2021 and Beyond: How Accountancy Will Evolve in the Next 10 Years

The finance and accounting function has changed pretty dramatically over the last 20 years.

As a result of the technology boom of the past few decades, the stereotype of an average accountant — the back-office professional perpetually clad in business casual who lives for water cooler talk and is constantly being asked to put basic financial principles in layman’s terms — isn’t just outdated; it’s insulting.

Simply put: Businesses don’t function without a consistent accounting team, and there’s no better evidence of that than in the evolution of the accounting function over this time.

But how will accountancy change over the next decade? Let’s take a look.

New Workforce, New Expectations

OK, here’s the part where we lament how fast time goes by. We spent the last 10 years talking about how to shift leadership styles to set a new generation (millennials) up for success as they acclimate to life as professionals.

That shift from the “you’ll take what you get and like it” style of leadership was long overdue, and for the most part, businesses and their accounting teams were successful in making the workplace more appealing to a new wave of professionals. But now Gen Z is here, and all the eye-rolling and joking about “kids these days…” isn’t just inappropriate; it’s bad for business. The accounting shortage is real, and companies need to do everything in their power to attract and retain young accounting talent to the best of their ability. This is no longer a matter of revisiting the age-old accounting mindset of “make do with what you have.” It’s up to accounting leaders to think about career paths, professional development, remote work policies (more on that later), and allocating resources to allow their teams to provide more value to the business.

A New Age for Financial Leaders

A recurring (one might say “glaring”) theme over the last few years is the evolution of the financial leader. Given the fallout from 2020 — in addition to new regulations and compliance laws — businesses need to operate at a new, more urgent pace.

With new regulations and compliance laws — as well as the fallout from 2020 — the speed at which businesses need to operate has gone up dramatically. Even back in 2019, when we co-published a study taking a look at the evolution of finance leaders, it was clear that the CFOs and controllers were expected to do more with less, but with the added expectation of expediency and accuracy.

This trend isn’t going away. Between limited or shrinking headcount and added expectations, controllers, in particular, will need to be more hands-on as we slowly but surely move past the disaster that was 2020. Whether it’s really getting into the trenches and managing account reconciliations with the team or maintaining a closer look at recurring processes like the month-end close, financial leaders can expect to be very, very busy in the years to come.

The 2020 Effect — Pessimism or Realism?

I look forward to the day when 2020 is a thing of the past. That said, its lasting effects are monumental.

It might sound trivial now that it’s in the past, but the shift of accounting teams to remote work was momentous. While some teams were better suited for the shift than others, the sudden move to working from home underscored the need for teams to be flexible. Does that mean that accountants should plan on working from home for the rest of their careers? Of course not. Teams will be able to work together in an office at some point in time — with the appropriate precautions, of course — but layering in the room for team members to work from home is now a necessity, and it’s up to team leaders to identify the resources to allow them to do so without skipping a beat. This doesn’t have to be a reactionary move, though: Offering a remote work policy will positively impact the hiring and retention of the talented accountants that are in such high demand.

Moving forward, financial planning will look a lot different. The practice will still be just as detailed and labor-intensive as before, but moving forward, multiple-scenario planning will be the norm. Accountants will recall the frantic moves to provide leadership with multiple business scenarios in the wake of shelter-in-place orders, and most will continue to do so in 2021. This will be the norm moving forward, and as pessimistic as that might sound, it’s really the most prudent move to make.

Conclusion

The reaction accounting departments around the world made to 2020 is admirable. As we look forward to a semblance of normalcy, it’s clear that the evolution of accountancy is still moving ahead, and it’s not all COVID-related. Between the challenges of attracting, hiring, and retaining talented accountants to revamping outdated processes and offering more transparency for leadership, the common theme over the next decade will be the adoption of new technologies to allow teams to work at peak efficiency. In the past, these resources would be deemed luxuries, but that’s simply not the case anymore. If 2020 taught us anything, it taught us the value of thinking ahead and maintaining flexibility.

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Mike Whitmire, CPA (inactive), is CEO and Co-founder of FloQast, a provider of accounting workflow automation software created by accountants for accountants to help them work smarter, not harder. Prior to founding FloQast, Mike was part of the accounting and finance team at rapidly growing Cornerstone OnDemand. It was during the Los Angeles-based tech company’s preparations for its IPO that Mike first composed the idea for what would become FloQast.

Mike began his career in audit at Ernst & Young, where his focus was on media and entertainment. During his time at EY, he performed public company audits, opening balance sheet audits, cash to GAAP restatements, compilation reviews, international reporting, merger and acquisition audits, and SOX compliance testing. Mike graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.