Mark Holton has been working within the accounting industry for the last 40 years, specialising in assisting clients and accounting firms alike. From his long-standing membership with CPA Australia to his robust passion for the industry - he has become a leader in the field of business advisory services. Traveling throughout Australia and across the world to impart his knowledge and skills, Mark believes in taking the time to connect with accountants.
His business, Smithink, runs workshops and courses that inform accountants on how they can turn their practices into great businesses. They offer memberships that are designed to inform their clients and provide educational insight into the industry alongside in-person and virtual events.
Mark reflected on his experiences with Advancetrack after meeting the founder, Vipul Sheth a few years ago at an accountancy bootcamp in Queensland. After speaking with Vipul again at another bootcamp in the UK, he got to know more about Advancetrack and the work the company does and just how it can assist the Australian accounting industry to elevate its practices.
Using Mark’s expertise and experience, we sat down with him to discuss the current forecast and projected future within the Australian accounting industry when it comes to priorities. During this interview you’ll read all about the past, present and future that accountants should be looking out for when reaching for their goals.
What have accountants neglected to prioritise thus far?
Mark: I think there's been a fair bit of criticism of the industry over the years. The industry is very good at doing compliance work. It's very good at preparing financial statements, complying with tax laws, representing clients in their mission trying to satisfy their respective tax offices around the world. I think what it's been neglecting for a while is business advisory services, such as ongoing tax planning or exploring financial strategies that could help the business improve.
I've always believed it's all about making the client's business more profitable, cashflow strong, and worth more tomorrow than it is worth today. I think every client is interested in improving the business, the most significant investment they've ever made in their lives. I think as an accountant, we need to prioritise the skills that are required to be able to be a better business advisor.
A lot of those are not technical skills. We're all very strong technically. I think we need to prioritise soft skills like critical thinking, self-management, how to ask the right questions of clients, how to manage difficult clients, how to listen more effectively, and then build upon the client's responses, how to find out what's important to the client. I don't think that we put enough priority, enough training, enough development of our teams in the soft skills area, which is so critically important to diversifying your firm and offering the type of service we all know clients want.
We offer services clients need. That's compliance. They can't do it themselves. If they don't do it, they get penalised. Business advisory is a bit different. You don't get penalised for not doing it. But I think we need to put more of a priority on the systems, processes and people in place to be able to offer advisory services. This is not just one-off in a piecemeal fashion whenever something's needed. But as a more regular annuity model where we're in the business of helping our clients grow better in their success and create a more valuable business.
What are the top five points accountants should be prioritising in 2025?
Which courses would you recommend for educating accountants?
They are out there, traditionally outside the professional bodies, but there are courses available. The event Smithink run, which is the Young Guns course, every year, focuses on non-technical training, how to manage, how to lead, how to diversify your business, mental health for accountants, how to present, how to network. That sort of stuff doesn't come naturally, because from day one with university, we're trained to be technical. We go into an accounting firm and we're employed to be technical. Eventually, we're let loose on the public. And I think that's where the void is.
How can you utilise outsourcing your compliance work to accommodate those priorities?
There’s a number of benefits. There’s access to resources that are not readily available onshore. You know, I said earlier that recruitment and retention of staff is tough. There are less graduates coming out of university going into the profession. Other more attractive disciplines are biting, chewing away at the guys that traditionally used to come through. Offshore outsourcing has great resources. Well-trained resources, well-systemized resources. I think, again, you've got to look outside the box a little bit. So definitely access to resources, definitely cost efficiency, reduced overhead costs. It's a proven fact that offshore staff cost less than onshore in the majority of circumstances. If you're getting an equivalent skill set at a lesser price, that is more cost effective.
Your costs reduce, your profit increases. More importantly, you're getting highly qualified staff to do a good job offshore as well as onshore. I think we need a balance here. We don't just need one way or the other. We've got to think liberally about what the future holds. I think also access to advanced expertise and specialised skills, whether it's self-managed super fund audits, whether it's even business advisory support.
If you're going to utilise whatever software you're going to use out there for business advisory, who's the best person to get all the data into it? An expensive onshore resource or a very efficient, less expensive offshore resource? I think it's improved data security and confidentiality is maintained strongly with offshore providers because of the centralised nature of what they do. I think you'll gain scalability and flexibility that otherwise it's been proven very difficult to gain onshore.
This can lead to better time management, which leads to more capacity, more time to diversify your accounting firm and start to offer those advisory services and other diversified services we all know we need to do, but have struggled or failed to implement so far.
Obviously, it takes time with outsourcing to be able to get the offshore team to understand how you do business, but it's short-term pain for long-term gain. In my mind, it's a no-brainer in the current environment.
Where do you see the future of the Australian accounting industry going in the next five years?
Most importantly, the demand for skilled accountants is growing rapidly. You know, in Australia, we're forecasting to have a shortage of 58,000 accountants by 2033. That was a study put out by the Australian Financial Review in 2024. This presents a significant opportunity for graduates. The Australian accounting sector offers job stability, competitive salaries and clear paths. It is a brilliant profession. I think it gets undersold in the fact that it might be perceived as being boring or repetitive. Let me tell you, working in advisory, helping a client build a better, successful, more valuable, more profitable business is not boring.
Understanding what keeps your client awake at night, understanding what's important to them, working on a variety of different projects in a variety of different areas for a variety of different clients, I think is the future of our industry. Compliance will still be there, don't get me wrong. I think it's all so naive to think it'll stay the same in the future with automation, AI, and other technological advancements. Understanding what keeps your client awake at night, understanding what's important to them, working on a variety of different projects in a variety of different areas for a variety of different clients, I think is the future of our industry. Compliance will still be there, don't get me wrong. I think it's all so naive to think it'll stay the same in the future with automation, AI, and other technological advancements.
