Visualizing the future of Accounting
Technology is transforming accounting at a rapid pace and modern technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data are changing the way accounting was done so far. With these revolutions accounting in the future will be completely different and open doors to a whole new world of possibilities. So what exactly the future of Accounting be like, let’s visualize.
John (a small cafe owner) enters into his room on a Saturday night at 12 am and says hello to his computer, ‘hey Watson’
Watson: Hello, John, great day! £1800 pounds sales today, Highest ever sales a day so far in this year!
John: Yes it was a very exciting day today, our weekend discount campaign and its marketing on Facebook has really paid off!
Watson: Oh yes, your engagement rate on this campaign is 74%, 25% higher than average engagement in the UK for restaurants and cafes.
John: I was just wondering if we should run a campaign on Twitter and LinkedIn as well.
Watson: Market statistics don’t recommend that. In a recent survey hosted by Bloomberg, 96% UK cafe owners have said that they got the best engagement only from Facebook.
Thanks, Watson. How is the discount campaign doing otherwise?
Watson: Discount has cost you a gross profit of £250 today, whereas gross profit from incremental sales today is £430. So it’s £180 profit. And yes, 26 out of 27 survey forms have a rating of 5 stars.
John: Fantastic. I will plan a similar campaign for next weekend as well. Please show me that one form which is not the 5 stars. Is there anything else I should know?
Watson: Yes, last financial year accounts are ready for filing. With bank, card and cash accounts and the control accounts already reconciled, there is no reason we should delay it.
John: Yes indeed. Please file them today.
Watson: Doing that now. You will receive a confirmation email shortly.
Notes:
- Watson is a computer designed by IBM which can answer your plain English questions instantly from all the data made available to it.
- Big data is the concept that all the data and information about companies will be available to computers. Computers will organize that information and make it available to other users. So a user can always have comparatives for his benchmarking
- Real-time data about a business from social media, POS, accounting, and other apps can be linked to Watson via open APIs.
- Point 2 and 3 above combined and made available to Watson, the future of accounting you visualized above is not really too distant a future!
To be as empowered as John, you should start taking the right steps now. Few of these should be:
- Adopt cloud applications and moving away from desktop-based applications.
- Choose applications with open API and integrations.
- Store all the business records digitally, and preferably in intelligent storage instead like Receipt Bot.
- Prefer tech-savvy accountants, consultants, and advisors.
- Keep your business books up to date on a daily basis, or at least a weekly basis.
- If you an entrepreneur or a small business owner, you can find some Accounting hacks here.
Adopting these five things will not only improve the productivity of your business but will also reduce the cost in the long term, and it will enable you to join the future of Accounting.
