Coco Hou: Technology delivering benefits to business and the accounting sector
- Written by Tess Sanders Lazarus
With fintech companies starting up every day, ready to deliver better ways of managing business activities and money decisions, it's no wonder, many accountants are working harder to keep up with all the latest tech tools. It seems the tech sector is bringing about change and disruption across a broad range of sectors including the accounting sector.
Accounting and training expert and CEO of Platinum Professional Training, Coco Hou, today said the accounting sector is going through significant change as cloud software and online solutions continue to disrupt the industry at all levels. There has been a strong increase in demand for accountants to advise on selling a business.
“As a CPA accountant and head of an accounting training organisation, there are some key things I am encouraging students and trainees to focus on in order to succeed in the accounting sector.
“They need to understand how technology is changing the way organisations go about undertaking their business and engaging with their customers.
“The first is big data. Accountants and those training in the accounting sector need to understand what it is and how it is being used across the accounting industry and other industries.
“Big data is creating the opportunity for sectors and organisations to better understand their business and customers through the collection of information which is then analysed to form micro insights. Our work forms part of this and assists businesses to understand through use of data and predictive analytics where the trends are so they can make informed decisions based on insightful forecasts.
“The second is the Internet of Things (IoT). The internet of things is changing the way we live, work, communicate and engage. Connectivity is the name of the game.
“What does this have to do with accountants? We need to understand how this fast growing sector is changing the way people consume services and businesses manage their operations and engage with their customers.
“Real time connectivity is enabling businesses to manage their activities, stock levels, invoices and reporting real time. This will impact activities such as audits. Audits will no longer be independent events as IoT will enable a process of continuous auditing real time.
“The financial status of a business will be live real time across all sectors of the organisation at any point in time.
“The third is on the go accounting. As more and more businesses become online and national or global operations, their people will want instant access to their accounts, any time any where. This means most if not all accounting systems will be cloud based.
“Accountants need to ensure that they are familiar with key cloud based systems, how they operate and the different types of functionality they offer.
“Every accountant needs to know the basics, tax law. Given advances in technology, every accountant now needs to know and understand the technology disrupting the way people operate and run their businesses. In a sense, we have become techountants – a blend of technology and accounting.”
Coco Hou, is the Managing Director of Platinum Professional Training. Platinum is one of Australia’s largest accounting training and internship providers with offices across all major Australian cities. Coco Hou is also a CPA qualified accountant and Managing Director of Platinum Accounting.
