Your choice of futures

We all understand the problems manual workers have faced as farms have mechanised and much production-line work has moved to Asia. But as 2014 beckons, professionals are giving ground to online apps and offshore workers.

From real estate sales to journalism to legal analysis, office walls no longer protect you from economic change.

In this edition of Public Accountant, we have examined how accountants will win or lose in 2014 and beyond.

We’ve pulled together a number of themes discussed at November’s IPA National Congress. A clear choice has emerged: accountants must embrace change or become its victims.

Accounting meets the cloud

Two words dominate Public Accountant’s current examination of our accounting future: cloud technology. ‘The cloud’ – a geek term for computing power and data hosted in remote, internet-connected data centres – is now altering everything, from the price of data entry to the education of accountancy’s next generation.

Only a year ago, cloud systems seemed cutting-edge. In 2014, they’ll be the mainstream. Cloud users are no longer early adopters but form part of an “early majority”, says David Smith, principal at professional services consultancy Smithink 2020. “Firms that ignore this trend do so at their peril,” he warns.

Path 1: Accounting without accountants

Technology has opened accounting to new competition, much of it from non-accountants. Public accountants who don’t adjust to this world are likely to find clients assessing them against new and cheaper online and offshore providers in general accounting, tax and audit.

Rob Nixon, founder and CEO of the Proactive Accountants Network and a National Congress speaker, warns many firms still “don’t see that this opportunity and issue are on the horizon”.

You might call this future ‘accounting without accountants’. But there is an attractive alternative. Accountants can become even more central to the workings of business – ‘accounting everywhere’.

[breakoutbox][breakoutbox_title]Food for thought: quotes on the future of accounting[/breakoutbox_title][breakoutbox_excerpt]“Firms that ignore this [cloud computing] trend do so at their peril”– David Smith

“Accountants ... need to look at how powerful they really are” – Doug Sleeter

“... accountants can become virtual CFOs for clients” – Rob Nixon [/breakoutbox_excerpt][breakoutbox_content][/breakoutbox_content][/breakoutbox]

Path 2: Accounting everywhere

Technology has expanded the opportunities for public accountants in ways the profession is still coming to understand. Technology is opening up new opportunities to start businesses and to run them with many of the same tools traditionally reserved for big business.

Accounting remains the foundation of modern business. And survey after survey shows businesses trust their accountants more than other potential sources of advice.

So, the challenge for accountants is to step into the roles of trusted adviser and implementer.

In this future, accountants equip themselves to do more valuable work for clients. They get involved in more parts of the business, play a management accounting role, offer more services and raise their value to clients. Nixon argues many can become “virtual CFOs” for

their small business clients.

Reclaiming the trusted adviser role

The managing director of Reckon’s professional division, Sam Allert, is among many now convinced that public accountants can and should reclaim the role of trusted business adviser. Accountants, he observes, have “more data about their clients than anyone else”.

Californian accounting practice consultant Doug Sleeter highlights accountants’ exposure to business issues. “They have to really dig into the business model, the revenue models, the expense models, the tracking, the systems that affect those,” he says.

That leaves them uniquely placed to provide hard-edged business recommendations. “Accountants ... need to look at how powerful they really are,” concludes Sleeter.

In this new accounting world, accountants need to build and maintain relationships. If accountants have strong social skills, “they’ve got it made”, says Sleeter. “If they like to live in a cubicle and punch numbers ... it’s harder for me to come up with what they’re going to do.”

If you don’t like change...

The opportunities are huge for accountants and firms willing to embrace change – those who have, in Nixon’s words, “a healthy discontent with the present”.

Besides, adds Sleeter, “if you don’t like change, you’ll surely hate irrelevance.”