10/5/21, 5:15 PM How CPAs can prepare for handling the big data world
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CANADA (/EN/NEWS/CANADA) | TECHNOLOGY
How CPAs canprepare for handlingthe bigdata world
9.22.2021 | MICHELLE SINGERMAN
Successfully analyzing major data sets may mean brushing up on current skills—and
learning some new ones, too
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How CPAs can prepare for handling the big data world
CPA Canada (/en)
10/5/21, 5:15 PM How CPAs can prepare for handling the big data world
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Using different skills to analyze big data, such as natural curiosity, will be advantageous to future
accountants (Getty Images/eclipse_images)
Digitization is affecting many facets of day-to-day living. According to a recent report, The role of
professional accountants in data (/en/foresight-initiative/data-governance/role-professionalaccountants-in-data), from CPA Canada and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC),
digital data was estimated to be at 40 zettabytes (40 trillion gigabytes) in 2020, up from 1.2
zettabytes in 2010.
Maintaining relevancy in the digital age of AI-compiled data sets, as the report shows, means
accountants will have to learn new skills and competencies to succeed. One such strategy being
undertaken by the CPA profession is the draft of the new “Way Forward” Competency Map
(CM2.0 (/en/news/accounting/the-profession/2021-07-07-competency-map)), which was
developed to better align the needs of this changing world with the skills of an accountant.
“The data sets are changing and getting bigger,” says FCPA Tim Jackson, chair of the Competency
Map Task Force (/en/become-a-cpa/why-become-a-cpa/the-cpa-certification-program/the-cpacompetency-map/competency-map-task-force) and CEO of Shad Canada, Canada’s premier
summer enrichment program for high school students focused on STEAM (science, technology,
engineering, arts and mathematics) and entrepreneurship. “But we also have access to more tools
that make it easier to select those datasets.”
As Jackson points out, CPAs are already skilled at analyzing data and completing sample
selections. “In many ways,” he says, “I don’t think [the role] is changing, the information is
changing.”
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
To remain successful in this changing digital landscape, Jackson says CPAs will have to continue
being lifelong learners. Upskilling through various courses (/en/foresight-initiative/datagovernance) and CPD credits will help accountants be in the know when it comes to digital
trends and data crunching. Much of this, he says, will need to happen both through training and
by organizations providing roles that allow employees to evolve—such as data scientist and data
controller, as the IFAC and CPA Canada report states (/en/foresight-initiative/datagovernance/role-professional-accountants-in-data).
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“That’s an investment [employers] have to make,” he says. But he adds that the responsibility also
rests on employees, who must have an appetite for continued learning—whether through
training offered by employers or staying up to date on new information on their own accord.
“This idea of being curious will be the key characteristic for new CPAs,” says Jackson. “If we bring
people into the profession who are curious, it implies they’re constantly trying to figure out
what’s new, what’s coming. And, with that curiosity, comes knowledge.”
POSITIVE CHANGE
The upside to the shifting role, according to Jackson, is that it allows accountants to do more
analysis. “We still need to apply and validate and understand the historical data, but now it’s the
interpretation, saying ‘how do I then use our data moving forward to inform decision making,’”
he says.
Traditionally, the accounting profession has had a historical approach, looking back to
understand how things will look in the future. But, as Gigi Dawe, corporate oversight and
governance lead at CPA Canada explains, “Big data is bringing more unstructured and intangible
data (/en/foresight-initiative/data-governance/mastering-data/canadas-digital-economy-andthe-cpa), and data that will help you to assess what’s going to happen versus telling you what did
happen, for measuring. That’s the biggest challenge that we’re facing—we don’t really have
experience in dealing with this unstructured or intangible data.”
While CPAs have the tools to handle an influx in digital information, Dawe explains that the
introduction of big data means accountants must now shift how they manage it. “We’ve really got
to start looking at what we do with that AI-enabled data and working with that,” she says, “and
learn those skills and ensure that we’re understanding and dealing with that.”
To tackle this hurdle, CPA Michael Lionais, managing director, Technomics Canada—which
specializes in decision support—and consultant on CPA Canada’s Foresight (/en/foresightinitiative) initiative, says accountants will have to learn a new data language, analyzing
unstructured data against the new ways it is processed, “so that [accountants] actually take the
data and get it into a format that they can then use,” he says.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
The most important skill Lionais foresees accountants needing? Learning to accept uncertainty.
“The accounting profession is all about precision and reconciliation,” he says. “What we’re going
to have to start learning is, how do we embrace uncertainty and learn how to reflect that in the
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advice that we are giving?”
The other concern, he says, is whether or not CPAs have the mindset for this. “It’s not just, ‘can
you develop the skills to understand data and manipulate data,’” he says, but you must have the
inquisitiveness to appropriately manipulate the data, too.
Lionais sees these changes as an opportunity for the profession to move into more integrated,
cross-functional roles. “It becomes a much more relevant, much more interesting, much more
dynamic profession,” he says.
ENHANCE YOUR DATA KNOWLEDGE
Expand your skills with CPA Canada’s data management cour (/en/career-and-professionaldevelopment/webinars/core-areas/management-accounting/management-reporting-needs-andsystems/data-management-certificate)se and delve deeper into the roles professional accountants
can get involved in (/en/foresight-initiative/data-governance/role-professional-accountants-indata) to oversee and manage data.
Also, learn to capitalize on the benefits of the digital economy (/en/career-and-professionaldevelopment/webinars/trends-issues/technology-and-information-management/cpas-acceleratedigital-transformation-with-dcam) and find out where the profession is headed in the future
(/en/foresight-initiative).
About the Author
Michelle Singerman
Michelle is a Toronto-based writer and digital content creator who began her career in local news
reporting more than a decade ago. Michelle has been with CPA Canada since 2013.
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