A recent report from the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), the leading accounting advisory board, not only outlined just how far new accounting degree completions had fallen (17 percent from 2017 to 2022), but also outlined a series of reforms to lower the barriers to entry for this most critical profession.
The accounting industry is looking to implement a wide series of initiatives from lowering the time and cost of education to expanding access for underrepresented groups and increasing outreach to grade school students.
ASC 842 created and continues to offer a significant opportunity for accounting teams to engage in data analysis and offer more value to the business.
There are several KPIs explicitly outlined by the NPAG that would indicate that these reforms are successful. They include everything from increasing the number of students selecting accounting as a major to the retention rate of accounting professionals within firms and finance departments. This is a clear indicator that addressing this shortage cannot rest solely on bringing in new talent, but also it must involve prioritizing the satisfaction of accountants still in the field.
Companies must recognize that a crucial part of incentivizing accounting staff to engage in higher-value projects is to invest in the most advanced tools to automate repetitive, mundane tasks while simultaneously enabling detailed analytics.
And, as mentioned in the ESG section, lease accountants are well suited to take on the ESG/sustainability carbon accounting challenge, and much of the data collection effort will be similar.