Accountants are worried about the blockchain
Nah, just kidding. Accountants tend to worry about lots of things technology related, but the blockchain is not one of them. According to a survey by Thomson Reuters and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, “only 4 percent of respondents selected blockchain as the disruptor that will have a great impact on their business 25 years from now.” However, the article thinks they probably should:
Like most forms of technology, blockchain in accounting and audit greatly reduces the potential for errors when reconciling complex and disparate information from multiple sources. Further, accounting records are not alterable once committed under blockchain, even by the owners of the accounting system. Because every transaction is recorded and verified, the integrity of financial records is guaranteed. While impressive, this technology has the potential to greatly reduce or even eliminate the need for auditing resources — potentially disrupting the accounting profession as a whole.
The author (a Thomson Reuters employee) asks, “With Blockchain, is there even a need for audits in the future?” If enough people read that while imagining ominous music playing in the background, that should get an uptick in that blockchain worrier rate.
What’s Deloitte up to?
Cloud stuff! The biggiest Big 4 firm in the known universe is doing all kinds of things according to this press release: buying a cloud consulting firm, hiring 3,000 engineers “to help organizations integrate, streamline and manage business operations in the cloud,” and opening three new “cloud studios.”
I’ve mentioned this before, but I really thought everyone would wake up one day and go, “Ohhhhhh, the cloud is just the Internet,” and all this cloud talk would end. Sadly, I seem to be wrong about that as Deloitte continues milking this for all it’s worth.
Bosses
Apparently, a big problem in the workplace today is bosses doing their subordinates’ work.
Sixty percent of employees don’t believe they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day at work, according to the 2017 State of the American Workplace report. Sadly, one common explanation for this is that their boss is too busy doing it for them.
I recall this being common in accounting and I wouldn’t be surprised if it still is. With deadlines driving a lot of the work, reviewers at all levels would rather fix things to keep a project moving rather than take the time to teach a subordinate. It’s unfortunate because I think most people want to learn and get better at their jobs, but bosses doing their underlings’ work does precisely the opposite.
Previously, on Going Concern…
I wrote about the Arthur Andersen press conference that never happened.
In other news:
- “The Reason Alliance is the tax-exempt offshoot of The Satanic Temple, which strikes me as basically a relatively-clever piece of performance art meant to object to religions enjoying tax-exempt status.” [via]
- The GOP failed at healthcare so the next logical step is to tackle tax reform.
- Uber to Suspend Autonomous Tests After Arizona Accident
- White House disputes report that Trump gave Merkel a $374 billion bill to honor NATO agreement
- People won’t stop staring at their phones, so a Dutch town put traffic lights on the ground
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