Question

Please read and share your thoughts on this recent brief article from the Journal of Accountancy on accountant skills needed for success in a tech-enabled future. Do you agree? Can you think of other skills that future accountants will need?

JOFA Article: (https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2018/jun/technology-skills-for-accountants.html)

"Many experts expect accountants' work and duties to change fundamentally in the coming years. As technology is developed to handle tasks that accountants traditionally have performed, CPAs' attention is likely to shift toward advisory roles, investigating exceptions and anomalies identified by technology, and developing processes and controls that will enable technology to perform certain necessary tasks. The technology will allow for a more complete audit that uses all available data rather than samples. And the scrutinizing of anomalies will provide opportunities for auditors to provide more useful information to clients.

Here are some of the skills CPAs will need to succeed in these new duties:

Understand how processes work. Even the most well-designed technological solutions are useless if they are not set up properly and monitored to determine whether they are performing effectively. Advising and consulting on business process improvements also will be a promising niche for CPAs in the future.

Communicate effectively with technologists. Successful CPAs who understand processes likely will not have the technological skills to code and implement systems. Technology experts, meanwhile, are unlikely to understand accounting and auditing rules and the deliverables required from systems. CPAs will need to be able to team with technologists and describe the decision trees that must be embedded in the technology to process the correct data and deliver the desired intelligence.

Learn to advise or consult, not command. Accountants are used to providing rule-based, definitive answers about making appropriate journal entries, information to be included in footnotes, and whether financial statements are materially misstated. But as accountants take on more advisory and consulting duties, they will need to learn how to provide opinions and advocate for their ideas without being overbearing.

Analyze data and communicate with clients. As technology results in the automation of more compliance-based services, accountants will have more time to spend with clients. To make the most of this time, accountants will need to learn how to analyze data for business insights and then be able to communicate those insights to clients."

Answer 1

Ans DISCUSSION REGARDING CHANGING ROLES OF CPA IN FUTURE

1. I COMPLETELY AGREE THAT IN CURRENT SCENARIO THE ACCOUNTANTS HAD TO TAKE CHARGE AND BE PROACTIVE THEY CANNOT JUST SIT AND MAKE ACCOUNTING ENTRIES AS THEY DID EARLIER THEY HAD TO ACT LIKE THEY ARE THE OWNERS .

2.ACCOUNTANTS NOW HAD TO PROVIDE VAULABLE IDEAS TO TAKE BUSINESS TO THE TOP . NOW WITH THE CHANGING LEGAL AND TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH BUSINESS OPERATES THE ACCOUNTANTS HAVE AN INTEGRAL PART TO PLAY IN THE BUSINESS . WITHOUT THEIR PROPER GUIDANCE AND COOPERATION SURVIVAL OF BUSINESS WILL GET TOUGH .

3. ACCOUNTANTS SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE AND DYNAMIC TO COPE UP WITH THE CHANGES THEY ARE TAKING PLACE IN THE CURRENT SCENARIO THEY SHOULD BE READY TO COPE UP AND ADAPT WITH THE OPERATIONAL CHANGES THAT ARE TAKING PLACE IN THE INDUSTRY . THEY SHOULD ADD VALUE TO THE ORGANIZATION .

ON THE BASIS OF THE ABOVE DISCUSSION I CONCLUDE THAT ACCOUNTANTS HAVE A GREATER ROLE TO PLAY IN THE CURRENT CHANGING SCENARIO AND I COMPLETELY AGREE AND ADVOCATE THE POINTS THAT HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED IN THE ARTICLE . ACCOUNTANTS NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTIVE .