Are You an Accounting Student? Will Your Future Job Be Replaced?
By: Carl Umali
Tags: Accounting, Accounting Software, Personal Development, Self Help, Self Improvement

In the Philippines, only 15.25% of examinees passed the 2021 CPA licensure exam. While you can work some accounting job without that, the job itself is…. in danger??

2020, I was in a web conference for an inter-school marketing competition of some sort, The company was an advertising agency based in the Philippines with clients all over the world.

Its founder-CEO told us that they don’t have accountants anymore. Why?

They use Quickbooks.

What is Quickbooks?

Quickbooks is a subscription-based accounting software.

It is oriented to become a powerful (but easy) all-in-one tool for personal use, freelancers, businesses, and accountants. It can track cash flow, income, payments, sales, time, inventory, etc.

It can also run reports, maximize tax deductions, send estimates, manage bills, payments, and more.

However, Quickbooks is not the only one out there.

More on doing taxes,

TurboTax, Tax Slayer, and Fresh books can make the process easy for business owners.

More on payroll,

Wagepoint and Gusto are a couple examples.

The main appeal of these programs is their price and ease of use.

Businesses can save more by using these programs than hiring accountants.💰

So, are accountants going away?

Generally, a good accountant is still important.

These programs are only maximized if you have some accounting knowledge.

Which anyone should have, by the way.

If that’s the case, here’s what’s alarming.

According to a study in 2013 by Oxford Engineering Sciences that was published in 2017,

an accountant’s and auditor’s job has a 94% probability of being computerized and replaced.

While its clerks are at 98%.

If you ask a business trying to cut expenses, they will agree.

If you ask any accountant, they will probably disagree.

And they should.

Here’s why and how to be computer-proof!

If you are a junior accountant or are an accounting student right now, you have to realize that most of your daily manual tasks and responsibilities can now be automated. Even some insights and predictions can be made for you.

The basics are still necessary,

but you have to get paid for your judgment rather than effort.

What do I mean by this?

If a business owner can tell you that it can do your job for you at a lower price, should you automatically accept the lower pay?

This is where judgment comes in.🧙‍♂️

If you can go beyond what’s already done by software, you can show your specific expertise.

You have to be more.

You have to be more than the typical accountant.

You have to be more than just someone to do the numbers and reports.

You have to be a business advisor (and charge more).

You have to show that you are an expert that saves them time and money. Someone to help them make the right financial business decisions.

Show them what the software interpretations might miss.

You can also look at their company’s future direction, growth, and potential future investments.

As an accountant, you can also take on an analyst’s role. You can point out risks, trends, and opportunities in the market and complement that with your accounting expertise.

Prove yourself with more value by doing what an “all-in-one” software might miss out on.

And I’m pretty sure there’s plenty.

I hope this helped :)