Compliance Is Getting Harder. Could Better Technology Help?
For accountants and their clients, compliance is becoming harder to manage.
Recent survey evidence points to a familiar problem: more legislative change, more administrative burden and too many disconnected processes.
And clients are increasingly looking for a different approach.
Compliance overload is becoming a real problem
In HMRC’s and the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board’s survey, 61.6% of respondents said the legislative tax-compliance burden had worsened over the previous year, while 62.8% said legislative change had affected them.
For accountants, the impact goes beyond keeping up with new rules.
Every change can mean new client conversations, updated processes, additional checks and more time spent helping clients understand what they need to do.
The compliance workload can quickly become administrative workload.
Clients don’t necessarily want another system
There is also a clear signal about how people want technology to work.
When asked about record keeping and tax submissions, 57.9% preferred integrated day-to-day record keeping and tax submission, compared with 42.1% who preferred separate systems.
That difference matters.
For clients, moving information between platforms can create additional work and opportunities for errors. For accountants, disconnected systems can mean rekeying information, checking data and managing multiple workflows.
The attraction of integration is therefore not simply convenience.
It is about removing unnecessary steps from the compliance process.
More guidance isn’t always the answer
There is another interesting finding.
Among those responding to the relevant question, 72% said GOV.UK guidance had not helped them complete their task.
The reasons reported included complexity, generic information, poor navigation and reliance on an accountant.
That does not mean guidance is unimportant. It highlights a bigger issue: having information available is not the same as making a task easy to complete.
For accountants, this creates another layer of work. Clients may have access to the rules, but still need help translating those rules into practical action.
Technology needs to create capacity
This is also reflected in what accountancy practices are looking for from technology.
ICAEW’s recent mid-tier research found that growth from existing clients is increasingly important alongside winning new clients, with firms placing greater emphasis on service mix, technology and capacity.
That changes the conversation around software.
The question is not simply:
“Can technology help us charge more?”
It is:
“Can technology help us deliver more value without creating more administrative work?”
If routine processes can be automated, information can flow between modules and client data is available in one connected workflow, practices can potentially create capacity for higher-value work.
That could mean better client service, broader services or more time for advisory conversations — without relying entirely on increasing fees or taking on more clients.
From compliance burden to connected workflows
The evidence points towards a common theme.
Clients are dealing with increasing complexity. Accountants are managing more compliance requirements. And disconnected systems can add to the workload rather than solve it.
Technology cannot remove regulatory change.
But the right technology can help reduce the administrative friction around it.
For accountancy practices, that means looking beyond individual features and asking a more fundamental question:
How much unnecessary work is your current technology stack creating?
The opportunity is not simply to digitise compliance.
It is to build more connected workflows that give accountants and their clients time back.
