Information Technology Accountants

Having worked with small and medium businesses for over a decade, we have come to realize that businesses struggle with how to set up an accounting department. The accounting and finance functions of an organization run smoothly.

This problem is even more severe amongst people that are tasked with the responsibility of setting up and managing a finance and accounting department for the first time.

Understand the business needs

The advent of risk-based approach to business processes has made it beneficial for organizations to always start all actions from the premise of gaining full understanding of what the prevailing business environment of the entity is.

To set up an accounting department that will be in sync with the current reality, managers must scan the industry that the business operates in, find out what accounting technologies are currently deployed by the players in that industry.

Once this is done, the business manager or owner should get feedback from those that are using the identified accounting technologies so that smart economic decision can be made from past users’ insight.

Determine the type of accounting system to be used

Armed with information obtained from the exercise of gaining understanding of the industry and unique business environment of the company, choice of accounting system is now made. The starting point is to decide on accounting method that will be suitable for the business.

There are three methods of accounting an entity can choose from. They are:

• Accrual method of accounting: accrual method of accounting aims at ensuring that revenues are matched to the cost of bringing the revenue. This is the most popular method of accounting.
• Cash method of accounting: as the name implies, cash method of accounting records revenue and expenses in periods when cash exchanges hands.  and
• Hybrid method of accounting: this is the blend of both worlds of methods of accounting.

Draw up charts of accounts

Once the choice of accounting method is made, the next thing is draw up the charts of accounts for the business. In simple English, charts of accounts simply mean the list of accounts that an entity needs to open in order to ensure that proper classification of items are made in the bid to keep accounting records.

Don’t worry if you do not list all the possible accounts at once, you can always go back to update this record. It is now as simple as clicking on a button somewhere in your accounting software and you will be prompted on what to do next to add a new account to your already existing charts of accounts.

Draw up accounting manual, policies and procedures

There will be total chaos and disorder if you attempt to run an accounting department without these necessary documents in place.

In my experience as a fintech accountant, I have come across myriad of cases where the heads of accounts department seem not to see anything wrong with establishing an accounting department without putting these guiding documents in place – the end result is always a disaster requiring some sorts of cleaning up.

Things as simple as deciding on what depreciation policy to follow when a new asset is acquired is a big problem for organizations like the ones I mentioned.

Purchase accounting software or choose a cloud-based SaaS

Accounting software has long become an integral part of any accounting department. So, it will be strange to see an accounting department without a full fledge accounting software. It is no longer enough to have just spreadsheets like excel in your accounting department and still think you are doing well technologically.

How to purchase or acquire accounting software

The process of purchasing an accounting software starts from the software needs assessment of the organization. This is also referred to as end user requirement analysis. The aim is to gather all the needs of the intended users of the accounting software then use this as a basis for searching for vendors to contract for the supply and implementation of the chosen software.

The installation and configuration of the acquired software is the logical next step in the software acquisition lifecycle. A lot of business owners, especially the small business owners thinks that accountants are trained in the installation and configuration of accounting software. This is a costly assumption that has caused a lot of troubles for accounting department – desist from this practice if you have been doing so.

Employ suitably qualified staff: make sure that technology accountants are part of the team you are assembling for your accounting department. It is no longer enough to have only those that are vast in debit and credit. Knowledge of debit and credit are prerequisites for being an accountant.

The only distinguishing factor that you must consider when hiring accounting staff of your organization is their level of being technologically savvy. Get this right and your accounting will hit the ground and start running.

Design training package for the team: the days of solely relying on the basics of Dr. and Cr learnt in school as an accountant are over. Technology accountants come up with ground breaking solution to accounting problems on a daily basis.

Having a structured training program for your accounting staff is a must if you really want to build an accounting department that is robust enough to keep up with the fast pace in business environment.

Design or adopt a chain of command: having an actionable and respectable chain of command program in your account department is very important. Authorities and boundaries should be recognized.

Periodically review the system and make modifications where necessary: accounting and finance departments are not static in nature. To still be relevant, business owners and managers need to regularly review the operations of the accounting department and adjust where needed to reflect the current economic, regulatory and business environment.

Being a technology accountant firm is not just another fancy title to have as a firm of accountants. It is fast becoming the only title that would exist in accounting as a profession in the near future. Some people see technology accountant as systems accountants.

Well, in as much as they both have similarities and lots of overlapping areas, there are some differences between a technology accountant and a systems accountant.

While the job of a systems accountant revolves around evaluating an organization’s financial system for compliance and efficiency, a technology accountant’s function deals more on collaborating with businesses to leverage and harness the power of business technology to the organization’s advantage. A technology accountant can do all that a systems accountant can do but not vice versa.

It is important to state here that no single individual can posses all the required knowledge to become a technology accountant. What we rather have is a firm of technology accountants and that is what this article is about. Although it will be nice if an individual becomes proficient in all the areas discussed in this post on how to become a technology accountant.

Process of becoming a technology accountant

The starting point is to become firm of chartered or certified or qualified accountants – whatever nomenclature your jurisdiction gives to a qualified accountant. This implies having chartered accountants in your full-time employment. After your firm has gathered some clientele bases, you then gradually start building the capabilities to deliver in the technology ecosystem.

Ten (10) Things you must know to become a technology accountant

To become a successful technology accountant, an accounting professional or firm of accountants must be knowledgeable in the following ten (10) domains:

1. Coding: it is not uncommon for accountants to be very good at coding. In fact, many universities have started teaching programming to their accounting students. This step makes sense as learning to code as an accountant will not only make the accountant more marketable, it will also broaden the thinking horizon and capacity of the individual. Accounting firms that now offer coding services to their clientele as not doing so would be equivalent to allowing revenue to slip through their fingers. I mean, who is more positioned to provide coding solution to a business than the one who understands how business processes works?

• Technology standards: the rise and advancement in technology has given rise to issuance of more technology standards. Technology accountants are those that posses high working knowledge of various standards that have been issued to address different technology related problems. Providing professional services in ISO implementation by accounting firms is beginning to boom. Accountants with their broad in business operations are fantastically positioned to provide high quality assurance services to businesses needing technology standard services. Other standards that technology accountants can consider rendering include but not limited to: COBIT, ITIL, etc

• Fintech operations: different Fintech companies are springing up almost on a daily basis and many of these Fintech companies fail as quickly as they are floated. A general reason why these Fintech companies fail is because the founders lack the basics of business management. Hence, technology accountants come to their rescue. But how can that happen if the right expertise of fintech operations are not acquired? Well, that is why it is called a firm of technology accountants. Hire and retain staff with the right mix of skills to deliver in this area.

• Data manipulation: data manipulation and data analysis skill according to various employment agencies are in high demand. Businesses are really struggling to fill in vacancies in these positions. Accounting firm that wants to tap into this highly untapped area should upskill their staff. Udacity has a fantastic hand on nano degree course on data analyst and data science

• Smartphone functionality: the world is increasingly embracing mobile almost in everything including accounting package delivery. Issues do arise in the normal course of businesses making use of these mobile packages. From experience, the ICT guys do struggle with providing solutions to the numerous mobile application problems. Hence, technology accountants become very handy because they are very familiar with accounting terminologies and concepts thereby providing a speedier service to resolving the business problem.

• Back up and business continuity basics: technology accounting firm must have capability in business continuity planning and recovery. Technology accountants with the right skillsets are making a kill here. Get onboard as quickly as you can before it becomes overcrowded.

• Could services or SaaS cloud platform: Saas cloud platforms has become matured and as such has attracted many end users. Accountants who are technology savvy are quickly getting onboard. The area that is making the most wave for accountants is the area of configuration and little tweaking to meet the specific needs of the clients.

• Technology company taxation matters: government of many countries are repositioning themselves to ensure that all revenue leakages that have hitherto existed in technology company taxes are plugged. This move is increasingly putting tech businesses under the spotlight. Technology accountants who perfectly combines taxation and technology laws will be smiling to the bank while the non-IT savvy accounting firm will be busy looking for the next cost cut move to make in order to remain in business.

• Consulting mechanics for technology companies: business owners are looking for accountants who can wear many business issues related cap while consulting for them. Most of the issues faced by modern businesses has one technology undertone or the other. One of my professional colleagues specializes in helping organizations resolve IT related tax returns issue and he is never having a dull moment. If your firm of accountants is not yet positioned for this, better make hays while sun shine.

1. Information security framework and implementations: the pervasiveness of technology has given rise to all sorts of IT security concern that has been giving managers some reason not to have a pleasant night rest. Technology accountants are providing durable and trusted solutions that meets and surpasses client’s expectations.

This has been a really long post considering the fact that this is my inaugural post on this accounting technology blog. I hope you find it useful? Thanks for stopping bye. Till I come your way next time.