The end of the accounting profession as we know it?

The accounting profession will face significant changes in the next three decades, and professional organizations, their members, and educational institutions should respond

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) research—Drivers of Change and Future Skills—has explored these important changes, expected to be encountered by the year 2025. I was privileged to have been part of the team from Uganda discussing the future of the Accounting profession. One of the highlights was on the need to have professional Quotients and below is an excerpt from the report.

PROFESSIONAL QUOTIENTS (PQ): This analysis suggests that to add value for their employers and clients, the professional accountant of the future will need an optimal and changing combination of professional competencies: a collection of technical knowledge, skills and abilities, combined with interpersonal behaviours and qualities. By 2020, all professional accountants will need to develop and balance the necessary professional quotients to fit their role and stage of career.

PRO BONOs DO PAY

A friend called me to speak to a group on a topic ‘Successful Financial Management Practices for SME's’. She made it clear that it was going to be pro bono and I willfully accepted because it’s a topic I am passionate about. After my presentation, one of the group members who had come in towards the end of my presentation requested if I could go and speak to their senior management team. She asked me how much I would charge for an hour but for some reason I felt hesitant to quote a fee and left it to their discretion. I was therefore very pleased to receive an honorarium from this organization after making the presentation.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from the same organization requesting for my profile for possible future areas of engagement. This was followed by ‘interviews’ for potential consultancy work. We ended up signing a contract for 15 days of consultancy work and eventually other support services.

The point is, there are somethings that one can do for free, expecting no payment or reward, but in the right time, the reward duly comes. The reward may not be monetary; it may be new friendships, networks even new knowledge. Money is good! However, it should not be the only motivation to offer a service.

As the good book states, cast your bread on the waters: for you shall find it after many days. May 2018 be a year filled with many of those days, may it be a year of a bountiful harvest!

Basic compliance requirements for an #SME in Uganda

‘When it comes to a business and corporate management, compliance refers to the company obeying all of the legal laws and regulations in regards to how they manage the business, their staff, and their treatment towards their consumers. The concept of compliance is to make sure that corporations act responsibly’ writes Gary Trainor in an article Importance Of Compliance In Business. He highlights that the benefits compliance brings into any business include: avoidance of criminal charges, building positive reputation and higher productivity in the company.

For Every Business Owner Without An Accountant

 “I am told you can create financial statements for my business?” the client asked “No I can’t” was my response.
I said no because he had no records for the period for which he wanted the financial statements produced. Accountants are meant to help you organise your existing records in order to produce financial statements and not to conjure up figures. This means that you have to get into the habits of keeping records. If you cannot write them down somewhere then at least keep the source documents (receipts, vouchers, invoices, bills etc.) and someone can help you organise these into a report.

This client wanted the financial statement in order to file income tax returns. What one should know is that whatever you file with the revenue authority should be kept available to them for a period of at least five (5) years. When they come to audit you, they will need documentary evidence of how the financial statements were arrived at.