Top 3 Trends Shaping Accounting’s Future

Accounting breaths life into the businesses and has seen a number of changes in the recent past. Methods of accounting have witnessed massive progress driven by the technology and business requirements. As the progress is not a destination, it always demands more. So, the shape of the accounting is not yet rigid and will keep on changing to provide simpler, yet broad solutions with the finances of individuals and businesses.

Here are top 3 trends that are shaping the future of accounting:

1. Cloud is a Definite Need

Cloud has already made its way into the various operations – from connectivity to data storage, businesses depend on the cloud for many reasons. With accounting, the cloud technology has been on offer as an option. Soon, it will be an inevitable option for the accounting needs. With the growing dependency on the software solutions and diminishing hardware requirements raised out of mobility needs, the accounting professionals are making efforts to gain the most. This brings in the role of cloud technology.

Firstly, it almost nullifies the workstation restriction as the user is able to access not only the accounting data from anywhere but also the device independence is available. At the same time, security with the cloud is continuously rising. The passing year (2015) saw QuickBooks Online, the cloud-based accounting software, reach the 1 million paid subscriber mark [1]. Given that QuickBooks Hosting service, which allows the desktop version of QuickBooks on the cloud is gaining as well, it is evident the cloud turning inevitable for the users.

2. More Outsourcing Is Arriving

Outsourcing of business processes began way back in the late 80s and the accounting process went for it almost a decade later. There were a number of challenges with the outsourcing of the accounting processes and because of them, it could never really take the flight. The biggest challenge was privacy and security of the accounting data, which was hard to deliver with the traditional means. Then the quality of service and monitoring of work in progress seemed almost impossible to achieve.

Thanks to the technological advancements in the field, now these challenges do not appear to be much relevant. So, the outsourcing of accounting process is coming at a fast pace. This is mainly because accounting is not the core service of most businesses. But it is a critical task, so it draws a serious attention, which hurts financially and takes quite some time out of the busy schedule. Outsourcing them with quality technology in place, time and money can be saved and eventually, makes outsourcing a reliable way to steer business.

3. Talent Identification & Execution

Big data is available in the every smallest constituent of your business – even in accounting processes. This is the high time you started making use of it. Right analysis of accounting processes can list you some amazing details to identify the talent in your organization. Not only in terms of employee performance but also on the grounds of several financial factors depending on the business type. Performance improvement is a keen concern for the businesses. Since money is the biggest count of performance among businesses, accounting has a lot to contribute to its improvement.

Sound use of the data can list the scope of talent in the business very precisely. So, you know where you require more concentration and what is ignorable. This results in simplifying the planning and hence, the execution of the plans is a lot more specific. As the big data steers to gain more influence and reliability in the practical operations, accounting will not lag much. Businesses that value its contribution will be able to taste the success on major front.