Since September 1, 2026, electronic invoicing has transitioned from a distant project to a concrete obligation for all companies subject to VAT. This regulatory shift is reshaping the priorities of accounting firms, which must simultaneously manage the rise of artificial intelligence and an increasing exposure to cyberattacks. The landscape of the accounting profession is being reconfigured around these three simultaneous axes.
Cybersecurity of accounting firms: a blind spot that is becoming critical
Content dedicated to trends in accounting largely focuses on electronic invoicing and AI. The issue of cybersecurity, however, remains treated on the sidelines, even though it constitutes a major operational risk for firms.
An accounting firm naturally concentrates tax, banking, social, and asset data from dozens, sometimes hundreds, of clients. This density of sensitive information makes it a particularly lucrative target for attackers. According to the CESIN barometer published in 2026, phishing, spear phishing, and smishing represented the main attack vectors against French companies in 2025.
The latest monitoring reports, particularly the news on InExt Com, allow for tracking the evolution of these digital issues that directly affect finance professionals.
The CNIL also reported 6,167 personal data breaches in 2025, an increase of 9.5% year-on-year. For a firm, a client data leak poses not only a technical problem: it jeopardizes professional secrecy, civil liability, and the trust built over years of relationship.
- Targeted phishing (spear phishing) specifically targets employees with access to financial data, replicating usual exchanges with clients or banks.
- The proliferation of digital platforms (electronic invoicing, collaborative tools, cloud software) expands the attack surface without smaller firms always having a dedicated security reference.
- Smishing (SMS phishing) exploits frequent mobile communications between employees and clients, a channel rarely covered by internal training.
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue; it is a business issue that directly engages the regulatory compliance of the firm and the protection of its clients’ informational assets.
Electronic invoicing: what the operational phase changes for accountants
The reform of electronic invoicing has reached a decisive milestone. Since September 1, 2026, all companies subject to VAT must be able to receive electronic invoices. Large companies and mid-sized enterprises must also issue them. This deadline is no longer a planning horizon; it is a daily constraint.
For firms, the most immediate aspect concerns the selection and configuration of approved platforms. Field feedback shows that platforms were overwhelmed with requests at the start of the school year, which generated deployment delays for many clients.
Tolerance period and management of delays
The start is accompanied by an administrative tolerance period, an operational detail not often highlighted in general analyses. Concretely, this means that firms must prioritize their clients according to their level of preparedness, identify those who may exceed deadlines, and document the steps taken.
Managing delays becomes a full-fledged mission for employees, in addition to the usual monitoring of declarations and account reviews. This overload is not temporary: it is part of a schedule of gradual ramp-up, with SMEs and micro-enterprises also needing to issue electronic invoices in the coming months.
The role of the firm is not limited to technical support. It also involves training clients on how to use their platform, verifying the compliance of data flows, and identifying transmission anomalies. The accountant becomes a digital compliance intermediary, a function that did not formally exist two years ago.
Artificial intelligence in firms: between promises and real deployment
AI is part of all projections about the future of the accounting profession. Software publishers are gradually integrating automation, categorization, and anomaly detection features. Field feedback varies on this point: some firms are already using these tools daily, while others have not progressed beyond the experimental stage.
The main barrier is not technological. Confidentiality and data security remain the major obstacles to the large-scale deployment of AI in firms. Professional secrecy imposes strict constraints on the processing of client data by third-party tools, and the guarantees offered by suppliers do not always cover the entire regulatory scope.
Governance of use rather than a race for productivity
The debate is gradually shifting from simple productivity to governance. Which employees can use which tools, on what types of data, with what audit trails? These questions, which pertain as much to management as to technique, do not yet find standardized answers in the profession.
Large firms have the means to structure a usage policy. Smaller structures advance empirically, often relying on the recommendations of their publishers. The available data does not allow for a reliable conclusion on an overall adoption rate.
- The automation of data entry and categorization of accounting documents is the most widespread use case, as it does not directly touch on sensitive client data.
- Predictive analysis (risk detection, cash flow forecasting) progresses more slowly, hindered by the need to validate each result before transmission to the client.
- Agentic AI, capable of chaining multiple tasks without human intervention, is beginning to appear in some software, but its use in firms remains marginal.
Skills and training: the gap between needs and supply
Electronic invoicing, cybersecurity, and AI simultaneously create a need for new skills in firms. Employees must master rapidly evolving digital tools, understand data protection issues, and assist clients on technical topics that exceed the traditional scope of accounting.
Existing training pathways struggle to keep pace. The profession has structured mechanisms (continuing education requirements, programs offered by the Order), but the available content does not always cover the practical cases encountered in the field, particularly regarding cybersecurity applied to the firm context.
Recruitment remains a point of tension. Profiles combining accounting skills and digital culture are rare, and competition with corporate finance departments or data consulting firms complicates talent attraction. This pressure on human resources directly conditions the ability of firms to absorb ongoing transformations.
The accounting profession is going through a period where several reforms and technological changes converge. Electronic invoicing imposes a non-negotiable timeline, cybersecurity requires immediate investments, and AI redistributes tasks without a stabilized framework. The ability of firms to manage these three fronts will largely depend on their choices regarding training and recruitment in the coming months.
