¶ … Technology on the Accounting Profession Accounting and finance continue to see rapid improvements in the accuracy, efficiency and performance of systems as advances are made in the fields of analytics, big data, system integration and reporting, mobility and cloud-based platforms including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). All of technologies taken together are accelerating the pace of change in accounting today. The intent of this analysis is to provide a description of these technologies, explaining their effects on accounting processes. These technologies are also discussed from the standpoint of how they are changing how accounting is being performance at Cincom Systems, a provider of enterprise software.

Analysis of How Technologies Are Changing The Accounting Profession

The most significant advances in technologies impacting the accounting profession are occurring in the area of cloud computing and SaaS, as cloud architectures are fundamentally changing the economics of how software is purchased and used (Arnesen, 2013). The growing interest in SaaS-based accounting, finance and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is also drastically re-ordering the landscape of accounting and finance systems and how they are used throughout companies today (Arnesen, 2013). Cloud-based accounting, finance and ERP systems all have the ability to share information in real-time across all users of the system at the same time, and are increasingly being integrated into legacy,...

What is most unique and disruptive about cloud-based and SaaS accounting, finance and ERP systems however is how they are purchased. Typically an accounting office can just pay for the amount of the system they use, often using operating expense (OPEX) budgets to pay for the system's use. Typically accounting and finance systems are paid for out of capital expenses, or CAPEX accounts (Arnesen, 2013). As software companies continually pursue a cloud and SaaS-based strategy, there are more business adopting their solutions, replacing on-premise accounting and finance systems as a result.
A second significant area where technologies are affecting accounting and finance today are in the areas of Big Data and reporting using advanced protocols including XBRL (Brands, 2013). Big Data is opening up the opportunity for many accounting and finance departments to mine decades of previous transactions, looking for insights into how to better serve customers and control costs. In conjunction with this trend is the widespread adoption of financial analytics and advanced reporting functionality as well (Christensen, Skaerbaek, 2010). Financial analytics and reporting applications are also fueling greater use of predictive analytics and the reliance on advanced business intelligence (BI) as part of the broader accounting and finance applications companies use (Collins, 2013). All of these advances are…