Western Sydney based businesses are in danger of missing out on an accounting revolution by failing to respond to the changes caused by digital disruption.

In our recently released report, Harnessing the ‘bang’, stories from the digital frontline, Deloitte updated its analysis of the impact of digital disruption to show it is accelerating and affecting businesses large and small across Australia.

In our view, the next 12 months will be a watershed for private businesses adapting to digital disruption.

Recent research* shows 66% of businesses are still not using cloud technology. Many may not realise how much this technology has improved in the past few years and the positive impact it can have on how they run their business.

Deloitte Private has heeded its own warnings about digital disruption of the professional services sector by redefining the way it delivers accounting and tax services, via the launch of Deloitte Private Connect.

Time to embrace disruption

It would have been easier in the short term to have done nothing and hoped for the best, but we decided to take a leadership position because we don’t want our clients to miss out on this revolution.  With Deloitte Private Connect we have positively embraced the disruption to the accounting and tax profession on account of cloud technologies and created an offering that transforms the way business owners experience accounting services.

Deloitte Private Connect combines shared ledger accounting, automated bookkeeping and benchmarking, an online portal and dashboard as well as many other digital technologies, to redefine the way our private clients work with us, in real time, on any device.

Every business owner dreams of spending less time in the business and more time on the business.

Less time on day-to-day transactions, paying staff and suppliers and scrambling to balance the books. More time on the bigger picture and the things that helped them succeed in the first place. Until now, that's been easier said than done. Deloitte Private Connect is changing all that. It represents a fundamental shift in the accounting and tax function for our clients and for us.

How does it work?

We took a transformative approach to the design of Deloitte Private Connect, creating an ecosystem built around a family of business apps.  These apps automatically populate an interactive dashboard enabling business owners to quickly review key metrics in real time.  Based on the particular needs of their business, clients select from compatible apps conveniently grouped into simple categories such as staff, customers, marketing, product, money, etc.

Core to Deloitte Private Connect are two apps:

Transact automates bookkeeping. Invoices are digitally scanned and authorised for online payment while business owners digitally sign tax returns, approve BAS statements and year end accounts, raise queries and store documents securely online.

 

Analyser enables business owners to access live financial reports and business analytics, including profitability, cash flow, growth and trend analysis. Key performance indicators can be customised, live ‘what-if’ analysis performed and alerts set up to keep on top of the metrics that matter.

In a breakthrough for the professional services sector, Deloitte Private Connect is based on an online subscription payments model and fixed monthly fees.  We recognised that fixed monthly payments make it easier for our clients to manage their cash flow. We have adjusted our business model and workflow management accordingly, to provide our clients with certainty, as well as best in class services.

We believe that Deloitte Private Connect sets a new benchmark for what individuals and family businesses should expect from their accountant; the best cloud technologies and the best of Deloitte at a compelling fixed, monthly price.  We are giving our clients what we know they want – real time to do what really matters to them. Real business in real-time.

Contact: 

Michael Stibbard, Deloitte Partner

(02) 9322 3510

mstibbard@deloitte.com.au

*Source: Cloud Computing in Australia, report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.