UK accountants plan to quit as advisory demand surges

Silverfin has published research showing that 43% of UK accountants plan to leave the profession within the next year, up from 9% in its previous UK survey.

The research also found that many accountants are struggling to meet client demand for advisory work. Across five European markets, 53% of respondents said they regularly receive more requests for advisory support than they can handle, while 44% said this happens at least sometimes.

In the UK, 46% said they regularly receive more requests for advisory support than they can handle. The survey covered 500 mid- to senior-level employees at accountancy firms in the UK, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, with 100 respondents in each market.

Luxembourg recorded the highest level of pressure, with 78% of accountants saying they regularly face more advisory demand than they can handle. Belgium followed at 72%, ahead of the UK at 46%, the Netherlands at 38% and Denmark at 32%.

Advisory and consultancy work already makes up a notable share of revenue for many firms. Across the five countries, 84% of respondents said this work accounts for at least 21% of their firm's revenue. In the UK, that figure rose to 91%.

Workflow strain

The findings point to fragmented systems and manual processes as a major source of lost time. More than half of respondents said they regularly work across four or five bookkeeping systems, while 9% said they use between six and 10 systems.

Manual reconciliation in Excel also remains common. Across the five markets, 44% said they still use Excel for that task. In the UK, the figure was 31%.

Moving information between systems is another drain on time. Two in five respondents, or 41%, said they spend at least 31 minutes each day transferring data from one system to another. Yet only 21% said they were very confident that every team, partner and office follows the same processes and workflows. In the UK, 37% said they spend at least 31 minutes a day moving data, and only 10% said they were very confident in process consistency.

The study estimated that accountants could reclaim 1.46 hours of each working day if work was streamlined. Over a year, that would amount to about 40 working days. Silverfin calculated this as roughly €67,000 in potential billable value per accountant across the five markets and about £55,000 in the UK.

Business owners' expectations are rising even as firms face staffing pressure. The research found that 92% of respondents reported at least one vacancy at their firm, while 41% said it typically takes 12 weeks or longer to fill a role.

Across all five markets, 33% of respondents said they plan to leave the profession within the next year. The UK figure was markedly higher at 43%, suggesting a sharper retention challenge there than elsewhere in the sample.

A separate finding showed that accountants see artificial intelligence and automation as the biggest force reshaping the profession. Across Europe, 47% chose AI and automation, ahead of economic pressures at 11%, client expectations at 10%, and consolidation and mergers and acquisitions at 9%.

UK respondents were more divided. AI and automation still ranked first at 24%, but regulatory change followed closely at 22%, while consolidation and mergers and acquisitions, talent shortages, and new advisory opportunities each stood at 12%.

An Maes, Chief Executive Officer at Silverfin, linked the strain on accountants to a mismatch between client expectations and firms' internal processes.

"Business owners increasingly expect their accountancy firms to anticipate what's ahead and help guide their decisions. Yet accountants are losing too much time to repetitive tasks to be able to do that advisory work. With more than half of accountants unable to keep up with demand for advice, there's a clear gap between what businesses expect and what firms can deliver," said An Maes, Chief Executive Officer at Silverfin.

Maes said hiring alone could not address the staffing issue.

"For years, the accounting profession has been warned that it must transform or risk becoming obsolete. Yet firms are struggling to meet demand for advice while already short of people, and a significant proportion of professionals are considering leaving the profession. This problem can't be solved by simply recruiting more people. Firms need to look at how work is organised and how much time highly skilled professionals are still spending on repetitive tasks versus work that motivates them. That will help them serve clients better and continue to attract people to a profession with a strong future," Maes said.