British businesses turning to accountants for help with economic hardship

New research from payroll, employment and HR platform Employment Hero shows British businesses are increasingly asking their accountants for help with economic hardship.

The survey asked 313 UK accountancy, payroll, and other professional service firms what had changed in their clients’ needs and expectations in the last 12 months.

The most popular answer was “clients wanted greater discounts/price flexibility” which 29% of respondents selected. Close behind it was “clients require increased advisory support to respond to economic hardship” with 28% selecting that.

Startingly, a fifth of respondents (20%) said “clients have cancelled/cut services to cope with economic hardship”. 

Professional service firms are also looking to cut costs. A quarter of respondents said “better management of costs” was one of their top priorities for the following year.

Unsurprisingly following the ructions of the pandemic and predicted changes due to AI, a quarter of respondents (25%) said their clients required increased advisory activities to future-proof their business. A quarter also said clients expected “greater emotional empathy” due to the impacts of the pandemic.

81% of respondents agreed clients’ needs and expectations had changed in some way, with 19% saying expectations had stayed the same.

The 313 firms questioned had an average of 276 clients and brought in just under £23m in revenue.

Ben Thompson, CEO of Employment Hero, commented:

“UK businesses are doing it tough – so tough a lot of them are asking their accountants for help to manage hardship. High costs and high interest rates are hurting both consumers and businesses, forcing many smaller enterprises to look for savings anywhere they can. Recession expectations – right or wrong – are causing many businesses to cut back or hold off before making big spending commitments, which trickles outwards into the wider economy quickly.”

“This isn’t fun for anyone but it is a time when accountants, bookkeepers and payroll bureaus can really show their worth to clients by helping them through what might be the hardest time their business will ever go through. You’ll need to show that you can offer more than just spreadsheets – with strategic advice about how to get through the storm. Keeping your own head above water will require software that can change as fast as the business environment. That’s why we’re so committed to integrating AI into our cloud HR and payroll software – we don’t want to replace the humans helping every business keep the lights on, but we do want to free up their time so they can focus on the big stuff.”

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