In a recent videoconference, members of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants UK regional advisory panel of finance leaders shared their views. They discussed the main challenges facing UK businesses today.

These challenges are:

1. Staffing

With the uncertain economic future, many businesses are reviewing their staffing arrangements. The remainder of the year in doubt. It seems likely that the UK governments Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will not finish abruptly. However, it will be gradually tapered off. Nevertheless, organizations are already envisioning a world beyond leave and looking at how they can manage their staffing costs. This thing is concerning during a period of likely reduced demand. Options being considered include moving staff onto a four-day week and making redundancies.

Some sectors are very focused on holding onto their staff, however. For example, an accounting and finance leader working in professional services said his firms priority was protecting jobs and had not used the furlough scheme. Nevertheless, it has reduced its reliance on contractors while bonuses and promotion discussions have been deferred. The business accounting firms partner profit-share scheme is also likely to have an impact.

2. Health and Safety

While remote working has generally been a success, many employees are enthusiastic about returning to the office. Meanwhile, businesses accounting and finance departments are planning how to reopen their workplaces safely. Social-distancing rules create challenges, especially where office workplaces are open plan or designed around hot desking. To begin with, businesses will likely combine continued remote working with office-based working.

Commuting to work using mass transport systems is an additional complication outside the control of most employers, especially for organizations based in areas of high population density, since it still needs to be made clear how employees will safely travel to work. Transport companies plan to accommodate social-distancing restrictions, but this will limit their capacity to take passengers on buses, trains, and trams. People may also be expected to wear face masks while traveling on public transport. The UK public transport network was likely to return to normal by January 2021 at the earliest and possibly April next year.

3. Revenue

In general, businesses expect their revenues to be negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis for at least the next few quarters. While revenues are down, there is also a slowdown in payments. Media companies, for example, have found that customers have been holding back on making payments even when they have healthy cash reserves.

4. Audits

Auditing concerns the accounting and finance of businesses in many sectors since issues will likely arise this year that wouldnt normally occur. For example, businesses may have overridden their normal processes and procedures during a crisis to take quick action. As a result, items may have been ordered without a purchase order or not been received on arrival. As a result, finance teams will want to pay close attention to these areas, tying up any loose ends before their auditors arrive. In addition, certain businesses expect more challenging audits in their operating sector. Private Health, for example, is anticipating that its auditors will scrutinize its inventory management and whether it complies with the terms and conditions of its agreement with the National Health Service.

5. Planning

Businesses need more time to plan in such an unpredictable environment. Nevertheless, consumer demand is returning, which could drive economic recovery in the autumn and result in a reasonable Christmas trading period. One finance leader who works for a company providing a range of gift experiences said that people were again buying these types of gifts online, which shows confidence in the economy.

Business accounting is expecting a return to more normal working or trading conditions in September at the earliest, panel members generally agreed. They would, however like the government to provide more guidance ideally, a timeline that outlines, sector by sector, how a return to more usual operations is likely to happen. They also require practical support in making their workplaces safe, especially for older employees and employees with underlying health conditions who are at higher risk of suffering complications from COVID-19.

6. Insolvency

The SME community has demonstrated considerable resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, however, some businesses will not survive the financial stress it has brought. As a result, panel members felt there is likely to be an important uptick in insolvencies as the year unfolds.

For now, the worst COVID-19 health crisis appears to have passed. Yet the UK is still a long way from returning to normal life. Large swathes of the economy are still in hibernation, and businesses face some challenging weeks and months ahead.

How Covid Changed the Accounting and Finance Profession for Good

As we reach the first anniversary of stay-at-home mandates nationwide. It is important to reflect on how COVID-19 has changed the tax, accounting, and finance industry as we knew it. But, unfortunately, many of us have been waiting to return to normal for the past year.

As we reach the first anniversary of stay-at-home mandates nationwide. It is important to reflect on how COVID-19 has changed the accounting and finance industry. As we knew it, For the last year, many of us have been waiting to return to normal and how our work was conducted before COVID-19. Unfortunately, the reality is: we will likely never return to the old normal. But, while it may sound alarming, it is a step forward for the industry, and here is why.

Increased adoption of technology

The tax and business accounting industry was already trending towards enhanced technology adoption. However, COVID-19 accelerated this process. Business accounting professionals and accounting and finance firms, regardless of their familiarity with technology, immediately shifted to full-remote practices. They are utilizing the cloud and engaging with clients and staff virtually.

There is an important distinction between doing digital using the technology available and being digital. It is critical that the industry is not just implementing the technology and putting it into current practices. Also, we are utilizing technology to evaluate our processes again from the beginning. We have to invest in how to use technology to transform our business accounting to be more effective, efficient, and scale better.

Those that thrived during the times of the Covid-19 pandemic were ones ahead of these upcoming trends of technology. It is those that thrive after that will be the ones that continue to be on top of all these innovations and use technology as an impetus for transformation and change.

Flexibility is an asset.

One important lesson in 2023 is that flexibility can be an asset. Companies moving from more permanent work-from-home opportunities to moving away from the typical nine-to-five. The leading Accounting and Finance companies have found benefits in giving employees more freeway with their schedules. Flexible work hours will continue well after the pandemic. This trend started pre-pandemic and was greatly accelerated in the last year. Many firms are working on a permanent flex-work policy by providing their employees 2-3 day work-from-anywhere options.

This work style also solves the industrys most pressing issue: retention. According to the AICPA, finding and retaining professional staff are two of the biggest concerns for accounting and finance firms. With remote work and continued staff flexibility, we can reach beyond our backyards to hire talent across the nation and the globe.

Crisis breeds innovation

It is not just the accounting and finance industry that has innovated throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses across industries are utilizing this crisis to breed innovation. Likewise, businesses and individuals struggling financially seek better ways to do it. Because of this, our expertise is required more than ever. From asking questions about the CARES Act to adjusting business accounting models to needing general financial health resilience insights. we can help current and new clients find their way through the fog. The COVID-19 pandemic has propelled many professionals. firms further into accounting and finance advisory services, and this need will continue .offering an excellent opportunity for the industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an extremely difficult year for everyone across the globe. But, just as it is important not to minimize hardships faced, it is also essential to realize how we have evolved for the better. The business accounting industry can use lessons from the past year to flourish this next year and beyond. This is our moment to move our accounting and finance industry from essential to indispensable.