The Rules of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb does our best to inform accountants about ways to improve their practices. To make this a reality today, we would like to share the results of a 2018 survey sponsored by accounting technology maker FloQast, Inc., The title of the survey is “Cloud Technology Advances the Accounting Profession.” More than 500 accounting and finance professionals were interviewed. Sponsored by FloQast and conducted by Dimensional Research in May 2018, the survey sought to identify the impact of technology and cloud applications within the accounting vertical.
“Accounting was among the first departments to rely on technology to perform their jobs embracing spreadsheets,” said Diane Hagglund, senior research analyst of Dimensional Research. “We’re seeing today that technology continues to change the accounting profession, requiring new skills and impacting the way teams hire and retain talent. We’re also seeing a new generation of “Cloud Accountants” that are taking advantage of new technologies and are all the happier for it.”
The key finding in the report include the following:
- Technology Skills Aren’t Just Nice But Crucial to Success- The vast majority of respondents feel that tech skills are much more important than ten years ago and that new technology is having a positive impact on the profession.
- Challenges in Technology Adoption to Stay Competitive - 85 percent are facing increased challenges in hiring and retaining talent, and technology adoption is a key strategy in attracting
- and retaining talent.
- Cloud Application Adoption Produces Happier Teams - Teams adopting cloud accounting technology report increased job satisfaction, are more likely to view technology as good for one’s career, and are less likely to be stressed from work.
“It’s no longer just a number crunching game. As software becomes more complex and integrated into the foundations of the traditional accounting infrastructure, the skills needed to efficiently work in the accounting department have to lean into technology,” said Mike Whitmire, CPA, co-founder, and CEO of FloQast. “The silver lining is that cloud computing and other emerging technologies help accountants and finance professionals become more accurate and efficient at their jobs, easing the burden.”
97 percent of accountants interviewed for the survey said that they are already savvy in cloud technology and feel it has been good for their career. 86 percent of Millennial executives are optimistic about automation technology, while only 60 percent of Baby Boomers think it will positively impact their jobs. Surprisingly, some traditional skills have not gone away and are just as important today as they were previously. Almost 4 in 5 accountants (79 percent) say that Excel skills are more important now than ten years ago.
That said, almost all respondents that influence the hiring and recruitment process have already begun changing the way they evaluate new hires with more emphasis on information technology skills (49 percent) and system thinking (50 percent).
The full report can be downloaded for free here. This is a great report to help your accounting firm keep up with the latest technology and embrace it like so many accountants are already doing. Another way to embrace the latest technology is to begin using the best PDF financial file converters on the market.
Leave a reply