Risk Management for Accountants: Top Risks for 2025 and How to Manage Them

In our recent webinar “PII Claims – How Not To Get Sued” our Technical Directors Sharon Cooke and David Norris ran through some of the key areas where firms can put themselves at risk, including in relation to Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) claims, due to failures in Quality Control (QC).

The fantastic interaction of our delegates in the webinar allowed us to collect some insights into the QC procedures and arrangements within our 20:20 Innovation community.

If your firm would like to become a part of the most well-informed community of accountants then why not book a no-obligation demo with one of our team.

QC procedures

As a starting point, we asked delegates how often they reviewed and updated their QC procedures. This revealed quite a mix, interesting with a slant towards either constant or rare updating.

This aligns with our expectations in working with many firms through our compliance and consultancy arm. Many firms regularly review their procedures, but also acknowledge that in this fast-changing world we are in, reviews are not as frequent as they should be.

What was interesting was that the results were not particular to the size of firm, but in fact firms of all sizes were struggling to regular review and update QC procedures:

Top risk areas for accountants

The webinar discussed a range of risk areas that were identified by professional bodies, PII providers and from Sharon and David themselves. The top 5 issues were ranked in significance and likelihood order by the attendees as follows:

It was also agreed that the driver of a number of these areas could be simple mistakes; whether made by humans or technology.

Biggest contributor to mistakes

We subsequently asked our delegates what they thought was the biggest contributor to mistakes and so the biggest risks to the firm and the results were fascinating. This word cloud indicates the key factors that most firms’ QC documentation and policies should seek to address, with the bigger and central words taking priority.

Perhaps this resonates with your firm too. At 20:20 Innovation, we regularly hear that a lack of time is a key problem that, in turn, leads to gaps in communication, staff oversight and training.

Actions for accountants to take now for risk management

After our time together discussing risks and safeguards, we asked delegates what their key action was from the course. This is another word cloud that may be helpful in planning actions in your firms next review of QC processes.

Clearly a key conclusion is for teams and individuals to think about what they are doing and document their work, their client meetings and their conclusions.

There also seems to be some debate about Jaffa cakes – but blame David for that!

If you would like to hear the course in full, please go to your Dashboard and book PII Claims - How Not to get Sued! - 6th March 2025. If you would like to hear about how 20:20 Innovation could help you review your QC policies and procedures, please take a look at our consultancy page and contact us on consultancy@2020innovation.com.

Alternatively, if you're not already a member and would like to explore regulatory compliance and improve business performance - book a demo with the team.