But, in reality, it can be anything but simple.
That's where new company Common Ledger comes in.
Company representatives were in Dunedin this week to talk to local accountants about its software, which converts data from a client using either cloud or desktop financial services to their accountant, who is probably using a different sort of financial software product.
Common Ledger chief executive Vince Warnock and chief financial officer Brendan Wu - both also co-founders - were enthusiastic cheerleaders for the product when they visited the Otago Daily Times.
The company had emerged from a random problem posed by the father-in-law of one of the other co-founders, now the chief technical officer.
The technical officer was asked by his accountant father-in-law to help convert a client's financial data into a usable form without it having to be inputted manually.
In a ''light bulb moment'' both men realised there was something a bit more special to the idea, Mr Warnock said.
''The solution worked, the accountant liked it and offered to pay. It's not often you get an accountant offering to pay,'' he joked, looking at Mr Wu, who is a chartered accountant.
Officially, transactional data was pulled from client-side accounting software such as MYOB or Xero and moved into an application which transformed and sent it into the format required by an accountant's software, he said.
Mr Warnock said there had been a growing use of the cloud by accountants in the past 10 years but productivity in the sector had not increased markedly in the same time.
That was probably due to the plethora of accounting software products on offer for both clients and accountants.
It was not a case of one size fitting all.
From April to December, Common Ledger had been refining its software solution and had spent several weeks on the road talking to accountants about what they needed most, he said.
One of the things Messrs Warnock and Wu discovered was the problem they were trying to solve was not restricted to New Zealand and Australia - it was a global problem.
''There was a need for this. It became apparent. So we built a team.''
Common Ledger worked with 10 accountancy firms throughout New Zealand and Australia to develop the product.
There were many different requirements, from the ''big four'' firms through to the sole practitioner, Mr Wu said.
''Everyone gets it. It seems a simple solution but the problem is anything but simple.''
Accountants usually adopted new practices because their peers had adopted something new in the theory if it was good for their peers it must be good for them, he said.
Common Ledger had assumed 80% of the New Zealand market would be made up of people using MYOB and Xero and the rest would include a few other well-used software products.
Instead, the company found there were many other products both accountants and their clients were using and software developers were working their way through the list to ensure everyone got what they wanted.
After identifying the market opportunity, the company raised $530,000 in June from a range of New Zealand investors with backgrounds in the accounting industry.
The company was based in Wellington and completely New Zealand-owned, Mr Wu said.
Early next year, the road show will spread out into regional centres.
