You may not associate the accounting profession with creativity, but creative thinking has always been an essential skill for accountants. Navigating ambiguous business transactions, determining accounting treatments for unprecedented situations, and developing operational workflows requires more than subject matter expertise. It requires creative problem-solving abilities. 

Routine accounting tasks such as assigning value to various elements of a bundled arrangement, attributing revenue to a free service period, or identifying an anomaly worth investigating, all require a level of creativity to form your professional judgement. 

A prime example is the creative thinking involved to determine the accounting treatment for crypto currencies. It was the creative thinkers of the accounting world that proposed new rules to capitalize certain labor costs tied to internally developed technology. This fueled innovation and contributed to the tech boom of the 1980s.

Accounting needs creative professionals now more than ever. With the rise of artificial intelligence and outsourced labor, today’s accountants need to be forward-thinking advisors who drive innovation and add value in ways that can’t easily be outsourced or automated. 

The World Economic Forum reported that analytical thinking and creative thinking are the top two core skills for workers. While the accounting profession has always targeted professionals who are highly analytical, there hasn’t been enough emphasis on targeting creative thinkers. This has created a skills gap. 

Ever since Enron’s notorious accounting scandal in 2001, being a “creative accountant” has had a negative connotation. It insinuates cooked books, shady dealings and compromised ethics. It’s such a career-ending quality that the accounting profession seemingly did everything it could to dissociate itself from creativity. 

That approach has had unintended consequences. There’s a deeply rooted belief that accountants are boring and lack creativity and social skills. Those stereotypes are repelling college students at a level that threatens the livelihood of the profession. This has been a major contributing factor to the well-documented shortage of accountants in the pipeline. 

Righting the ship

It’s time for accountants to reclaim their creative spirit. There’s a long history of accountants flexing their creativity and driving innovation. The founder of Nike and the inventor of bubble gum were accountants. Marvel poached Simu Liu from the Big Four, and Robert Plant and Mick Jagger were the rockstars of their accounting classes. 

By embracing creative thinkers, the accounting profession can boost its appeal with students and better meet the evolving needs of its clients. Celebrate those that break the mold, challenge the status quo, and resist the “same as last year” practice. Praise the creative problem-solvers who find and implement process efficiencies, craft alternative procedures and identify automation opportunities. Instead of suppressing creativity, highlight it. 

For those accountants who claim they’re not creative, I beg to differ. You’re likely more creative in your accounting work than you realize. It’s also important to recognize that creativity is a muscle that can be developed with practice. Here are a few exercises that accountants can use to sharpen their creative thinking skills. 

1. Change your environment. It’s no coincidence that your best ideas come to you while you’re on a walk or taking a shower. A change in environment can stimulate creativity. Next time your team needs to brainstorm, skip the video call and opt for a phone call where everyone takes a walk. Create calendar blocks to dedicate time for thinking away from your desk. Reduce distractions and resist the urge to multi-task. These small changes will help to attract inspiration. 

2. Encourage idea generation. Accountants tend to be perfectionists and that can stifle creativity. Oftentimes a perfect solution doesn’t exist, so try to take a “no idea is a bad idea” approach. That first idea is rarely the best one, so use a stream of consciousness to keep the ideas flowing. Your brain has limited working memory as well, so get those ideas down on paper to help free up your headspace. By breaking big problems into small ones, you’ll find that narrowing your focus helps to clear those mental roadblocks. 

3. Utilize visual thinking and perspective-shifting. Using metaphors can be a great way to make sense of complexity. This could mean picturing the problem as an iceberg to surface hidden complications, a tree to help identify root causes or a staircase of individual steps that leads to a desired outcome. By analyzing why an idea is bad, you can uncover the changes needed to improve it. If you get stuck in granular details, zoom out and try to see the big picture of what you’re solving for. 

Conclusion

Creative thinking has always been an essential skill for accountants, but it’s never been more important than it is today. It’s time to fully embrace creative thinkers and become the innovative and forward-thinking advisors that the business world demands. 

By building a culture around innovation, the accounting profession can overcome outdated stereotypes and attract new joiners that are equipped to thrive in this rapidly evolving industry.

Top 10 Firm Baker Tilly announced plans to acquire West Virginia-based Hayflich CPAs PLLC, in its third deal this month.

Based in Huntington and founded in 1952, Hayflich provides audit, tax and advisory services, with specialties in the wholesale distribution, construction and manufacturing industries.

“Hayflich CPAs has built a strong reputation over its 70-year history, and we are excited to welcome their talented team to Baker Tilly,” said Fred Massanova, Baker Tilly’s chief growth officer, in a statement Thursday. “Together, we will create even greater opportunities for our clients and team members.”

Scott McDonald

The acquisition follows on the heels of Baker Tilly’s intention, announced earlier this month, to acquire both Connecticut-based firm CironeFriedberg, and Hancock Askew, a Regional Leader based in Georgia. The Top 10 Firm has done several acquisitions since receiving private equity funding last February led by Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners, accelerating the firm’s growth strategy. Last May, it merged in Seiler LLP, a Top 75 Firm based in Redwood City, California.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As a result of its PE deal, Baker Tilly operates in the alternative practice structure that is common with those deals. As a result, the Hayflich deal will involve two acquisitions: Baker Tilly US LLP will acquire the firm’s attest assets, while Baker Tilly Advisory Group LP will acquire its nonattest assets.

“Joining Baker Tilly opens new opportunities for our clients and team members,” said Rob Fuller, managing partner of Hayflich CPAs, in a statement. “We are excited to bring our local expertise to a firm that values strong client relationships and forward-thinking solutions.”

Prior to taking on PE funding, in 2022, Baker Tilly merged in Henry + Horne in Tempe, Arizona, True Partners Consulting in Chicago; Management Partners in Cincinnati and San Jose; Bader Martin in Seattle; Orchestra Healthcare in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Vanilla, based in the United Kingdom. In 2021, it added MFA Companies in Boston; The Compliance Group in Carlsbad, California; Arnett Carbis Toothman in West Virginia; AcctTwo in Houston; and Margolin, Winer & Evens in New York.

Professional services solutions provider Intapp announced the release of Intapp DealCloud Activator, which uses a social media-like interface to give users “nudges” to adopt certain practices and habits that are associated with successful business development. While currently made for law firms, Intapp intends to roll this out for other professions, including accountants, in the future. Intapp made the announcement during its Intapp Amplify event in New York City on Feb. 26. 

The new solution is built around the results of an exhaustive study about the habits of highly effective rainmakers in partner-based businesses, which was eventually published in the Harvard Business Review, which Intapp funded. A series of survey tools and 1-on-1 interviews with professionals across the world coalesced into five business development profiles: Experts, Confidantes, Debaters, Realists and Activators. The final group, Activators, were found by the researchers to be 32% more successful in bringing in new business. In general, their behavior profile emphasizes network building and proactivity, such as reaching out to current or prospective clients when changes occur in the regulatory or economic environment or introducing clients to partners from other practice areas that they think can provide value. 

Rory Channer, founding partner of DCM Insights and one of the lead authors of the HBR study, said during his talk that, since the study was completed, he has been advising firms on how to encourage Activator behavior among their own staff, which he said has led to great improvements in business development. 

Nuthawut – stock.adobe.com

Laura Saklad, vice president of Intapp’s legal industry group, said the DealCloud Activator solution is meant to encourage the same kinds of behavioral changes, but with AI-driven software versus a consulting engagement. The product, she said, is meant to address two challenges. One is how do leaders influence their professionals to adopt Activator behaviors when they cannot command or control them? The other is how can we give leaders the tools they need to monitor and adapt to AI in a way that works for their culture? 

The answer to both, said Saklad, is a concept in behavioral science called “Nudges” which encourage or discourage certain behaviors not through coercion or education but, rather, subtle interventions in the choice architecture that, while easy and cheap to avoid, can alter how one makes decisions. Contrast putting fruit at eye level to encourage people to eat healthier, versus outright banning junk food. Saklad said we already see this being applied in other applications. 

“Nudges are embedded in the apps we use everyday, your phone may nudge you about your steps or to drink water or to stand up and get out of your seat and move around, whatever it is you are personally committed to you can use your apps and this technology to keep you true to your commitments. The approach focuses on encouraging small incremental improvements that add up over time, and given the size of the firms you all work in, even modest individual improvements can have a significant cumulative impact and that is what we’re going for. Our implementation is called Signals, it behaves like an assistant thinking of you and your practice 24 hours a day without having to go into a dashboard or tech app,” she said.

The solution interface features what is called an Activator Feed that is tailored specifically to the user. It appears similar to a social media feed, but instead of scrolling through posts about people’s dogs or their trip to Italy, users scroll through AI-produced reminders about current clients who could be proactively contacted to discuss a recent tax law change, or notes about changes in a company that night necessitate a talk. During her talk, her Activator Feed first reminded her of tips she received from a recent training session and the need to take quick action when she has time to spare, followed by a reminder to nurture her professional network by reaching out to a client who recently completed an M&A transaction so she can talk about how post-deal integration is going. 

“Now, of course, this is good client service, but importantly, I know that clients often need compliance advice after closing these types of deals, and so it is certainly worth checking in to see if my firm can be a further assistance. And once I do that, I can schedule a meeting. I can record that that meeting took place, so I have that and I can reference it in the future,” she said. 

The final item was to reminding her to take action to create new value for the firm. Specifically, the AI looked at historical data as well as information about her own work patterns to tell her that a partner at her firm has recently opened an IT engagement with a client she has been trying to figure out how to build a relationship with, which gives her an opportunity to expand the relationship further by offering other services. 

“It’s really exciting, because I would not have known this without this piece. I have not met him yet at his new firm, so now I can quickly send him an email or message and suggest that we collaborate on how we can expand the relationship and add more value for this. So that is a glimpse at how the activator experience for professionals can use nudge theory to provide timely, data driven insights that will help partners commit to consistent business development, connect with their professional networks and then create new opportunities for their firms and new greater value for their clients. That’s pretty cool,” she said. 

The second problem—how can we give leaders the tools they need to monitor and adapt to AI in a way that works for their culture?—is also addressed through nudges, according to Saklad. The software allows firm management to monitor, fine tune and prioritize how Activator behaviors are deployed in their firm. She noted that managing partners often have had difficulty getting clear insight into how my partners spend their business development time, but technology now enables this level of oversight. 

“[In this example] I am very focused on cross-selling, and I am able to see how my partners are engaged with cross-selling behavior and how they are improving over time… I can also see how much time my partners are spending on business development time versus billable work. And again, I can see it over time, and I can save by practice group. And then when I look at the details, I can say, for example, that right now my capital markets partners are not spending as much time on business development as some other groups. And I can make a note that when I next talk to the practice group leader, I can talk to her about how we can best support our partners and others. I can also drill down to see the daily and the weekly cadence of business development time,” she said. 

It also has a heat map of which practice groups have the strongest adoption of the desired behaviors, and offers the ability to drill down and identify how specific individuals are performing. 

“I can see which partners are doing well and reach out and give them a pat on the back. I can see which partners are slower to change and provide them with additional coaching. And lastly, the most exciting thing, is that the data provided in these dashboards allows me to connect Activator behaviors with revenue generation, and so I really can quantify for the first time the impact to the bottom line,” she said. 

Intapp DealCloud Activator is currently only available for law firms, Tom Koehler, Intapp’s global managing principal for accounting and consulting, said in a later interview that there are plans to release versions for other professions, such as those in audit, advisory or tax in the future. He noted that it is not a matter of simply changing labels, as the specific type of nudges the software uses need to be particular to the profession. For instance, in countries that have mandatory audit partner rotation (done to preserve auditor independence), the software could nudge accountants on how to convert turnover into business opportunities. 

“When you leave your client you have a lot of relationships. So how do you leverage that, then into business development, into cross selling, so you turn it into more of an asset,” he said. 

While a specific date or timeframe was not mentioned for accountants, Kohler said that an accounting-focused version is “on our horizon as a next rollout.”