This accounting firm is helping old-school family businesses to digitally transform

Even prior to the pandemic, technology was an important part of the workforce. Businesses were exploring new ways of engaging with customers, through solutions that facilitated automation and faster processes. Where some business owners embraced technology quickly, others, because of either a lack of budget, digital culture, or both, struggled with digital transformation.

The spread of Covid-19 forced companies to look into creative digital solutions and fast track digital transformation journeys or face imminent closure, noted Mr Alan Chang, Managing Director of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm Singapore Corporate Services (SCS).

One of these affected businesses SCS helped survive was Teck Huat & Co, a trading and distribution company established in 1927, that brought Singaporeans household brands such as Lifeguard, Flying Horse, Princess and Moonlight. Like many of its contemporaries, Teck Huat & Co was still using a traditional, desktop-bound accounting system and outdated processes to manage their books and inventories - finance records were still kept on physical ledgers and excel sheets, which were tedious to keep track of. Due to the system's limitations, management could only access the company's financial information once a year, and also found it challenging to manage their inventories daily.

In 2019, the company's third generation Founder Mr Marco Teo, decided it was time for a revamp of their accounting processes. Having met SCS' Mr Chang through an acquaintance, Mr Teo engaged SCS to help the company migrate to cloud-based accounting platform Xero. Over the next few months of implementation, Mr Chang led in-depth strategy sessions with Teck Huat & Co's stakeholders to align on managing accounts, finances and inventories more efficiently and effectively.

Since their migration to the cloud, Teck Huat & Co's management can access their accounts anytime and anywhere, with real-time financial information. After adopting Xero, the company has also accelerated its financial closing process from 45 days to only seven days - without having to hire additional headcount in the finance department.

By sharing his SME clients' success stories, Mr Chang hopes to help nurture a digital-friendly culture and environment in Singapore's SME community and boost confidence in adopting digital solutions.

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SCS, established two decades ago, began its concerted efforts to digitally transform itself in 2019, after the Singapore Accounting Commission and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced the sector's Accountancy Industry Digital Plan. Mr Chang acknowledges that SCS had a late start, as adopting new technology in traditional CPA firms often involves a lengthy approval process.

However, Mr Chang's own experience has helped him empathise with similar struggles faced by SMEs. As a user-turned-enabler, SCS is now dedicated to helping SMEs transform their finance and accounting processes by adopting cloud accounting solutions. SCS also plays an important advisory role by recommending the best industry practices to help companies improve day-to-day operations efficiency, and educating clients on how the data and insights accumulated through Xero's platform can be leveraged for business planning and success.

SCS is an official IMDA-appointed Pre-Approved Solutions Vendor for the Productivity Solution Grant (PSG). This allows its SME clients to apply for PSG support of up to 80 per cent when they adopt IT solutions and equipment to enhance business processes.

On why Mr Chang highly recommends Xero to his SME clients, he shares: "As a long-term Xero user, we can attest to the platform's continuous dedication to improving its offerings and working closely with accounting partners like ourselves to benefit SMEs and help them become the most successful versions of themselves," Mr Chang says.

For instance, Xero's seamless integration with over 1,000 third-party apps commonly used by small businesses - including apps for payments, customer relationship management, and more - allow users to streamline workflows and synchronise data such as sales invoices, customer data, and cash flow reports. Data flows directly into the Xero ledger, and daily bank and credit card transactions are automatically imported into Xero and matched to their corresponding accounting transaction.

Despite the strides the industry has made in digital adoption over more than two years of the pandemic, Mr Chang still sees much room for improvement.

He notes: "Working remotely has become a norm, but there are still many repetitive or mundane tasks that SME finance and accounting departments are not automating because of cost misperceptions, lack of understanding on how technology can help, or simply old-school mindsets. We believe Xero can change this."

Despite the challenges, Mr Chang sees great potential in cloud solutions with AI-driven features, such as Xero, to help finance and accounting departments streamline processes further. He is keen to continue working with Xero to be the enabler and provider of cost-effective solutions to SMEs in their transformation journeys.

"By helping businesses move to Xero, capitalising on digital technologies to seize growth opportunities, we continue driving the accounting industry's evolution," Mr Chang says.

For more information about Xero, click here.