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HR, legal and finance

Digital skills courses for chartered accountants: the firm, processing and invoicing

In brief

An accountancy firm holds the accounts, the payroll and the bank details of every business it works for. It is legally their processor, and it becomes the first port of call for questions about electronic invoicing. Skillrung courses for chartered accountants start from that position: what a client is entitled to demand by contract, what gets checked before a transfer, and what is never handed to an AI tool.

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An accountancy firm is a point of concentration

A firm brings together, in one information system, the balance sheets, the bank journals, the payslips and the bank details of all its clients. That concentration is what makes it valuable, and what makes it a target with an exceptional cost-benefit ratio: one compromised access opens every organisation on the books, and impersonating the firm's address opens the door to each of them, since clients trust it by construction. The courses handle that exposure with the measures that actually reduce it: two-factor authentication, named accounts limited to the files worked on, an access review at every team change, an offline backup that has been tested.

You are a processor, and your clients are going to ask you for it in writing

When a firm keeps the books or runs the payroll, it processes data on behalf of its client: it is a processor within the meaning of the regulation, and that relationship has to be framed by a contract setting out the subject matter, the duration, the nature of the processing, the security obligations and what becomes of the data at the end of the engagement. More and more clients are asking, because they are themselves required to. The GDPR courses build the expected documents: the contractual annex, the processor's record, the list of the firm's own providers, the course of action if a breach occurs.

Exchanging documents and cascading transfer fraud

Documents arrive however they can: a deposit portal for the organised clients, email and phone photographs for the rest. That permanent flow of files from dozens of organisations is the ideal ground for document fraud. Three scenarios keep coming back: a fake client asks for bank details to be changed before the payroll deadline; a fake supplier slips through an invoice with an altered account; an address resembling the firm's tells clients about a new account for paying fees. The only rule that holds: any new bank details are confirmed by telephone, before the entry is made and before payment.

Electronic invoicing: you will be the first one asked

The general move to electronic invoicing shifts your clients' invoices onto approved platforms, and the firm becomes the person asked what to do, when, and with which tool. The questions are concrete: by what date to receive, by what date to issue, which statements are missing, how to choose a platform. The dedicated course sets out the timetable from the tax administration's own publications, with dated sources that let you check each point before advising. It avoids the symmetrical trap: neither playing down a deadline, nor promising support the firm cannot deliver.

Sources

What the official text says

Every figure or legal statement on this page points to its primary source, with its date. We publish no figure without a verifiable source.

  • Processing by a processor is governed by a contract setting out the subject matter, duration, nature and purpose of the processing, together with the obligations of the parties (Article 28 of the GDPR).

    Source : Règlement (UE) 2016/679 (RGPD), article 28 : Journal officiel de l'Union européenne, 27 avril 2016.

  • Since 1 September 2026, every business subject to VAT must be able to receive electronic invoices transmitted through an approved platform.

    Source : Facturation électronique entre entreprises : ce qui change : Service-public.gouv.fr, Direction de l'information légale et administrative, 7 août 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What chartered accountants ask us

Is an accountancy firm really a target?

It is by construction: it concentrates the financial data of every business it works for, and it enjoys their trust. One compromised access opens several dozen organisations at once, and one impersonated address is enough to obtain transfers. That is a return on effort few other organisations offer an attacker.

What must the processor contract my clients are asking for contain?

The subject matter and duration of the processing, its nature and purpose, the categories of data and of people concerned, the security and confidentiality obligations, the conditions for using other providers, the assistance owed to the client, and what becomes of the data at the end of the engagement. The GDPR course details each of these points.

Can I carry on receiving documents by email?

In practice some clients will use nothing else. What is decided is what you do with them: the documents are filed into the case, then erased from the mailbox, which is not a space for storage. For sensitive documents, a protected deposit space remains preferable, and it is put in place gradually.

What do I tell a client who asks about electronic invoicing?

Always separate the two deadlines: being able to receive electronic invoices, and having to issue them, which do not arrive at the same moment depending on the size of the business. Base the answer on the tax administration's own publications rather than on a second-hand summary. The dedicated course supplies those markers with their dated sources.

Can I use generative AI to analyse accounts?

Not with a client's data in a freely accessible service: that information is covered by your confidentiality obligations and would leave the firm's perimeter. AI is useful, on the other hand, on non-identifying texts — methodology notes, standard letters, summaries of procedures — provided that every figure and every reference is proofread.

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