Revenues in the global accounting market grew by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.1% to an estimated $643.8 billion over the past five years, according to recent stats from IBIS World. This includes an estimated 4.8% spike in 2025 alone. Despite the pressures of the ongoing talent shortage and the speed of technological change, accounting firms are quietly confident as we head into 2026.

But if your firm is planning to grow over the next 12 months, it’s vital to have a workflow process that’s both efficient, scalable and able to flex to meet the demands of a changing market. Advisory services may be a major focus, but to deliver these value-added services, you need your foundational compliance processes to be as effective as possible.

We’ve highlighted five workflow and workpapers elements that are essential when your strategic goal for 2026 is to scale the business and grow the firm.

1. A consistent workflow process across all teams and offices

Having a uniform, firmwide workflow is a prerequisite for a scalable accounting firm. When the firm has a single, flexible, platform-agnostic workpapers and ledger solution in place, this allows you to have true consistency and compliance across all team workflows.

With an agile solution like Active, you can achieve: A consistent workpapers methodology across the firm: All team members, departments and offices can work from the same foundational workflow. This helps to reduce differences between geographical locations and keeps your workpapers clean, well-organised and consistent for every client – regardless of territory. A high quality of work and compliance: With every team member working with the same methodology and the same workpapers platform, the overall quality of work improves. Removing the variances in workflow techniques and calculations helps to avoid human error and keeps every job on track, whether the team is onshore or offshore.

2. One source of truth for all workpaper documents and data

With a centralised workpapers platform, you have a single, auditable source of truth for all jobs and related workflow tasks. This is critical as you systemise and scale your workflows. Working from a cloud-based ‘one source of truth’ removes the need for multiple spreadsheets and documents to be emailed back and forth. The team works from one central file that contains all the elements needed to complete the accounting work, audit or tax project. A central work file has a number of benefits:

1. All supporting documents and client imports are held in a single file
2. Your calculations are available to the whole team, 24/7
3. Reviewer sign-offs are housed in one centralised file
4. You reduce control issues and data fragmentation
5. Streamlines the review process and boosts compliance quality

3. A workpapers solution that integrates with legacy systems

To support your current workflow processes as you scale, any new workpapers solution needs to integrate smoothly with your legacy systems and spreadsheets. Ideally, it’s desirable to switch to a solution that’s platform-agnostic and can integrate fully with a broad range of different accounting platforms and workflow apps. A workpapers solution with broad connectivity adds real value:

• Full integration with general ledger platforms: Your platform-agnostic workpapers solution should connect with general ledger platforms. For example, in the UK, Active Workpapers integrates with Xero, QBO and Excel. And in Australia, you have full integration with Xero, QBO, MYOB and Excel, with additional connections to key compliance and paper-to-data solutions such as Class and BGL.
• Connectivity with your practice management platform: It’s important that your client and user data syncs between your workpapers solution and your practice management tools. UK and AU Active users can integrate directly with Karbon, XPM and FYI Elite, with Australian users also having the option to connect with practice management tools from MYOB, APS and Kloud Connect.
• Integrate with Excel spreadsheets for backwards compatibility: Excel is still a major tool for many accountants, so compatibility with Excel spreadsheets in your workpapers workflow is a major benefit when legacy-proofing the firm.

4. Workflow that scales as the firm grows and expands

Systemisation and consistent processes are critical. In particular, it's vital to document firm processes and workflows to share with new hires and new teams.

As the firm acquires new clients, expands its service offerings or merges with other practices, a consistent, scalable workpapers solution becomes the heart of your compliance delivery. Whether you’re carrying out audit work or diversifying into areas like ESG reporting, having a flexible digital file helps you meet the needs of the engagement. Four key capabilities you should look for in a scalable workpapers solution include:

1. A wide-ranging library of workpaper templates that cover all your accounting bases and are ready to use right away – like Active’s pre-built worksheet templates.
2. Customisable workpaper templates for real flexibility, so your firm can tailor the templates to creat your own library of custom and bespoke worksheets.  
3. A firm-wide methodology for all workpapers and compliance tasks, so every team is working from the same compliance foundations.
4. Transparent pricing that has no hidden costs, giving you a simpler way to budget for your software costs and get real value for money.

5. A systemised, scalable workpapers process that appeals to investors and buyers

A modern accounting firm is built on scalable foundations. Having systemised processes and consistent workflows is what allows you to grow at pace, with a uniform approach to every piece of client work, every report, every audit and every value-add advisory service. This scalability is a major green flag for investors looking to invest in the future of the firm, or for potential buyers or partners who may want to merge with the firm. A consistent workpapers solution delivers:

• High-quality control on every job: Your firmwide methodology for all compliance work keeps error levels low and consistency high, meaning there are no costly mistakes or problematic variances between the outputs of your teams.
• Uniform workflows that drive profits: Pre-built and custom templates allow you to take on a variety of client work without long set-up times. This makes the firm more efficient, more productive and drives healthy profit margins.
• Low compliance risk as a firm: It’s straightforward to meet your regulatory and compliance standards when these rules are baked into every workfile. There’s one point of truth and one cloud-based digital file for each job, keeping compliance consistent.

Active: the workpapers solution that’s ready to grow with your firm

If growing your firm is a key part of your 2026 strategic plan, Active is here to help you systemise and streamline your workflows in preparation for this scale-up activity. Our Workpapers and Ledger & Reporting solutions become the compliance heart of your firm, giving you the solid workflow foundations needed to scale at pace. Active brings you:

1. A consistent workflow process across your compliance tasks
2. A digital workfile that provides one source of truth for all teams
3. A broad-ranging library of ready-to-go worksheet templates (along with flexibility to use custom worksheets where required)
4. Full integration with your general ledger and practice management tools
5. Transparent pricing to aid your app-stack budgeting
6. Workpaper processes that scale in line with firm growth
7. An attractive, systemised way of working as the business grows

Come and talk to us about your workflow needs. We’ll be happy to explain how Active can become the solid bedrock on which to scale your firm in 2026 and beyond.

Book an Active Workpapers demo today.