The Future of Work
How to Build an Agile, Digitally Resilient Accounting Team
About the Author: Katie Thomas, CPA, is a content creator, 2021 & 2022 40 under 40 CPA Practice Advisor recipient, Top 50 Women in Accounting recipient, and the owner of Leaders Online, where they help accounting professionals increase their impact, influence, and income through thought leadership and digital marketing. Feel free to visit Leaders Online or connect with her on LinkedIn to get in touch with Katie.
What does the future of accounting departments look like? It’s a question on a lot of accounting professional’s minds. We’re still in the middle of an uncertain economy. And, as you can read about in FloQast’s Controller’s Guidebook: When Accountants Dare to Dream, the industry is also facing challenges:
- Talent crunches are hitting the accounting industry hard. Over 300,000 accountants and auditors left the industry in the past few years, and hiring for recruiters is up simply because there’s less talent to go around.
- A growing number of professionals know that there are better ways to get things done. And they’re not feeling the fulfillment they need to stay in their roles.
Artificial intelligence is also rapidly coming onto the scene and is fundamentally changing the way people work. It’s creating a new landscape where accountants can be more proactive when they adapt to utilizing the latest technology..
To say a lot is going on all at once is an understatement. Accounting departments need to be agile and nimble if they want to navigate the tides ahead.
So where should you start?
FloQast ran a poll at its Take Control 2023 user conference and found that 29% of respondents plan to focus heavily on process improvements to combat accounting shortages – you should start here, too.
Focus on Continuous Process Improvements
Your workflows and processes can either allow for a lean or inefficient operation. Every accounting department has processes that must be optimized.
What’s the goal?
Streamline your workflows to:
- Remove unnecessary steps in your processes
- Do more with less (what better time than when talent is scarce?)
- Free up talent to work on tasks that help your team feel more fulfilled
Remember how I mentioned fulfillment is a big issue in the industry? 67% of respondents in the Guidebook want to be a catalyst of change in their organization. You can’t be at the forefront of the industry and be transformative when you and your team are stuck performing unnecessary, unfilling steps in your processes and don’t have scalable solutions in place.
If your talent feels more fulfilled, it can lead to higher retention levels. Recent studies by FloQast and the University of Georgia reveal a prevailing sense of uncertainty among accountants regarding their career futures. The research indicates that more than half (53%) of accountants are hesitant about remaining with their current employer for the next year. Furthermore, within this group, a significant portion (65%) expressed doubts about continuing in the accounting field over the next two to three years.
At a time when many accountants are unsure about their future, retaining talent is more valuable than ever before, and that means departments must place a high value on helping them feel fulfilled in their roles.
Workflow automation can also help – which means it’s time to leverage the technology you have available to you.
Embrace Modern Technology to Boost Efficiency and Address Shortages
Technology is evolving.
Are you?
Accounting teams utilizing the latest software and tools can:
- Integrate real-time data processing into their day-to-day work
- Automate mundane tasks, such as closing the books, which allows for more time to be spent on meaningful tasks that drive organizational change
- Improve accuracy across teams
Future-proof teams must have access to the latest cloud-based technologies, as well as AI and collaboration tools. Your team should be able to collaborate from anywhere. Recognizing that, as an accountant, you might not always know the best technological tools available, it’s vital to establish partnerships with trusted vendors and technology experts who can help guide you toward leveraging technology that will allow your accounting department to become resilient.
While quality vendors and trusted technology experts are essential, don’t forget to also leverage your team’s advice. You need to encourage feedback, ask your team what’s working and isn’t working, and allow their advice to be a catalyst of change in your department.
Building on this foundation, an agile strategy with greater AI usage should be at the forefront of the changes you plan to make. Reflecting a wider industry movement, the Take Control Poll found that 60% of US CFO respondents plan to somewhat increase their use of AI, and 18% plan to significantly increase their use of AI. AI is not simply a buzzword. Accounting departments looking to remain relevant and competitive are putting AI into practice, and you should too.
It’s clear that adopting the latest technology is not only about staying competitive; it’s also becoming a necessary strategy to navigate the current workforce challenges. Respondents (44% in the previously linked Take Control poll) are turning to their tech stack and automation to address today’s workforce shortages.
Technology is one of the components of creating a resilient department. However, technology alone doesn’t make a department resilient. You can and should do more. How? Let’s see.
Build a Resilient Team
Improving your processes and adopting new technology can go a long way in helping you future-proof your accounting department. But if you really want to build resiliency, it has to start with your team.
Make it a priority to hire and develop resilient employees who are curious, adaptable and open to change. Provide your team with the support, training and resources they need to upskill and reskill as needed to build their resilience.
Provide Opportunities for Continuous Learning and Development
Encourage employees to focus on their professional development and opportunities to continue their education. Continuous learning and development will help your team stay on top of the latest developments and changes and find areas for improvement.
Consider new ways for your CPAs to earn their CPE, such as through FloQademy. FloQademy is one of my favorite ways to obtain CPE, and I know you’ll love it too.
I was recently speaking with a Controller at a family office. She said one of the things she loves most about working for her company is they support her 110% when it comes to learning new skills. They have no problem paying for her to attend conferences and events. In fact, they encourage it.
You should do the same and enable your team to be on the cutting edge. It will give you an advantage and help your accounting department stay agile.
Encourage Cross-Functional Training
Cross-training among team members can benefit the accounting department in many ways. For starters, it will help ensure that your staff is capable of handling multiple responsibilities and roles. Further, it helps you build a well-rounded team that supports each other.
In times of unforeseen circumstances or rapid changes, your team can adjust without missing a beat.
Don’t Lose Sight of Risk Management and Compliance
You must be agile and ready to move with the changing landscape to build a resilient, future-proof accounting department. But it’s important to ensure that your changes don’t come at the expense of financial security and compliance.
Compliance is already a challenge for many accounting departments. FloQast’s TakeControl 2023 survey found that 24% of respondents had difficulty optimizing their compliance program due to bandwidth and 22% struggled to design effective controls that are compliant with regulations.
These statistics should raise some red flags. Poor compliance comes at a high cost (literally) in the form of fines, lost stakeholder trust, a tarnished reputation and more.
To overcome this obstacle, make risk management and compliance core aspects of your agile framework and look for technology that can help. Losing sight of either of these things can have significant consequences.
Wrapping Up
The only guarantee we have in life is that things will change. Building a resilient accounting department will ensure that you’re ready for whatever curveballs may be thrown your way. Make sure that you’re continually improving your processes, adopting new technologies and focusing heavily on building resiliency among your employees. Along the way, don’t lose sight of compliance and risk management to prevent costly problems in the future.
If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to having a future-proof, resilient accounting department.
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