Accounting is an essential part of any business, but the entire realm of accounting is changing as business moves more online and takes advantage of the latest technology. That means the best accountants today are going to be tech-savvy and familiar with processing data electronically to ensure their clients or companies get the efficiency and accuracy they deserve. No longer are traditional accounting practices going to cut it. New technology is changing the way we think about even the fundamentals. Learn how fintech is reinventing accounting.

Skills in Demand

Traditionally, there were two primary skills associated with accounting that were seemingly unchanging, and they were bookkeeping and data entry. Even the invention of computers only sped up the process a little bit. With the rise of cloud accounting software, however, most compliance services utilizing those two skills have been largely automated. Since then, the demand for those skills has decreased throughout the accounting industry.

Still, many accountants can benefit from retaining a large collection of technical knowledge. Even that is becoming less relevant as fintech, or financial technology, has made it easy for accountants to access large data sets and expansive technical libraries in a matter of seconds. In fact, the entire tax collection system is moving online, so all the necessary data for compliance services is stored electronically.

Billing and Workload

Accountants are historically billed by the hour, so they get awarded appropriately for the amount of work they put in. The extent of their work depended on how many transactions they had to deal with as each one took time individually. Thanks to software advances, accountants can access bank feeds, client accounts, receipts, and more from a single source like a smartphone. The coding that makes all that information communicate is predominately automated with artificial intelligence and machine learning handling most of the work.

Thanks to cloud accounting, the number of transactions isn’t quite as relevant as it used to be when determining how long it will take to perform accounting services. As automated programs can handle virtually any amount at speed, accountants don’t tend to bill by the hour anymore and are starting to charge a flat fee each month for their services. This is important to keep in mind if you’re looking to hire a personal accountant or outsource to an accounting firm.

Accounting and Business Advisors

With the implementation of real-time data feeds and cloud computing, accountants can offer so much more than bookkeeping and data entry services. Even compliance services are just a part of what accountants can offer now. Consider how much information is at their fingertips. An accountant can see their client’s finances in real time along with data from across their industry. With that exposure comes an opportunity for accountants to function as business advisors.

Cloud accounting has made it easier for skilled accountants to gain valuable insights into certain figures such as recurring revenue, costs for signing a new customer, loan to value ratios, and more. If the client is a new startup, proper analysis of that data can make or break the entire company’s future. More and more tech startups are relying specifically on accountants to offer essential advisor services to reach better business outcomes.

The rise of automation has left some thinking that accounting as a practice is largely threatened. While skills like data entry and bookkeeping are being automated, acting as a business advisor is something that machines can’t replace, and is the saving grace for accountants in an industry that’s being rapidly automated. If anything, this new technology will allow accountants to shine even brighter as they focus on higher-level work.