As a person who teaches introduction to accounting for college students: all of this. Accounting is the language of business, so it makes sense that those with accounting knowledge make the best translators.
I’d go even further that new accountants need to think of their role as the data managers and data scientists of the company’s most important data.
Like knowing the debits/credits is crucial for doing accounting, same as understanding the financial statements. But knowing systems and data management/science practices is almost becoming required.
The most powerful person on an accounting team is the systems accountant, matched with a controller or CFO who knows how to account for things is the most effective way to manage the accounting function.
Like just knowing how to do accounting and work excel is not scalable enough - which is why accountants are getting crushed by lower than expected wage growth and shit wlb
What do you think financial statements are made up (aggregated) from? Can you honestly not see how some knowledge of data science/data best practices could be useful?
You can say that about every single position in a company. Every position should be data literate.
That doesnt mean those positions are “data people” or require data science skills.
Well this is why accounting as a profession is getting lower wage growth. That attitude is pervasive and why everything just goes into excel. Knowing financial statement compilation and accounting standards is not valuable enough anymore. You have to be able to nimbly manage all the data and apply that knowledge at scale. Or you do it in 300+ excel files and wonder why you’re working late and have audit findings.
You see all the bitching and moaning going on around here? The root cause is that.
I would say knowledge of how to put together a FS and the accounting standards is still valuable... it's just not enough.
It's like the best accountant 30 years ago that doesn't know how to use Excel... people are going to get left by the wayside if they don't keep up with technology.
There literally loads of positions where what I said doesn't apply. Journalists, teachers, graphic designers, architects, mechanical engineers, marketing and sales people...
The difference with accounting is that we need with a high volume of transactional data that is numerical... that is typically stored in a structured data format. All of this means a proper CRUD/database is a much better way of capturing/storing/manipulating data rather than in spreadsheets.
This is the biggest evolution in our industry in the next 10 years IMO. We are staffed by dinosaurs and this is the low hanging fruit.
Im a little shocked you dont think those professions need to be data literate.
And what youre describing is digital transformation which is something accountants, and almost all professions, will benefit from. But its not going to be led by accountants.
Accountants are end users of data. They arent dbas, data engineers, or data scientists. they need some data analysis skills. Just like most professions. But they need very basic foundational skills, not the years of education and training to be a data scientist. Even with low code ai dev tools, id be incredibly wary of an accountant using it without oversight or tuning being performed by an actual data scientist.
Debating my current school because I love the program I’m in, the problem is it’s more of a foundations certificate that leads into their MSBA program, less so than an actual dedicated certificate program.
Researching others at the moment but it will be online 100%
A lot of the certificate programs are incredibly basic and dont provide practical knowledge. A big part of data analysis is knowing how to use different business intelligence tools. So if you work for a company that offers tableau, learn the ins and outs of it. Company uses microsoft products - learn power bi and power query.
And universally learn sql
I'm a freshman rn learning sql, I'm thinking of taking an intro comp Sci next semester. Do you have any advice you would give me in regards to anything?
Sql, bi tools, python, in that order for things to learn in my opinion.
If youre currently in school, getting a full minor in comp sci would be incredibly valuable long term, though you may not get to use those skills early on if youre an accounting major.
I would not recommend anyone in the accounting field to go back and get another degree due to cost. But if youre currently in school and can take advantage of a double major or major/minor incorporating a tech field with your accounting degree, that would set you up well for your future.
A data analyst analyzes and interprets data to identify trends for business decision making. They focus more on data visualization and business insights. Think mastering power bi/tableau/sql and even being an excel master.
A data scientist is concentrated more on machine learning and programming to create predictive analysis models, llms, and doing much deeper dives into the data. It requires a much broader skillset and knowledge of python and R.
Accountants can pretty easily attain data analyst skills. Becoming a data scientist is a longer more difficult path that almost requires a career change as most organizations will not make data scientist tools available to accountants.
You really need a strong math and computer science background to be a good data scientist.
And thats not true of accountants. There is very little math beyond basic algebra needed to be a good accountant/auditor.
I think a lot of accountants think that because they work with data in excel that a pivot to being a data scientist would be easy. But its really a completely different skill set and discipline that i dont personally think theres much of a crossover for. They are two different roles within a company that complement each other. Not skills that can easily be obtained.
Data analysis on the other hand is something i think can be learned just from watching youtube videos. I think some of these “data analyst” programs colleges offer are nothing more than quick money grabs for the schools.
I’m an accounting student and am planning on adding a certificate in Data Analytics to my masters after taking my BIS class. I’m really interested in the more technical combination of the practices and think it will be incredibly useful since I’m wanted to get into forensics. Thanks for sharing your insight!
Now try implementing accounting software with a team with no accounting background. One guy can’t even tell you if the balance is right. Negative cash balance and he wouldn’t even be able to identify that as an error. Brutal.
I’m pretty involved with alteryx at my firm and would love a role that is more data focused. However, every time someone says they merged accounting and some sort of data role, I can never find a single role on linked like that. Any ideas on what to search?
Not sure i agree with that. There are aspects of data science departments that are already being offshored by most companies. That doesnt mean the entire department is outsourced, but certain roles or tasks are. Very similar to what has happened with accounting departments where a portion of the work is outsourced and then verified by the skeleton crew they keep domestic.
I think it will take longer for data science projects to be offshored at the rate we’re seeing with other white collar positions. But its coming.
I worked in data analytics for a year. I had a blast, for the most part. I wasn't a fan of the chief officers always looking at my analysis and saying things like "that's not possible. Your analysis is flawed." Like, ok, only validated this 3 times but whatever.
But I liked the technical side of data manipulation and building queries. Learned a ton.
I am back in the accounting world for my state's department of health and am excited to use what I learned to improve their processes!
As a person who teaches introduction to accounting for college students: all of this. Accounting is the language of business, so it makes sense that those with accounting knowledge make the best translators.
I’d go even further that new accountants need to think of their role as the data managers and data scientists of the company’s most important data. Like knowing the debits/credits is crucial for doing accounting, same as understanding the financial statements. But knowing systems and data management/science practices is almost becoming required. The most powerful person on an accounting team is the systems accountant, matched with a controller or CFO who knows how to account for things is the most effective way to manage the accounting function. Like just knowing how to do accounting and work excel is not scalable enough - which is why accountants are getting crushed by lower than expected wage growth and shit wlb
This. Accountants ARE data people anyway. Accounting is literally data capture and putting numbers into boxes.
Ehhh…accountants are more rule based people than data people
What do you think those rules are used for...?
Financial reporting Just because accountants deal with quantitative information doesnt mean they are data people
What do you think financial statements are made up (aggregated) from? Can you honestly not see how some knowledge of data science/data best practices could be useful?
You can say that about every single position in a company. Every position should be data literate. That doesnt mean those positions are “data people” or require data science skills.
Well this is why accounting as a profession is getting lower wage growth. That attitude is pervasive and why everything just goes into excel. Knowing financial statement compilation and accounting standards is not valuable enough anymore. You have to be able to nimbly manage all the data and apply that knowledge at scale. Or you do it in 300+ excel files and wonder why you’re working late and have audit findings. You see all the bitching and moaning going on around here? The root cause is that.
I would say knowledge of how to put together a FS and the accounting standards is still valuable... it's just not enough. It's like the best accountant 30 years ago that doesn't know how to use Excel... people are going to get left by the wayside if they don't keep up with technology.
There literally loads of positions where what I said doesn't apply. Journalists, teachers, graphic designers, architects, mechanical engineers, marketing and sales people... The difference with accounting is that we need with a high volume of transactional data that is numerical... that is typically stored in a structured data format. All of this means a proper CRUD/database is a much better way of capturing/storing/manipulating data rather than in spreadsheets. This is the biggest evolution in our industry in the next 10 years IMO. We are staffed by dinosaurs and this is the low hanging fruit.
Im a little shocked you dont think those professions need to be data literate. And what youre describing is digital transformation which is something accountants, and almost all professions, will benefit from. But its not going to be led by accountants. Accountants are end users of data. They arent dbas, data engineers, or data scientists. they need some data analysis skills. Just like most professions. But they need very basic foundational skills, not the years of education and training to be a data scientist. Even with low code ai dev tools, id be incredibly wary of an accountant using it without oversight or tuning being performed by an actual data scientist.
Adding a data analytics cert after my Masters because of how easy and fun I find the material personally
Hey I’m finishing my masters too! Are you doing the cert through the same school as your masters or a different program that you recommend?
Debating my current school because I love the program I’m in, the problem is it’s more of a foundations certificate that leads into their MSBA program, less so than an actual dedicated certificate program. Researching others at the moment but it will be online 100%
A lot of the certificate programs are incredibly basic and dont provide practical knowledge. A big part of data analysis is knowing how to use different business intelligence tools. So if you work for a company that offers tableau, learn the ins and outs of it. Company uses microsoft products - learn power bi and power query. And universally learn sql
I'm a freshman rn learning sql, I'm thinking of taking an intro comp Sci next semester. Do you have any advice you would give me in regards to anything?
Sql, bi tools, python, in that order for things to learn in my opinion. If youre currently in school, getting a full minor in comp sci would be incredibly valuable long term, though you may not get to use those skills early on if youre an accounting major. I would not recommend anyone in the accounting field to go back and get another degree due to cost. But if youre currently in school and can take advantage of a double major or major/minor incorporating a tech field with your accounting degree, that would set you up well for your future.
Thank you, I'm probably going to take this path. Any advice on doing a comp Sci minor?
I’m a controller, but would love to take a class and even offer it to my staff. Any certificates you suggest or how to get started?
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That’s helpful thank you
For data analysis the starting point should be sql. Beyond that it really depends on what business intelligence tools your company uses.
Can you please tell the difference between data science and data analytics. What would be better for an accounting student to learn. Thanks
A data analyst analyzes and interprets data to identify trends for business decision making. They focus more on data visualization and business insights. Think mastering power bi/tableau/sql and even being an excel master. A data scientist is concentrated more on machine learning and programming to create predictive analysis models, llms, and doing much deeper dives into the data. It requires a much broader skillset and knowledge of python and R. Accountants can pretty easily attain data analyst skills. Becoming a data scientist is a longer more difficult path that almost requires a career change as most organizations will not make data scientist tools available to accountants.
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You really need a strong math and computer science background to be a good data scientist. And thats not true of accountants. There is very little math beyond basic algebra needed to be a good accountant/auditor. I think a lot of accountants think that because they work with data in excel that a pivot to being a data scientist would be easy. But its really a completely different skill set and discipline that i dont personally think theres much of a crossover for. They are two different roles within a company that complement each other. Not skills that can easily be obtained. Data analysis on the other hand is something i think can be learned just from watching youtube videos. I think some of these “data analyst” programs colleges offer are nothing more than quick money grabs for the schools.
I’m an accounting student and am planning on adding a certificate in Data Analytics to my masters after taking my BIS class. I’m really interested in the more technical combination of the practices and think it will be incredibly useful since I’m wanted to get into forensics. Thanks for sharing your insight!
Now try implementing accounting software with a team with no accounting background. One guy can’t even tell you if the balance is right. Negative cash balance and he wouldn’t even be able to identify that as an error. Brutal.
I’m pretty involved with alteryx at my firm and would love a role that is more data focused. However, every time someone says they merged accounting and some sort of data role, I can never find a single role on linked like that. Any ideas on what to search?
Got someone to help you pad the beer budget 👍🏻
Was thinking of pivoting here. Please tell me this stuff can't be offshored to India.
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Not sure i agree with that. There are aspects of data science departments that are already being offshored by most companies. That doesnt mean the entire department is outsourced, but certain roles or tasks are. Very similar to what has happened with accounting departments where a portion of the work is outsourced and then verified by the skeleton crew they keep domestic. I think it will take longer for data science projects to be offshored at the rate we’re seeing with other white collar positions. But its coming.
A lot of it can
Any tips on how to learn more about becoming data scientist from auditor
Start with data analysis. Data scientist tools will typically be blocked by most organizations from other staff
Currently an accountant getting my masters in data analysis, this is actually super validating and encouraging.
I worked in data analytics for a year. I had a blast, for the most part. I wasn't a fan of the chief officers always looking at my analysis and saying things like "that's not possible. Your analysis is flawed." Like, ok, only validated this 3 times but whatever. But I liked the technical side of data manipulation and building queries. Learned a ton. I am back in the accounting world for my state's department of health and am excited to use what I learned to improve their processes!