18th September, 2025
How does profiling a workpaper or saving a document connect to long-term growth for your accounting practice? While strategy can feel far away when you’re bogged down in everyday work, operational efficiencies can have a real impact on your revenue and future-readiness. Efficient operations support time savings, profitability, improved service delivery and client satisfaction.
MYOB’s recent Accounting Industry Monitor survey asked Australian accounting practices about their work, with a particular focus on future readiness and potential growth.
We grouped practices based on their growth, revenue and strategic vision. By looking at practices in the ‘progressive’ group. defined by strong growth, increasing revenue and a future-focused approach, we can work out how operational decisions are linked to long-term success.
As Lindsey Hanson, MYOB’s Head of Account Management, explains, many practices are focusing on efficiency as a way to reclaim time and thrive in a high-pressure market.
“We are out speaking to practices every single day, and we know they face similar challenges,” she says. “To deliver high-value work like advisory, they must standardise and automate the repetitive low-value work and free up the time of their most valuable assets: their people.”
Here’s what you need to know about progressive practices and operational efficiencies:
One of the clearest differences between progressive practices and other groups isn’t about operations at all. It’s about their approach to improvement. The survey found that a stunning 81% of progressive practices focus on continuous efficiency improvement.
While the specific improvements vary — standardising processes to save time, using automations, real-time data access and client portals — the commitment to improvement stays the same. These practices make a point of looking for opportunities to improve, implementing changes, measuring results, and adjusting as needed.
For example, a practice might notice that its document profiling process is slow and clunky. From there, it would research and implement a new cloud profiling tool and train employees to use it. The practice would track the performance of the new tool by looking at employee hours, the number of errors or other metrics, and then make changes to the new system depending on the results.
“Anywhere there is double handling, bottlenecks or inefficient processes should be up for review,” says Lindsey. “When we work with practices to help enable technology, we always start with their business. The practices’ ways of working, their goals and what we can help improve for them that wasn’t possible before.”
Accountants manage a lot of complex, detailed tasks, which need to be completed to a high standard every time. Practices that find ways to simplify these tasks and reduce friction along the way can save serious time, and make work more satisfying for employees in the process.
Lindsey says: “Practices want to eliminate work and especially re-work that is not adding value. They understand the value they add by focusing on delivering expertise and advice.”
The MYOB Accounting Monitor Report found that 70% of all practices surveyed are making an effort to standardise workflows and introduce clear guidelines for employees. This includes defining clear reporting and approvals processes, using templates to streamline documentation, and leveraging technology to simplify tasks like document profiling. For many practices, centralised practice management software helps reduce friction points and allows for real-time data access.
As Lindsey puts it: “We certainly have seen what is possible from a productivity gain perspective when practice compliance is streamlined, integrated and functioning exceptionally well.”
Creating connected workflows has several benefits. There’s less toggling between platforms, less exporting or importing documents between systems, and one place to view all files and customer details. This gives employees a better view of progress and auditors a clear trail to follow. Where messy, disconnected processes slow things down, connected workflows remove roadblocks, so your accounting team can get on with their work.
Another approach shared by many practices? Using technology to handle repetitive tasks and complex analytics. 68% of survey respondents reported using automation to minimise manual tasks. Progressive practices were more likely to go beyond automation, with 77% in this group saying that they use real-time data access and analytics to drive decision-making.
This approach has two operational benefits. Firstly, it takes the grind out of documentation, giving accountants more time to focus on reviewing, advisory work, and delivering real value to clients. It can be particularly valuable as a way to streamline regulatory compliance, which is the top efficiency pain point listed by survey respondents.
Secondly, AI-driven tools can surface insights as you work, flagging risks or issues so your team can resolve them quickly. On the whole, it means less time spent mapping accounts or double and triple-checking figures, and more time understanding and guiding clients.
Lindsey foresees practices expanding their AI use into more areas:
“We need to empower employees to find ways to self-service using AI,” she explains.
“Everything from simple transcription and summarisation of action items to calendar organisation, coaching and development. If you have expertise in prompting, you can review your own work, embed previous feedback, and continuously improve your outputs in your own time.
“This means senior staff are sending back less work, reviewing faster and eliminating a lot of repetitive feedback. It also enables less linear work and more asynchronous work, which helps boost efficiency.”
Clearly, operational efficiency is a growth driver for accounting practices, with 91% of respondents saying that improvements led to increased profit, increased revenue, or both. How can your practice do the same?
If you can embed continuous improvement into your business, create connected workflows, and use automation to reduce manual tasks, you’re well on your way.
As Lindsey explains, it’s also about being ready to take advantage of fast-moving tech.
“AI is going to force a faster evolution of change management and readiness. There is going to need to be greater support from practices to enable change and experimentation, to continually evolve, and take advantage of the rapid pace of change.”
A platform like MYOB Practice Compliance, with Client Accounting, is a shortcut to this type of readiness. It lets you create streamlined workflows, so you can connect key processes and reduce time spent switching between systems. It helps you automate tasks like account mapping, approvals and document profiling, which add up to serious time savings. It’s designed to give your team a clear, accurate view of progress and task approvals, so they can keep work moving efficiently.
Most importantly, MYOB Practice Compliance sets you up for continuous improvement and growth, with a wide range of tools, modules, built-in scalability and support from the MYOB team.
Ready to future-proof your practice? Get started now.
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