Botswana’s accountancy future in the wake of digital revolution
Since 1494, when the Italian monk, Luca Pacioli or as some call him, “the father of accounting”, introduced the double entry system and laid the groundwork for modern-day accounting, the accounting profession has gone through so many radical transformations. It is not a new phenomenon to adapt to changes in accountancy.
Essentially, technology brought drastic changes including the Accounting software systems which are in use in the present day such as QuickBooks, Sage, Xero, AccPac, and many others. To a great degree, technology is more likely to support but not replace the accounting profession. It is changing the role of accounting to a more strategic one. Of recent, a fresh review of the profession itself is under massive scrutiny. Some are even saying the accounting profession may go into extinction.
However, our opinion is that digital technology is simply reshaping the future roles and jobs that accountants will take on. Professional accountants now have to deal with more analytical and decision-making aspects. Accountants will therefore continue to be the critical bond between data and their clients.
Automation, robots, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are integrating with the finance team at a very fast speed. Strenuous and time-consuming accounting activities like taxation, auditing, bank reconciliation, accounts payables, audit trails of transactions, expense management, customer queries, and payroll administration are also becoming fully automated. The skills-set of accountants is being redefined where AI produces self-learning systems on previously repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
Another threat to traditional accounting processes is blockchain technology which has the possibility of introducing a new type of accounting ledger. The new ledger can be constantly updated and substantiated without the risk of being corrupted or altered fraudulently; no wonder the Big 4 accounting firms have welcomed the use of blockchain technology and are exploring it.
Core to the new look of the future accountant is the emerging technologies which are materially revamping the skills-set, qualifications, and career specialisation of the future accountant in Botswana and abroad. The emerging technologies include cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain technology, big data, robotics, and social media amongst others.
The Table of Disruptive Technologies that was developed by the Tech Foresight department at the Imperial College of London looks like a periodic table with four horizons of disruptive technologies. Horizon 1 has disruptive technologies that are happening now like the ones named above.
Horizon 2 has those disruptive technologies for the “near future in 10 to 20 years’ time, hence they are still at an experimental level”. These include but are not limited to 3D printing of food and pharmaceuticals, drone freight delivery, avatar companions, and balloon-powered internet.
Horizon 3 has distant future anticipated technologies, which are in 20 years plus and are being explored or anticipated. Examples on this horizon are bio-plastics, dream reading and recording, low-cost space travel, and pollution-eating buildings. Horizon 4 has ghost technologies which are defined as highly improbable but not actually impossible, such as asteroid mining, shape-shifting matter, and human cloning and de-extinction.
These are worth watching. If Botswana is to seriously pursue its Vision 2036’s Pillar 1 of Sustainable Economic Development and Pillar 2 of Human and Social Development, the future Accountant in Botswana has to consider and envisage such a table in their curriculum development by Botswana Qualifications Authority and academic institutions as well as its Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for practising accountants through regulatory bodies such as Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants and Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority.
In our opinion, planning for future accountants in Botswana with anticipated and definitive skills-sets is to look ahead in future technologies and their impact on Botswana’s accountants. So, whether we are looking at a seasoned accounting professional who wants to stay on the cutting edge of the industry or an aspiring accountant, disruptive technologies are a musthave skills-set. Maybe we went far ahead in explaining the big picture of the far future.
However, the big question is whether accountants in Botswana have grasped and incorporated the current technologies in Horizon 1. For example, cloud computing facilitates instant access to data as well as constant monitoring, instead of the traditional intermittent analysis whenever information on the system is updated. This is very useful in the accounting fraternity where analysis of figures is one of the accountant’s principal roles towards a successful organisation.
Indisputably, it is a must that the future accountant in Botswana must be techno-savvy; specially equipped with the skills required to integrate the disruptive technologies now, and the anticipated tech systems that will affect their profession in the near future. It may be a myth to some now who were once adamant against online working systems. It is unforgettable how COVID-19 led to their forced repentance to accepting the reality of digital systems.
Digital automation is now a principal accounting facet therefore accountants must now focus on developing and learning the necessary skills to perform the advisory, decision-making and analytical roles that technology falls short of. Educational regulatory authorities should foster and place much emphasis on curricula that are digital and forward-looking in accountancy.
This includes analysing big data to identify and advise on patterns and trends. Understanding data mining and related data science techniques such as data visualisation will be the next essential skills henceforth to predictively advise accountants’ clients.
The best that Botswana’s training institutions can do is to free up time from developing and delivering outdated accounting curricula and replace that time with futuristic and higher-level analytical curricula and skills that digital systems cannot perform. No doubt, accountants will be needed for the development and implementation of new financial policies for economic growth, new accounting systems for organisational sustenance and new ethical codes and practices for their own accounting profession.
Technology alone cannot be able to solve and harness all clients’ problems without the voice of accountants who understand financial and digital systems better. BICA’s 11th Biennial International Conference which was held from August 11 to 12 at Gaborone International Convention Centre, themed ‘Transforming the Accountancy Landscape’ was very much in line with the impact of digital transformation on the accounting profession and financial processes in the country. We agree that Botswana is very much faced with these imminent and desired changes in the accounting profession.
Conclusively and without wavering, it is a fact that those who are unwilling to adapt will face the dire consequences of strategic drift. Ask those who grew up in the age of cameras with films and ignored digital cameras when they came on board. We cannot say it all or better. They truly have a better way of awakening our future professional accountants in Botswana in the face of rapid and disruptive digital transformation.
The future is now! Accountants, it’s time to reskill and re-tool to remain relevant.