The acquisition of Acasi by Qonto does not threaten accountants. It reveals a shift in the profession, where production is automated and where value is now directed towards consulting.
By Laurent SALANIÉ, CEO France of Accru Partners, specialist in the consolidation of independent accounting and auditing firms.
After the pre-accounting specialist Regate in 2024, Qonto announced on July 2 the takeover of the assets of Acasi, an online accounting firm dedicated to the self-employed. The announcement comes at a pivotal moment for the profession, as electronic invoicing prepares to profoundly transform the administrative and accounting processes of companies. Many see it as the announced death certificate of the traditional cabinet. This is a misreading…and a lazy one.
Contrary to alarmist speeches, this operation above all confirms that the value of firms is no longer at stake in the production of accounts, but in relationships and advice.
Accounting production becomes a functionality
Automated data collection, bank reconciliations, pre-allocation of entries… For ten years, each brick of accounting production has been gradually absorbed by technology. Electronic invoicing and artificial intelligence do not create this dynamic, they accelerate it. The boundaries between financial services, management software and accounting expertise are becoming porous, and platforms naturally capture everything that can be industrialized.
The most instructive detail of the operation, however, is elsewhere. Acasi, a pioneer of low-cost online accounting, was placed in receivership in March. This situation reminds us that models based mainly on standardized and low-cost accounting production can be difficult to maintain sustainably without benefiting from significant scale effects. This is undoubtedly one of the most interesting lessons of this operation.
This observation does not condemn the firms. It simply indicates where the value is no longer found.
Value shifts to relationship and decision
For managers of VSEs and SMEs, the accountant has never been a simple producer of tax packages. He is often the company’s first trusted contact, the one who knows its history, its weaknesses and its manager intimately. No platform replicates this knowledge accumulated over years.
Software will increasingly produce accounting but they will never share a coffee with a manager worried about his business.
The future will probably be more about the organization and appropriation of tools than about the tools themselves. Tools advance faster than the organizations tasked with using them. And technology, by becoming commonplace, democratizes the means of production.
For the first time, an independent or regional firm can access tools comparable to those of larger structures without having to bear the same development or investment costs.
A regional firm today has access to the same automations as large networks. The advantages of size are fading; those linked to agility, proximity and the quality of customer relations become decisive. In a French market which has nearly 20,000 accounting structures, the big winners from this transformation could well be the independents, provided they move.
The September deadline, a life-size test
What to do now? First adopt rather than wait. The solutions exist, the issue is their appropriation, not their invention. Then systematically reinvest the time freed up by automation in support: management, risk anticipation, decision support. It’s a choice of organization, training and billing — not a choice of tool.
The cost of inaction is already visible. The firm which will remain a production center will see its margins compressed by structurally cheaper platforms, before becoming its subcontractor. The September deadline offers something revealing: those who experience it as a regulatory constraint have already fallen behind those who use it as a lever for transformation.
A profession forced to move upmarket
The acquisition of Acasi by Qonto does not tell of the disappearance of a profession, but of its forced move upmarket. Value migrates from production to interpretation, from data to decision. This movement goes far beyond the figures: law, notaries and auditing will be confronted with it in the same terms.
Paradoxically, this development could constitute a tremendous opportunity for local practices. As technology reduces certain advantages historically linked to size, the quality of customer relationships, agility and territorial anchorage once again become decisive differentiators.
There remains one conviction: in an economy where information becomes free and instantaneous, trust cannot be automated.
Tomorrow, entrepreneurs will need accountants more than ever. But not from those who produce accounts, from those who help them decide.
