Donny Shimamoto, Author at CPA Trendlines

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

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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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.
READ MORE →

FEATURED

What Big Data Means to Small Firms

Focus 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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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.
READ MORE →

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?

INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Ready for Non-CPA CPA Firms?

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 at a surface level their rationale makes sense, when I think further about the bigger picture of the accounting profession, I’m not sure I agree with their direction. I do however think that the accounting profession needs to be more cohesive and inclusive, and perhaps that is the better solution to pursue, rather enabling more non-accountants to be CPAs.

RELATED: Accounting Services Aren’t What You Think They Are

One of the major premises of their rationale is that CPA firms are hiring an increasing number of non-accounting graduates so we need to enable more of these people to be CPAs. Well, just because they work at a CPA firm, does someone have to be a CPA? Or just because they help with a tax return audit, or consulting project, do they need to be a CPA?

INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Accounting Services Aren’t What You Think They Are

When anyone can do taxes & accounting, what's left for CPAs?

By Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA

When most people hear the word “accountant” they immediately think of taxes or bookkeeping…and the nerdy introvert glued to a spreadsheet on their computer screen.

But in reality, you don’t have to be an accountant to prepare tax returns or record accounting transactions. Neither of those tasks requires any kind of accounting license, credential or certification.

TECHNOLOGY

Learning from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

What disaster recovery readiness means for accountants.

By Donny C. Shimamoto

Think back just a short while ago when you first found out that Hurricane Harvey was poised to hit Texas. Or when you first heard Irma was about to hit Florida.

MORE: 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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

If a hurricane or other natural disaster were coming to your town would you know what to do to ensure that the damage and impact to your IT environment was prevented or minimized?
READ MORE →

FEATURED

Focus on Cyber Risk, Not Just Security

Take a comprehensive and holistic approach that includes your business strategy.

By Donny C. Shimamoto

Cybersecurity is a huge buzzword right now. Businesses are worried about it, people are worried about it and vendors are trying to sell you cyber protection solutions.

MORE: 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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Attending a cybersecurity webinar or seminar is also not for the faint at heart. Even I, an IT specialist in the CPA profession, often leave those events scared to put any of my personal data anywhere online.
READ MORE →

TECHNOLOGY

RESEARCH: When to Replace Your Firm’s Computer Equiment

How to plan with "risk of failure" and "ease of replacement" calculations.

By Donny Shimamoto
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC

What are the standard refresh cycles for CPA firm technology equipment? Well, it depends on the type of equipment.

As a physical asset, hardware replacement must usually be planned for in advance so that you’re not scrambling to replace it after it fails. This proactive replacement is often referred to as performing a “hardware refresh.” Hardware refreshes are often driven by the risk of failure of a particular hardware asset. Different types of hardware have varying risks of failure as they age. For example, laptops have a relatively high risk of failure once they're four years old, but they are also moderately easy to replace. On the other hand, servers are generally unlikely to fail in their first three years of use, but they can be expensive and difficult to replace.

The table below shows some of the common types of hardware and general risk of failure based on the number of years the hardware has been in service.

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Making IT Matter to Accountants

4 added values, plus questions you both should be asking.

By Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies

Back in the olden days of 2003, business philosopher Nicholas Carr published an earthshaking article in Harvard Business Review under the title of “IT Doesn’t Matter.” He said that IT had essentially become a commodity, something that every organization had, something that had become so relatively inexpensive that all organizations were – with regard to IT – equal.

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

IT Nerds Need Budget Help

Accountants must define categories of expenditures.

By Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies

If you think the brainiacs in the IT department are going to tell you how to divvy up their budget into capital and operating expenditures, you’re in for a surprise, and not necessarily a good one. IT people are smart, but they aren’t accounting smart, which, as we all know, is a very special kind of smart.

MANAGEMENT

8 Ways to Wrestle Software Subscriptions Into Submission

One question leads to another.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies

Budget talks between accounting and information technology departments can get pretty complicated. Accountants know budgets; IT folks know IT. Not many people know both.

RELATED: IT Hardware Gets Even More Complex (Great!) | How Accounting Geeks and Techie Nerds Can Play Nicely Together

But you don’t have to know both if you know the right questions. One area of special concern is budgeting for subscriptions to software.

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

IT Hardware Gets Even More Complex (Great!)

Some questions for both accountants and IT.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies

Budget season is a good time for accountants and IT wonks to get together for a heart-to-heart about hardware. Computers and peripherals aren’t like the hardware of yore. They’re omnipresent in the organization. They have strings attached. They have special issues in obsolescence. Sometimes it’s hard to draw a line between hardware and software.

Here is a suggested a series of questions that accountants and IT wonks should address as they make budget decisions. Here are a few of the ones that relate to hardware: READ MORE →

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

How Accounting Geeks and Techie Nerds Can Play Nicely Together

The budget demands it.

By Donny C. Shimamoto
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies

Accounting geeks and IT nerds are folks from different countries, different cultures, different ways of life.

They speak different languages and they have different objectives within their organization. The accountants will never fathom – nor should they have to fathom – the hardware and software needs of the IT department. Likewise, IT has more important things to do than deal with the intricacies of accounting. READ MORE →

SEARCH CPA TRENDLINES

Donny Shimamoto

MORE AT STORE.CPATRENDLINES.COM

Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, is the founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC, a specialized CPA firm dedicated to helping small businesses and middle market organizations leverage strategic technologies, proactively manage their business and technical risks, and enable balanced organizational growth and development. Donny also works with larger organizations as a trusted business advisor, facilitating organizational strategic planning and execution, IT governance and planning, enterprise architecture, information architecture and assurance, business process improvement, and business intelligence initiatives.

Click here for more by Donny Shimamoto

Donny was the first Certified Information Technology Professional (CPA.CITP) in the State of Hawaii, and is one of only four in the state. The CITP credential is a specialty designation of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), that identifies Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) with the unique ability to bridge between business and technology; meeting the strict requirements for a CPA license as well as additional training and experience in: technology strategic planning, IT architecture, business process enablement, system development and acquisition, IT audit and control, and IT governance.

The immediate-past chairman of the AICPA’s IMTA Executive Committee, Donny has been both influential and critical in several AICPA initiatives including development of an IT Competency Model for CPAs, and redesign of the CITP Credential. Donny previously co-chaired the AICPA’s Business Intelligence Working Group, researching and creating practice aids in the area of Evidence-based Management, Application & Data Integration and Information Assurance. Donny has also been involved in the authoring of guidance published by the AICPA on IT Considerations for Risk-Based Auditing andEnterprise Business Intelligence. As a subject matter expert, Donny is often an invited speaker at national and international webinars, and a familiar key-note speaker at national-level conferences.

Donny obtained invaluable knowledge and exposure to a wide range of industries and sectors (retail, hospitality, state government, defense, and higher education) while earning his CPA license as a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's Business Assurance Services, Operational & Systems Risk Management Services, and Management Consulting Services lines of business. With ITK he has expanded his industry expertise to include not-for-profit (social services, foundations, and membership organizations), professional services, small businesses, technology, and mobile professionals.

Here’s what you’re looking for: Donny Shimamoto