Future Techs - Technology Forecast for 2023 and Beyond - CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

The complaint of technological innovation continues to accelerate crossed each industries and portion accounting has often been viewed arsenic overly cautious and a somewhat dilatory exertion adopter, the world is that we are besides being drawn into the relentless waves of technological change. 

While my superior relation is consulting with firms to instrumentality and payment from innovative, proven, and presently disposable technologies, I walk a batch of clip looking to different industries for evolutionary technologies that could marque their mode into the accounting assemblage and bolster our firm’s accumulation processes.  In that respect I item a fewer technologies to measure successful the twelvemonth up arsenic good arsenic a fig to beryllium alert of that could importantly alteration our satellite successful the decennary ahead.

Workflow to ERP: Without a doubt, workflow tools that person integrated engagement tracking person been 1 of the astir important innovations improving accounting steadfast productivity successful the past decade. While these applications were initially targeted towards taxation production, we person seen them germinate and beryllium utilized for assurance and administrative optimization.  Unfortunately, caller pushes towards adopting advisory services highlighted weaknesses successful these existing systems, which are not evolving rapidly capable to incorporated advisory projects, pointing forward-thinking firms to look elsewhere. Expect to spot cloud-based solutions with robust endeavor assets readying (ERP) capabilities to travel into our assemblage if existent accounting workflow vendors don’t measurement up improvement of their ain tools to code lawsuit accounting and advisory (CAAS) production.

Security Technology: The sophistication and capabilities of hacking groups are accelerating beyond the defence capabilities of astir accounting firm’s IT teams, truthful it is captious that firms marque information solutions a precedence by outsourcing to managed information providers with enterprise-class capabilities.  While astir firms are already utilizing two-factor authentication applications, we expect an further furniture of information yet being required specified arsenic carnal fobs oregon biometrics (iris/fingerprint scan oregon facial recognition).  Microsoft, Google, Apple, and adjacent MFA vendor Okta are promoting these alternate solutions that could regenerate existent passwords for logins by eliminating them altogether.

Microsoft Innovation: Firms person agelong relied upon the Microsoft Office tools to amended productivity and the accounting assemblage has embraced the Office suite to integrate with and enactment accounting applications.  Throughout COVID was saw Microsoft heighten their Teams level making it integral for collaboration some wrong firms and with clients. Watch for an enlargement of collaboration features this twelvemonth specified arsenic Bookings (scheduling), Excel Live (live collaboration successful Teams), Lens (PDF Scanner), Viva (employee-experience), and Clipchamp (creating learning videos) instrumentality amended idiosyncratic collaboration.

Artificial Intelligence: Most accountants are alert of the benefits of linking applications unneurotic with APIs (Application Program Interfaces) to automatically transportation information for payables, payroll, expenses, etc. straight into the accounting programme arsenic portion of their steadfast advisory “Tech Stack.”  Many of these tools assertion to utilize Artificial Intelligence to automatically analyze, pre-code, and automate rote transactions. With the absorption of accountants, the programming of the exertion tin “learn” to grip circumstantial scenarios erstwhile those scenarios hap again.  We notation to this benignant of instrumentality learning arsenic augmented quality arsenic it takes the skills of the accountant to codify the script arsenic evidenced by tools specified arsenic Vic.ai, Dext, Divvy, Tipalti, etc.  Watch for specified enhanced “AI” features to beryllium added to tools integrating with your concern applications and program to walk important clip successful the adjacent twelvemonth learning to usage them and rotation them retired for clients.

Dashboards/Scorecards: Accountants are adept astatine knowing fiscal reporting and galore person astonishing skills successful analyzing operational reporting for clients.  One of the cruxes of processing advisory services is helping clients amended recognize their businesses and place opportunities to amended them which tin beryllium done by streamlining the travel and timeliness of concern information.  Financial reporting tools specified arsenic Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and Domo let accountants to seizure captious concern accusation successful adjacent existent clip to assistance clients successful making amended decisions connected an ongoing ground alternatively than waiting for reporting aft month-end. When integrated with the APIs and information transportation tools mentioned above, accountants volition beryllium capable to make dashboards and concern scorecards to supply up to the infinitesimal concern results.

Blockchain/Decentralized Finance:  Most accountants are acquainted with the Blockchain conception owed to their (or their client’s) forays into cryptocurrency.  While cryptocurrency gets each the attraction (both bully and bad), the underlying blockchain exertion is being applied to behaviour circumstantial concern transactions much efficiently and we expect astute contracts and decentralized concern to go the applicable implementation of blockchain successful the years to come.  Smart contracts are agreements written successful codification connected the blockchain that are “self-executing” erstwhile presumption betwixt the contracted parties are met and could for instance, facilitate payments for services oregon convey rubric for property.  The conception of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) allows for adjacent to adjacent transactions oregon exchanges (eliminating fiscal institutions) that are recorded connected the blockchain truthful they are trackable and irrefutable.

Augmented Reality: If you person ever utilized a smartphone app to look astatine the stars and spot outlines and names of constellations connected the surface oregon utilized a heads-up show successful your car that shows your existent velocity (and the velocity limit), you person experienced augmented reality.  Imagine talking with a lawsuit and having existent taxation accusation projected connected the wrong of your eyeglasses by invoking “Alexa” oregon “OK-Google” similar commands which are capabilities built into the adjacent procreation of smartglasses specified arsenic those from Lenovo, Vuzix, Bosch, and Microsoft’s HoloLens 2.

Virtual Reality: Today’s video games immerse players successful virtual worlds that let them to research freely and interact with others virtually connected a machine surface oregon beryllium wholly immersed with video headsets specified arsenic the Oculus Quest that show a 360degree presumption of a virtual world.  These virtual worlds, often referred to arsenic the Metaverse are seeing concern by existent businesses (Walmart, Nike, Coca Cola, etc.) paying existent dollars to get virtual existent property successful places specified arsenic Decentraland and Sandbox.  In these worlds, virtual avatars being controlled by existent radical tin research and interact with these businesses, which successful world are imaginable customers that whitethorn prefer to interact successful this way.  The accounting assemblage is already making inroads successful the Metaverse with accounting vendor Wolters Kluwer and CPA firms specified arsenic PwC and Prager Metis buying virtual existent property to pull and interact with clients.

With specified important alteration becoming the norm, it is important that firms not lone place technological opportunities but that accommodate their civilization to successfully instrumentality and institutionalize these technologies (including rapidly un-learning aged ways).  Today’s situation requires compressed learning cycles, truthful we expect firms to proactively follow learning civilization tools including dedicated learning absorption systems and enactment tools via Teams/Yammer. While each of these innovations whitethorn not interaction firms precisely the mode arsenic described above, it is important to recognize that they are each coming and volition beryllium portion of our firm’s and client’s futures. 

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Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, CGMA is manager of Firm Technology Strategy for Right Networks and partners exclusively with accounting firms connected accumulation automation, exertion optimization and signifier transformation. He has been consistently listed arsenic 1 of INSIDE Public Accounting’s Most Recommended Consultants, Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People, and CPA Practice Advisor’s Top Thought Leaders.