Covid-19 impact on the Australian accounting and legal industry

“How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the accounting and legal professions in Australia? Are accounting and law firms seeing an increased or decreased demand for their services? How are they fairing when it comes to workloads, cash-flow, salaries, and even partner drawings? What is their general prognosis on the future? These were the type of questions we wanted to be answered," says Andreas Diwing, QuickFee Sr. Director of Marketing. “We surveyed our member firms in the accounting and legal space not just once, but twice in a 7-week period, asking the exact same questions. Our goal was to see what, if anything, changed.”

73.5% of leading accounting and law firms in the Australia have seen an increase in demand for their services during the Covid-19 pandemic, and while most are describing their outlook of the future as “cautiously optimistic” firms have also seen a significant decrease in firm cash flow due to firm clients being reluctant or incapable of paying their fees.

Highlights

• In May 73.5% of firms have seen an increase in demand for their services (down 8.4% since March 2020)

• The most common response to increased demand is partners working longer hours

• In May 2020 roughly a third of firms are saying that 25% or more of their clients are showing signs of financial distress

• 23% of firms believe that some practices won’t survive