Collaborative accounting: when, why and how to start it

‍n recent years, everything has changed in accounting offices: work and bureaucracy, the need for greater flexibility and impractical salary processing have led to a rethinking the way companies and accountants interact. But how to make this dynamic even more collaborative?‍

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On the one hand, companies and entrepreneurs: new generations (with new dreams) coming to the market and building businesses for the world, at the same time that in traditional companies new business managers emerge. On the other hand, the accounting offices with little flexibility, the constant waiting for clients to be able to speed up and close processes, and the impractical salary processing. The third factor? A pandemic. The result: new dreams, more knowledge, and more curious and digitally apt entrepreneurs, which accelerated the process.

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What has changed in accounting offices in recent years? Transformations in all dimensions have changed the way in which businesspeople and accountants work, which has become more collaborative: with digitisation, work started by businesspeople can be finished by the accountants, based on total sharing of information, promoting transparency and customer support. “New business dynamics imply new solutions. If we all work on the same platform, we will be able to reach more customers. On the accountants' side, we have to be able to change”, stressed Marco Costa, from UWU, at the event “Collaborative accounting: productivity and profitability”, promoted by ROSE Accounting Services, a Primavera BSS software. “Strong sharing of information between the stakeholders in the process significantly increases productivity. The process is quicker, and the speed increases in what comes to the accounting process and the collaboration between the parties”, agreed Cláudia Gomes, from Valorfin.

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“New business dynamics imply new solutions. If we all work on the same platform, we will be able to reach more customers. On the accountants' side, we have to be able to change”, stressed Marco Costa, from UWU, at the event “Collaborative accounting: productivity and profitability”, promoted by ROSE Accounting Services, a Primavera BSS software.

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You can check the entire conversation here:

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Often seen by entrepreneurs as a mere compliance service, “in order to sleep better at night”, it is necessary that the market transformation brings a restructuring in the offices of accountants and the support they provide. “We're talking about the accountant becoming a business consultant: we are increasingly looking for a management support service, financing lines, capital structure. We need someone who can be of help on this often lonely path, and we need that role on a daily basis, that's what we expect from an accounting firm”, pointed out Rui Carvalho, from Coverflex, underscoring the growing trend of creating new startup businesses, which increasingly use cloud-based services, which are more agile and require less integration effort. “The pandemic has accelerated the process, and there are still many areas that need this disruption. Accountants and companies have a lot to gain from this type of solution,” he added.

“We're talking about the accountant becoming a business consultant: we are increasingly looking for a management support service, financing lines, capital structure. We need someone who can be of help on this often lonely path, and we need that role on a daily basis, that's what we expect from an accounting firm”, pointed out Rui Carvalho, from Coverflex, underscoring the growing trend of creating new startup businesses, which increasingly use cloud-based services, which are more agile and require less integration effort.

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And, speaking of what comes next, what would the accountant of the future look like? “There has to be connectivity, management support, and getting more into the client's side and their needs”, says Marco Costa, using a metaphor of making a journey “by road or in open field”. “If there is a road, we reach goals as we go”, he pointed out. Cláudia Gomes added that the future also involves a “bet on adding value to this field of expertise”. “We are little seen as an asset. The digital transformation must force us to take the leap, to support the entrepreneur but also the management of their business”, he stressed. It is time for a “qualitative leap”, she said.

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At the end of the conversation, José Dionísio, from Primavera BSS, pointed out the importance of a path that is defined as a strategy. “The 'where do I not want to be?' question might help, he suggested. "It would be great that everyone could define what their playing field is, what the boundary lines are and where they don't want to play." For the co-CEO of Primavera BSS, we are living in “a zero moment” and the future may include a specialisation of accountants regarding the area in which they want to work. “Not everyone can follow, for example, a startup like Rui's, a specialisation is important: knowing how to access funds, for example, is one of the things with which the entrepreneur hopes that the accountant can help”. Basically, stressed José Dionísio, “it takes courage to change processes gradually, it doesn't make sense to work in the same way as you used to 20 years ago. It is necessary to face the change, to escape the anathema of 'I've always done it this way'”.