CPA Practice Advisor - 41

THE LEADERSHIP ADVISOR
The Human Skills Tech Can Never Replace
IF YOU WERE to draw a picture of today's accounting landscape, you'd find technology front
and center, hogging up all the attention. It's not hard to see why it's gained such a place
of prominence. Technology is changing the way we do our jobs, and will only continue to
AMY VETTER, CPA.CITP, CGMA

do so at an increasingly rapid rate. However, technology will never be the alpha and the

Mindful Technologist &
Keynote Speaker
@AmyVetterCPA

omega of accounting. While focusing on adapting to change is crucial, you need to go about

Look a little closer at that landscape and you'll find plenty of skills
that humans bring to the table, skills
that computing power can't render
obsolete. It's these parts of the picture
we all too often overlook. Leveraging
these less talked-about aspects of your
firm will prove key in an environment
where simple computational savvy is
becoming less and less marketable.
Do you need to understand and
embrace how incoming innovations
will change the way we do our jobs?
Absolutely, but that's not enough.
You also must identify key services
humans provide, cultivate them,
and make them a key focus of your
practice. Establishing yourself as
a valuable advisor to clients is just
as important to futureproofing as
understanding how blockchain could
change audits or AI will make data
entry a thing of the past.

the business, not just the financial
impact. When you are the person who
helps provide this kind of guidance,
you stand to become more valuable.
Trust and communication aren't
technology's strong suits. No matter
how advanced and futuristic our
world becomes, computers are never
going to understand a business the
way a human being can. The trust
and communication begins with you
rolling up your sleeves and diving into
the business, asking the questions
that no one but you would know to
ask, providing an understanding
of your clients' businesses and how
their accounting data can guide them
toward future success.

COMPLIANCE VS.
CONSULTING
Accounting has never been solely
about getting the numbers right.
Being able to consult clients on the
way their numbers should inform
their business decisions going
forward has always been a valuable
part of the accounting process. In
a world where technology is posed
to make the compliance aspects of
accounting a lot easier, consultation
and advisory services will be a huge
way for firms to differentiate themselves from competitors. As such,
you want to begin asking yourself
how skilled you are in this regard.
How can you make analysis a more

it with an eye toward the qualities tech will never be able to replace.

focal part of your practice?
The first point to understand
about advisory services is that they
must go beyond basic insights to
be valuable to your clients. "Good
compliance-based services include
advice - and most of it should be part
of your engagement," says Glenn Martin, owner of Avery Martin. "This is
your job. Compliance with more regular reporting isn't advisory, it is just
providing numbers with guidance." In
other words, if you're providing data
points business owners can interpret
on their own, you're not really in the
advisory business.
Truly powerful consultation
services take things a step further,
learning things that may not seem the
traditional purview of an accountant.
Let's say for example, you can project
a retail client's seasonal work influx
for the holidays based on trends from
the previous year. Then, what if you
could use that data to help the client
gauge how many seasonal employees
to hire. That's the sort of actionable
insight that will burnish your reputation in the eyes of clients. As a bonus,
interpretive work like this example is
exactly the type of value computers
are far from being able to provide.

THE HUMAN SIDE OF
ACCOUNTING
In addition to turning numbers
into wisdom, accountants need
to be able to function as a trusted
confidante to their clients. Having
strong communication skills and
interpersonal relationships are vital
traits, even more now than before.
Learning the art of a conversation,
not just rushing through the business side of the conversation,
but creating space for a
relationship where the
client feels safe to
tell you their hopes,
fears and struggles,
is key to developing
a true advisory
relationship.
Advisory services
can encompass delivering
hard truths to clients. However, if you are meeting regularly with
your client and reviewing the clients'
numbers, it becomes a strategic, proactive conversation that is valued. No
matter how advanced the technology
becomes, what it can't replace is the
conversation, brainstorming new
ideas and the human eyes it takes
to see the operational impact on

AUGUST 2019 ■

THE YIN AND YANG OF
TECH
To really prepare yourself for
the future of accounting,
whatever that future
may look like, you
need to see the
picture from both
angles. On the one
end, you need to
know what technology is coming down
the pipe and how it will
affect the way you do your
job. On the other, you need to recognize what tech can't do and how
you can use that to your advantage.
When those two concepts begin to
work in concert, and you dedicate
the right amount of time to learning
new skills and improving the ones
you already have, you set yourself
up for a bright future. ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

CPA Practice Advisor

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CPA Practice Advisor