Changes Ahead for Accounting Practices
The last two years of 2018-2019 saw many changes for businesses and the accounting firms who serve them. Here is a brief examination of how some of those changes will continue to affect accountancy in 2020.
Technology
The digital disruption of cloud-based computing has had an enormous impact on how accountants perform their jobs. In the coming year, the major professional tax software companies are projected to release full-cloud versions of their software, which means that finances can be tracked in real-time instead of the traditional compilation that has been the model for so long.
Taxes
The rising volume of online business transactions makes for tax accounting nightmares, as different states and countries tax at different rates, thus pushing for accounting software to become “smarter” in order to accurately cope with the complexity.
Relevancy
With the aforementioned changes, much of traditional accounting work has become automated, forcing accountants to change the way they do accounting. In order to remain relevant, professionals are banding together in groups such as UCPAA and changing their hiring practices to acquire more technology-based talent and fewer accounting graduates.
The profession of accounting will continue to see pressures from technology and new laws and must also continue to change if it hopes to remain viable in the coming years.
