Data entry has been a fundamental part of accounting for decades.
But increasingly, software can do it automatically.
Modern accounting platforms can import bank transactions, categorize expenses, extract information from documents, match payments to invoices, and automate other tasks that once required hours of manual work.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating that shift.
For bookkeepers, tax preparers, and accountants, this raises an obvious question:
What happens when clients need less help entering and organizing their financial data?
The answer isn’t to compete with automation.
It’s to become more valuable than the task being automated.
That’s why Client Advisory Services (CAS) are positioned to become an increasingly important part of the accounting profession.
Data Entry Is Already Being Automated
Automation in accounting isn’t some distant prediction.
It’s already here.
Intuit’s 2025 Accountant Technology Survey found that 95% of surveyed accounting professionals said their firms had adopted automation technologies during the previous year.
Among the leading areas being automated were payroll, accounts payable and receivable, and data entry and transaction processing.
That’s significant for a profession that has historically devoted considerable time to collecting, entering, organizing, and reconciling financial information.
Technology can now perform more of that foundational work.
And it’s getting better.
AI can help extract information from documents, categorize transactions, identify anomalies, summarize financial information, and accelerate numerous accounting workflows.
That doesn’t mean bookkeeping is disappearing.
It means manual data entry is becoming a smaller part of the value a professional bookkeeper provides.
If Technology Does the Work Faster, What Happens to Your Value?
Consider a bookkeeping task that once required four hours.
Automation reduces it to one.
That’s great for efficiency.
But if your entire business model is built around charging for those four hours, you have a problem.
The technology has made you more productive while potentially reducing the amount of work you can bill.
That’s one reason accounting professionals need to think carefully about what they’re actually selling.
If you’re selling data entry, automation is a competitor.
If you’re selling financial insight, automation can become a tool.
The technology can organize the numbers.
You can use those numbers to help the business owner make better decisions.
A Financial Report Isn’t the Same as Financial Advice
Imagine that AI generates a report showing a business owner’s revenue increased 15%.
That’s useful information.
Now imagine that profit increased only 2%.
Suddenly, the owner has questions.
Why aren’t profits keeping pace with sales?
Are labor costs too high?
Have margins declined?
Are certain products losing money?
Should prices increase?
Can the business still afford to hire?
A software platform may help identify trends and patterns.
But the business owner still has to decide what to do about them.
That’s where advisory becomes valuable.
Instead of simply presenting the numbers, an advisor helps the owner understand what those numbers mean in the context of their business.
Advisory Services Move Accounting Forward
Traditional accounting has largely focused on historical information.
What happened last month?
What did the business earn last year?
How much tax is owed?
Those questions remain important.
Advisory adds another set of questions:
Why did it happen?
Where is the business heading?
What should we change?
What happens if we hire another employee?
How can we improve cash flow?
What would need to happen to reach our profit goal?
Client Advisory Services can include cash flow planning, forecasting, KPI analysis, profitability improvement, budgeting, pricing analysis, strategic planning, and recurring meetings with business owners.
Instead of simply documenting the past, the accounting professional helps the client prepare for the future.
The Market Is Already Moving Toward Advisory
Accounting firms aren’t waiting for this transition to happen.
They’re already investing in advisory.
The 2024 CPA.com and AICPA PCPS Client Advisory Services Benchmark Survey found 17% median growth among participating CAS practices.
Those firms expected another 15% median growth during the following year.
Even more striking, respondents projected 99% median CAS revenue growth over the next three years.
Intuit’s research points in the same direction. Its 2025 survey found that 79% of respondents expected strategic advisory work to grow during the following year.
As technology handles more foundational accounting processes, firms are finding opportunities further up the value chain.
Bookkeeping Isn’t Going Away. It’s Becoming a Starting Point.
None of this means businesses will stop needing accurate books.
Quite the opposite.
Good advisory depends on reliable financial information.
If the books are wrong, the advice built upon them can be wrong too.
That means professional bookkeeping remains an essential foundation.
But the opportunity for bookkeepers is to consider what comes after the books are complete.
Suppose you’ve finished a client’s monthly financial statements.
Don’t stop at:
“Here are your reports.”
Ask:
“Would you like to talk about what I’m seeing?”
Maybe accounts receivable are creeping upward.
Perhaps margins are declining.
Maybe one expense category has increased significantly.
Those observations can become the beginning of an advisory conversation.
Bookkeeping produces the information.
Advisory turns that information into action.
Tax Professionals Have the Same Opportunity
Tax preparation is also becoming increasingly technology-assisted.
Software already handles enormous portions of the calculation and preparation process, while AI is beginning to assist with research, document processing, and workflow automation.
But tax professionals possess something extremely valuable:
knowledge of their clients’ financial lives and businesses.
A tax return can reveal income trends, business performance, major purchases, investments, and other important financial information.
Instead of viewing the tax return as the end of the engagement, professionals can use that knowledge to identify conversations worth having throughout the year.
That creates another natural path toward advisory.
Become the Professional Clients Call Before They Make a Decision
There is a simple way to think about the difference between traditional accounting and advisory.
A traditional accounting professional may frequently learn about a financial decision after it happens.
The client buys equipment.
Then they tell the accountant.
The client hires three employees.
Then they tell the bookkeeper.
The client expands into another location.
Then they ask about the financial consequences.
A trusted advisor is brought into the conversation earlier.
“We’re thinking about hiring. Can we afford it?”
“We want to expand. What would that do to our cash flow?”
“Our sales are increasing but our bank account isn’t. Can you help us figure out why?”
That’s a fundamentally different relationship.
And it’s much harder to commoditize.
Use AI to Become a Better Advisor
Accounting professionals don’t need to resist AI to protect their careers.
They can use it.
Let technology reduce manual data entry.
Automate repetitive workflows.
Generate reports faster.
Identify trends sooner.
Then use the time saved to do something that clients may value more:
Talk to them.
Learn their goals.
Understand their businesses.
Ask questions.
Analyze options.
Make recommendations.
Follow up.
Technology can create the capacity for better advisory relationships if accounting professionals intentionally use that capacity.
Develop Advisory Skills With Profit & Growth Expert Training
Moving from data processing to advisory requires a different skill set.
Universal Accounting Center’s Profit & Growth Expert (PGE) training provides a pathway for bookkeepers, tax professionals, and accountants who want to make that transition.
PGE focuses on helping professionals work with small business owners on areas such as cash flow, profitability, business goals, and growth.
The program complements the technical skills taught through Universal Accounting Center’s Professional Bookkeeper (PB) and Professional Tax Preparer (PTP) programs.
PB helps you build the financial foundation.
PTP helps you provide essential tax services.
PGE helps you use financial knowledge to become an advisor.
Together, those skills can help professionals build accounting firms prepared for a profession where producing financial information is increasingly automated—but helping business owners understand and act on that information remains enormously valuable.
Don’t Compete With Automation. Move Beyond It.
Data entry is being automated.
More accounting processes will follow.
For professionals whose value is defined entirely by manually completing those tasks, that presents a challenge.
For professionals willing to move toward advisory, it presents an opportunity.
Technology can do more of the processing.
Accounting professionals can do more of the interpreting, planning, communicating, and advising.
The future of accounting isn’t simply about producing numbers faster.
It’s about helping clients make better decisions with those numbers.
And that’s why advisory services are becoming the way forward for the accounting profession.