2025 Accounting Trends: What to Expect This Year
It doesn’t matter which industry you’re in right now, an awful lot is changing. Putting the wider political and economic landscape aside, there’s a lot going on in the world of accounting and finance that could change the way we work forever, delivering greater flexibility, improved efficiency and smoother collaboration between businesses and departments.
We’re going to take a look at some of those changes in today’s article, covering the stand-out trends that will shape the accounting sector throughout 2025 and beyond. Some of them you might be expecting, some you might not…
Making Tax Digital rollout continues
There are a couple of significant Making Tax Digital (MTD) deadlines set in stone for 2026, which means this year will be another big one for businesses that still need to make the switch to digital accounting software.
MTD might be old news, but it’s still a crucial consideration for thousands of businesses and individuals. From April 2026, MTD will be mandated for self-employed people who earn more than £50,000 a year, so there’s still plenty of time for everyone to get their ducks in a row.
You guessed it: AI will play a bigger role than ever
AI is everywhere nowadays, and it’s certainly not going away anytime soon. Companies in a whole host of industries are taking full advantage of the technology, using it to speed up administrative tasks and boost productivity.
But that’s not all it’s good for. AI can deliver helpful insights and draw valuable conclusions from datasets when it’s used correctly, allowing accountants to spend more time focusing on other areas of the job.
Upskilling will become more important
All of this new technology means many accountants and bookkeepers will need to be upskilled in order to avoid falling behind. Traditional accounting knowledge will remain as crucial as ever, but the need for employees to understand AI, cybersecurity and new analytics software will increase too.
A shift to new ways of working
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, the world was gradually moving towards hybrid and flexible working. Now, five years on, it’s clear that this trend is here to stay.
As more and more businesses embrace the benefits of hybrid working, they’ll need to make sure their understanding of GDPR compliance, cybersecurity and technological problem-solving matches up. Hybrid working is great, but if the correct safeguards aren’t in place, the consequences to an accounting firm could be severe.
Analytics tools will help us solve problems more easily
Drawing on the power of AI, data analytics tools will continue to become more and more powerful throughout 2025, placing more metrics at our fingertips than ever before.
Not only will this help accountants solve problems and formulate solutions more easily, it will allow them to deliver more valuable insights for their clients, helping them make those big decisions with a little extra confidence. Helpful in what is currently a turbulent economic climate.
Sustainability will continue to rise up the agenda
Particularly for larger accounting firms and their clients, sustainability will remain a top priority throughout 2025 and beyond. As environmental impact forecasting becomes more and more commonplace, accountants will likely spend more of their time working with this kind of data, acting as advisors to help businesses meet their sustainability obligations and stay on target.
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From taking care of your day-to-day bookkeeping tasks to handling payroll and tax returns, we can assist with all your accounting needs no matter how small or large they may be. To find out more, check out our complete range of services today.