Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
iStock00048449066_Small

The rise of the machines?

by
10th Sep 2015
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

The rise of the cyber accountant is not as outlandish as you would think. One of the themes of the Practice Excellence Conference on 24 September is what the future holds for the profession. This is a brief preview of what some of the speakers think.

“No one has a crystal ball,” says practice consultant Heather Townsend. “But anybody who spends time in the accountancy profession wouldn’t argue with the disruptive and relentless march of technology.”

The evidence is there in the way the tax system has shifted in the past five years, she continues. “Real time information for payroll was a big step. But I think that was the start rather than the end of real time reporting.

“The pace of change unprecedented and it’s going to get faster. What I see coming is real time reporting for corporation tax and self assessment. Shorter frequency of VAT reporting is also likely. It might become monthly rather than quarterly because the technology is there to do it.”

Pushing the horizon back a little further, Townsend predicts that automated tax advice may not be far off. “The tax profession is based on applying logical rules to a set of numbers, and assessing the risks associated with a particular treatment,” she said.

“A good tax professional sees the strategic objective, understands regulations and can apply them to achieve the clients’ objective. Artificial intelligence should be able to replicate that knowledge. It’s a problem-solving tool. AI could really disrupt the tax marketplace.”

Townsend is not alone in her speculations. A recent report ‘The robots are coming? examined the possibilities for automated rule-based decision-making systems in the context of shared services centres and posed the question: Will accountants ever trust a robot?

Rudi Jansen, a Practice Excellence judge and conference speaker, suggested a stance of adaptation and acceptance at the prospect of this frightening scenario. Once they have realised what’s coming, practitioners should realise that they will still need to hold their clients’ hands through all this change and put structures and resources in place to accommodate them.

“Those who implement the right knowledge will reap the success,” he says. “It’s important for accountants to prepare; to start contemplating the optimal pricing points for ad-hoc packages and business advisory packages and begin to craft what these services will incorporate.”

At the Practice Excellence Conference, Townsend, Jansen and other speakers will urge delegates not to follow the herd, but to find their own paths into the new era of accountancy practice - and to be guided by their clients’ needs.

Says Townsend: “Really clued up practitioners like Jessica Pillow at Pillow May and Stephen Paul at Valued Accountancy stay very close to their clients and see how technology can help them deliver what their clients want in a more efficient, cost-effective way.”

By their nature accountants are very good at dealing with the present, planning workflows and getting the work done, she says. But sometimes they need to step off the treadmill to equip themselves for change.

“If you’re going to future-proof your practice you have to have to think long term and short term. The people who are good at doing this are very attuned to what their clients want. They’re the sort of accountancy practices where delivering day-today client service excellence is just the way they work. And they’ve got a hunger for doing it in a bigger, better, faster, cheaper way.”

Replies (0)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

There are currently no replies, be the first to post a reply.