Professionals in the field of finance and accounting spent much of 2020 contending with new challenges, but in 2021 CPA firms need to be primed and ready to execute long-term strategies to ensure that their organisations keep scaling and maintaining their profitability.
The emerging trends in finance in 2021 along with the opportunities accompanying this year, require the time and attention of your accounting team if growth and success is to be experienced. Read on to learn more about the future trends in the profession of accounting in 2021. The bridging loan process is a quick way to get a loan.
Remote Accounting Work
One of the best things to emerge out of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has proven just how well financial organisations can actually run with remote workers. The combination of digital accounting and emerging technologies has allowed CPAs working remotely to still deliver a top-quality service for clients.
Even with the increase in the number of accounting organisations that are warming up to the idea of having their staff working remotely permanently, firms still need to consider cyber security measures aimed at preventing costly data breaches.
From the handling of financial records to the analysis of data, numerous aspects of accounting work are digitised, which means that it can be done online and from any location. Whether from the office or home, accountants will still be the ones to help clients strike a balance between cost-effectiveness and sustainability moving into the future.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Reporting
ESG gained newfound focus in today’s organisations even before the pandemic and for good reason. ESG reporting allows companies to fulfil consumer mandates for greater corporate responsibility, while simultaneously working as a critical metric of delivering greater levels of risk mitigation in organisations.
The focus on ethical issues and sustainability has not only continued sharpening inside corporate board rooms, but the rise in responsible investing has also become more popular among external investors.
ESG criteria are now a decisive element for the key stakeholders that want to measure business performance. It therefore means that companies need to quantify the ESG efforts they are engaged in. The accountants of tomorrow have to combine their technical skills with professional, ethical standards to meet the environmental and social challenges head-on.
Going into 2021 automation implemented successfully had already helped over 91 per cent of companies improve compliance.
Not just that, but through the use of new automation technologies, accountants no longer have to spend as much energy, time, or resources on painstaking manual tasks that involve number crunching or even spreadsheets. Automation has allowed CPAs to dedicate time on value-adding tasks requiring careful analysis or human-to-human interaction.
The key reason why automation is here to stay is due to its role in enhancing the human accountant. Automation helps minimise errors, eliminate confusion, reduce time- wastage, and ensure that slow-moving processes are something of the past with the higher levels of productivity.
Cloud-Based Accounting
Accounting technology trends go beyond automation too. The cloud is quickly becoming a popular option for accounting firms because of its ability to allocate digital resources better and reducing the need to invest in physical hardware.
Linked closely to the emerging trend of working remotely, firms enjoy access to their system at any given time from any location thanks to the cloud-based capabilities. No longer are CPAs bound to far-off data centres or internal networks.
Going into 2021 and beyond, accounting firms need to embrace digital transformation and be innovative. Providers of cloud-based services, on the other hand, support accounting firms by assuming the responsibility oft any system integration or software updates, thus allowing the internal IT teams the time to focus on the more strategic tasks.