Thought Leadership

Despite best intentions and efforts to improve, many accounting firms remain blindsided by one persistent issue. Engagements that stall, stretch, or silently deteriorate.
The problem isn’t talent, capacity, or technology. It's a misalignment between clients and firms. And most firms underestimate its cost.

Suralink’s Inside the Client Experience Report surveyed finance and accounting professionals across North America for an industry-wide, client-side perspective.

The results tell a consistent story. Clients are overwhelmed, communication breaks down, and fragmented processes make simple work harder than it should be.

These breakdowns cause inefficiency, erode trust, drag down perceived value, and create churn risk many firms never see coming. This is the Client Readiness Gap – the silent disconnect that strains even strong relationships.

Clients aren’t getting what they want

Clients want oversight, compliance, and third-party validation. Though firms generally deliver, technical execution is no longer enough. While 74% of clients engage firms for financial accuracy and oversight, only 10% say they receive excellent value for money.

Asked what actually drives satisfaction, clients were clear. They expect on-time, on-budget delivery, reduced effort for their teams, and clear communication with minimal back-and-forth.

In short, clients expect accounting firms to be execution experts and operational partners. Firms that only check the compliance box are falling behind

The heavy engagement experience

Balancing engagement’s demands with day-to-day priorities is a burden for clients and a significant pain point for 75%. Gathering and submitting documents is another challenge for 52%, and 49% struggle to respond to follow-up questions.

For many, engagements feel like a second job. And when that’s not acknowledged, frustration builds quickly.

Unclear requests kill momentum

The number one frustration is unclear or time-consuming requests for 82% of clients.

Other common issues also make things worse, including engagement team turnover, poor communication, or a lack of transparency.

These avoidable problems have other consequences, too. Unclear requests cause delays, rework, and wasted hours. Worse, they chip away at firms’ perceived competence.

For 65% and 60% of clients, respectively, reducing back-and-forth and clearer communication would have a huge impact and improve efficiency. This suggests a quick win.

The real cost of miscommunication

One striking finding is the frequency and disruption caused by miscommunication. For 62% of clients, this happened five or more times in each engagement. The result is increased engagement times and less time for core responsibilities. Crucially, the chance of the client switching firms also rose by 12%.

And these aren’t isolated breakdowns. If clients don’t complete requests correctly first time, it’s because they lacked detail, timely clarification, or conflicted with previous discussions.

Again, these are solvable problems – if firms own their communication.

Where clients spend engagement time

Firms often treat request portals as a backend tool. Clients don’t. Instead, they’re losing time in request management or document exchange systems or jumping between email and the portal.

A massive 78% of clients also say confusing or email-heavy processes could make them switch firms. Engagement clearly depends on making the one tool clients use most work for them.

There are three immediate steps firms can take

1. communicate clearly and consistently
2. invest in technology that works for clients
3. align with client workload

Why does this matter now?

Margins are tightening, expectations are rising, and trust is harder to earn. What once looked like a ‘typical engagement delay’ is now seen as a red flag.

Clients aren’t only comparing firms. They’re comparing experiences.

The firms that respond with speed, clarity, and empathy – backed by modern tools – will gain a measurable advantage in retention, referrals, and realization rates.