It’s an exciting time for accountants. Cloud adoption is rapidly evolving the industry and paving the way for changes in what your clients are looking for, the services you provide them, and how you work.

And changes will continue to happen—so at the recent Firm of the Future roadshow, we spoke to Bruce Phillips from HPC Accounting & Tax to find out what three things your practice should be aware of about accounting's future, so you can address them and get ahead now.

HPC has grown dramatically over the years because Bruce has been ahead of a lot of the different technology changes, and has a knack for foreseeing, and taking advantage of, industry developments.

According to Bruce, these are the three big trends that will drive accounting over the coming years.

Commoditization

People don’t want to pay for what they don’t value. If you’re doing things that people don’t put much worth to then eventually this will be done somewhere else, or basically become extinct or replaced by technology.

Bruce says you need to get ahead of the curve and change the conversation with clients—speak about what they do value. It’s not easy to do, but this is your only way to avoid being replaced.

Globalization

The world is so small now—technology allows you to work from anywhere, with anybody. Try not to think that the world contains borders. HPC has clients spanning six continents around the world.