Vipul Sheth explains that, for all the changes practice leaders want their people to embrace to build sustainability, most of them are far from new concepts.
There’s a really interesting survey, just out, by FreeAgent. It highlights the skills that accounting professionals believe they and their peers will need to develop in the role going forward.
Seven in ten said greater technological knowledge will need to be built into skillsets, while 61% flagged a better understanding of AI and smart data technology.
In a world of never-ending complexity as far as tax is concerned, 57% called for increasing knowledge in this arena.
There was another stat that really stood out to me, and not necessarily for the right reasons.
Talk talk
A third (34%) said accountants would need to develop better interpersonal skills as client relationships evolve. This really was a double-eyebrow raiser... surely this is a given?
The stat sharply reminded me of my life as an accountancy trainee. Of our cohort of five, only myself and another were kept on with the firm. The others were at least as competent from a technical standpoint – I’d even say better than myself – but the other trainee and I were told we were ‘better with clients’. This was more than 30 years ago.
I had already experienced this with my family’s accountant, who (if you’ve heard this story before, I apologise) spent his time on the phone to clients while his staff did the computations. He communicated compliance matters with clients and got to know how they and their business ticked. He then focused on helping them make decisions to grow.
Surveys can hide a multitude of contextual issues – we don’t know if those that responded consider themselves and other accountants as having good skills but will need to keep developing them. We also don’t know if the responses refer directly to themselves or the next generation of accounting advisers.
Plus a change
Quite frankly, you could even say that the other survey results would probably look the same if undertaken 10, 20 or 30 years ago – the AI response notwithstanding.
The world has changed – it feels more complex and the business environment is extremely hostile. Therefore, accountants need to be really smart about understanding their offering, how it’s offered, and done with a good margin at the end. It does feel like we’re going back to the future.
If you’d like to talk to Advancetrack about building a sustainable accounting practice then book a call.
Vipul Sheth is founder and MD of Advancetrack
