One of the many impacts of the pandemic has been the faster adoption of digital in both our business and personal lives.

So, while Netflix shares soared 60% between January and October 2020 as we were all stuck at home with little to do except watch Tiger King and The Last Dance, use of Zoom and Office 365 also skyrocketed. 

It’s hard to frame this phenomenon as a silver lining to the dark cloud of coronavirus, given all the challenges the pandemic presented. But those who embrace it are already seeing benefits from greater digital engagement.

This is especially the case for businesses. Even before the pandemic, a 2019 Lloyds Bank UK Digital Index found the businesses who were most digitally engaged made a 20% saving on time spent on administration. 

And by getting accounting and tax software talking to each other, they found it was possible to save time on tax.

Making Tax Digital

You may have seen the onset of the pandemic boost your clients’ uptake of Making Tax Digital (MTD). As you’ll know, all businesses with a turnover in excess of £85,000 (the VAT threshold) have been required to store VAT records and submit their returns digitally since 1 April 2019. Just 12 months after this, 1.4 million firms were doing so.

Because the benefits of simplicity and efficiency are so clear, it’s apparent that many companies below the threshold have also adopted MTD, even though there is no mandatory requirement to do so yet. The remaining smaller companies will be required to comply in April 2022.

It’s possible to adopt MTD the old-fashioned way, using spreadsheets and some bridging software. But most accountants are pitching more powerful cloud accounting software – like Capium – to their clients. 

This is because it makes complying with MTD seamless, alongside bringing a host of other benefits like reporting and automated bank reconciliation.

Could you be benefiting more from software?

While accountants generally know the benefits of automated accounting software, there are many digital tools that you can use yourself for your own business.

These may enhance collaboration and teamwork, create better comms channels with clients, improve cyber security and aid marketing. These translate into greater client satisfaction, better productivity among your staff, more business and reduced risk. There is everything to gain.

What may seem high-tech today will become the norm of tomorrow. You only have to look at stats on areas like business adoption of online banking, which stands at 88%, or website ownership (98%) to see how prevalent once-advanced technology eventually becomes. 

Those numbers come from a 2015 study by Brunel University and Applegate Marketplace, and we can safely assume those numbers have risen significantly since. The same study also found that 63% of businesses expected digitisation to improve customer satisfaction. They certainly seemed optimistic about the benefits still to come.

You can get ahead of the curve by embracing technological advances, unlocking the benefits they bring before your competition. 

To learn how Capium can help you achieve this, get in touch for a demo.