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accountants and bookkeepers

Beyond the Bank Feed: How Open Banking is Revolutionising Australian Accounting Practices

For Australian accountants and bookkeepers, the days of chasing clients for bank statements and manually cleaning up messy spreadsheets are becoming a thing of the past. Open Banking, governed by the Consumer Data Right (CDR) framework, is transforming how financial professionals, particularly those using QuickBooks, manage their clients' books. It's not just an upgrade to existing bank feedsβ€”it's a fundamental shift towards greater efficiency, security, and a more valuable advisory role.

Here’s how Open Banking will help you streamline your practice and deliver a superior service to your small business clients:

Real-time data and insights

The traditional bank feed system, often reliant on a less-secure "screen scraping" technology, can be unreliable and prone to disruptions. Open Banking changes this by creating a secure, direct pipeline for data from financial institutions to QuickBooks.

  • No more gaps or errors: Open Banking provides a standardised, bank-approved framework for data sharing. This means the transaction data you receive in QuickBooks is more complete and accurate than ever before, eliminating the need for you to manually fix gaps or verify inconsistent entries.
  • Real-time, always-on data: Open Banking provides real-time data, ensuring you always have the most up-to-date information. This allows you to complete your work at your convenience, rather than waiting for client-provided data or the typical 24-hour lag with typical bank feeds.
  • More historical data insights: Open Banking bank feeds deliver up to 24 months historical data, empowering you with data to review comparative balances for trends and other insights.

Enhanced security and trust

In an era of increasing data breaches, Open Banking offers a significantly more secure alternative to older methods.

  • Eliminates password sharing: The CDR framework is built on a consent-driven model, which means your clients never have to share their sensitive banking passwords or security details with you. For a professional using QuickBooks, this not only protects their data but also strengthens the professional trust they place in you.
  • Reliable and compliant: As a trusted advisor, accessing data through the CDR framework demonstrates your commitment to using a government-regulated and bank-approved method. This enhances your firm's reputation for security and compliance, a key selling point to current and prospective clients.

Deeper insights and strategic advisory

With the time you save on chasing bank information, you can shift your focus from compliance to proactive advisory. Open Banking provides you with the high-quality, real-time data you need in QuickBooks to become a true strategic partner for your clients.

  • Forward-looking advice: With instant, comprehensive access to a client’s transaction history, you can identify trends, analyse cash flow, and build more accurate forecasts within QuickBooks. This enables you to move beyond reporting on what has happened to advising on what is likely to happen, helping clients make smarter business decisions.
  • A holistic financial picture: If your client has accounts across multiple financial institutions, Open Banking can provide a consolidated view of their entire financial position directly in their QuickBooks account. This allows you to offer more holistic and valuable advice on everything from loans and debt management to cost-saving opportunities and long-term financial planning.

The path forward

Australian accountants and bookkeepers are increasingly experiencing the advantages of Open Banking. Intuit, the creator of QuickBooks, has been a leader in integrating with the CDR framework and is the only Australian accounting software provider approved by the ACCC as an accredited data recipient. With the government's move to phase out older, less secure technologies, Open Banking is set to become the standard for the professionβ€”and we’re well-positioned for the future.

By embracing this technology, you are not just improving your firm's internal processesβ€”you are future-proofing your practice and positioning yourself as a vital, data-driven advisor to your small business clients. Together with QuickBooks, the transition to Open Banking is an investment in efficiency, security, and a more strategic future for your firm.


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