Future of accounting and finance: Integration and elevation

By Tiffany Crosby, CPA, CGMA, MBA, OSCPA chief learning officer

Which matters more: Strategists or technicians? Much like the age-old debate between nature and nurture, the answer is that both skill sets matter equally for different reasons.

Strategists help define the action plan that will take you where you want to go. Tactical technicians help you execute the individual steps and actions that will get you there. For success, organizations need both aspects to work in alignment. In the world of accounting and finance, strategists and technicians were often separated by roles and team structures. However, the rapid pace of business no longer affords such distinctions. The future of accounting and finance is one in which individuals possess strategic and technical skills.

When AICPA surveyed their CFO Leadership Advisory group about the top five trends facing finance and accounting in the fall of 2022, the top challenge was finding and retaining talent. The need for new competencies was tied for second place along with the impact of inflation and maintaining culture in a hybrid environment. Accelerated digital transformation, recession risk, and emerging trends in DEI and ESG, supply chain, and cyber rounded out the top five. When taken collectively, these trends point to the evolving role of accounting and finance professionals as valued partners with expanded responsibilities. Companies need talent that can manage risk, provide insight and foresight, and guide the organization toward positive performance. This talent need is the driving force for efforts to upskill and reskill the existing workforce and for elevating the skills of entrants into the profession through CPA Evolution.

CPA Evolution

At its core, CPA Evolution recognizes that the accounting profession has evolved. Changes in the business environment have intensified the need for broad business acumen, strategic analysis, critical thinking and problem-solving. Our technological environment demands digital proficiency as a baseline skill. At the same time, the accounting and finance technical body of knowledge continues to grow.

Mastery across the full body of knowledge is not possible. By making a clear distinction between the technical knowledge necessary to provide a strong foundation for all professional accountants and the specialized knowledge required within a particular discipline, the redesigned CPA exam provides three clear benefits for the talent pipeline:

1. Employers benefit from knowing that CPAs possess essential technical knowledge, relevant digital skills and the ability to analyze and synthesize information.

The entry-level technical and business skills gaps noted by employers should continue to decline as more students are exposed to new curriculum in preparation for sitting for the CPA Exam. In previous OSCPA surveys, employers noted gaps in business acumen, financial statement preparation, internal controls, business process, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

2. Students benefit by gaining the ability to align elective studies with career interests, such as information technology or business analysis, which broadens their skill sets in competencies valued by employers. For example, a student selecting the Information Systems and Controls (ISC) discipline may have an interest in data management, data science or IT auditing. However, an individual choosing the Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR) discipline may have more of an interest in general accounting or controllership. Of course, the exam taken does not affect the CPA license awarded or confine an individual to a potential job path. Instead, the discipline exposes students to a deeper knowledge in a particular area.

3. The profession benefits by becoming better poised to respond to business environment changes. For example, the mix of core and specialized content can be adapted to incorporate emerging risks more easily. Additionally, accountants taking a lead in ESG, supply chain, or cyber will have a broad business and technical skill set to build upon.

Talent structures

The future of accounting is not just changing how we develop talent for the pipeline, but also how accounting and finance teams are structured as integrated functions and the role of the CFO is elevated. Spurred by technological innovations, many middle market organizations are consolidating strategic finance, general accounting, and risk management roles and responsibilities under one leader.

Where necessary to augment skills or maintain sufficient capacity, finance organizations are sourcing talent externally in on-shore and off-shore arrangements. These new multi-disciplinary, dispersed team structures have caused leaders to recognize inadequacies in the team’s interpersonal communication and relationship building skills and processes. Revised talent structures are also creating stretch opportunities for team members to develop skills in a different accounting and finance discipline. Both the organization and the individual benefit from the broadened strategic and technical skill set.

Although this environment makes any prediction on the future direction of organizations null and void as soon as it’s made, what is clear is that talent expectations will continue to grow. Tactical technicians will need to deepen their understanding of strategy.

Strategists will need to consider the tactical realm. Accounting personnel will need to navigate more traditional finance topics. Finance personnel will need general accounting knowledge. And the professional accountant will need it all: strategy, tactics, accounting and finance. The previous boundaries have fallen away.

Tiffany Crosby, CPA, CGMA, MBA is the chief learning officer for The Ohio Society of CPAs. She can be reached at tcrosby@ohiocpa.com or 614.321.2255 .

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