Chartered accountants: heading towards consulting activities - LE MONDE DU CHIFFRE: The latest news from audit and accounting professionals

By fashionlifeshopping 03/12/2022 759 Views

It is important for every profession to adapt to the times. Behind each innovation hides new practices, new thoughts and the ability to adapt makes the difference. Accountants have this ability to adapt, especially with the arrival of digital tools. Consulting becomes their 2.0 activity.

A sector in perpetual evolution

Companies evolve. And accountants are following suit. Companies want to put new means in place. So the professionals of the figure advise them. For each question, a solution is provided as far as possible.

Since the 1990s, the accounting profession has been facing permanent changes that affect it, saving a certain amount of time in terms of productivity. Some practices have also become more complex. This is the case for administrative and tax procedures. As a result, companies have all the more recourse to accounting professionals in order to outsource these skills.

A study carried out in 2018 by the CGT on accounting expertise in the face of digital challenges indicates that "new digital tools raise the crucial question of the possibilities that they can or will give to client companies to internalize at lower costs. their bookkeeping, bookkeeping which represents approximately half of the turnover of chartered accountants”. This same study goes on to mention external competitors. For the accountancy profession, this is seen “as an opportunity to get rid of activities with low added value, repetitive and without great intellectual interest, to devote themselves to more lucrative activities with higher added value”.

Advice, this skill from the digital wave

Experts-comptables: heading towards activities consultancy - LE MONDE DU CHIFFRE: News for audit and accounting professionals

Consulting is therefore an integral part of the evolution of the profession and also aims to become a profession in its own right. The study carried out by the CGT explains that “the question of acquiring the skills necessary for this new profession can only arise on the basis of the current state of skills of the staff of accounting firms”. It is therefore a whole reorganization of work that is essential!

Chartered accountants who move into consulting activities demonstrate multidisciplinarity, giving their activities a high added value. It is then for the professionals of the figure to be more experts than accountants. A transition that will perhaps be easier in large firms, but which will undoubtedly also concern smaller structures, thus reinventing an economic and organizational model in favor of added value.

Emma Valet

on flower of life street council