Automating data acquisition provides an opportunity for accounting firms to expand their services.

Accounting firms compile a huge amount of data. As the audit and compliance services firm demands extravagant data to retrieve meaningful insights, the employees are often flooded with the challenge to maintain it. With the confidentiality of clients being the prime focus of these firms, the traditional data segregation methods cannot fulfill this demand. Additionally, with the traditional surveillance methods for the unmanaged data, the possibilities of fraud become alarming.

Technology is maturing and permeating in every sector of the industry. Automation in various sectors such as banking, health, and automobiles has allowed humans to breathe through repetitive and redundant tasks and focus on areas requiring specific skills. Moreover, integrating artificial intelligence technologies into the existing system helps identify the loopholes that are not possible with human skillset.

As audit and tax compliance services are sensitive, automating them will provide excellent opportunities for the accounting firm industry. Here are the five reasons for the automation of data acquisition methods.

1. Industry niche Insights:  One of the most demanding attributes in an accounting firm, specifically which involves a tremendous amount of capital, is to gain meaningful insights from its information. As gathering new data about the customer is simultaneous, the information is continuously formatted and centralized. By integrating AI technologies such as conversational AI, natural language processing, and data analytics, the firms can differentiate meaningful insights more easily from the available and updated data. This approach will help firms in formulating their own Industry niche Benchmark Analysis.

2. Confidentiality and Risk- Like mentioned earlier, the confidentiality of clients' data is important. But traditional data acquisitions has certain loopholes involved. The data either gets duplicated across multiple machines or is lost while emailing the file, thus inducing risk with such processes. With automation, these risks are mitigated and allow a secured data transfer with centralized storage and protective measures. Moreover, automating data acquisitions with AI-technologies provides enhanced cybersecurity.

3. Fraud-  Another risk associated with using traditional methods for data acquisition is a fraud. As data is gathered from various resources and channels, manipulating the reports about taxes and audits has been a matter of significant concern amongst firms. Over the past few years, many accounting firms became victims of fraud due to flawed traditional data analysis. By integrating automation into the system, this problem can be rectified.

4. Focusing on areas of Importance- Arranging paperwork and data is a redundant and time-consuming task. The junior staffs often find it extremely unnecessary and boring, thus losing the encouragement to perform well. By automating data acquisition, the junior staff can be deployed on those tasks that require human skillset, thus maintaining enthusiasm and motivation in the organization.

5. Building a Data Asset- Data is an asset for any organization. Its usage goes above and beyond, gaining meaningful insights. By automating data acquisition, the firms can create Data Lake, which holds reliable, detailed information about the client, which can be unlocked during the new advisory opportunities.