If you think quantum change is already happening in the accounting profession, just wait and see what a number of consultants, practitioners and society heads have forecast for the future. To mark its 20th anniversary issue, Accounting Today elicited predictions from experts on what they feel will be on the profession's agenda for the next 20 years - and beyond.
It should come as no surprise that constant technological innovation will be key.
"We didn't have e-mail, we didn't have voice messaging, we didn't have conference calling, we didn't have cell phones, [and] we didn't have the Internet," explained Gale Crosley, CPA and president of Crosley+Co., a consulting firm in Atlanta, listing a number of current communications staples that weren't around in 1987. "That's what it looked like 20 years ago."
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Today, Crosley has an administrative assistant working from home in Denver whom she has never met. Hiring and communication was done by telephone and online, a foreshadowing of the future, according to Crosley. "I think that we'll have total virtual workplaces and what I will call electronic-based relationships," she said. "As this new generation comes onboard, they are used to electronic-based relationships, and because we have such scarce resources, it will just kind of be the norm."
That vision also rings true for Bob Gaby, CPA, CITP and principal of Arxis Technology Inc., in Simi Valley, Calif. Gaby said that he sees meetings being held via video conference, and traditional in-person client engagements will be only for the "technology-impaired."
The new generation will also be working in a totally paperless office, Gaby predicted. "Working with and storing paper documents will be a foreign concept to young accountants, like vinyl records and eight-track tapes," he said.
And so will the traditional time-and-billing system, according to both Crosley and Gary Boomer, chief executive officer of Boomer Consulting in Manhattan, Kan., and long-time Accounting Today columnist. Billable hours will be reserved for cost-accounting purposes, rather than pricing, Crosley said.
"I think we will be working towards a results-based economy, out of an efforts-based economy," Boomer said, adding that firms will become team-based, with people being employed for their unique abilities. "Pricing will become for value, rather than based upon cost plus a profit."
WHAT ABOUT THE OFFICE?
"I'd expect that we'll find fewer accountants and other professionals housed in large brick-and-mortar office space," said Larry Unruh, managing partner of Hein & Associates LLP, in Denver, via e-mail, adding that most CPAs will be working at client sites or from a home office. "Ongoing demands for energy conservation will encourage alternative means for communication, and the work environment will move toward a more virtual one. The information exchange required for reporting will take place on protected networks, and we'll be able to obtain information from clients, banks and other lenders, and attorneys via Web-based systems."
