While there is broad agreement that the accounting profession is undergoing a drastic digital transformation, a question that remains is just who exactly will be leading this transformation: accountants or technologists? The matter remains far from settled, with strong opinions on both sides of the question.
Team technologists
L. Gary Boomer, visionary and strategist of Boomer Consulting, says it is easier to train technologists on accounting procedures than the other way around, at least when it comes to audit. He said it came down to a mindset difference, namely that those with tech backgrounds can approach accounting tasks with fresh eyes, versus thinking strictly in terms of procedure. Auditors, he said, want to use technology, but their reports would still be following procedures that, he said, didn’t really add much value. When asked why they did this, he said, the auditor would reply that it was required. And when pressed on who exactly requires these steps, they reveal it’s more a personal preference.
What it ultimately comes down to, he said, is whether someone is using technology to do what they’ve always done but on a screen, or if they’re working technology into the process itself.
“I think the real key here is when you mix processes with technology, or improve processes with technology, you get rocket fuel. When you just look at the technology and just look at the processes, you don’t get the benefit you could,” he said.
When accountants first began using word processors, he said, people were treating them as if they were just fancy typewriters. It took time for professionals to really unlock the advantages of the technology and leverage it to add value to engagements. Even today, he said, some firms still haven’t gotten there.
Technology must be engaged holistically, as a total system, so professionals can better understand how it can change what they do, versus doing the same thing in a different way. To do otherwise, according to Boomer, is to be the person who has a smartphone but only makes voice calls.
Also on the side of technologists is Jim Bourke, partner and managing director of the advisory service practice at Top 100 Firm Withum, who employs both. At least in the realm of analytics, he said, it is easier — “It really is!” — to train data scientists on accounting than accountants on technology. While both work with information, they take very different approaches to how it’s processed.
“The data scientist mind doesn’t work the same way as accountants. That data scientist can tell me what’s buried in the data, all the stories hidden under the data. My accountant can tell me the 30,000-foot view of the data, and what the differences were every year,” he said.
By way of example, he pointed out how difficult it was to train his accountants on data extraction technology, such as how to strip a PDF of data without getting “page after page after page of headers and footers,” noting it was often a complicated process for them to do so. By contrast, he said, tech people tend to pick up on the concept of auditing very fast, and while they themselves cannot do an audit, they tend to understand it more than auditors understand the technology.
“My data scientists help on the audit side as well. We teach them about audit, the purpose, and they pick up on it fast. Can they audit financial statements? No, but they understand the concept of accounting much quicker and much more easily than my accountants understand the complex technology,” he said.
Team accountant
Others, however, insisted it’s better to train accountants on technology, such as Joe Woodard, who runs the landmark tech conference Scaling New Heights. His reasoning is simple: At the end of the day, no matter how much technology there is, ultimately we are talking about accounting — something, he pointed out, that people go to school for years to learn.
Yes, he acknowledged, non-accountants can certainly do accounting tasks with the right technology, noting that one does not have to be an accountant to use Quicken, but this does not mean they can necessarily do it well. In a world where quality accounting work determines the success of an accounting firm, this is important.
Woodard compared it to an amateur shopping for power tools at Home Depot: “You can hurt yourself with some of the stuff in there, so maybe just because you can get it, just because you can use it, doesn’t mean you’re an expert. I can buy a chainsaw at Home Depot, but that does not mean I can cut down a tree. Or even if I can cut one down, I don’t know the right way to do it,” he said.
The learning curve for accounting, he said, is much more steep, meaning it is no simple thing to train someone on appropriate accounting procedures. Conversely, he said, it’s not as hard to train an accountant to use a particular software solution, though he added this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy either.
“It’s easy to teach an accountant how to deploy technology. It’s not easy to get an accountant to deploy technology. So the knowledge they adhere to, the execution, you need to coach and that involves changes in leadership [mindsets], their employees, their clients — a whole adoption curve,” he said.
Roman Kepczyk, director of firm technology strategy at Right Networks, also said it’s easier to train accountants on technology. Beyond the technical accounting training mentioned by Woodard, Kepczyk noted other soft skills that were not as prevalent among those with a technology background. To be more specific, accountants are trained to work with clients and so generally have at least slightly better communication skills. In a contest between communication and technology, he said, communication wins every time.
“We can take a tech person and he can help automate components so no people are necessary whatsoever, but I believe personally that you need someone who has good business skills, good communication skills, and then you can teach them to use the technology,” he said.
He noted that, at the start of the pandemic, there was a certain degree of resistance to remote work by accounting leaders, who had previously never had to work with teleconferencing software before. This changed fast, though, once it became apparent these technologies were necessary. “We had some firms where partners were Luddites and didn’t use anything, but when they were forced to use Zoom or Teams, they made it work,” he said.
Is it really so binary?
Other experts suggested that the dichotomy might not be as strict as one might think. Geni Whitehouse, the self-styled Countess of Communications and founder of the Impactful Advisor, said that rather than thinking of who’s an accountant and who’s a technologist, it is better to think simply of who has an analytics background, as both have certain blind spots that make it dangerous to rely entirely on one or the other. Technologists, she said, can be trained on accounting concepts but not as well as accountants; accountants, conversely, can certainly be trained to use technology, but won’t ever be specialized programmers.
More important than where someone came from, she said, is what they do.
“The real important thing today is that we have people wired to be inquisitive and ask questions and figure things out on their own. I’m always looking for new tools, ways of implementing new tools,” she said, noting that even those hired from appropriate backgrounds can be stymied if they don’t know the right technologies. “We have had bookkeepers with bookkeeping backgrounds who didn’t work because they could not pick up a new tool quickly.”
Withum’s Bourke said it’s better to train technologists in accounting, but nonetheless echoed Whitehouse that it is not always a clear bright line. He noted there are many accountants who, just on their own, already have extensive technology backgrounds, and these professionals can be effective in the right situations, such as the aforementioned PDF data issue.
“How we solved the problem was we got a handful of accountants who do understand the technology. We took those tech-savvy accountants, the ones that really understood audit and understood technology, and we have them on a team today that handles all the data aspects of audits for our staff,” he said.
This story is part of an Accounting Today series called “The Frontier,” where we explore the cutting edge of accounting technology through conversations with thought leaders across the country, who will share with us their observations, hopes, concerns and even a few predictions here and there. We’ll see you at the Frontier.
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