Impacts of Future Technological Innovation on Accounting Skills, Ethics, and Career Opportunities

Principles of Accounting

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Assessment of technology, accounting skills, Ethics and Career Opportunity for those who
pursue accounting careers................................................................................................................3
Current and Future technology....................................................................................................3
Accounting skills and ethics........................................................................................................5
Information that surprised the group...............................................................................................5
Assessment of Australian viewpoint regarding accounting skills, ethics, and career opportunities
along with changes and adaption required to be accepted...............................................................6
Accounting skills.........................................................................................................................6
Ethics...........................................................................................................................................7
Career opportunities.....................................................................................................................8
Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14
Accountant Job Advertisements................................................................................................14
Minute of Meetings....................................................................................................................24

INTRODUCTION
The present study is based on the critical evaluation and analysis of the impacts of future
technological innovation such as artificial intelligence and accounting software automation on
the accountant skills, ethics, and career opportunities, related with several accounting
designations in future. Along with this, the study considers current as well as future technology,
accountant skills, and ethics and career opportunities for the individuals who are in pursuit of the
accounting career. This piece of work also emphasizes on the ethics and career opportunities for
accountants from the viewpoint of Australia, while describing the aspects, changes or adaptation
that are required to be taken into account for the accounting courses.
ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY, ACCOUNTING SKILLS, ETHICS
AND CAREER OPPORTUNITY FOR THOSE WHO PURSUE
ACCOUNTING CAREERS
Current and Future technology
Artificial Intelligence
As per the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) in the process of accounting Artificial
Intelligence will quickly split from the element for observance as well as in the direction of
delivery of advice. On the other hand, it will not put back a human accountant (Gunning, 2017).
Furthermore, according to Carole Barney, head of AI research & development programs at Xero
informed the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) that Artificial Intelligence is on the way
of affecting the jobs of administration as well as in 2019 quick expansion would come in
consideration. (Wilson, et al., 2016). On the other hand, the accountant should not get tensed
about their replacement. Besides that, it is made clear the AI is majorly formed to enhance the
individual those are in the center, according to the Barany (Franklin, 2017). Thus, it could be
accessed that in order to increase the probability of being successful as an accountant, it is
necessary to learn and accept Artificial Intelligence technology.

DIY" Cloud Accounting Software
The growing DIY" Cloud Accounting Software that helps in simplifying the traditional
accounting management is not only popular as other technologies but also has a great influence
on the market on a daily basis towards accounting professionals (Ramchand, Chhetri, and
Kowalczyk, 2017). Although such reasonable priced DIY" Cloud Accounting Software can
reduce the book work for small companies, on the other hand in small business, also they need
financial advice which can only be provided by experts (Karamatova, 2017). Such professionals
have knowledge about both technical as well as regulatory services however which is essential
for an accountant in various aspects like it makes solutions easy in the leading bookkeeping that
can be accepted by clients as well as to be their go-to expert for such sets (Nyberg, 2019). Thus,
through accepting this technology accountant can accomplish their obligations in a fast and easy
manner.
Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and Distributed Ledgers
It is obvious that financial technologies are not getting completed without the rising stars of
2017s like bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and the knowledge that strengthens them, i.e. blockchain and
distributed ledgers (Davidson, De Filippi, and Potts, 2016). Whilst cryptocurrencies pretense
their own possessed confronts for accountants that are described in the Digital Currencies of
2015: Where to from here? report particularly with regards to auditing, fraud detection, taxation
along with money-laundering, in spite of their dramatic rise in fiscal values and media
concentration, cryptocurrencies are improbable to go normal in 2018, as per the international
monetary firm UBS (Gong, 2017).
On the other hand, distributed ledger, as well as blockchain technologies, are connected with
much broader insinuation for the upcoming future. According to the discussion of 2017
report The Future of Blockchain, discrete ledgers ( that operates as "cooperative databases" in
which information is detained by numerous computers immediately) endorse sharing,
confirmation, and trust, as lots of computers have to have the same opinion for data edit, and all
computers uphold a documentation of all changes that are made. Moreover, such characteristic
has direct towards some referring to the blockchain as "Triple-Entry Bookkeeping,"10 even

though the term's suitability has come beneath several discussions (Mainelli, and Smith, 2015). It
could be accessed that above-specified technology has widened the scope of an accountant and
increased its responsibilities as well.
Accounting skills and ethics
It is very obvious that to perform any kind of job; soft skills are very helpful in the place of work
and besides that to perform the specific jobs, there is a greater need of technical skills. In the
same manner in accountancy, soft skills are general skill that is acquired by the experts for
developing the specific program of accounting (West, 2017) According to assessment of U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics accountant is supposed to have a following soft skills, i.e. strong oral
and written communication, attention and management of important information, systematic and
decision making aptitude, system and time management, decisive and active learning,
Mathematical and deductive way of thinking, knowledge of accounting as well as expertise in
Microsoft Office Suite (Gerstein, Winter and Hertz, 2016.)
Work related to finance is done by the auditors as well as an accountant. They manage the huge
information and facts correctly and effectively. Therefore, it is important for them to have
knowledge about the budgeting software, financial management as well as their procedures of
accounting and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). People those are going for
their career in accounting must have technical skills relating to evaluation and financial
reporting, tax management software and financial statements, software compliance, settlement of
accounts , project management software, the software’s for spreadsheet, database reporting
software as well as business resource planning software’s (Tang, 2017).
INFORMATION THAT SURPRISED THE GROUP
The manner in which technologies have to widen the scope of the accountant’s responsibilities
surprised the members of the group. As it is no more limited to entering transactions and making
financial reports. Application of technology such as cloud software and their online datasets
makes it simpler than ever to interpret the significant financial facts towards clients as well as
allow the authority to connect with their recommendation and proficiency. On the other hand,
accounting skills and ethics assists in enhancing communication at the place of work and also

helps in managing a team of different workers (West, 2017.). The fact that accountants also have
to comply with the code of ethics and conducts while taking a decision at work also surprised the
members as they were not aware of the same. The same represents that as professional
accountants also have to comply with ethics so that they can make moral decisions.
ASSESSMENT OF AUSTRALIAN VIEWPOINT REGARDING
ACCOUNTING SKILLS, ETHICS, AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
ALONG WITH CHANGES AND ADAPTION REQUIRED TO BE
ACCEPTED
Accounting skills
Accounting faces big challenges as it strives to consider and define reliable skills, abilities, and
knowledge in the ever-evolving world. It can be stated that technological innovation engaged
with AI, big data, automatic and the changing contexts of economy, society, culture, and politics
wherein accountants work, call for a broad variety of qualified transferrable skills as well as
inter-cultural fluency(Pan, & Seow, 2016). It has been evidenced that in audit and assurance,
practices are highly changing, because of the data analytics and the potential that is offered by
big data and innovative technologies. The manners by which resourcing of audit practices are
done are also evolving, with offshoring turning out to be a more general and higher requirement
of new skills from the side of accountants. In terms of financial reporting, organizations are
facing higher pressure from regulatory bodies to seek improvements in the quality of audits and
the revelation of professional skepticism. For staying viable and reliable, auditors are required to
consider new aspects of external reporting that need non-financial information assurance
(O'Connell and et al. 2015). Acting in the best interest of public and ethical conduct are
overarching jobs of accounting professionals, these tasks need particular individual capabilities,
culture, technical skills, and organizational infrastructure. In consideration with the individual
and organizational complex ethical conduct; there is a demand for multidisciplinary insights for
developing a suitable understanding and valuable models of accounting ethics (Watty, McKay, &
Ngo, 2016).