There was an interesting article in the Australian online news recently that a few years ago would have been scoffed at without further thought. The article was titled: “Is coding the blue collar job of the future?” and suggested that using the analogy of the building industry, we not only need architects and engineers and designers but also a lot of …
Are we irrevocably losing Compliance skills in Australia?…
I had a chat with a firm the other day that was resisting outsourcing and going to keep hiring local staff, on the pretext that managers of the future had always come from within the ranks. Late last year we blogged about the possible trend to bring the jobs back home as a result of changes in the Australian political climate. …
Simple Australian “I” returns disappear from Australian Accountants’ Compliance work
Technology is changing the way taxpayers worldwide interact with tax authorities. And it isn’t any different in Australia. The move towards self-lodging is inevitable for many reasons. Looking back into last century, Australia has had e-tax software for self lodgement since 1999 and for 15 years it was the only way for self-lodging individuals to lodge their tax return online. The …
Automation decimates Australian compliance
This week we thought we’d switch back to a date in history. The installation of traffic lights in Brisbane. Starting with the end of the story. After the traffic lights were installed and switched on, it was reported that the police officer on point duty at this intersection walked off his post for the last time just as the Minister for …
Clients won’t queue … Lessons for Australian Accountants from Australia’s Restaurant scene …
In a news article last month, Sydney diners were increasingly unwilling to stand in line waiting for their dinner. With more options for dining out and online booking at people’s fingertips, fewer diners were willing to queue for restaurants. As the article notes, people are becoming less and less patient. And “People don’t even want to wait for their coffee in …
Accounting Compliance gets a breather
The annual 2016 Good Bad Ugly – Executive Summary Report has just been released and there is some interesting news on the Compliance front. The Business Fitness team have pushed out some revelations contradicting the current thought that compliance is dead. In an interesting twist this year, the report indicates that while accounting firms have introduced other services into their business …
2025 and the Future of Compliance
2025 is just around the corner, and for pretty much all of us in Australia we’ll be somehow engaged in work or play. Most of the present factors that we see in our daily news will continue to affect work, life and play. Australia will have an increasing need for infrastructure to remain competitive, there will be an ageing population …
KPCB’s 2016 Internet trends report. Voice and other trends affecting accounting compliance
KPCB’s Mary Meeker has become a legend for publishing the annual compilation of the most critical statistics and trends in technology. The 2016 Internet trends report was released last month with the slides available here. It’s well worth spending some time going through and having a look at some amazing trends, and new businesses that have sprung up virtually overnight …
Australian Accountants are using offshore outsourcing
Just last week a news article came out with the heading: “Australian accountants are using offshore outsourcing” In an era where newspapers search for newsworthy news, this might be as shocking as it gets in the accounting world. The first interesting question is why, after a week of the article being online, there are yet no comments. Perhaps this isn’t …
Periscope, drones, and annual compliance
If you’ve been watching the news in Australia recently you’ve probably noticed, if not been amongst, some pretty ordinary weather recently. If you think of the way we now receive information, there have been huge remarkable changes in the past 20 years. It’s difficult to imagine many people waiting for the local evening news on television. So while some look …
