Will CPA Firms Become Unrecognizable?

In a new article for Accounting Today, author Daniel Hood reports on recent comments from AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon. Change is happening so rapidly and on such a grand scale, that Melancon believes the firms of the future will barely resemble today’s firms.

So what’s changing so radically that the CPA firms of today will become a distant memory? Cloud accounting is one of the big drivers of this evolution. Hood reports that almost 90% of large firms have (or will have by the end of 2017) implemented cloud accounting. Auditors will become more focused on assessing companies’ compliance with cybersecurity standards.

In addition, CPA firms are offering more services that endear them to their clients as trusted advisors. Planning, wealth management, and other financial services will be offered along with the traditional range of duties a CPA provides. Technology-enabled products allow CPAs to offer more high-end services, delivering added value to their clients. As more firms begin to embrace this type of model, it will seem antiquated that clients once got only tax services from their CPAs.

To read more, see Hood’s full article from Accounting Today.