Accounting professionals who acquire the necessary new skills will position themselves well for an uncertain future in the post-COVID-19 world.

By Professor Rashied Small, Executive: Centre of Future Excellence (CoFE), South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA)

It’s a brave man who will predict the future, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency —everybody was expecting a pandemic, but it was the scale of the response that nobody foresaw. But while one should resist making detailed predictions, it would be equally foolish not to recognise the currents that are going to shape our world and, more particularly, our profession of accounting.

It’s clear that organisations that are agile and responsive to change were more likely to have spotted the threat posed by COVID-19 early on, and thus gave themselves time to ready themselves for change even though they were not necessarily certain about the details of that change.

One of SAIPA’s main aims is to help its members identify the trends that will be shaping the profession, and to help them acquire the skills they need to navigate the uncertain waters of change. We have identified the following trends that look set to disrupt accountancy:

Impact of technology on the profession. The impact of technology on business and society is undeniable, but professionals have tended to feel that they are to a great extent protected from anything more significant than having to learn some new technologies. It’s becoming clearer by the day that this is largely illusory. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning coupled with the immense processing power of the cloud (the Fourth Industrial Revolution) means that many of the services currently rendered by accountants can be done better, faster and cheaper by software.

At a more profound level, increasingly sophisticated automation means that accountants can no longer rely on producing information — financial statements, balance sheets and so on—but must become information users and knowledge producers. This is good news because accountants are highly skilled people with a lot to offer both the private and public sectors. — and now they can focus on adding genuine value.

This will require a substantial mindset shift for many professional accountants. It will also mean that they will need to invest sensibly in technology and, particularly, in their own technology skills. Only by being expert users of the increasingly sophisticated software that is available will they be able to carve out a niche for themselves.
The days of simply churning out “the numbers” are rapidly ending.

Changing client demands. The flipside of the technology revolution is that clients will be able to do more for themselves, and their demands for advice will become more sophisticated. In many senses, both the private and public sectors are becoming more complex and the environment in which they operate is more uncertain. Their reliance on advice rather than information is likely to grow. Professional accountants must be ready to move from being primarily numbers people to something more like financial strategy consultants or advisors. To make this jump, they will need to understand the value of the data that the systems have generated, and how to use it to advise clients.

In the end, I believe that professional accountants can essentially position themselves as virtual CFOs for smaller enterprises, providing them with the financial insight they need to survive.

Growing regulation. Financial services are already highly regulated but expect more regulation to be coming your way. Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies can be of great assistance in boosting compliance, and professional accountants need to understand how to use them to align themselves with the spirit as well as the letter of the law.

Virtualisation of the working relationship. As many have observed, COVID has forced everybody onto virtual platforms to conduct both business and social life. As with the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies that are transforming their profession, accountants must embrace this change which is likely to be long-lasting. In due course a hybrid model will doubtless emerge, but virtual consultations have much to offer: they save an enormous amount of time and can be remarkably effective. A more virtual client relationship also means that a professional accountant can service a much greater number of clients over a theoretically unlimited geographical area.
Perfecting the technique of using a video call to build or deepen a relationship is going to be an essential skill for professionals as well as businesspeople.

Build resilience into your business model. The disruption caused by the current pandemic should serve as a wake-up call for smart professional accountants. Not only should they focus on risk identification and mitigation, they need to take steps to ensure that their practices are better able to adapt to the unexpected at speed. Above all, resilience will depend on the ability to cope with the materialisation of unforeseen risks.
Rather neatly, those who embrace the technology revolution will find themselves better positioned to change—or “pivot” as the new jargon has it—when the next unexpected challenge comes their way.
Are you future-proofed? 
ENDS


 
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephné du Toit, 084 587 9933, stephne@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African Institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants

Opening up the economy safely has become a clear priority, even as infection rates appear to be spiking. 

By Professor Rashied Small, Executive: Centre of Future Excellence (CoFE), South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA)

It’s been clear for some time that Government has realised the imperative to open up the economy. But, at the same time, it faces a significant challenge because infections in the country’s economic heartland of Gauteng appear to be on the rise. Balancing economic and health interests successfully will require a sure hand on the tiller—and the full cooperation of the populace, including business.

Something of a tall order, we can agree.

On the economic front, the Emergency Budget tabled on 24 June by Minister Tito Mboweni makes the dire fiscal reality very clear: the economic devastation caused by the lockdown has reduced tax collections while increasing calls on the fiscus. Government needs more economic activity to increase the taxes it can collect. Its ambitious social projects devour money, and more are planned. At the same time, the country is already heavily indebted to foreign lenders and it seems like more debt is inevitable. Debt repayments already consume much of our fiscal income and cannot be avoided without further damaging consequences.

The now-lifted ban on the purchase of alcohol for home consumption and the ongoing ban on alcohol consumption in public and on all tobacco products represent anomalies that have not yet been properly explained. From an economic point of view, the fiscus is being deprived of a steady stream of much-needed revenue, while forcing addicts to turn to the black market is having all sorts of unhappy consequences, not the least of them being reduced compliance with the law.

There are also some indications that the ban on cigarettes and the continued constraints on social interaction could be exacerbating the high incidence of gender-based violence in our communities. Clearly the roots of what the President calls the “second pandemic” are deeper, but the impact of these factors is clearly causing concern.                                                                                                                                                            
But the economic imperative also speaks to the need to help citizens put their lives back together. Many have lost formal jobs but at least had the benefit of a retrenchment package; others have had to take a salary cut. But a huge proportion of our economically active population is self-employed in micro-enterprises or is employed by “informal” businesses in the so-called “kasi economy”. These individuals, especially those in micro-enterprises, do not have the luxury of retrenchment packages—work is the only way this vulnerable group puts food on the table.

Reducing the economic burden on citizens and their dependents is critical not least from a socio-political viewpoint: if people cannot discharge their obligations to dependents, civil disobedience can follow.

Isolated incidents of looting and, recently, the unilateral decision by taxi owners to break lockdown laws by reverting to 100% occupancy are examples of how economic pressures will drive ordinary citizens to break the law—even when they put their own health at risk.

Rebuilding the social compact
To combine economic revitalisation and health/ safety, the government must successfully transfer responsibility from the state (lockdown and all its attendant laws) to civil society, both individuals and corporates. This is a difficult exercise to pull off at the best of times, but government has squandered a lot of the trust it originally enjoyed. The public has grown cynical about the myriad regulations that appear to be irrational; heavy-handed policing and related deaths have further eroded trust. But perhaps most important of all, the extreme slowness with which the much-heralded aid to citizens and companies has been rolled out, and the growing suspicion that corruption is occurring, has reduced the propensity to follow the government playbook.

An additional challenge is that the move to remote working has thrown established governance structures into disarray. Employees who are working remotely are less open to physical supervision, and digital supervision techniques are often embryonic in many organisations.

To overcome these challenges and promote the rebuilding of the social compact in which individuals and corporates act in everybody’s best interest, will take some doing, but it is possible. I believe it will require government to demonstrate that it has a viable long-term plan that integrates the competing needs of the economy, of individual citizens and our general health and safety. Up to the present, although government has consistently indicated that COVID-19 is with us for the foreseeable future, its plans have seemed ad hoc, short term in focus. If civil society can be convinced that a long-term and carefully constructed plan exists, then we may yet win through.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Stephné du Toit, 084 587 9933, stephne@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African Institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants