The working model of tax and accounting firms in Spain is undergoing a profound transformation. The digitization of administrative processes and the use of shared platforms between companies and advisory firms are driving a new standard of collaboration that significantly reduces administrative burden and improves sector-wide efficiency.
Traditionally, much of the work in advisory firms focused on manual tasks such as collecting invoices sent by email or on paper, recording accounting documents, and validating data before tax closings. This model produced significant peaks of work at key times of the year, especially during quarterly and annual closes.
Today, the adoption of cloud-based digital platforms allows advisors and their clients to work on a single, real-time information base. Rather than collecting documentation at the end of each fiscal period, data are recorded continuously from the source, reducing errors, avoiding duplicates, and distributing the workload more evenly.
According to data from Quipu, this collaborative model can reduce up to 60% of the time spent on administrative tasks, thanks to the automation of processes such as bank reconciliation, digitization of invoices, and the generation of accounting reports.
“For years, a large part of the work of firms was devoted to recording information that clients themselves already had,” explains Roger Dobaño, CEO of Quipu, who adds that “when a company and its advisor work in the same digital environment, that dynamic changes completely. The data are recorded once and are available to everyone in real time.”
A Transformation Driven by the Digitization of Invoicing
The move toward collaborative work models coincides with a broader digitization of corporate financial management. In 2024 alone, Spain exchanged more than 557 million electronic invoices in the B2B sphere, representing a growth of over 21% compared with the previous year, according to the latest SERES report on electronic invoicing. The adoption of these systems also generated more than €4.3 billion in savings on administrative costs by reducing paper use, manual errors, and processing time.
However, the level of digitization still shows large contrasts. Several sector studies indicate that more than 90% of small businesses and advisory firms continue to rely on basic tools such as spreadsheets to manage their invoicing, which limits their ability to automate processes or work with real-time financial information. In this scenario, new digitization regulations for invoicing are acting as a catalyst for change, forcing many companies and firms to modernize their systems.
The adoption of digital tools not only improves administrative management but also has a direct impact on the productivity of professional firms. According to Quipu’s estimates based on the use of its platform, firms that operate with collaborative systems can manage between 15% and 20% more clients without increasing headcount, by eliminating much of the manual work associated with recording invoices or gathering documentation.
Moreover, automation saves between 8 and 12 hours of administrative work per client each quarter, time that firms are increasingly dedicating to higher-value services. “When administrative processes are automated, the advisor ceases to be a simple document manager and becomes a strategic business partner,” explains Roger Dobaño, who adds that “more and more firms are offering services such as treasury control, financial analysis, or tax planning.”
