The majority of accountants and bookkeepers believe tech solutions provide high price-to-value ratios across four of five tech solutions.
Agile Market Intelligence’s 2025 Accounting Tech Review surveyed more than 700 accounting professionals to capture their perception of accounting tech solutions as they navigate internal processes and client engagements.
To gain feedback across varied user applications, the respondents were provided with five tech categories, namely, ‘general ledger & ERP solutions’, ‘practice and firm management’, ‘compliance, research & audit’, ‘insights, reporting, & client engagement’, and ‘data capture & automation’.
Key stats you need to know
- More than 1 in 2 accountants report value for money in 4 of 5 categories.
- 54% of accountants left wanting better pricing for general ledger & ERP solutions.
- Practice-focused tools, namely, ‘practice & firm management’, ‘data capture & automation’, and ‘compliance, research, & audit’, are perceived to provide great value for money spent.
Top client-facing tools at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of value for money
- At 62% approval rating, ‘insights, reporting & client engagement’ solutions perceived as most spendworthy.
- For ‘general ledger and ERP’ tech solutions, the majority of accounting professionals (46%) left wanting more value from tech investment.
In terms of pricing, ‘general ledger & ERP’ solutions, which led the pack as the most used tool for client-facing tasks (52%), stood at opposite ends of the spectrum from ‘insights, reporting, & client engagement’. While the latter ranked 2nd in terms of usage in client-facing environments (41%), it is positioned far ahead in terms of cost-effectiveness, topping all categories at 62% satisfaction. Capturing only 40% market share, however, such strong value recognition has yet to come with stronger uptake.
In contrast, with 96% of accountants reporting using ‘general ledger and ERP’ tech solutions, the tool’s high adoption came with a glaring pain point, as more than 1 in 2 accountants share that it fell short of expectations when it comes to pricing.
Practice-focused accounting tech tools receive high levels of satisfaction
- ‘Practice & firm management’ emerged as the 2nd best-priced tech tool, at 58% of users registering satisfaction over pricing.
- ‘Data capture & automation’ sits at 3rd place, with 55% of users happy with pricing.
- ‘Compliance, research & audit’ closely follows behind at 54% of accountants finding value for their buck.
The research revealed that tech tools mainly used for practice-related tasks had the most consistent positive sentiment when it comes to pricing, with satisfied users ranging between 54% and 58%.
‘Practice & firm management’, which also holds the second largest market share and was used by 73% of its users solely for internal operations, was a top contender for providing the most value for money, as it currently ranks 2nd place with 58% satisfaction rate.
Meanwhile, with 6 in 10 users utilising ‘data capture & automation’ tools solely for their firm’s operations, 55% registered positive sentiment over the pricing relative to overall user experience.
‘Compliance, research, & audit’, which was used by 80% of its users for streamlining operations, narrowly missed 3rd place at 54% satisfaction rating in terms of value for money.
“Pricing could be a dealbreaker for firms. The findings from this research point tech providers to areas needing more work in terms of pricing and existing solutions that already hold untapped potential with regard to capturing a larger market share”, said Michael Johnson, Director at Agile Market Intelligence.
About the research
The results from Agile Market Intelligence’s 2025 Accounting Tech Review are based on survey responses collected from 736 accountants and bookkeepers across Australia from 22nd April to 21 August 2025. For this report, we take a look at the users’ experience with AI in their accounting tech platforms.
2025 Accounting Tech Review is designed to benchmark accounting platform performance from the perceptions of Australia’s accounting and bookkeeping professionals. It captures sentiments towards functionality, service quality and platform features, to build year-on-year comparisons. Data has been weighted by practice size and role seniority to ensure a representative cross-section of the market.
A public version of the report will be made available to participants and industry in early November 2025. For more information about the full report, including the competitive analysis tool for technology providers, please contact jarrad.nash@agilemi.com.au.
