Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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VOLUME 27, NUMBER 6 SEPTEMBER 2017 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 3 GAIL PERRY, CPA Editor-in-Chief gail.perry@cpapracticeadvisor.com @gperrycpa FROM THE EDITOR Published by SouthComm Business Media, Inc. PO Box 803 | 1233 Janesville Ave. | Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 | 920-563-6388 | 800-547-7377 Publisher: Barry Strobel Editor-in-Chief: Gail Perry, CPA Managing Editor: Isaac M. O'Bannon Assistant Editor: Taija Sparkman National Sales Manager: Lou Meszoros Columnists: Ken Berry, JD Doug Sleeter Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP Kristy Short Randy Johnston Rene Lacerte Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP Paul McDonald Amy Vetter, CPA.CITP, CGMA Reviewers: Mary Girsch-Bock John Higgins, CPA Art Director: Rhonda Cousin Site Manager: Lester Craft Production Manager: Barb Evenson Audience Development Manager: Terri Petitt Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm CPA Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm NSA Practice Advisor (USPS 017-576), (ISSN 2160-8725 print; ISSN 2160-8733 online) is published six times per year (February, April, June/July, August, October and December) by SouthComm Business Media, LLC, incorporating two editions known as CPA Practice Advisor and NSA Practice Advisor. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Practice Advisor, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Canada Post PM40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Practice Advisor, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. 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Editorial Advisory Board: Jim Bourke, CPA.CITP, CGMA, CFF Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP, CGMA, MBA Bob Cedergren, CPA.CITP, CGMA, CISA Randy Johnston, MCS Greg LaFollette, CPA.CITP, CGMA Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA Doug Sleeter Sandra Wiley, PHR, SPHR SOUTHCOMM, INC. CEO: Chris Ferrell CFO: Bob Mahoney COO: Blair Johnson VP, Production Operations: Curt Pordes VP, Technology: Eric Kammerzelt Executive Vice President: Gloria Cosby Director of Digital Business Dev.: Lester Craft Subscription Customer Service 877-382-9187; 847-559-7598 Circ.CPA@omeda.com PO Box 3257, Northbrook IL 60065-3257 Article reprints: Brett Petillo Wright's Media 877-652-5295, ext. 118 bpetillo@wrightsmedia.com List Rentals: Elizabeth Jackson email: ejackson@meritdirect.com phone: 847-492-1350 ext. 18 fax: 847-492-0085 CPA Tomorrowland Shapiro is not the only person in the profession talking about this – not by a long shot. Disrup- tion is the key word in just about every conversation I have with accounting thought leaders. And by disruption, we're not talking about some new software that's going to take the place of our beloved Excel spreadsheets. We're talking about serious, lay a patch, grand slam, Triple Crown, uberization disrup- tion, the kind of change that can require a complete retooling of the profession. Shapiro tossed out some sober- ing statistics: A recent McKinsey study suggests that 49% of work currently being done by accoun- tants is likely to be automated; Accenture reports that 21% of organizations have blockchain in production – my spell checker doesn't even know what that is yet. Accenture also estimates that 40% of basic accounting work will be automated or eliminated by 2020 – that's three years from now. This is a tantalizing brave new world for younger accountants who like the idea of turning their pen- chant for number-crunching into a sexier profession, but what about those who are, ahem, reaching their golden age? It kind of sounds like rather than gently moving the aging members of the profession out to a soft landing of shorter hours, consultancy, call me when you need me, they're about to be kicked out the door by those who want to get busy and make a difference. When asked what he thinks is keeping older accountants up at night, Shapiro said it's succession planning. "I met with a sole propri- etor, he has three people working for him in a tax practice. He asked me, 'What am I supposed to do? I'm 58.' I told him he needs to move quickly. He has three choices: Merge down- stream, by acquiring a firm that's growing with young professionals; merge upstream [allow yourself to be acquired by another firm]; or work a few more years and turn off the lights." For younger accountants, the middle of the night concerns are more centered around the unknown. "We're not sure what accounting is going to look like in 10 years," said Shapiro. He emphasized his confidence in schools, indicating that they will adapt and prepare students for whatever the future holds. Shapiro was joined by Lisa Hartkopf, board chair at ICPAS. Hartkopf asked attendees to "adjust, adapt, and excel at innovation and driving change." In a discussion of artificial intelligence taking over much of our current entry level work, she reminded attendees that we've already seen this before when accounting firms started sending work to offshore companies. In asking attendees to "embrace the change," Hartkopf reminded her audience that change "isn't going to happen overnight." Maybe not overnight, but there's definitely a wave to ride. Accoun- tants in public practice who expect to be viable and flourishing in the years to come, as opposed to those who plan to turn out the lights, will likely see an exciting future of new solutions that will make our jobs more fulfilling. ■ — Gail Perry, Editor-in-Chief RECENTLY I SPOKE with Todd Shapiro, president and CEO of the Illinois CPA Society, at the Midwest Accounting & Finance Showcase in Rosemont, IL. He had just finished speaking about disruption in the accounting profession and how it is expected to impact firms of all sizes in the years to come.