Hitendra Patil, Author at CPA Trendlines

How Accountants Can Ride the Artificial Intelligence Wave

Let machines crunch the data. You provide the insight.

By Hitendra R. Patil and Eli Fathi

You are already riding the AI wave to some extent because, most likely, your car has some AI built into it. You ride it to work. How about riding artificial intelligence at and in your work?

MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: Automation Makes It Easier for Accountants to Offer Cybersecurity | The Why, What and How of Cybersecurity for Accountants | The Client of the Future | Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting | Is Blockchain a Cloud Killer? | How to Beat Automation in Accounting | 3 Reasons Small Firms Stay Small | The New Needs of People at Accounting Firms | 4 Pillars of Future Firm Foundation | Do You Want a Practice … or a Business? | 3 Apps to Automate Business Networking
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In today’s economic environment, it’s not enough to offer services in the same way that it’s always been done and hope that business will thrive. Many accounting firms are embracing new technology, such as robotic process automation, cloud-based analytics and dashboards to offer a competitive edge but the industry has come to a crossroads. While these computer-assisted and rules-based tools are considered the norm, AI and machine learning solutions are driving the leading edge.
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FEATURED

Automation Makes It Easier for Accountants to Offer Cybersecurity

Technology can help simplify the complexity of technology itself.

By Hitendra R. Patil and Jeffrey Lush

Businesses the world over rely on outsourced services, like accounting, to keep themselves ahead in the game, be profitable, efficient and to limit risk.

MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: The Why, What and How of Cybersecurity for Accountants | Blockchain: What You Need to Know Now | The Rise of the Robot Accountant: Opportunity or Threat? | Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA
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In “The Why, What and How of Cybersecurity for Accountants,” we covered the fundamentals to enable accountants get a quick understanding of cybersecurity to help explore the new opportunities that are emerging in the cybersecurity services segment. In this post, we’ll explain why it may not be really necessary for accounting firms to have specialist technology resources to foray into cybersecurity opportunities.

CHECKLIST

The Why, What and How of Cybersecurity for Accountants

Checklist: Protect your firm in 10 steps.

By Hitendra R. Patil and Jeffrey Lush

Jeffrey Lush is CEO and Co-founder, BAP Solution, a cybersecurity firm Lush is known widely as a passionate technologist with more than 34 years of IT experience. Before serving as CEO for BAP, he worked as the CTO for both HPE and Dell Federal. Lush’s US federal experience includes serving as the Executive Chief Technology Officer for the US Department of Veterans Affairs. He has served on US Presidential workgroups focused on cyber and has extensive knowledge of cybersecurity standards and policies throughout the globe, with a focus on US Federal policies to include NIST, FISMA, FedRAMP, DFARS, PCI, and HIPAA.

It is no secret that cybersecurity continues to top the list of business concerns for businesses of all sizes. Small independent business, mid-size business and large organizations can all be impacted by a cyber attack.

FEATURED

Blockchain: What You Need to Know Now

20 key concepts for now. 5 key questions for the future.

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur

Social media. Big data. Automation. Artificial intelligence. Machine learning. There is already a lot of technological impact on the accounting profession. Now comes blockchain.

MORE: The What, Why and How of Artificial Intelligence for Accountants | The Client of the Future | The Rise of the Robot Accountant: Opportunity or Threat? | Six Never-Before Opportunities for the Accounting Profession | Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting | Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA
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As a CPA, should you worry about blockchain? Let's examine.

SPECIAL

The What, Why and How of Artificial Intelligence for Accountants

How practical, affordable AI is already transforming accounting.

By Hitendra R. Patil and Eli Fathi

Co-author Eli Fathi is CEO at MindBridge Ai, developer of the world’s first auditing tool based upon artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies – the Ai Auditor – to uncover errors in financial data. He attended Algonquin College and the University of Ottawa, where he earned a master’s degree in engineering. Fathi has been a technology entrepreneur for over 30 years, having founded or co-founded numerous technology companies including Fluidware Corp. He currently sits on the boards of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Start-Up Canada, and C-Com, a company that develops satellite-based technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tends to conjure up images of sci-fi movies, with costly computers replacing humans for some sinister purpose, but the reality is much more collaborative and effective.

While AI has been adopted by many industries, its adoption rate in financial services has been relatively slow, and for understandable reasons. But you can get a feel of AI’s possible impact when you see that 76% of banking CxOs agree that adopting AI will be critical to their organization’s ability to differentiate in the market.

Practical, affordable AI is here, and the question is not whether or not to adopt, rather it is how quickly to get on board to differentiate in the quality, effectiveness, and efficiencies that AI-based solutions can provide.

AI is poised to transform the accounting industry. Let’s see why.

CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

The Client of the Future

The five mega-trends that will make or break your "firm of the future."

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur

Your client of the future will be vastly different from your client of now. You won't have a firm of the future without understanding the new breed of client.

More Accountaneur: The Rise of the Robot Accountant: Opportunity or Threat? | Six Never-Before Opportunities for the Accounting Profession | Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting | CPA Trendlines Author Named Top 10 to Follow on Social Media in 2018 | You Cannot Prove Your Value | Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA | Who Wants to Be a Comptometrist? | Blockchain: Questions Are the Answer | The 7 Experiences Millennials Want from Your Firm | Is Blockchain an Extinction Event for Accountants? | Is Blockchain a Cloud Killer? | 22 Ways Blockchain Will Change the Accounting Profession Forever |

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Like most accountants, you probably have faith that numbers tell a story. So, let's look at some numbers and seven mega-trends that can help you get clarity about your client of the future. READ MORE →

CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

The Rise of the Robot Accountant: Opportunity or Threat?

Robots are replacing some accounting tasks, but only some.

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant

By one oft-cited study, robots will replace 94% what accountants and auditors are doing today. But look a little deeper and you'll find that instead of replacing accountants, the profession stands to gain from mastering new robot technologies and putting them to work to enhance client service, streamline processes, and provide more high-value high-ticket work.

More Accountaneur: Six Never-Before Opportunities for the Accounting Profession | Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting | You Cannot Prove Your Value | Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CB | You Don’t Need More Clients. You Need Better Clients. | Who Wants to Be a Comptometrist? | Blockchain: Questions Are the Answer | The 7 Experiences Millennials Want from Your Firm | Is Blockchain an Extinction Event for Accountants?

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Let’s take an example in write-up work. It was common for the bookkeeper to enter transactions off bank and credit card statements into the accounting software. Output per hour – i.e. how many transactions were entered in an hour, and to the correct chart of account – determined the profitability of that work. Now, the same task can be done by automated bank feeds software – which is essentially a software robot that performs pre-defined, repetitive tasks efficiently and accurately. And you can train this robot to be better, by defining rules. It also obviated the need to wait for the client to send you the bank statements and hence, there is now no need to send follow up reminders.

FEATURED

Six Never-Before Opportunities for the Accounting Profession

Perceptions will have to change.

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant

Do you remember cell phone devices before the iPhone was launched?

MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting | Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA | The 7 Experiences Millennials Want from Your Firm | 22 Ways Blockchain Will Impact the Accounting Profession | Podcast: How to Become a True ‘Accountaneur’ | How Job Titles Can Rebrand Your Firm | Forget CPE, You Need an FPE | ‘Uberizing’ Means More Than Technology
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It was not just technological advancements that gave birth to the iPhone. It was actually more about the ability to use human imagination to figure out how new technology could be used to invent altogether new benefits.
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FEATURED

Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting

The universally accepted definitions just don't cut it anymore.

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant

“Users can and will be able to use the software without an accounting education.”

MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA | Who Wants to Be a Comptometrist? | Is Blockchain an Extinction Event for Accountants? | How to Fly the Automation Dragon to Your Dream Practice | Your Clients Hold a Secret Key to Your Practice Growth
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This prediction caught my attention when I read a recent report.
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About Us

CPA Trendlines Author Named Top 10 to Follow on Social Media in 2018

Accountaneur Author, Top 100 Influencer, is Keen to Help Accountants

CPATrendlines Author Hitendra Patil, whose critically acclaimed book Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant, bought by accountants in 12 countries across four continents, has been named on the list of Top 10 Tax and Accounting Pros to Follow in Social Media in 2018.

Canopy Tax, which recently published the list said, “Here are the 10 future-minded tax and accounting pros you should be following on social media if you want to stay inspired and in the know”.

Hitendra Patil, who was named one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting for 2017”, has been identified on this new Top 10 list for his “Blockchain specialty”.

CPATrendlines has been exclusively publishing Hitendra’s “Blockchain and Accounting” focused insightful articles over the last few months.

Speaking with CPATrendlines, Hitendra expressed that “I am greatly honored to be included in the coveted list. I think I made it to the list as I freely share my insights across social media channels in a bid to help accountants become future-proof and enhance their practices. I am sincerely grateful to CPATrendlines for taking my Blockchain insights to the profession”.

INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

You Cannot Prove Your Value

You can, however, help clients and prospects discover it.

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant

You cannot prove your value to your clients (and prospects).

You can NOT.

MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA | Who Wants to Be a Comptometrist? | Is Blockchain an Extinction Event for Accountants? | Blockchain Accounting Is an Oncoming Train | How to Fly the Automation Dragon to Your Dream Practice | Your Clients Hold a Secret Key to Your Practice Growth | Seven Lessons for Accountants from Self-Driving Cars
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They need to discover it themselves.

Because value is perceived in their heads.
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FEATURED

Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA

Accountants have a new opportunity at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds.

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant

Can you eat a digital pizza?

You can order and pay digitally, but you can eat only a physical pizza.

MORE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY: Blockchain: Questions Are the Answer | Is Blockchain a Cloud Killer? | 22 Ways Blockchain Will Impact the Accounting Profession | Blockchain Accounting Is an Oncoming Train | Podcast: How to Become a True ‘Accountaneur’ | Forget CPE, You Need an FPE
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Blockchain, with its immutable trust technology, is one of the greatest innovations of recent times capable of creating an unfathomable disruption across several industries. But its technological fabric itself has created a hurdle that it, by itself, may not be able to jump over easily.
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About Us

You Don’t Need More Clients. You Need Better Clients.

AccountantsWorld sets N.Y., N.J. conferences on client accounting services.

AccountantsWorld plans to show practitioners how to grow and streamline accounting and payroll offerings with strategies for delivering more value to clients through two three-hour conferences in the New York and New Jersey area.

The live in-person events are scheduled at 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Oct. 20 at the Melville (N.Y.) Marriott Long Island, 1350 Walt Whitman Rd. Melville., NY 11747; and Oct. 27 at the Hilton Newark (N.J.) Penn Station, 1048 Raymond Blvd., Newark, NJ 07102. Each provides 2.5 hours of free CPE. Learn more and sign up here

"When clients can do what you do, your value and relevance go down," says Hitendra Patil, a CPA Trendlines expert author and AccountantsWorld director of practice development. "What is left is a fee and price pressure."

Here’s what you’re looking for: Hitendra Patil