virtual communication, hybrid work environments still pose challenges.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
new laws and regulations now rank as the primary management challenge at accounting practices around the world, according to a report from caseware.
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and though the difficulty, and even impossibility, of meeting all legal requirements is a massive challenge, meeting that challenge is a driver of rapid change in the industry. this is evidenced by the second-most serious challenge, adopting new technologies – technologies directly or indirectly aimed at meeting legal requirements.
tech at the top
of the over 2,054 survey respondents, who reported in from 49 countries, 16.2 percent named laws and regulations as their top challenge, and almost as many – 15.4 percent – put the adoption of tech at the top.
not far behind: finding and retaining the right talent – again, at least partially, a reflection of the need to meet complex legal requirements. finding talent is one thing. finding the talent with the proper expertise is something else. and keeping current staff up to date on ever-changing laws is increasingly difficult.
as if the top three challenges weren’t enough to keep practice leadership up at night, the rise in cybersecurity and fraud threats came in close behind, reported by 12.9 percent. accounting firms are veritable repositories of financial information and therefore prime targets for remote pillaging
the evildoers aren’t high-school-dropout bank robbers. they are often sophisticated quasinational agencies whose resources exceed those of accounting firms by far. it’s a david vs. goliath battle requiring investments in talent and tech.
small firms playing catchup
between the maelstrom of regulations and the threats stalking the internet, more firms are planning to beef up their technology. last year, 28.8 percent of respondents were planning to “significantly increase” their it capacity. this year, it’s 33.1 percent.
those planning a slight increase showed a similar differential, rising from 40.6 percent to 43.6 percent.
only 15.5 percent will be sticking with current plans.
curiously, the smaller the firm, the more likely the plans to expand technology. small firms (one to 10 employees) are more than twice as likely as large firms (500+ employees) to be planning expansions. and large firms are the most likely to plan to slightly decrease tech investment.
one respondent explained that the small firms are playing catchup rather than forging ahead of the rest of the industry.
ready or not?
and has covid-19 taught us nothing? the survey finds that firms are still finding it challenging to communicate with clients virtually, a problem at 11.7 percent of responding firms. and 9.6 percent are still adjusting to the hybrid work environment.
will they get this problem solved before the nest pandemic? maybe not! in an inexplicable contradiction to logic, out of seven categories of software investment, apps facilitating collaboration rank last, with only 9.9 percent saying that will be their biggest investment.
the top software investment – no surprise – is for anything to do with engagement, from audit to tax, where just over a fifth will focus their funding.
practice management – and maybe some consider this to include virtual communication apps – is the primary earmark for 15.8 percent, followed closely by process automation, at 14.8 percent.
but automation software does not include generative artificial intelligence, such as chatgpt and bard. despite the growing promise (or is it a threat?) of ai, only 10.2 percent say it will be their primary investment.