Accountants: Worry about adapting, not being replaced

Jason Marx of Wolters Kluwer addressing the 2021 CCH Connect conference
Jason Marx of Wolters Kluwer addressing the 2021 CCH Connect conference
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Whatever their fears, the perpetual advance of technology isn’t going to replace accountants — but it will require them to change significantly, according to Jason Marx, president and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

“Accountants need to think much more about adaptation than replacement,” Marx told attendees at the company’s annual user conference, being held this week in Austin, Texas. “Technology improves efficiency, by removing manual steps and by reducing human error. It drives straight-through processing, rather than replacing accountants, and it frees them to focus on the more strategic work requiring creativity, collaboration and imagination.”

That is, of course, only true if they take advantage of the tools at hand: Marx contrasted a 2019 Robert Half survey in which accountants overwhelmingly reported being concerned about the potential for technology with a 2021 Wolters Kluwer study that showed that just 7% of small firms — and only an astonishing 2% of large firms — believe that they are maximizing their use of technology.

He believes that tax and accounting professionals are more than up for the challenge, however. “You are part of a profession that has proven its grit, its determination and its resilience over and over,” he told conference attendees. “You have served as the quiet heroes behind the scenes to keep businesses running during very, very difficult times. You’ve been balancing the implications of new tax regulations, accelerating market trends for technology and for mobility, a real war for talent, and urgent client demands around the clock.”

To help them understand and face all those challenges, he explained five broad market trends that are shaping accounting, and that they’ll need to bear in mind as they move forward.

1. The move to the cloud

“The pandemic served as catalyst for establishing the value and flexibility of cloud software,” Marx said. “It’s brought factors like high availability, lower costs for disaster recovery, business continuity, remote workforce management and business agility,” and the shift has only been accelerating.

2. The shift to remote work

While this move is driving a need for both tighter collaboration and efficiencies in the client experience, its impact is really being felt internally. “Staff experience has become much more relevant, with the increasing impacts of the war for top talent, which were certainly aggravated by the pandemic,” Marx explained.

3. The growing requirements for real-time data exchange and reporting

“This is being driven by automated source data capture by regulatory reporting that requires consistent data, and the growing importance of APIs that allow firms to treat platforms like our own CCH Axcess as a central hub,” according to Marx.

4. Emerging tech enabling higher-value work

By reducing manual data entry and by improving accuracy, emerging and advanced tech tools — and at least 90% of firms are hoping these tools will help them achieve improved results next tax season, according to a 2021 Wolters Kluwer survey cited by Marx. “Forty percent of all firms said they were innovators or early adopters of technology, and 54% of large firms, and all of them reported higher confidence levels and better results than firms that label themselves as slower to adopt.”

5. Legislative and regulatory change

The volume, speed and intensity of legislative and regulatory change is getting overwhelming. “There is no doubt that the pace of regulatory has changed over the last several years — well, you know it; you live it. It’s pretty much non-stop, and we don’t see that changing,” said Marx. “Many of you wonder if we will ever see a return to a normal tax season, but planning for tax season is becoming more complicated by late changes to filing deadlines and forms.”
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