CPA Practice Advisor - 20

ADVERTORIAL

2021

EXECUTIVE
PREDICTIONS
YEAR IN

REVIEW 2020
Q: How will technology impact accounting
professionals in the next year?
We know that now more than ever, accountants
are taking on larger roles with their clients.
Gone are the days of simply managing the
books and assisting with taxes. More and
more, small businesses expect their accountants to act as strategic advisors and leveraging technology is essential to achieve this.
Through technology, accounting professionals and
bookkeepers are able to automate time-consuming
tasks like manual data entry, which opens up more
time to focus on providing strategic advice.
Additionally, advanced technology provides accountants
with real-time data insights, allowing them to give more
informed guidance to their small business and self-employed
clients while educating clients on the overall financial health of
their businesses.

Q: While the past year has been a challenging one for
small businesses and the accountants that serve them,
what are you looking forward to in the New Year?
This past year proved that no one can predict the future despite our
best efforts to prepare for it.
This year, accountants had very full plates. Between extended tax
deadlines and helping clients apply for PPP, the day-to-day work
of managing books, plus the uncertain business environment, it
hasn't been easy for accounting professionals or their small business
clients.
And while none of us saw the pandemic coming, accountants have
known for years -- and have been acting on -- the need to get their
clients online, automate manual processes and step up as strategic
advisors to help their small business clients succeed. That ground
work proved to be invaluable in 2020.
Time and again, small businesses -- supported and powered by their
accountants -- have shown resilience. This story will continue into
2021, as will accountants' ability to advise and guide their clients
through this difficult time. We'll continue to see accountants lever-

age technology, including AI and automation, to rise to the challenge and provide the strategic guidance businesses need to survive
as we look to move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Q: How is QuickBooks innovating to help accountants
stay on the forefront of technology to best serve
their clients in 2021 and beyond?
At QuickBooks, we have never invested more in our partnership with accountants than we are today. We share a
mission: to help small businesses prosper.
QuickBooks brings the power of an AI-driven, expert
platform to life for accountants and bookkeepers,
keeping them on the cutting edge and giving them
the tools they need to best serve their clients, now
and tomorrow. We couple best-in-class methodologies with automation to streamline workflows, surface errors and irregularities, and
provide the resources to address them all
while automatically tracking work as it gets
done. Examples include:
* Month End Review, the first end-to-end
workflow built inside accounting software
specifically to streamline accountants' work to
maintain client's books each month.
* Statement Auto-Import, a new feature that automatically delivers bank statement information to reconcile
client books, with more than 1,500 banks supported.
* Advisory Training to help accounting professionals expand
their expertise and gain confidence in what might be a new way
of supporting their clients.
We are more optimistic than ever about the opportunities that
lie ahead for accounting professionals. The agility and willingness to rise up to meet the needs of their clients is inspiring.
The innovation within QuickBooks combined with accountants' dedication to serve their clients will continue
to transform the profession and usher in today a
future we've been envisioning together for so long.

ARIEGE MISHERGHI
Ariege is a vice president at Intuit QuickBooks where she leads a
team focused on helping Intuit's accountant partners grow
their practice and scale their impact for clients through
innovative products, services and programs. Her areas
of focus include QuickBooks Online Accountant,
QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping and the Global
QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program.

CPA Practice Advisor

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