The technological revolution is having a huge impact on the accounting business, forcing top accountants to remain current with the latest and best accounting software, making sure that it is compatible with the firm’s other software.
David Syner, a principal with Providence-based Syner, Cavallaro and Company, has watched as technology changed a profession he entered nearly 30 years ago. We used to do “just about everything manually” until 17 years ago, Syner said.
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“It was very easy to adapt to because it was something that was very repetitive,” he said.
Syner said he is pleased with the way technology has made work easier, and it only keeps improving, but there are still some problems.
“It would be better if (the computers) could talk to each other a little better,” he said. “Before, there used to be a lot of standalones, but now they’re becoming more interfaced.”
Syner, Cavallaro and Company uses Lacert software for tax returns.
Boston-based Camp, Dresser and McKee primarily use Oracle software.
“Oracle is pretty much the frontrunner,” said accountant Michael McDonnell. “We use different subtasks of Oracle that help out the general ledger system. We’re able to track accounting, accounts payable and accounts receivable. The biggest advantage overall is having a ledger system that is compatible with your every day tasks.”
McDonnell said the firm uses other types of software as well, but the most important factor is that the software works in conjunction with other software.
“Integration is very important,” he said.
Rich DeRienzo, a principal with Lefkowitz, Garfinkle, Champi & DeRienzo, said his company uses many different types of software for different aspects of business.
“The number of different types of software we use is between 12 and 20, varying on the type of activity the individual is undertaking that day,” said DeRienzo.
Neal Hannon, education committee co-chair for XBRL.org, is aware of the importance of compatibility.
XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is a freely available electronic language for financial reporting. Experts are calling XBRL the most revolutionary development in accounting since the spreadsheet and the ASCII file.
“The most revolutionary part of it is once information is tagged with XBRL it can then be rendered in any number of different media,” said Hannon. “When financial information is presented on a Web page, it’s sometimes in flat HTML, and sometimes in an Adobe format, and in order to do any work with that information you need to re-key the information. With XBRL the information is coded into an application for immediate use.”
Syner thinks XBRL will be used primarily for investment analysts to see financial statements in a different format.
“All the financial statements are going to have to be prepared that way,” he said, “so the analysts will be able to understand.”
Hannon said the number of organizations that are involved with XBRL is approaching 100, and 25 percent of those companies are software companies.
He said businesses are best able to adopt the language by buying off the shelf software packages that have XBRL as an addition.
“XBRL is enabling the preparation of financial statements in a way that the information is transportable through the coding,” he said.
As far as updating software, Syner said his company does it at least once a year.
McDonnell said accounting firms need to update their systems frequently because the software is always changing.
“When I moved over to Oracle it was DOS-based, a 10.5 system,” he said, “and they changed it over to 10.7, and now they’re moving over to 11.1. The fact that it’s Windows-based makes it easier because we’re a Windows-based society. Everything else seems archaic to us.”
Syner said the advent of the computer has been the most important change he has seen in his profession. For students who are just beginning careers in accounting, he wonders if their training is as extensive, not having to spend countless hours with forms and paperwork.
“They are probably more reliant on the computer,” he said. “They may not know the laws as well as we do because they base it on the computer.”
With the public empowered with tax return software, one might think accountants would be worried about their jobs becoming obsolete.
Mike Hanna, a partner with Providence’s Sullivan and Company, said he is not worried.
“When talking about firms that have corporate clients such as we do, the returns are much too complicated,” said Hanna. “We don’t service that segment of the business, so I don’t see it as a major issue.”
Hanna said his concern would be for places like H & R Block. But they don’t seem very worried either. The company offers free do-it-yourself tax forms on its Web site.
