Private businesses in Australia are in danger of missing out on an accounting revolution by failing to respond to the changes caused by digital disruption.

In a recently released report, Harnessing the ‘bang’, stories from the digital frontline, Deloitte updated its analysis of the impact of digital disruption, highlighting that the pace of change is accelerating and affecting businesses big and small across Australia.

The next 12 months will be a watershed for private businesses; whether they adapt to digital disruption or not.  Recent research on cloud computing conducted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority highlighted that 66% of Australian small businesses are still not using cloud technology.  Two thirds of business owners are therefore failing to capitalise on a key potential source of competitive advantage.

This reluctance among business owners may be due to the fact that many business owners are simply not aware of how far such technologies have come over the past few years and thereby unaware of the positive impact cloud technologies can have on their business.

Every business owner can relate to the desire to spend less time on day-to-day transactions, paying staff and suppliers and scrambling to balance the books at month end.

Most business owners want to spend more time on the bigger picture; the things that helped their business succeed in the first place – working on the business, not in the business.  Done right, adopting cloud technologies can now help make this a reality by providing business owners access to real-time accounting and live information at their fingertips.

Doing it right, however, requires more than just picking from the 1000s of available business apps.  It means managing and integrating all of the separate logins, subscriptions, security and connectivity protocols and placing the emphasis on extracting actionable insights rather than just getting data into systems.

Many business owners only receive their financial statements well after the conclusion of a financial year, which makes it hard for them to have an accurate understanding of their financial performance and position throughout the year… and hard for them to take timely actions based on that information.

Cloud technologies are changing all of this, giving savvy business owners the ability to access their live and up-to-the-moment financial information from anywhere at any time and on any device.  This ability to provide business owners with a real-time view of their financial performance has the potential to change the way they think about their business and, in particular, the timeliness with which they act to optimise the performance of their business.

What does all this mean for Accountants and their clients across the country?

At Deloitte Private, we have sought to positively embrace digital; to become leaders in the adoption of cloud technologies and to create our own unique cloud accounting offering that redefines the way our clients experience accounting services.

Deloitte Private Connect is a cloud-based offering that combines shared ledger accounting with automated bookkeeping and benchmarking and an online portal and dashboard as well as many other digital technologies.

We created a unique ecosystem built around a family of integrated business apps.  These apps automatically populatean interactive dashboard enabling business owners to quickly review key metrics from across their business in real time.  Based on the particular needs of their business, clients select from compatible apps conveniently grouped into simple, intuitive categories such as staff, customers, marketing, product, money, etc.

In a breakthrough for the professional services sector, we also based our payment structure on an online subscription payments model and fixed monthly fees to make it easier for our clients to manage their cash flow.

Cloud technologies are setting a new benchmark for what entrepreneurs and family businesses should expect from their Accountant.  No longer should a business owner expect to wait until after year end to know how their business performed during the year that’s past and where their business stood at the end of the year that’s past.  Real-time, online accounting makes everything faster and simpler.

If you’re thinking about how to migrate your business to the Cloud, here are five things to consider:

1. A system with an open architecture will allow you to work with other apps, which is important as your business changes and grows
2. Is there a way to see everything in a snapshot across your business?  Do the apps you choose work together to give you the insights you need via a simple, intuitive dashboard or the like?
3. Do your research and pick a reputable software provider.  Look at demos and online tools.  Pick the individual apps that are right for your business but think about how you will balance this with the proliferation of subscriptions, logins and management effort that comes from selecting ‘point’ applications
4. Make sure you have a clear understanding of where your data is held; who owns it and how it is available for back up
5. Doing nothing is not the answer. Move now so you don’t miss out on the opportunities to gain a key source competitive advantage.