Cloud accounting & technology

Cloud accounting and AI may not a good accountant make

Author: Michael Austin | 16 September 2025

My golf clubs are more than twenty years old.

I love playing golf but I’m not very good at it. If I go for lessons and play more frequently then I get better.

Training and experience help but simply buying a new set of golf clubs, embracing twenty-first century technology, would make next to no difference.

Cloud accounting and AI

Back at the day job and the hype just keeps increasing.

Cloud accounting, SaaS, this app, that platform and now AI.

Judge a business and its accountant by the size of their tech-stack!

If you’re not digital you’re not doing it right!


No Luddite, me, I get the benefits of adopting some of the new technology, we’ve been paper-free and operating 100% in the cloud since 2014, but I also see “tech”, “the cloud” and “AI” as cloaks to hide behind.

Accountants may say “we’re great accountants because we use this tech and that tech.”

Software providers may say “the accountants that use our tech are the enlightened great and the good and who wouldn’t want an accountant like that?”

Reality check – just because they use new technology doesn’t mean the accountant is any good or that the latest app is good value for money

We’ve seen too many examples of accountants making a virtue of being in the cloud but not actually delivering a useful service to their clients.

So if you’re running a business and you’re wondering if and how this hype in the accounting world can make a difference to your bottom line, peace of mind, efficient workflow and prospects of growth, the answer is almost certainly YES.

But make sure the accountant knows what they’re doing because the best golfers don’t have to use the latest clubs, but they do need to know how to play golf.

Michael

Related links:

We can’t send you your invoice because our accountants are so behind with processing direct debits

This is bookkeeping in the 21st century

Technology is the servant not the master

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