What´s in store for accountants?

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy,

not to fighting the old, but on building the new.”

- Socrates

Last week I attended an annual meeting of an association that gathers accounting firms in Miami. This meeting takes part every year, in different continents, and generally we tackle the same topics: compliance, branding, “Big 4”, IFRS, IASB, IFAC, ISA, ISO, and many other letters that struggle to stand up for something with real meaning…

However, this year something caught my attention. The future of accountancy as we know it. I have read several blogs and news on the professions of the future, in which none accountancy appeared. We will be infamously replaced by automatic accounting programs and express exchange of information between the different institutions and countries. You can check this great article of FastCompany

https://www.fastcompany.com/3046277/the-new-rules-of-work/the-top-jobs-in-10-years-might-not-be-what-you-expect

But maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel…

So, what do we need to know to be prepared to the future…that is almost today?

You may think that many of the topics mentioned above are already in practice or may be taken for granted. However, it is surprising how many firms are lacking the minimum standards related to adapting for the future. They are mainly focused in auditing practices, bookkeeping or tax compliance, instead of thinking how to create new markets and new clients. Sometimes I feel that accountancy firms are born with the fire of young accountants to continue as a burden for the future generations. After five or so years…where is the drive and passion that comes when one or more partners decide to create a new firm?

So, if you don´t want to fall in the big red market of decaying accounting firms, you must be aware of that near future, and take the following piece of advice that also was given in that meeting:

It may seem complicated to adapt these points, but if we ponder on them we may find that they are just a different approach to do what we already know to do. It is just a matter of perspective...

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