Measuring performance is crucial for any accounting firm, but understanding how your firm compares to industry standards is key to driving improvement. This session will explore the latest industry reports, examining trends and benchmarks for 2025. Mark and Julia will discuss how these insights can help you assess and enhance the performance of your firm.

Presented By: Mark Holton, Smithink + Julia Thomson, The Benchmarking Group

Key Takeaways:

Industry Structure Is Changing

Accounting firms are operating in a market with fewer support staff, a declining pipeline of new accountants, and increasing demands for specialisation. A long-term workforce gap is emerging as retirements outpace new entrants.

Top Firms Are Not the Biggest Firms

High performers do not have the largest revenue or the most clients. Their success comes from stronger productivity, higher revenue per person, and consistent expense management rather than scale.

Leverage Drives Profitability

Stronger leverage ratios are a defining feature of top firms. They employ more fee earners per partner, operate with fewer admin staff, and make strategic use of offshore resources.

Productivity Is a Cultural Priority

Top firms create a firm-wide approach to productivity. This shows up in better utilisation, improved recoverability, lower write-offs, and disciplined management of work in progress.

Fee Management and Write-Offs Remain a Major Issue

The bottom-performing quartile loses significantly more to write-offs. Firms that review work in progress frequently and price with confidence recover more of the work they complete.

Know Your Client and Their Pain Points

Most firms do not proactively research their client base. Firms that understand the mental load, financial literacy gaps, and operational pressures of business owners are better placed to deliver advisory services.

Business Advisory Is a Key Differentiator

Top firms generate more than double the advisory revenue share of the bottom quartile. They solve business problems rather than only completing compliance. Firms that do not offer advisory risk losing clients to management consultants.

Technology Adoption Is Accelerating

AI uptake has moved from eight per cent to over seventy per cent in one year. High-performing firms use AI daily across both accounting and admin functions. This reflects a productivity mindset rather than a standalone cause of success.

Government Reporting and Compliance Trends Are Creating Opportunities

Increased requirements in areas such as climate reporting, diversity reporting, gender pay gap reporting, cybersecurity and blockchain are shaping new opportunities for accounting specialisations.

Specialisation Is Becoming a Strategic Edge

Higher value per client and a smaller client base suggest top firms are moving into specialist services. Firms that identify client needs and build expertise in emerging reporting and compliance areas are well-positioned for growth.

The Most Immediate Firm Priority

The strongest action firms can take is to talk to clients. Understanding their challenges supports advisory growth, stronger pricing, and clearer decisions about which clients to keep or let go.

If you would like to find out more about accounting industry trends and benchmarking, make sure you access and participate in The Crunch.