planning today for still being in business 10 years from now.
submitted by the center for accounting transformation
improvetheworld.net
the center for accounting transformation’s public accounting advisory board met last quarter to discuss some of the biggest issues facing the public accounting industry.
the strongest themes revealed during the meeting is that there simply aren’t enough accountants to handle the growing workloads; innovation and automation must be implemented faster to streamline processes and free up accountants to increase advisory services; and time, as the scarcest of resources, is the primary commodity for any professional, but is especially true for accountants.
during the discussion, board members considered causes and possible solutions, which firms can use to guide several strategic decisions in 2022.
providing a diverse view of public accounting
the center for accounting transformation created its public accounting advisory board to counsel on strategic direction, services, and program planning. “we recognize the value and importance of engaging a variety of perspectives on the accounting industry in discussing and addressing issues facing accounting firms. this advisory board brings together a collective of diverse experience, innovation, and insight that will help align the efforts of the center to complement and elevate the work being done by other industry associations, consultants, and vendors,” said donny shimamoto, cpa, citp, cgma, founder and managing director of intraprisetechknowlogies, a cpa firm focused on organizational development and innovation management for small businesses, middle-market organizations, and nonprofits. shimamoto, who also formed the center, added, “as a group that prides itself on embracing transformation, the center created this advisory board with innovative leaders within the profession who enable us to seize the opportunities and nurture the seeds of transformation in collaboration with the next generation of accounting, technology, and association leaders.”
the center’s public accounting advisory board members include:
- sona akmakjian, cpa; senior director, global accounting strategic partnerships, avalara
a cpa with 29 years of transactional tax services and automation experience, akmakjian is recognized for her deep industry expertise.
- victor a. amaya, cpa; director of partner fulfillment, botkeeper
amaya has served as chair of the board for the colorado state society of cpas, as a member of the pcps executive committee with the aicpa, and is a current member of the aicpa council.
- jessica cormier, cpa; vice president of talent development, allinial global
a 2014 graduate of the aicpa leadership academy, cormier has more than 17 years of experience in business leadership, financial management, and public accounting. she is a 2017 recipient of the louisiana society of cpas’ women to watch emerging leader award.
- sarah elliott, cpa; co-founder and principal, intend2lead
elliott has been recognized as one of the most powerful women in accounting by the aicpa and cpa practice advisor for the past four years and as one of the top 50 women in accounting by practice ignition.
- kari hipsak, cpa, cgma; senior manager, firm services team, aicpa
hipsak leads pcps resource creation for accounting and auditing emerging issues, manages pcps it resource development, including cybersecurity, oversees the g400 initiative, and maintains the aicpa alliance with firm associations and networks.
- mike maksymiw, cpa, cgma, msa; executive director, firm foundation, aprio
growing up in a sole practitioner household, maksymiw worked for 16 years at 3-5 partner firms, and knows firsthand the knowledge and wisdom gained from working in an environment where you see everything about a client, from the shoebox through the financial statements.
- jennifer scott, founder, ceo and chief people officer, hireeffect
scott’s specialties include employing conscious business and positive leadership tools to improve employee engagement and retention and helping companies create and sustain the kind of culture that attracts top talent.
staffing is more than just a number-of-people issue
accountants have long battled the staffing issue, and there doesn’t appear to be any relief in sight.
“the way that the market looks, we’re not going to have enough talent to do the work that we have if we don’t change how we do the work,” maksymiw said. “it’s not a five-year or 10-year problem, it’s from now on, there will always be more work than people. and the way that’s been historically solved is with technology and automation.”
he continued, “the best analogy i heard was farming used to be 40% of the workforce. and now it’s 1%. but we produce 20 times more food.”
weston agreed, saying, “the thing we hear, year over year–and we haven’t been able to solve–is staffing.”
one of the staffing issues also recognized was a shift in the values of many professionals.
explaining the typical work cycle in public tax firms, weston explained, “[firms] literally would say, ‘starting this week, you’re mandatory 55 hours,’ then two weeks later, you’re mandatory 65, then you’re mandatory 65 plus all day saturday. you didn’t push back. you didn’t say, “i need work-life balance.”
scott added, “we’ve been doing a lot of talking about the great resignation. the way we’re talking to our clients about looking at it is that it’s a great recruitment opportunity for firms who are offering work-life balance, part time jobs for the firms that can do job sharing situations so that stay-at-home moms who used to be business professionals can come and do the work until 2:30 in the afternoon and go be with their kids.”
pointing out it could be an overall culture concern, amaya said, “what are the values that they’re living, how they perform, and how we set it up in a totally different manner,” he explained, “so that it actually drives the ability for people to want to work there and stay there, instead of finding a reason to be there for three or four years and then get out because the possibility of going somewhere else is better.”
scott noted that a culture happens whether you want it to or not. “you can state what your values are, but that doesn’t mean that’s what your people experience. if you don’t live those values, if you don’t walk those values, if you don’t make business decisions based on those values, they’re a sign on the wall and they’re absolutely meaningless.”
“how about retirees,” weston asked, adding another consideration. “they have this knowledge. they have these years of expertise. tap into them.”
accountant burnout is reaching a breaking point
during discussions around digital transformation and automation, bill penczak, chief transformation officer for the center inquired if there was a pain point that is an impetus for adoption or change. scott quickly responded, “they can’t handle it anymore.”
citing that accountants are either out of time or they’ve recognized that they’re not spending enough time with their clients, scott continued by sharing that “they’re spending too much time in the back office, trying to put together their business, trying to keep it afloat, especially over the last two years. they recognize that they need to be back in front of their customers and in front of their employees, in front of whoever their stakeholders are and not stuck behind these very manual, very time-consuming processes.”
commenting on her experiences, alisa nishimoto, pmp, director of accounting firm services for intraprisetechknowlogies, llc, acknowledged that the lack of automation is there and “they come to us because they either have too many things in place that are disconnected, and there’s a lack of integration, and they’re looking for a better solution. they come to us because they want to streamline their processes better.”
in summary, penczak concluded that “somebody will get to a breaking point, perhaps, and say, ‘okay, we really need to fix this for fill-in-the-blank next busy season or before the end of the year or whatever else, someone will experience a pain point that really is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
transformation is survival
advisory board members agreed that technology adoption is no longer an option, but a necessity. calling it “survival,” cormier said, “i don’t think we need to spend any time trying to convince somebody to transform because the ones who are already thinking about it, we just need to assist them, lay out steps and bring together groups that can collaborate.”
maksymiw added that the biggest issue he sees is that firms know they need to embrace and adopt automation to curb the attrition affects, but that firm managers don’t seem to have clear instructions for implementation or time to investigate all options to determine the best fit for their teams, a suggestion other advisory board members echoed.
another issue discussed was market-driven change, based on client base.
akmakijian thinks that there are certain industries that are forcing accountants to adopt technology more than others. “for example, in the sales and use tax world, with the pandemic, everything was shut down and everyone looked to e-commerce. and they sold everything everywhere, instead of just locally through their brick-and-mortar store, creating more reporting responsibility, and they couldn’t do it internally. they went to their accountants and their accountants, without technology, couldn’t meet the need.”
the advisory board also discussed another way firms could transform: advisory services.
amaya shared that he believes for a majority of those involved with compliance work, it’s harder for them to make that shift. “they know what it is, but they don’t know how to even get there.”
weston agreed, saying, “they think it’s them being social and helpful with their clients and they don’t realize that social, helpful conversational advice is advice that took them years to be able to give quickly and easily. and it’s hard for them to think about charging for something that they’ve been giving away.”
hipsak noted that the past year has served as a prime example of “no one feeling like they’ve had time to think of that higher level, but they’ve been doing just that. they’ve jumped into ppp. they’ve jumped into erc. firms have jumped into all these new opportunities, and some jumped on board with charging for it right away. some firms feel like they gave away a bunch of their services for free because they didn’t harness the opportunity. they thought they were helping their clients – which, they were, but again, you’re a service.”
enabling accounting firm transformation
the center for accounting transformation will be using the results of the advisory board meeting to identify resources to help accounting firms through their transformation journey. summarizing, penczak said, “it kind of sets the future to say, if you want to be a different kind of firm and you want to be in business 10 years from now, this is the kind of change you have to go through, and we’re going to walk you through it.”