Keeping Up With The Times: From Number-crunchers To Accounting Consultants

undergoing some changes. As competition increases with the advancement of technology, more firms are looking into adding a new revenue stream, like business consulting.

What benefit does this provide accounting firms?

To put it simply, firms that offer consulting services will be able to help businesses understand what they need to do to generate better profits. Business owners will learn effective ways to run their enterprise as well as market analysis so they can devise strategies for growth.

Becoming Accounting Consultants

To keep up with the changes and continue to satisfy client needs, accountants need to do more than crunch numbers. They need to become accounting consultants.

This new breed of accounting professionals does more than basic bookkeeping. They will deliver more value and help clients scale their business. They will do more than compliance. They will help you understand everything you need to know about running your businesses by providing the following additional services like financial forecasting and assist you with reporting and financial data analysis. Accounting consultants will also help you determine the profitability of your business.

They will, in essence, put the right accounting practices in place. Your accountants will implement the necessary changes to make your processes and procedures more efficient.

What Is The Future Of Accounting?

Artificial intelligence is disrupting a lot of industries that deal with big data from manufacturing to communications to healthcare. Accounting is one of them.

The evolution of technology has paved the way for massive changes in the accounting profession. Accounting, compared to other industries, hasn’t seen a lot of innovation since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping—more than 500 years ago. Today, thanks to machine learning technology and artificial intelligence, accountants have it easy: bookkeeping can be done without much effort. By using accounting software, they can now automate data entry, reconciliations, etc.

Experts predict that by 2020, AI-based technologies will automate accounting tasks. This kind of disruption will have a major impact on the profession, bringing forth massive challenges and huge opportunities at the same time.

Adaptation Is The Key To The Future

The question now is how can accountants prepare for the future? The profession is unrecognisable from 40 years ago. To keep up with the changes, it is important for accountants to adapt.

The ability to roll with the punches will play a vital role in achieving success because the changes are inevitable. The industry will always evolve and accountants must be willing to embrace the changes instead of fighting them. By being technologically savvy and open to offering new services, accountants will not only make clients happy, they will also increase profits.

Are Accountants Ready For Client-facing Roles?

Accountants are expected to be all-rounded. Those who know how to do this will become indispensable.

Getting out of one’s comfort zone will help accountants become highly valuable to clients. By exploring new areas and learning new things, accountants will be able to achieve professional growth. Whether that’s improving skill sets or enhancing nontechnical capabilities, like strategic thinking and communication skills, accounting consultants will be able to do more client-facing tasks.

How can accountants be more client-facing? Here are some quick tips:

• Be more enthusiastic about work: one of the key indicators of success is being excited about work. This will motivate accountants to become more willing to seek out opportunities to help clients and excel at it.
• Embrace technology: automation is here and accountants will need to be tech-savvy to continue servicing clients.
• Develop soft skills: by becoming more proactive, accountants have to be confident when dealing with clients. Improved communication skills will make this easy.
• Diversify your network: connecting with people will help you get more potential clients. Not only that, connecting with like-minded individuals will pave the way for further learning.