Disconnected tech costing accountancy companies vital billable hours, says study

Disconnected tech costing accountancy companies vital billable hours, says study

Ellichipuram Umesh

Tue, September 1, 2026 at 5:44 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Disjointed software is eroding billable hours, as accountancy practices lose time managing platform friction instead of focusing on client deliverables, according to Haiilo's State of the Employee Experience 2026 report.

The research shows that 38% of professional services employees spend at least 11% of their working week – representing upwards of four hours for standard full-time staff – handling complications caused by fragmented systems.

Around 23% dedicate more than a fifth of their working hours to troubleshooting difficulties created by disconnected applications and processes.

Application switching represents a primary driver of these workflow disruptions.

More than half (51%) of respondents frequently toggle across several separate tools to complete an individual task, whilst 49% rely on between four and seven workplace platforms during a standard week.

Around 24% of the survey respondents manage between eight and 12 distinct tools, leading to regular operational interruptions.

The introduction of AI has also compounded these issues for part of the workforce, with 20% reporting that the technology has added complexity to their digital environment.

These administrative delays notably affect basic day-to-day functions, particularly data retrieval.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of employees allocate more than two hours per week to tracking down information across various corporate systems, with 19% spending more than five hours on search tasks.

As a consequence of poor data accessibility, 58% of respondents note that they frequently or occasionally duplicate existing work, whilst 89% report fielding enquiries from colleagues that could have been resolved directly had internal information been easier to locate.

Haiilo chief people and culture officer Hannah Soye said: "Accountancy firms are navigating one of the biggest periods of change the sector has seen in years.

"From adopting AI to responding to changing client expectations and increasing regulatory and commercial pressures, firms are being asked to deliver more while protecting the value of every billable hour.

"When employees are losing time to disconnected systems instead of focusing on complex client work, it becomes harder to deliver the expertise and trusted advice that clients expect.

"Those small moments of digital friction quickly add up throughout an entire firm."

"Disconnected tech costing accountancy companies vital billable hours, says study" was originally created and published by International Accounting Bulletin, a GlobalData owned brand.