MY FIRM. MY FUTURE. report

Robert McDowall CPA
Partner
Arabon Accountants

Technology becomes a really important tool in that mix, but it doesn’t necessarily replace the people that are there. And there’s going to be less people working trying to service and support more people who aren’t working in the future, so we need to find that really good balance where we are using tools to find efficiencies, and replace those things that we don’t actually gain value from anymore. But then making sure that the people that we have there are really highly-skilled to do the things that humans need to do, and do the things that need a person to talk about.

Amanda Roberts CPA
Director
McConachie Stedman

The firm of the future is actually a really good term considering everyone’s saying compliance is dead and accountants are going to be obsolete. So, I think from a firm of the future, yes, compliance which is dead, no, it will have contracted, but the swing of compliance and advisory work will obviously change. People are going to have to have really good relationships with their clients and be there to help them.

Dianna Jacobsen CPA
Director
Shine At Business

To evolve in the direction that they might want to work in, I would be suggesting that you get your core skills sound, get your foundations down, get your qualifications in place and be confident in that. But then look for the areas that you are passionate about, the areas that you might have some experience in.

As in my case, it’s my background growing up in broadacre farming and still running a cattle farm myself with my husband and my sons, so that you can go out and you relate to those people, you understand that industry. Or it might be a new area that you want to get into, but if you’ve got your foundation right, then upskill, in a broader scope to have those conversations.

Andrew Albury CPA
Director and Principal
MGD Wealth

To achieve our vision is all about both organic growth, which is always important, but just to do a bit of acquisition sort of growth as well, but paramount to the success of all that is the constant reinforcement of the culture that we want and the service delivery standards that we wanted at the client level, so we need to get that right at the recruitment, most definitely, we need to deliver that message really clearly and make sure that we are recruiting right, but also in the retention of staff to grow that culture all the time, and if we can do that I think we’ll be a successful firm in the future.