The Accounting Profession and the Pandemic

As companies face a shortage of these skills with their current finance teams, they also will likely commit more resources to training and re-training; this will offer opportunities for accountants to obtain the competencies and credentials required to succeed through corporate-funded programs. Technology empowers accountants, and in turn, accountants wield technology as the powerful, meaningful weapon that it really is. So said Warren Buffet, billionaire, philanthropist, investor and business tycoon. He acknowledged having taken “a lot of” accounting courses over the years and understanding the language has rewarded him well financially. BDO USA, LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership, is the U.S. member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO’s tech industry guide offers a strategic framework to help organizations stay resilient in a fast-changing landscape.

Firm age (the natural logarithm of years for which firm exists) and firm size (the natural logarithm of number of employees) are included as older and larger firms accumulate learning and resources that may enhance their performance (Beck et al., 2005). Financial leverage, cash flows, and firm size refer to 2018 to avoid simultaneity problem. Therefore, these variables are treated as time-invariant in our explanatory model. In contrast to family-managed or family-owned and managed firms, family-owned firms lack the possibility to actively influence the firm’s strategic decisions and operations through family managers, thus making the prioritization of long-term goals less pronounced in this type of family business.

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Nothing less than the relevance, and influence, of the accounting profession is at stake. Universities and educational institutes are adapting their curriculum to prepare their students and subsequent graduates to be more future-ready for the workforce. Accountants are no longer just bookkeepers; they can now tackle tasks like business planning, controls, succession and more. Better technology creates better accountants, which enables better business owners to make better decisions. Now, amid the pandemic, when human contact is giving way to social distancing and remote work, the tone has shifted; robots will not be the cause of our doom and may even be our saviours. Ascertain the extent to which COVID 19 affects the going concern of firms in Nigeria.

• We advance this literature by identifying the specific organizational ownership and management structure that exhibited financial resilience under adverse environmental conditions and, thereby, addressing the research call of Linnenluecke (2017).
• Here at D&K Accounting, we are a team of profit-first professionals who aim not only to help businesses across the UK look after their finances but to implement where we can the Profit First way of thinking to transform how businesses are operating for the better.
• So said Warren Buffet, billionaire, philanthropist, investor and business tycoon.
• Additionally, companies should consider initiating conversations with their auditors early in the process as this will help avoid any surprises both in terms of the assumptions used in their impairment evaluations and the application of US GAAP.
• It is a kind of purposive sampling technique which is often used for deliberately choose respondents that are best fitted for examining research questions.
• The study by Alao and Oladjo (2020) show that entities need to assess whether the impact of COVID has potentially led to asset impairment as provided for by IAS 36.
• This interplay can further help family firms build a distinct and durable family-based brand, including family members and the “extended family” of external stakeholders, such as workers, financers, suppliers, and customers (Sorenson et al., 2009).

There is no theoretical justification against our own elaborated model as it is exploratory in nature. In this study, we tried to analyze why and how firms should disclose essential information (both financial and non-financial) to the financial statement users. This study can be used as benchmark to issue a separate policy or standard for reporting any kind of adverse event in the financial reporting and disclosure practices. Hence, future studies can explore industry-based financial reporting and disclosure practice in any pandemic period. Similar to several global pandemics including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, Swine influenza pandemic in 2009, Avian influenza in 2013 (Springborn et al., 2015) and Ebola virus; the occurrence of this pandemic has already shaken the global economy. However economic turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic in business sectors namely aviation industry, apparels, consumer durables, automobiles, electronics, hospitality and financial services are severe in the context of Bangladesh (ICMAB, 2021).

Is your firm prepared?

Amidst the global pandemic that has brought the whole world to its knees and by extension affected the global markets on all fronts [12]. COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on business operation of an entity. COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on financial factors an entity. Process automation software can help your firm meet the evolving challenges of modern accounting and provide a strong competitive advantage. Visit intapp.com/accounting to learn more about exciting innovations revolutionizing the accounting industry.

• However, transitioning from a traditional model to a hybrid model may not come easy.
• Perhaps, timely declaration of stimulus package from the Government of Bangladesh and co-operation from other regulators have increased the confidence and improve the business environment which led to this insignificant relationship.
• Now society and business are faced with new risks, threats, disasters, opportunities, unforeseen consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• This allows them to view the firm’s personnel and socially friendly initiatives as variable expenses that can be ratcheted up or down as economic conditions warrant.
• Edited by CPAs for CPAs, it aims to provide accounting and other financial professionals with the information and analysis they need to succeed in today’s business environment.
• The researchers also highlighted the practical procedures that will enable business to respond to unexpected disruptions during the major outbreak from the accounting and business management perspectives.

This effect is pertinent to firms with strong family involvement in management or in both management and ownership. We also identify the role of firm-, industry-, and country-level contingencies for family business financial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study offers a novel understanding of the financial resilience across different types of family business and sets an agenda for future research on the drivers of resilience of family firms to adverse events.

The Future Accountant – Preparing the next generation

Francesca Lagerberg highlights an additional element when she says, “At BTI, we believe in the benefits of a multi-disciplinary firm. Our clients have made clear their preference for a single services provider with all the benefits this brings in terms of the cross pollination and breadth of expertise. We believe the current mooted changes in larger organisations could mean great opportunities for an ambitious network like Baker Tilly International and our firms.

In the months that followed, many accounting firms helped their business clients navigate unprecedented business challenges and leverage federal relief packages, including the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. This study tries to analyze why and how firms should disclose essential information (both financial and non-financial) to the financial statement users https://www.bookstime.com/ during the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of audit profession will also continue beyond to the end of Corona pandemic because the companies subjected to audit will need to conduct various researches and studies in order to propose accounting processing solutions to the impacts of the pandemic. Accordingly, a large amount of works shall be done by the auditors as advisers when Corona virus subsides.

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We reject the null hypothesis for both variables, suggesting that these data points are stationary. Family involvement in a firm can take various forms (Chua et al., 1999; De Massis et al., 2012; Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2005). Family involvement in ownership allows the controlling family to influence the firm’s strategic decisions and operations (Barontini & Caprio, 2006; Claessens et al., 2002; Faccio & Lang, 2002; Singal & Singal, 2011). Furthermore, family involvement in both ownership and management (Anderson & Reeb, 2003a, 2003b; Muñoz-Bullon, Sanchez-Bueno, & Suárez-González, 2018; Yu, Lumpkin, Sorenson, & Brigham, 2012) allows the controlling family to have absolute control over the firm (Zellweger et al., 2012). In fact, various studies show that family goals and vision (Chua et al., 1999; De Massis et al., 2018a, 2018b) are highly correlated with the extent of family involvement in ownership and management (Chrisman et al., 2012; Chrisman & Patel, 2012).

For example, bots and cloud accounting solutions make it easier than ever for small business owners to manage their accounting and bookkeeping tasks with the efficiency that only their larger counterparts formerly enjoyed. Several nations and states had to declare a state of emergency due to its widespread impact. The disease has caused significant reduction in social interaction, with shutdown of public facilities and limit on physical interaction [10]. This index case was a 44-year-old man, an Italian citizen who returned from Milan, Italy, on 24 February and presented at a health facility on 26 February 2020 (NCDC, 2020). According to the country has continued to experience an increase in the number of cases, which has spread across several states [2].

This implies that accounting and financial tools are critical tools for the survival of the business in the post COVID-19 pandemic. The study conducted by Cui et al. (2021) show that accounting and financial measures are key tools to the survival of the business in the post COVID-19 Pandemic environment. The model summary table for hypothesis five shows that there is about 30% correlation between COVID 19 pandemic and changes in expected credit losses for financial assets. This implies that COVID 19 pandemic has about 30% chances in expected credit losses for financial assets. The construct of each variable has been measured based on financial factors, business operation, business value, business contract and stakeholders perspective from the business entities viewpoint. Moreover, the study takes into consideration of the various recommendation of global and local professional accounting bodies (Including KPMG, PWC, ICAB, etc.).

In a similar submission, Tashakkori and Creswell (2007) suggest that mixed methods will yield coherent conclusions and inferences for a single research study. Given the above theoretical arguments, and the objectives thereof, the current study adopts a mixed methods approach and a more detailed discussion of the approaches and methods. According to Bryman and Bell (2003), a mixed strategy occurs when more than one research strategy and data source are used in a study of social phenomena. Matiza (2020) investigated the potential influence of COVID-19 on the tourist beheviour in the short and in the medium term. The researcher made a synthesis of academic literature on the perceived risks and the post crisis tourism.

2 Family involvement in ownership and/or management

Moreover, CR and AVE are calculated as measures of scale or construct reliability. Bagozzi and Yi (1988) conclude that the extent of CR needs to be greater than 0.6 to attain high internal consistency and reliability measure. Next, the value of AVE should be greater than 0.4 to achieve the acceptable level of convergent validity (Baumgartner and Steenkamp, 1994). Further, Chin (2010) asserts that AVE and CR should be greater than 0.50 and 0.70 respectively to achieve acceptable level. Every business organization has social responsibility within which it operates.

• Clients that were financially healthy entering 2020 may have found themselves with cash shortfalls by February.
• As accountants evolve into more strategic and creative roles, the ability to collaborate across functions — working with subject matter experts, department heads, and other professionals with various skills and specialties — becomes increasingly important.
• Rego [9] submitted that political and economies of scale can significantly affect a nations’ ability to reduce their own burden for the interest of her citizens and any other nation that is economically loyal to them.
• As family firms become older, they become more reluctant to change their day-to-day operational activities (Zahra et al., 2008) and, more importantly, become more rigid to the adoption of novel business practices and processes (Bloom et al., 2011).
• By analyzing various policy recommendations and guidelines of global and local accounting bodies, a structured questionnaire was developed in association with related IAS and IFRSs.
• Accounting estimates have long been among the more complex tasks for auditors.

Thus, business perseverance will be less pronounced in nonfamily firms compared to their family counterparts. Prior family business studies have shown that family firms have better coped with financial crises in the USA (Zhou et al., 2017) and Italy (Minichilli et al., 2016). We also compare the financial performance of different types of family firms in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and identify the most resilient types among family firms in managing the effects of the pandemic. Accordingly, we address the research calls of Kraus et al. (2020) and Calabrò et al. (2021) for large-scale empirical studies to capture the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for family firms.

Experts predict the long-term impact of COVID-19 on accounting

For some firms, the power of technology is one of the leading reasons they survived 2020. Because the transition happened overnight for most, the changes required were likely rushed. So, again, it’s important to review the systems your firm has in place to ensure they are suitable for a primarily remote workforce for the foreseeable future. In a Karbon survey seeking to grasp https://www.bookstime.com/blog/pandemic-and-accounting-industry the full impact of COVID-19, almost 1,000 accountants across 20 countries were asked about how they are adapting to working remotely. Right now, we, as the global accountancy profession, have the opportunity to transform—for the benefit of business, government, and society. It is also a critical moment for the profession to nurture existing talent and attract new talent.

To investigate the consequence of COVID-19 pandemic on the financial reporting and disclosure (FRD) practices, the study has been conducted. Moreover, this paper highlights the significance of FRD practices in any emergency period and its relevance with legitimacy theory in Bangladesh Perspective. As accountants evolve into more strategic and creative roles, the ability to collaborate across functions — working with subject matter experts, department heads, and other professionals with various skills and specialties — becomes increasingly important. This type of collaboration is essential for mastering complex dynamics and forging big-picture solutions. “In a world where companies operate globally and employees increasingly work remotely, mastering virtual collaboration and management skills — sharing ideas and information with people in other places through various methods — also will be important,” Hood writes.