Accounting has been under a lot of pressure for the past decade. There are new challenges facing accountants and auditors each year. However, the industry seems to be slowly adapting with accountants turning from technicians to problem-solvers, who use their skills to make a difference in the business world.
Pessimists seem to neglect the profound evolution of accounting, says the head of CPA Australia, who is turning it into a key strategic adviser.
Data analysis, business intelligence and financial know-how enable accountants to become problem solvers said the CEO of CPA Australia. The digital revolution has turbocharged this change.
Speaking to Accountants Daily, Mr. Hunter said that the negative commentary on automation and the sharp decline in students opting to study accounting has missed the point.
“It’s true we have seen a decline in the number of people studying pure accounting but that has been offset by the number of people who are studying finance, commerce, economics, banking,” Mr Hunter said.
“Students who do have a learning disposition towards accounting are studying in adjacent fields, so they are not lost. I’m talking about banking and finance in particular.”
He said that the world had progressed and now demanded “cross-functional, multidisciplined professionals” who are willing to learn continuously.
“Accountants need to have a much broader set of skills, rather than having technical expertise,” Mr Hunter said.
At the same time, other disciplines were realizing they needed financial accounting knowledge in order to understand data, financial statements and ESG.
And that created an opportunity for the profession, one with a stark contrast between old and new.
Old accounting practices involved taking a financial snapshot that was out of date by the time it was printed.
“The accountants of old sat in a corner office and waited for things to come to them,” he said. “Now they are talking to the engineering department, the marketing department … they’re collaborating, communicating, gathering information, synthesising data and then bringing the problems to the surface and how to solve them.”
He said that the skills required to be a professional in this field remained important, but now they expanded on strategic analysis and “it’s increasingly becoming forward-looking rather than backward-looking”.
New accounting might analyse underlying trends, such as website traffic and conversion rates, drawing on different disciplines to come up with solutions.
At the larger companies, the evolution was well underway.
“The Big 4 have evolved from being accounting firms to now being broad-based consulting firms, and the foundational skills are all in the accounting discipline,” Mr Hunter said.
Mr. Hunter spoke of his own experience, which involved an economics degree and a long spell in banking but “the skills I learned that were most important to my career were learned at an accounting firm.”
He agreed that two things were happening – accounting was casting its net wider in terms of who it recruited and the profession was broadening itself in terms of what skills are required and what they do for clients.
The profession had to move past the days when it tried to put up roadblocks for newcomers, he said. Accounting firms were already hiring multidisciplinary candidates who wanted to undertake CPA Australia’s program.
“In the past, our first question was, ‘Have they done an accounting degree?’ ” he said. “Our first question should be, ‘Are they smart people and keen to learn?’
“Smart, capable, enthusiastic people can achieve anything.”
The membership at CPA Australia has always been diverse and includes people with backgrounds in commerce, economics, finance, as well as accounting.
He said COVID had accelerated the digital transformation and accountants had stepped up, making the most of additional data and business intelligence.
“Repetitive accounting functions are being automated but it’s freeing up accountants to do the more strategic work, the problem solving. And that’s where the best people in the profession are going to allocate their time,” Mr Hunter said.
It was a matter of survival for those who refused to change.
“The best businesses will always prevail. Some will get left behind. There’s a strong recognition among all parts of the profession that things need to change and the solution is digital,” Mr Hunter said.
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Article In Reference of: AccountantsDaily
