have waned with 13 per cent of accountants concerned about security compared with 27 per cent of those polled in 2013. Similarly, there was a drop in the number of accountants who felt the technology wasn’t as good as desktop software at 14 per cent, compared with 23 per cent last year.
“Cloud accounting is having a massive impact in the UK, particularly within small businesses,” said Xero managing director Gary Turner. He added that using a cloud-based accounting package gave users real-time information and insight to make better business decisions.
