WHAT GOT US HERE AS ACCOUNTANTS CANNOT TAKE US THERE

There is no gain saying that professions and organizations cannot survive todays challenges by simply doing what it has been doing in the past years, decades or even centuries. The world has moved on and to survive, organizations and individuals will have to move on too.

In as much as the importance of accounting to businesses cannot be discounted, accountants that still believe that what brought them to their current status will take them to the next level are simply being delusional.

Accounting as a profession has come a long way and currently now facing serious challenges that many accounting professions like ACCA have been working tirelessly to resolve. There are lots of dooms messages about how accounting will be swallowed by technology but all hope is not lost as a lot of opportunities are constantly being presented by technological advancement.

I have heard experienced accountants telling young accountants that all they needed to be successful in the world of accountancy is just to gain mastery of DEBIT & CREDIT coupled with mastery of IFRS. This advice is perfectly correctly if we are still in early 1990’s but we have unfortunately moved on.

What are those things that will take accounting profession from its current state to the desired future state? Well, this article is not claiming to have answers to the question from below are what 788 accountants interviewed in the city Lagos Nigeria thinks are the future of accountancy.

In no particular order, below are Ten (10) competencies that 788 accountants feel are what will make a well-rounded accountant of today and beyond.

1. Compliance and regulatory awareness: business world is increasingly becoming complex with numerous laws being rolled out on a daily basis. These complexities are prevalent in the financial sectors. To be a successful accountant, an accounting profession must be conversant with practical compliance and regulatory frameworks experience.
2. Complete business advisory package to clients and or employers: business leaders place more trust on the services of an accountant or a finance professional who has over the years proven to a complete business advisory package. This is why most accounting firms are increasingly diversifying into business advisory services.
3. Technologically explorative: accountants with explorative minds of scientists are better positioned to excel because they are more likely to swiftly adapt to new technology before it becomes overcrowded.
4. Technical accounting and bookkeeping expertise: technical accounting and bookkeeping knowledge is still evergreen as one cannot be called an accountant without this knowledge. I recommend that at the very minimum, becoming a member of accounting profession of your choice. I choose to go with ACCA, but you can choose anyone.
5. High sense of street commercial sense: your ability to view things from the street commercial perspective is very fundamental to succeeding as an accountant of the future. A spreadsheet model is meaningless if the assumption upon which it is built has no commercial reality for example.
6. Cyber security capability:  the pervasive nature of business technology and advancement in general technology has made it almost impossible for businesses to exist without one form of reliant on technology or the order. That said, the ability of an accountant to have advanced cyber security skill is very important to both business owners and the society at large.
7. Ability to code and automate things: I am an evangelist of accountants learning to code, but, this point is not coming from me now. It is coming from the view of over seven-hundred accountants. No one needs conviction on this.
8. Possession of advanced critical thinking skill: accountants with critical thinking skill are always in demand even in times of economic downturn. Critical thinking when combined with accounting expertise form a powerful tool that guarantees solution to any business problem.
9. Possession of both soft skillsets and interpersonal relationships: cakes comes out better when they have a form of icing or the other on it. Soft skills for accountants are those qualities that make an accounting and finance professional indispensable. Check out the hyperlinked article above for more on this.
10. Investigation and interviewing skill: investigation and interviewing skills are sometimes required to excel as an accountant in our normal day to day functions. This skill is even more important if one is working in Audit & Risk management function. Useful insights are gained through investigation, which in turn places heavy reliance on interviewing and analytical procedures.

One theme that is central to the responses of all the accountants interviewed is that the threat posed to the accounting profession by technology is real but the possession of the above identified skills can almost guarantee job security to the individual who possess all of these. I enjoin all accounting and finance professionals to try as much as possible to acquire these skills as this is the best way of being disruptive accountants.