In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the expectations placed on auditors and advisors are shifting significantly. 

As finance functions within organizations embrace technological advancements, there is mounting pressure on public accounting firms to match or exceed the pace of change and sophistication of their clients to perform their expected role.

Recent industry research indicates clients are noticing this growing gap in capabilities. Businesses are actively seeking accounting firms offering a more progressive approach, with 55% wanting an audit that can scale and support their growth goals and expectations. Further, 67% feel audits can provide valuable insights in these areas, but feel the current process is hindering this (“What modern businesses want from their audits”). 

Many accounting firms are excited by high-margin and high-growth advisory services. There is a huge amount of opportunity in this area, including services such as ESG, digital transformation, and AI strategy. 

But how can a firm pitch a credible offering to a company in these areas if their core services such as audit and tax are still highly manual? Discussing cyber risks and data security feels disingenuous while their teams drown in spreadsheets as their desktop software synchronizes.

Public accounting firms need to eat their own dog food, digitally transforming their own business to provide a credible and broad suite of valuable compliance and advisory services to clients. These war stories and firsthand experiences are what bring to life the page in the sales brochure.

The Oakland Athletics show the way

Over the past decade, technology has made significant advances. Just look at the NASDAQ’s most valuable companies by market capitalization: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and NVIDIA — all companies built on the value of technology and data.

Yet, in the auditing profession many firms remain cautious over new technology. Some recite that audit standards have not been updated to endorse such technologies and until this happens, they won’t change: “The audit standards are still written assuming the auditor cannot review all transactions and must sample, so why would I use data analytics to analyze all the transactions?”

This mindset has led many to stick to traditional methods, feeling unable to change despite the clear benefits that modern technology can offer.

This might be audit’s Moneyball moment.

The story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics is well known and has been told more broadly through the hit film “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt. 

The rules of baseball do not significantly change from year to year. There was no major change ahead of the 2002 season. Yet one team decided to take a new approach to the game.

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Rather than leaning on the traditional scouting approaches and views of those who had been in baseball all their lives, Billy Beane decided to embrace statistical analysis. As the general manager, he brought onto his team players undervalued by these traditional scouting methods. He adopted a data-driven approach to team-building and playing the game of baseball.

So, the rules of the game hadn’t changed, but one team decided to play the game differently within those existing rules. The Oakland Athletics chose to use data over the traditional approach. They set new records and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with teams that had far greater resources. 

Now every baseball team has embraced what Billy Beane started, and we have seen the same in other sports like the football. “Analytics” was originally scoffed at by commentators and former players. Now it is an integral part of everything from draft selection to in-game strategy.

The audit standards are akin to the rules of baseball. The rules do not need to change for a better way to play the game to be possible. The standards do not need to change for there to be a better way of auditing.

Digital audits are a way of leveraging data, data analytics, and modern technologies to deliver more efficient and valuable audits, while safely complying with the existing audit standards.

The role of governing bodies: Ensuring innovation and progress

Professional bodies, regulators, and standard-setters play a crucial role in helping firms navigate change. Innovation within firms brings greater creativity and variation to the way traditional services like audit are being performed. While evolving the rulebook is required, the process to change audit standards is necessarily deliberate, considered, and therefore slow. 

So, governing bodies must stay close to firms and the solution providers they are working with to drive innovation. Understanding new techniques as they are being conceived and trialed, not after they have matured and then witnessed in an audit inspection, could shorten this feedback loop by multiple years.

This level of transparency and collaboration requires trust. Professional bodies who see demand from their members for support as an opportunity to step in as a direct solution provider should be mindful of the impact. This changes relationships with solution providers and introduces conflicts to their role of advancing the profession.

In the U.K., there have been several positive initiatives aimed at fostering the collaborative advancement of the audit profession. Following comprehensive government-commissioned reports such as the Kingman and Brydon Reviews, UK audit firms have been redefining their operations and what an audit represents. 

The Financial Reporting Council, the U.K.’s audit regulator, has launched sandbox and other experimentation initiatives to support firms exploring more innovative auditing techniques. The professional body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, has also embedded modern commercially available auditing technology directly within their accountancy exams to teach students digital auditing skills.

The U.S. could learn a lot from experiences on the other side of the Atlantic … .

The changing landscape of solution providers

For many years, public accounting firms have faced limited audit solution choice. 

This lack of competition has caused the market to circle the drain. Accounting firms have felt trapped by audit methodologies written generations ago, housed in desktop software which survived the millennium bug. This has then caused a chronic underinvestment in the market by the incumbent providers.

But the rise of cloud computing is driving a movement towards smaller, more agile providers, often with Big Four experience. They have developed enterprise-ready platforms leveraging the infrastructure and security of Microsoft Azure and other cloud providers. This means David can take on Goliath — but this time with more powerful capabilities.

The competition brought by more agile solution providers benefits CPA firms by:

1. Offering more choice and new ideas;
2. Providing more implementation support and guidance; and,
3. Pressuring incumbents to modernize their offerings.

These solution providers are still evolving. Some come heavily backed by venture capital and private equity. Others have been successful in organically growing their business, as large firms early-adopted their solution. While the difference may seem subtle, the question remains whether in the long term these new vendors will take on, or be acquired by, the larger incumbent vendors.
This may ultimately come down to product strategy. Those offering narrow point-solutions may more naturally become target acquisitions for the large vendors with holes in their offerings. Or as territory defense. Those building rival suites, or committing to progressive partnerships to create alternative suites will more likely go long and create a healthier competitive landscape into the future.

Stop talking about the future of audit

There is a generational change in motion within the audit profession. Almost every CPA firm will review, and likely change, their audit technology in the next three years. 

They will ditch the desktop. But will they simply crawl to the cloud, doing the same work in a different place?

Or will they deploy digital, embracing data and automation to skip a step and make a more progressive change?

Firms that go digital will achieve greater efficiencies through automation. But more important, they will strategically position themselves to more easily embrace future technology advancements — embedding the skillsets and data disciplines required to capitalize on artificial intelligence and all the new innovations we are yet to experience.

And it is worth considering given the severe talent challenges — firms that are embracing technology are more attractive employers for those now looking to start and continue a career in accounting.

Traditional British pubs have a sign behind the bar stating the beer will be free tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes.

It’s time to stop listening to the theoretical presentations on the future of audit. The technology is here. More innovative innovation partners are here. CPA firms are implementing a digital audit approach and being successful. 

The relevance of the audit service to the needs of modern business may be judged in future years on the strategic decisions that accounting firm leaders make over the coming years.