The evolution of your business

In fact,the main challenges for Accounting in 2023 are no more than the challenges that already began in 2022, which were inherited from 2021 and previous years, and which will continue in the years to come. And these challenges are increasingly centered on the Certified Accountant as a professional responsible for accountability, but increasingly, with the role of advisor in the management of the business he accompanies, whether as an internal accountant in an entity, or as an accountant who manages a portfolio of clients.

Market competitiveness in all business sectors has accelerated the need for real-time analysis of numbers. Managing a business has to rely on timely and reliable financial reports and cannot wait for late results. The entrepreneur has to be informed about the evolution of his business as a whole and this information comes from Accounting.

The first and most important challenge for Accounting is to know how to adapt and use, in a massive way, all the technological potential that allows the registration of all operations in a quick and clear way, without wasting time for those who make these records. A clear bet on management software in an integrated and dynamic vision is essential for Accounting to provide us with all the necessary information in a timely and reliable manner. It is also important that the accounting software allows us to obtain charts and graphs that are increasingly useful for analyzing the evolution of the business, without having to resort to auxiliary charts that are always obtained through the financial statements. If all the information is already in the accounting software, there is no reason to have to use external tools.

The Digital Archive

Still following the technological evolution, another major challenge, already widely implemented in several companies, is the use of digital filing. This was a big step towards the elimination of paper and that facilitated what we can call "communication" between documents and accounting. The use of the digital archive has allowed for an easing of the documentation processing, with large benefits for a significant increase in productivity in the document organization process. The digitization of documents assumes even greater relevance in the case of accounting offices as a vehicle to facilitate the timely availability of relevant documents for accounting.

And because accounting is organized and supervised by the Certified Accountant, the role of this professional assumes vital importance. The Certified Accountant has the great challenge of being the leader of these transformations, having to be open to the modernization of accounting processes and procedures based on technological evolution. He has to

to be the motivating element for this evolution to be successful and massively applicable. The Certified Accountant in this new era has to be prepared to know how to accompany the management of the businesses in which he is responsible for the presentation of financial statements. He must also be the permanent "trainer" of entrepreneurs, which means that he has the obligation to raise the importance of accounting as a fundamental element so that the entrepreneur knows how to make the best decisions. It is important that business owners have sufficient accounting and financial literacy to allow them to become aware of the true importance of accounting in their business. The entrepreneur can no longer use the expression "my accountant knows best"! The entrepreneur has to understand that he has to be part of the process and be able to interpret the fundamental pieces of accounting so that the accounting of his business is as true to its objectives as possible.

To conclude, I would also leave as a point of great relevance in this theme, the issue of taxation, since it is from the data obtained in accounting that taxes that have a real impact on the lives of companies and businesses are calculated. At this point, Accounting and Accountants have the great challenge of not only having effective mechanisms to present reliable and timely estimates of taxes, but also to clearly anticipate the use of tax benefits available at each moment and that are fundamental in the profitability and competitiveness of business.

José Pires
Viseeon Alto da Barca and São Brás de Alportel
jose.pires@viseeon.pt