To better understand what’s on the minds of accounting industry leaders, we recently surveyed over 1,000 practitioners on topics ranging from how artificial intelligence (AI) shapes their workflow to the cadence they stick to when communicating with clients. It meant putting ourselves behind the practice desk — asking questions about their current tech stack, the services they offer clients, the ones they see impacting their firm’s growth, and what they hope to accomplish this year. The goal was to get below the surface so that accounting professionals of all sizes could gain actionable insights and discover common ground with peers regarding their firms’ futures.
What follows are our findings, thoughts on what it means for the profession, and how these financial navigators think about the intersection of accounting and their small business clients.
Survey methodology
Between October and November 2024, over 1,000 accounting professionals participated in OnPay’s annual accounting outlook survey. To build a data set useful to a broad range of industry professionals, we kept the criteria to title company manager or higher, accountant or bookkeeper, with a firm size under 500 employees. To cast a wide net, those who participated had to either provide payroll services to their clients or guidance to small businesses to ensure that they were paying employees without issues.
Who are today’s accounting professionals?
Below are the details of who participated in the data drill-down.
- Accountants surveyed were primarily in the 26–44 age range
- This year, a larger percentage of responses were from this under 45 age group compared to 2024
- 25% of responses came from participants aged 45+ — a 7% decrease in participation from last year’s survey
Participants surveyed had a wide range of experience in the accounting industry:
- 33% of accountants surveyed have been in the industry for 5 years or less, offering insights from newer accountants
- The most significant change was in the 20+ years of experience category, which recorded a 7% drop overall compared to the 2023 survey
- Even so, 32% of responses came from accountants with over a decade of experience navigating the industry’s ebb and flow
Though people may differ in their opinions on who should be calling the shots based on their experience, even the youngest of our participants are tasked with making operational decisions.
- Half of the participants hold the title of manager
- All participants are decision-makers within their firms
Staff size fell into different buckets for those wondering about the firms’ head counts.
- 21% work at a firm with nine employees or less
- 51% work at a firm of 10–99 employees
- 27% are part of a staff with 100+ employees
Types of businesses accounting firms work with
The organizations that accountants provide services for are those that most consumers will likely be familiar with and have experience using. At 53%, the clear chart-toppers are banking and finance. Construction is second on the list at 31%, while real estate and advertising/media firms are third at an even 30%.
That said, rounding out the top five are manufacturing, transport and logistics at 29%, and restaurants, hospitality, and tourism at 28%. Overall, almost every industry was represented by a strong percentage of accountants who say they serve these types of clients.
| Accounting practices support clients across many industries |
| Banking and financial 53% |
Healthcare 25% |
| Construction 31% |
Agriculture and farming 24% |
| Real Estate 30% |
Technology 23% |
| Advertising and media 30% |
Fitness and recreation 21% |
| Manufacturing, transport, and logistics 29% |
Energy and utilities 20% |
| Restaurants, hospitality, and tourism 28% |
Education 19% |
| Professional services 28% |
Church and Clergy 15% |
| Retail 27% |
Nonprofit 13% |
Interestingly, 31% of participants shared that they don’t stray beyond one industry type when taking on clients. While specializing in a single niche isn’t necessary for success, accountants who are just starting out may find that this approach prevents them from spinning their wheels — especially if they have an affinity for a particular industry.
Now that we have set the stage of who our survey participants are, let’s find out more about where they’re focusing their firm’s time this year.
Taking things up a notch in 2025
Drumroll, please! At 42%, our respondents shared that increasing their firm’s revenue is the top priority for this year. Interestingly, 22% said they were unlikely to be ultra-focused on growing earnings, suggesting a group that is satisfied with their current workload and looking for ways to improve their profit margin. A majority of these ‘no plans to focus’ responses came from solo bookkeepers, so it stands to reason that they may be looking to avoid being spread too thin.
Rounding out the other top priorities? Over a third of firms want to add to their new client count and increase revenue. Beyond adding new businesses to their CRM as part of the bigger picture, almost 30% see opportunities in growing their client advisory. This finding syncs with other data that small business clients want and expect more strategic advice and are looking to their accounting practice to provide it. Further into the article we’ll cover some of the additional services that firms already offer, as well as areas where they hope to create new consulting opportunities.
Goals gaining attention
Two-thirds of accountants stated that growing payroll services was either something they planned to explore or is at the very top of their priority list.
Also of note is that accountants know they’re not the only game in town. What do we mean? To stand out from the competition, over a quarter have made a priority of building a brand or getting their social media presence in order. This could have a lot to do with the fact that over 60% of small businesses use social media in some way or another to grow their business. In addition, more and more news coverage about incorrect tax advice getting shared on platforms like TikTok is making the rounds (as well as scams). The takeaway is that many accountants are likely thinking about how they can help mitigate the spread of incorrect information and position themselves as a trusted thought leader.
For those helping SMBs stay current with paying employees, 75% use some type of payroll software to keep the numbers in order (up from 68% in 2024). Surprisingly, 17% shared that they manually did these calculations. When we asked this question last year, the number was 20%.
From the responses, it’s clear that firms recognize the revenue opportunity presented by taking payroll off clients’ hands. Only 2% of our survey participants avoided offering payroll-as-a-service altogether! For any firms still on the fence about helping clients with payroll, they may be missing out.
In addition to a practice’s growth, we asked these professional number crunchers to share where they are putting their energy when taking company operations to the next level.
The top vote earner? Many firms are focused on improving efficiency, as 75% either list this as their top priority or plan to explore what it entails. A little further into the article, we present data on how accountants are using AI and investigating how machine learning can improve operating efficiencies.
The runner-up on the top focus areas is controlling cybersecurity threats. Seventy percent are either planning to explore or already are taking a closer look at how to mitigate “digital shenanigans” from affecting their firm’s clients. This likely has a lot to do with the number of data breaches exceeding 3,000 last year, making it clear why accountants are actively exploring action plans. Additionally, more light is being shed on the FTC Safeguards Rule and requirements for financial companies to proactively prevent online fraudsters from getting access to sensitive customer information. It makes a lot of sense for practitioners to be researching these topics.
With revenue growth, client advisory services, and new client acquisition emerging as top priorities, we also wanted to understand which services small businesses are increasingly requesting from these financial architects.
Services that accountants offer clients
As we dig into the data, it’s unsurprising that over 70% of survey respondents shared that taking on the numbers is the top task they are responsible for when it comes to helping small business clients.
A percentage that is trending upward is that SMBs are leaning on accounting firms for assistance with business and financial matters. When we asked this question in 2023, roughly half of the accounting pros shared that the SMBs they support expected this type of help. This year? The number jumped to 58%. In fact, this is in line with other research where as much as 66% of tax and accounting professionals say their clients welcome assistance with business-related questions.
As we mentioned earlier, growing revenue is the front-runner for many of the accounting professionals who participated in our survey. Forty-two percent list this as their key area of focus this year. Add in goals around expanding their client advisory (36%), and you end up with an array of service offerings accounting pros want clients to delegate to them.
These services range from helping clients understand the ins and outs of various beneficial tax credits to making sure they have workers’ compensation insurance.
So, which type of service do accountants see making the biggest impact on the dollars and cents? At 28%, business and financial planning reigns supreme. Interestingly, this is also the offering that saw the largest uptick from last year’s report, as 23% had it on their minds as a service to get on top of in 2024. Trending in the opposite direction, it was interesting to see employee benefits dip as a potential future service offering.
Last year, 26% of those we polled picked benefits administration as the service they were looking to offer in the future. This year, it came in at 19%. This was surprising as it can be quite a conversation starter. Even if firms have zero plans to provide help with planning perks, just sharing benefits information with their client base can be a helpful way to assist clients and keep them in compliance.
How so? Over a dozen states, such as California and Virginia, have mandates that require employers (in some cases with just one employee) to offer workers access to a way to save for retirement. It’s likely that firms have small business clients who are unaware that these state-sponsored programs are picking up steam throughout the country.
Requirements on the rise
Did you know that over a dozen states have mandates in place that require employers to offer their employees access to a way to save for retirement?
Many small businesses are also increasingly looking to offer their employees benefits programs as they can be a powerful way to attract the best and brightest jobseekers. In a separate OnPay survey of small business owners, over 20% have earmarked retirement savings plans as something they wish to offer in the future. The takeaway is that you likely have clients who are interested in employee benefits. They could need help setting up plans for their organization — or be open to having a conversation about it.
It would be challenging to grow client advisory services without regularly checking in with those who hire you. Let’s unpack how some accountants feel about their consistency in correspondence.
Client communication
Can you hear me now? In most cases, the answer is yes! Many of those we polled feel that they’re doing a more than capable job of keeping the lines of communication open.
Over 85% feel they’re in the “good” or “excellent” camp when it comes to maintaining correspondence with their client base. For the 13% that feel their efforts are fair or the 2% that could use some pointers, here are the common ways most “general ledger guardians” bridge the communication gap.
Despite how ubiquitous digital communications are, most accountants still prefer in-person meetings. Coming in second as the preferred method? Catching up over the phone.
In previous surveys, our team has found that small businesses think of the accounting firms they do business with as trusted advisors. The following data overwhelmingly cements this position.
| How often do accountants have advisory conversations with a client? |
| 24% |
26% |
35% |
14% |
| Multiple times a month |
Once a month |
1 to 2 times per quarter |
A few times a year |
Accounting pros are doing what they can to ensure that they are the ones that SMBs turn to when they need help with a topic. Over half of our survey respondents have advisory conversations with their client base one to three times per month!
What about the impact of AI?
Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to avoid examples of businesses adopting AI to chip away at tasks. The accounting industry is no exception. Of the number-crunchers who participated in our survey, 65% have a positive or very positive outlook on AI’s utility for their firm.
When we asked the same question in 2023, 56% of the respondents said they viewed AI in a positive light. It’s one thing to get an overview of how these professionals feel about the real-world application of AI, but it’s another to find out if those running practices are actually putting these tools to the test. The verdict? Nearly 70% of the professionals we polled are using AI in some form.
That’s a lot of adoption making its way into the hands of those who are handling accounting’s day-to-day tasks. Arguably, this has a lot to do with the steady flow of AI applications entering the market and generative AI models like ChatGPT becoming more mainstream.
Among the 31% of accounting professionals not currently using AI, some may be interested in learning how their industry peers are applying this technology. Below are some of the more common ways it’s being put to use.
For many (60%), using the power of AI to analyze and sum up data is the most popular scenario. Interestingly, almost 50% are finding that they can use tools to help them with client communications. Now we know why over 80% feel that they are doing a good job of staying in touch with their firm’s clients!
For those accountants we mentioned earlier, 70% say having cybersecurity top of mind is an operational goal. It is probably also safe to say that at least some are thinking about how AI can keep “digital evildoers” at bay. Forty-three percent said they are using AI to detect fraud which is potentially affecting their firm’s operations. This stat matches other reports that show many are bullish on the idea that AI could go a long way toward assisting with fraud prevention.
Understanding how to use AI can help those looking to optimize their operations. But what tools are firms using when taking the next steps?
It’s not surprising that ChatGPT is taking the trophy in terms of AI adoption, as it eclipsed 100 million users as of January 2023. Spoiler alert: as of March 2025 the number has eclipsed 400 million.
Moving on from how these “architects of number-crunching” are thinking about AI’s influence, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least touch on a “tech stack fact” we asked about the year prior.
So, what did we find? There is no “one-size-fits-all” tech stack for accountants. While 27% have two primary software tools they rely on to get the job done (up from 24% in our previous survey), accountants utilize a mix of software to serve their clients.
With so much information available at their fingertips, we wanted to see which resources these “bards of bookkeeping” often turn to for guidance on work-related topics. Nearly 40% primarily count on video content, as YouTube came in as the top source for accounting info.
It’s clear that Uncle Sam has some work to do to take back the top spot. Coming in second at 28%, our survey respondents rely on the Internal Revenue Service to set the record straight on a tax topic. Even with all the information available online, there’s still a place in the world for peer-based knowledge and hearing from those with first-hand experience.
Twenty-three percent get the information they need by seeking out subject matter experts in person at conferences, while 19% tune into virtual events and webinars for the guidance they need.
Running payroll to drive revenue
Running payroll is one of the top services that small businesses expect their accountants to have lots of input on. We are confident about that metric because of the separate results we uncovered from our annual small business survey. Over half of our small business respondents said that help with paying employees is one of the top services they expect their accounting firm to take care of.
So, does this number align with what accounting professionals hear from their client base?
A whopping 95+% say that helping clients pay their employees is an important piece of the accounting practice puzzle. To take this a step further, 9 out of 10 accountants shared that running payroll is a significant portion of their revenue and makes up greater than 20% of their firm’s earnings.
For those looking to get a foothold in the industry and build their book of business (or those industry veterans looking to broaden their offerings), payroll could be the path of least resistance, as most who completed our poll say it’s fairly painless to set up.
In fact, over 70% of our accounting-practitioner poll takers deem that providing payroll services to clients is “easy to very easy.” If you’ve been on the fence but ready to learn more, OnPay’s Partner program could be for you.
Accountants aim to do more than stay ahead of numbers
There’s no shortage of things for accounting professionals to keep pace with. From clients’ growing needs to understanding all that technology offers, each day is an opportunity to take their firm’s goals up a notch. By keeping an ear to the ground, exploring new services, and looking for ways to optimize operations, accounting professionals consistently position themselves, and especially the small businesses they serve, in a place to succeed.
