PART 4: ACCOUNTING ORGANIZATIONS
The challenges of the accounting entrepreneur to break away from the traditional business model of accounting organizations and connect with the new disruptive model, more technological, more globalized, more interdependent, more regulated and with more frequent changes, perhaps among so many transformations that the accounting profession already has faced this to be the most impactful by bringing to the digital platform a reality built centuries ago on analog platforms.
In this disruptive scenario that we are bringing to the reflection of dear readers, we list below some of the facts that deserve the attention of accounting organizations and that will necessarily become part of their strategic planning
Globalized socio-economic scenario. The international flow of capital.
Sophisticated technologies at first with high costs;
Growing socio-environmental demands;
Shortage of qualified information for decision making.
Analytical methods that change accounting (Extracting data already processed for qualitative and quantitative analysis);
Accounting by exception (Continuous Analysis);
A new accounting company focused on advising clients, far beyond economic and financial advice;
Interconnectivity between Financial Reports and Non-Financial Reports, for example: Integrated Reporting;
Create more inclusive corporate reports, which have fewer numbers and more narratives about the organization’s performance; and
Requalification of Accountants Absorption of new knowledge and multidisciplinary teams.
The range of new situations is striking, some disruptive, others less so, but all interfering in the future of accounting organizations. I note that, at this first moment, everyone seeks to reduce the technological GAP by seeking more sophisticated tools, that is: tools that effectively use artificial intelligence in the data capture and processing processes, eliminating the typing of documents and providing the generation of management reports customized to the needs of each customers.
The elimination of this technological GAP already means an advance, but not enough for the requirements that the new business model presents. New knowledge, notably in the area of communication, marketing, languages, government policies, among others, will lead accounting organizations to seek specialists in areas that in the current model are not considered as a business unit, for example: Costs area, “Compliance”, Internal Controls, BPO – “Business Process Outsourcing”, Controllership, “Data Analytics” among others.
On the other hand, there is a very strong movement in society whose number of adherents is growing, especially in the European community where there is already talk of “Circle Economy” which advocates an economic model in which environmental sustainability and social impacts are primary concerns in the market future. Understanding these movements in society is another challenge for accounting organizations, as they will have to find answers to insert themselves and play a relevant role.
The way to communicate with society is also undergoing a review, it seems that the traditional models for disclosing the financial and equity situation of an entity is no longer sufficient for users of this information. There is a trend towards more narrative reporting with fewer numbers. An attempt at an advanced stage is the Integrated Report, which intends to centralize in a single document all information about performance, perspectives, socio-environmental responsibility, accounting statements and other information, favoring transparency in the relationship with the community.
To face these challenges, we could not fail to mention the issue of continuing education, which will be the object of the next article, the requalification of accounting professionals, the creation of multidisciplinary teams capable of keeping up with the speed of change and presenting solutions.
