Financial executives expect that the economic uncertainty prevalent in 2022 will continue throughout 2023, and that fear of recession will slow capital and other strategic investments. However, in a recent survey, more than two-thirds of professionals involved in M&A for their organizations revealed they’re pursuing at least one M&A deal this year, and more than half expect to execute up to five deals.

The deals happening in 2023 will be carefully vetted, with financial executives performing extensive due diligence to ensure that a merger or acquisition target will be profitable quickly. As part of this analysis, the efficacy of the technologies acquired will play a major role in justifying the value of the acquisition.

As accounting firms take steps to modernize their technology suite, survey results show that many are experiencing challenges in three areas: obsolete accounting firm CRM technology, difficulties with talent hiring and retention, and unsustainable methods for building and managing relationship networks. Firms that intend to provide transaction advisory services (TAS) — such as valuations, appraisals, and financial due diligence to support M&A efforts — will need to address these issues to meet the standards the marketplace demands.

Overcome the limitations of traditional CRMs

Like other financial and professional services firms, accountancies struggle with the limitations of traditional CRMs. Some firms are still early in their journey to technological advancement generally, while others are looking to uplevel existing technology investments with the intent to keep pace with other TAS teams that operate and offer services across various industry sectors.

With deal activity at record levels, accounting firm TAS teams need quick access to the insights and information required to support active clients and communicate effectively with prospects. However, many firms haven’t built the agility required to identify whitespace for due diligence services in a market transaction fast enough to win deals.

“Transaction advisory teams inside accounting firms are often unable to surface insights into relationships, previous work, and relevant experience within the narrow window of opportunity to win a deal,” said Adam Goodman, Practice Group Leader at DealCloud. “During fast-paced deal cycles that involve tight turnarounds for delivery, the deal is done before firms can gather the documentation.”

Compounding the impact of limited access to data that’s crucial to winning TAS opportunities, many accounting firm teams are reliant on siloed applications, data sources, and workflows. These disconnects throughout the deal and engagement lifecycles prevent TAS teams from expanding the opportunity of each market transaction, as well as accelerating the ramp up and delivery of services.

“Once a deal is won by a service line — financial due diligence, for example — work on the engagement must be executed without delay to meet the time table for delivery of the Quality of Earnings Report and data book,” explained Goodman. “There’s no time to spare for digging up relationship and experience data trapped inside a traditional CRM. The team needs to be ready to go as soon as the deal is live.”

Tailored specifically to meet the needs of TAS and M&A processes, DealCloud offers technology that centralizes and democratizes institutional knowledge, allowing all colleagues to leverage insights that help win TAS deals.

The solution serves as a single source of truth for housing and accessing an accounting firm’s relationship network. Through DealCloud’s integration with Microsoft, existing contact books are automatically synched and added to the platform — so there’s no need to upload contact data manually. Using DealCloud, accounting firms can quickly surface the data they need to successfully compete and win.

Improve talent hiring and retention outcomes

Resulting from the exodus of accountants over the past several years, accounting firm leaders are actively implementing measures to attract new hires and increase staff retention.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many firms offered remote and hybrid work options, and continue to use this popular perk to attract and retain talent. Employees enjoy the flexibility that work-from-home arrangements provide, and potential new hires value a potential employer’s commitment to work-life balance.

As digitally native junior staffers join accounting firms and tech-savvy midlevel accountants progress in their careers, the expectation that their employers have the technologies needed to automate mundane tasks is unequivocal. With next-generation CRM tools like DealCloud in place, accounting firm staff are freed up to work on the interesting and skill-building projects — like TAS engagements — that they were promised when they joined, which keeps them engaged and invested in their jobs.

DealCloud streamlines the process for both responding to opportunities quickly, and servicing the engagement expediently once the deal is won.

The solution accelerates the inquiry-to-response cycle by keeping relationship and experience data continuously updated and at-the-ready. With this information in hand, firms are equipped to respond immediately to opportunities and win the deals that excite their staff.

The solution centralizes email communication and meeting activities while applying relationship scoring for each contact through its Microsoft Exchange connection in a centralized database. DealCloud also automates capture and upkeep of contact-level relationship data, and provides configurable notifications and alerts to nurture relationships with key contacts.

These capabilities remove time consuming administrative burdens, empowering accounting firm TAS teams to focus their efforts on providing expert counsel and best-in-class service.

Bring your relationship network into focus

Building relationships with contacts in the TAS-service-provider ecosystem requires systemized nurturing to stay top of mind. Although it’s an arduous exercise, performing the continuous due diligence required to stay current with TAS colleagues’ deals and expertise is a critically important component of timely, lucrative cross-referrals.

In addition to maintaining hyper-current relationship and experience data on outside colleagues, accounting firm TAS teams need on-demand access to the same information for their internal teams. In particular, accounting firms should be capturing and cataloging previous due diligence work, potential business development opportunities, and existing relationships across the firm’s service lines — as well as who knows whom across the entire relationship ecosystem.

DealCloud streamlines and automates relationship management, making it easier for accounting firms to track and access information about the status of their book of business and TAS relationships.

Because DealCloud centralizes the pipeline with insights from deal history, relationship networks, and market environment, accounting firm TAS teams are empowered to move quickly and decisively to win deals. Ongoing relationship and experience tracking as well as project management capabilities provide a centralized view of relationship networks, engagement timelines, progress updates, and staff capacity relative to the pipeline — which helps with resource management and keeping partners and principals up to date on long-standing and new relationships.

When accounting firms are using a single source of truth for always-current data, TAS team members have the information they need at their fingertips to seize opportunities to win deals. With DealCloud, you’ll gain a clear, comprehensive view of complex deal and relationship ecosystems, alongside detailed workflow, and knowledge management capabilities. Learn more about how DealCloud can help you drive your opportunities and accelerate time to impact for service delivery.