Should You be Hiring Additional Accountants?
Katie Thomas, CPA
40 Under 40 CPA Practice Advisor | Top 50 Women in Accounting | Helping B2A (Business to Accountant) companies and accounting firms increase their impact, influence, and income through leadership marketing. 👇
Accounting firms are facing the heat of automation and digitalization across all service lines. Given the pressure to keep up with changes in technology and the need to be focused on providing value to clients, they are now doing something which could not be imagined only a few years ago: hiring non-accounting graduates. According to the 2017 AICPA Trends Report, 20 percent of all new hires are now non-accounting graduates.
So why is this? Let’s dive into a few reasons below.
Technological Advances - As a result of technological advances, many firms are slowly expanding into technology consulting. Technology advisors, with industry experience in related fields such as information systems or computer science, assist clients with implementing and running their accounting and financial functions.
Number Crunching Isn't Enough - With technology and automation on the rise, many firms are recruiting students and experienced people with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Today's trends suggest accounting and audits are more about obtaining insights from the numbers, rather than merely reporting numbers.
Financial Advice - As high net worth individuals turn to their firm for advice, especially when dealing with transactions which may have a significant impact on their finances, it's essential to provide clients with the adequate resources. As a result, the area of wealth management has evolved; therefore, hiring an investment advisor with a CFA or CFP designation is becoming more common these days.
So, what do you think? To me, given the changes in the accounting industry, it no longer makes sense to hire only accountants. What are your thoughts?
Author: Katie Thomas, CPA
Co-Author: Ritanshu Sharma
Chartered Accountant at Pradip B Gandhi & Co
6yCloud accounting has been a massive change and opportunity for accountants. But it’s also presented you with a challenge: Business owners can now access their finances much more easily, which means if the only service you’re providing is accounts and bookkeeping, it’s eventually not going to be enough
Quality Accounting & Related Services at Lodha & Assciates
6yNo need just outsource the work to us at 50% less cost and see the difference!!!
Co-Founder at Accodal, Inc.
6yI previously thought the same thing. What we recently found has completely changed our perception on this. The technology tools and even machine learning applications have become easy and user friendly enough for even accountants to pick up and learn quickly. So the reverse is happening technology experts are no longer as relevant and experienced accountants just a bit tech savvy can easily do the work of 5 accountants by managing bots and clients simultaneously.