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FEATURED

Discover Your Accountant Superpowers

Your secret weapons range far beyond mere numbers.
Superhero businesswoman wearing shadow cape
By Donny C. Shimamoto

Many people think that the numbers on financial statements or a tax return are the endpoint of what accountants do.

MORE: What Auditors Know about Amazon Product Ratings | Non-CPA “CPA” Firms? Really? | COVID-19 Turns CPAs into First Responders | What Small and Midsized Firms Can Learn from PwC’s Digital Upskilling | What Big Data Means to Small Firms | Accountants: Unleash Your Secret Superpower | Ready for Non-CPA CPA Firms?
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But that’s like saying that the words on the page are the endpoint of what a journalist does in an article.

In reality, the objective of both is to tell a story. The best accountants are gifted story-tellers, as well. READ MORE →

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What Auditors Know about Amazon Product Ratings

And four more lessons from new cutting-edge audit research.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
Strategic Technology Decisions

Often academia is criticized for being out of touch with that is happening in the “real world.” When I was invited to attend the Hawaii Accounting Research Conference, I was interested to see whether some of the contemporary research being done by university researchers across the world was actually relevant to those of us in practice.

MORE: Non-CPA “CPA” Firms? Really? | COVID-19 Turns CPAs into First Responders | What Small and Midsized Firms Can Learn from PwC’s Digital Upskilling | What Big Data Means to Small Firms
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While quite a bit of the research provided some data to support commonly held assumptions that many of us have, there were some papers that provided some good food for thought that audit firms big and small should consider.
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About Us

Beating the COVID Recession: Webinar and Workshop

Immersive web event: How Accountants Can Ensure Business Resilience for the Next Pandemic

^ Click to play: Your host Donny Shimamoto invites you to join the Business Resilience Workshop

Live Webinar & Workshop
Monday, Sept. 21, 11 am ET / 8 am PT
6.5 CPE hours
With live chat, Q&A, and interactive virtual group exercises
Price: Only $240 with this link
Register Here | Learn More

Hosted by Donny Shimamoto

COVID-19 created an unprecedented economic crisis that accountants were called upon to triage and stop continued economic bleeding. Accountants had to help many business owners and colleagues make difficult business decisions that often went well beyond just finance. In this workshop, we’ll examine the “new normal,” the multi-faceted role that accountants play in economic triage, and the building of business resilience.

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FEATURED

Non-CPA “CPA” Firms? Really?

What the AICPA and NASBA could learn from other professions.

By Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA

I’ve been watching NASBA and the AICPA communicate the need for a change to the requirements to be CPA. While their rationale may seem to make sense, I’m not sure I agree with their direction  – enabling more non-accountants to be CPAs.

MORE DONNY SHIMAMOTO: What Small and Midsized Firms Can Learn from PwC’s Digital Upskilling | What Big Data Means to Small Firms | Accountants: Unleash Your Secret Superpower | Ready for Non-CPA CPA Firms? | Accounting Services Aren’t What You Think They Are | Learning from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

See complete coronavirus coverage here

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When I think further about the bigger picture of the accounting profession, I believe the accounting profession needs to be more cohesive and inclusive – and perhaps that is the better course to pursue.

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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

COVID-19 Turns CPAs into Emergency Workers

Tax & accounting professionals rush to rescue coronavirus economic casualties.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
Strategic Technology Decisions

Many people think that accountants are just rational, unfeeling counting machines that operate completely on logic and reason. While on the surface that may appear to be true, I know from my discussions with many accountants that underlying that cool exterior is an actual human being with feelings. But what I love most is that accountants often care more about others than themselves.

MORE: What Small and Midsized Firms Can Learn from PwC’s Digital Upskilling | What Big Data Means to Small Firms | Accountants: Unleash Your Secret Superpower | Ready for Non-CPA CPA Firms? | Accounting Services Aren’t What You Think They Are | Learning from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

See complete coronavirus coverage here

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The impact of COVID-19 on many of our lives will be told for years or decades to come. Through social media, I saw a lot of accountants (because I’m friends with so many of them) express concern for their clients and communities as well. I saw accountants trying to combat hysteria, sharing information about what Congress was doing and the implications to taxpayers, and also working creatively with small business clients to figure out how to make it through the crisis. Yes, many accountants looked beyond themselves and beyond their firms (which were also at risk) to help others who were in emergency situations and needed help navigating this confusing and complex crisis.
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FEATURED

What Small and Midsized Firms Can Learn from PwC’s Digital Upskilling

Portrait of Rod Adams
Adams

One possible side effect: reverse mentoring.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
Strategic Technology Decisions

Over the last three years, PwC has undertaken an ambitious initiative to provide digital upskilling to the entire firm. Yes, you read that right, the entire firm. Everyone including staff, partners and admin team members were involved in this voluntary program to increase their digital acumen.

MORE: What Big Data Means to Small Firms | Accountants: Unleash Your Secret Superpower | Ready for Non-CPA CPA Firms? | Accounting Services Aren’t What You Think They Are | Learning from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma | Focus on Cyber Risk, Not Just Security | Making IT Matter to Accountants | IT Nerds Need Budget Help | 8 Ways to Wrestle Software Subscriptions Into Submission | IT Hardware Gets Even More Complex (Great!) | How Accounting Geeks and Techie Nerds Can Play Nicely Together
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I was able to gather some lessons learned and understand some of the underlying strategies behind PwC’s digital initiative via an interview with Rod Adams, CPA, PwC’s U.S. talent acquisition leader. Recognizing that most firms don’t have access to the same resources that PwC has, I also asked Adams how small and midsized firms could approach this type of initiative for their firms.
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FEATURED

What Big Data Means to Small Firms

Artist concept of an AI-based neuronFocus on the hard trends, not the things you can’t predict.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
Strategic Technology Decisions

Emerging technologies will disrupt many lower-level accounting jobs, but overall they will be a boon to the accounting profession. To be able to adopt these emerging technologies and ensure that value is gained from their proper use, accountants must begin upskilling now.

MORE: Accountants: Unleash Your Secret Superpower | Ready for Non-CPA CPA Firms? | Accounting Services Aren’t What You Think They Are | Learning from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma | Focus on Cyber Risk, Not Just Security | Making IT Matter to Accountants
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Accountants must develop additional competencies to ensure the success of projects associated with implementing emerging technologies and enable them to be value-added advisors to their organizations and clients.
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LEADERSHIP

Accountants: Unleash Your Secret Superpower

It’s Time for the Super-Heroes of Ethical Behavior and the Public Trust to Help Save the World.

By Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA

It seems like every day there is either news of a new scandal or additional “discoveries” about an on-going scandal. It’s quite depressing.

I finally took a step back to ask myself: “Why is this happening? Are we just doomed to a world that is just becoming more and more corrupt? Or is there something that can be done to stop this degeneration of society?”

Are Accountants Natively Ethical?

As I pondered how to solve the corruption problem, I asked myself, “how do we get more people to behave more ethically—more like us accountants?”

This then caused me to ask…

  • What is it that makes accountants more ethical?
  • Is it something that is inborn in us?
  • Does being an accountant make us more ethical?
  • Or is it an inborn belief in ethical behavior that makes accounting attractive to us?

READ MORE →