Ep: 12 Top experts answer: "What, if anything, will significantly change accounting in the next few years?"

The Accounting Answers Podcast, hosted by Rob Brown, asks critical questions of the experts, leaders and influencers who shape the decision-making of accountants, CPAs and finance professionals. Today we ask:

What, if anything, will significantly change accounting in the next few years?

You'll hear insightful and passionate answers from these 5 experts and influencers:

Jessica Freiburg | Managing Partner of leading Chicago accounting firm Sassetti LLC

Jim Bourke | Partner @ Withum & Global Advisory Leader at HLB International

Jody Grunden | Partner and Virtual CFO Practice Leaders Anders CPA + Advisors

Joe Woodard | Woodard CEO and host of the Scaling New Heights Conference

John Fenton | The CEO Sensei empowering accounting pros to amplify their leadership

Tune into more on this daily show for short, sharp episodes that keep you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.

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Hi, I'm Rob brown and welcome you.

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Accounting finance professionals,

tech enthusiasts to the

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accounting answers podcast.

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We've embarked on a captivating

exploration of the future of accounting

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and its profound connection to the

ever-changing technology ecosystem.

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I think for a moment, how access to the

minds of a range of accounting experts,

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influencers, vendors, and leaders would

keep you super informed about what's

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going on in this wonderful profession.

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You'd stay relevant and future focused.

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You'd make better strategic

and career decisions.

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If you know what forces are in play

and what factors are driving change.

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To unravel the complexities

unenviable future of accounting.

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I've personally interviewed 111

leading accounting professionals, tech

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leaders, and industry influencers,

each bring in their unique.

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Expertise and insights to the

table and together we'll delve into

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the five critical questions that

will shape the accounting world.

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Through the eyes and minds of people

living their accounts in life.

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I'll talk into accountants every day.

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We'll talk about five critical topics

that ignite in passionate debates

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and stimulate minds across the globe.

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We're mapping the transformative

trajectory of the accounting profession

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and its symbiotic relationship

with the technological revolution.

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We'll be asking about the next

gen accountants, how far down

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the advisory line firms are.

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What's going to change

the accounting world.

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What their software vendors

and tech providers could do

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better to serve accountants.

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And what's coming up in the future.

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Let's get straight into the

answers for today's topic.

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Nobody can deny that the accounting

landscape is constantly evolving and

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the next few years are expected to

bring even more transformative changes.

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The adoption cloud-based accounting

software, the increasing use

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of artificial intelligence, the

growing emphasis on data analytics.

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These are just a few of the trends

that are shaping the profession that

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we all work in live in all this week.

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We're asking a range of experts

who are either accountants

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or who served them closely.

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What they think is driving the

change let's tune into their answers.

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Let's talk a few moments now with

Jessica Freiburg, managing partner of

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lead in Chicago, accounting fam society,

LLC, who brings a wealth of expertise.

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And leadership in driving the firm's

success and client satisfaction.

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Jessica Freiburg: I think that

AI will continue to have a

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really big impact on accounting.

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I think that we have to,

implement that across the board

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with all of our service lines.

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I think some of the challenges that we're

seeing with that are the standard setters

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and peer reviewers and how we get those.

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bodies to, accept some of the

AI and how that ultimately

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changes the level of service that

we're providing to our clients.

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but I think once those are in place,

those pieces are in place from the

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standard side, that we'll really see

that take over, how we're providing audit

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services, tax services across the board.

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Rob Brown: Join me now is we'll

listen to Jim book, the force of

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nature that he's the partner with

them and global advisory leads now HL.

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Shelby international apply anyway,

leveraging technology to enhance global

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advisory services and from efficiency.

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Jim Bourke: I do believe what's going

to change accounting in the next few

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years is finally, we're starting to

see change at the vendor level that's

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supporting our profession, right?

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So globally, I won't call them

out, but we all know the legacy

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vendors in our profession

globally, and they did a great job.

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They gave us the tools that we

needed to service our clients.

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Having said that, There's so many

shortcomings in those tools, as

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I mentioned earlier, the tools

were not cloud based, the tools

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were not device agnostic, the

tools were not a browser agnostic.

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In other words, I want to use a

Mac, I want to use a Windows based

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machine, I want to use my mobile

device to access these applications.

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we couldn't do that globally

on the legacy vendors.

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what I've seen I'll tell you over

the last 18 months, more so over

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the last 18 months than ever before.

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And I am today working with technology

entrepreneurs in our space that have

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robbed these crazy ideas about how they

can utilize current technology to fill

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those voids, to help us become more

effective at servicing our clients.

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I'm being blown away at these ideas.

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So we're going to see

vendors best of breed.

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In the AI space, the RPA space, the

machine learning space, all of the

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things that are going to try to replicate

those mundane tasks that we do in our

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profession, automate those to allow us

to do what we've been trained to do.

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So we're going to continue to see really

flourishing, best of breed vendors in our

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space, solving a lot of our pain points

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Rob Brown: Let's engage now with the

thinking of Jody Grunden partner and

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virtual CFO practice leader under CPA

and advisors whose redefining the role of

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CFO services with a strategic technology

driven approach for growing businesses.

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Jody Grunden: AI is definitely one

of the biggest things right now.

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And it's a buzzword, but I really

believe it to be true is that.

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with AI, it's going to really

help accountants learn how

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to provide advisory work.

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and what I mean by that is that a lot of

the things that accounts are doing right

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now, hopefully will be automated within

the next year or two or three years.

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when you think about it, you kind of

laugh because, 10 years ago, people

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thought tax returns would be the

biggest business for accountants.

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in reality, most people don't have

accountants prepare tax returns anymore.

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those are typically done, through,

the turbo taxes of the world, the IRS,

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the different agencies across the, the

world are helping provide those returns.

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Whereas accountants now are going

to be clearly focused on it.

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And AI is going to really help them

get to that next level of advisory.

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Rob Brown: Lending their voice

to the bait now is influencer and

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heavyweight in the accounting world.

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Joe Woodard, CEO of wood.

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And the host of scaling new Heights

conference dedicated to empowering

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accounting professionals with

education, innovation, and community.

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Joe Woodard: Yeah, so for the next

couple of years, not the far reaching

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future, in the next couple of years,

the most eminent change will be

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generative AI, this conversational AI.

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That we now know is chat GPT.

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It's going to take on a

lot of different forms.

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You're already starting to see it embedded

into products that manage practice

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that deal with client correspondence.

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it will already analyze now in

solutions like carbon and canopy and

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other practice management solutions

that will ingest to the emails.

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It will analyze the emails.

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It will when you click reply, say.

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We think this would be a great

thing to say in this reply and

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just prescript it all for you.

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So you can just read your own reply,

make small changes and then edit and go.

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so as you start seeing conversational

AI infused into the client experience

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apps that we use, it's going

to streamline significantly the

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interactions we have with the client.

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It's going to make those

interactions much more astute.

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In much more detail, it's going to make

us look really good in the short term

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until they figure out that we're just

using the same chatbots as everybody else.

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and, the other place where I think

we're in an imminent impact, to

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the benefit would be using those

same tools to streamline research,

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though you still have to validate it.

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it's gone from being a child to

an adolescent, but both Children

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and adolescents will lie to you.

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So you've got to check what they say.

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and but at least it

gives you the baseline.

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You can go do a little fact checking on

it, maybe even delegate the fact checking.

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Whereas before, you would have had to

run the whole research from end to end.

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You can send the fact checking to

somebody else at a lower pay grade

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in the firm, and then they can roll

it back up, say these two facts were

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wrong, these ten facts were right, I've

corrected them, send to the client.

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And as long as you're not charging by

the hour, These tools are going to do

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amazing things for you, and if you are

charging by the hour, they're going

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to cost you a lot of money because

you're going to do things a lot faster.

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Rob Brown: And now a few insightful

words from John Fenton, the CEO Sensai,

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empowering accounting professionals

to amplify their leadership skills and

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drive significant impact within the

organizations and the accounting industry.

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John Fenton: technology definitely

is going to continue to change

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the profession dramatically.

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So we need to be able to embrace

technological changes, not avoid them.

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If you're not comfortable as a leader

embracing that, find people on your

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team that can do that or hire the

right people that really thrive in

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the technical details and technical

development, because it is going to

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be important, but also looking at

offshoring or outsourcing talent.

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Because there is a dearth of talent.

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We all recognize that may change, but

we recognize that now and continue to

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build your culture that focuses on people

and performance, not just people, not

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just performance, not just don't even

focus on billable hours, but focus on

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serving your clients and excellence.

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Rob Brown: So they have five

great answers to the question.

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What, if anything will significantly

change accounting in the next few

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years, every working day of the week,

Monday through Friday, we give you

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the insights of five top influencers

in the accounting world on this

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critical area of what is coming up.

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Change wise for accountants

that's 25 valuable perspectives.

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Viewpoints and best thinking every

week and with a fresh week comes the

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first question and more thoughts from

the best influencers and leaders we

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can find in the accounting world.

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Thanks for listening to the accounting

answers podcast and sharing this brand

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new show with your friends and colleagues.

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If you want to join the conversation.

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You can plug into our community of

influencers@accountinginfluences.com.

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And check out our virtual

speed networking events.

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These happen every few months

for the north American region

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and the UK Europe region.

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These are great opportunities

to raise your profile, build

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valuable connections and share your

thoughts with influential peers.

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Until next time, this is your host,

Rob brown, saying stay informed,

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stay relevant and stay connected.