58% of accountants still work with paper documents

Although the shift to remote work last year forced many companies to digitize their management processes, more than half of accounting service providers and in-house accountants still work primarily with paper documents, according to a survey conducted by Jumis Pro, the developer of the business management and accounting software Jumis. Only 4% of those surveyed have fully transitioned to paperless accounting and document management.

The digitalization of document workflows gained unprecedented importance in March 2020 following the declaration of a state of emergency. It became critical for companies to maintain fast and reliable document exchange without meeting, or while rarely meeting, with colleagues and business partners. Consequently, demand for digital solutions grew rapidly. However, even among accounting service providers, who primarily offer outsourced accounting services to businesses, only a small fraction of market participants have fully completed this transition.

The study results show that only one in 25 companies surveyed, or 4% of the total, has completely abandoned paper.

36% of respondents digitize supporting documents, waybills, invoices, and electronic cash register receipts, while 3% have only converted contracts into digital format. Meanwhile, 58% of accountants still work primarily with paper documents.

The nature of accounting services involves exchanging documents with clients located in different geographical areas. This means that organizing document workflows digitally would be the most convenient approach. In reality, however, this is not the case, and most businesses continue the practice used for decades of delivering documents to accountants themselves or sending them via courier services. Even if both parties are satisfied with this arrangement, it is not truly efficient for either, as digital document processing is faster and can be automated. As a result, service providers can gain more time to serve other clients, and clients spend fewer hours sorting and transporting paperwork, says Viesturs Slaidiņš, head of Jumis Pro, urging businesses to seriously consider digitizing their processes.

For a large portion of accountants, the submission of receipts in electronic form is important. It is highly relevant for 51%, as they have to process a large volume of electronic cash register receipts daily. Only 5% have implemented a full-scale electronic receipt workflow to date, while 22% of respondents do not have to deal with receipt processing at all.