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A new staffing model for accounting firms

Hosted by Jeff Drew

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2018. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.

Technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence will do more than reshape the ways accountants do their work. Accountants will also be working with new and different colleagues. The need for expertise in computer programming and data analytics will require accounting firms and departments to gain access to workers with those skills.

What will accounting firms and accounting departments look like after lower-level, repetitive tasks are automated and unprecedented amounts of data can be mined for business insights? That topic takes center stage in the second part of the JofA’s annual accounting technology roundtable podcast.

The JofA gathered three of the profession’s top technology experts earlier this year to discuss how advanced technologies will remake the accounting landscape over the next few years. The participants included:

  • Al Anderson, CPA, owner of the accounting and insurance advisory firm ACCOUNTability Plus, leader of the AICPA Rutgers Data Analytics Research Initiative, and an adviser to the AICPA’s future of audit initiatives.
  • Rick Richardson, CPA/CITP, CGMA, founder and CEO of Richardson Media and Technologies.
  • Amanda Wilkie, a consultant with Boomer Consulting and former chief information officer at regional firm WithumSmith+Brown.

The JofA is presenting the roundtable in two parts. The first part, which went live Feb. 28, focuses on the radical changes emerging technologies will bring to accounting — and accountants — over the next 1 to 5 years. The second part, presented here, focuses on the skill sets that will be needed to survive — and thrive — in the new accounting reality. Perhaps the most important takeaway: CPAs should start learning now about the new technologies, colleagues, and market demands they will soon depend on for their success.

What you’ll learn in this podcast (part 2):

  • The new types of colleagues who are already joining accounting firms and departments.
  • What data scientists and big data engineers do and why they will be essential for accounting firms to succeed.
  • The names of database applications and programming languages CPAs will need to understand, if not master.
  • The six “professional quotients” CPAs should be practicing in the next decade
  • Why one participant recommends increasing the CPE requirement to 160 hours, with the additional time devoted to new technology.
  • The types of free educational resources that are available.

Play the episode below:


Check out other tech roundtable podcasts:

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