Why do Accounting Professionals Need Engineering Skills?
In conventional accounting education, there are few mathematics and numerical courses, and they are taught at the arithmetic four operations level. Problem solving, statistics, algorithms, and equation training are almost never included in the teaching program. However, digital transformation has made data meaningful by classifying and analyzing it with certain programming and algorithms, and data science has become more important. Therefore, members of the profession need these skills to accurately analyze and interpret digital data. Accountants need to understand how numbers work.
Accountants are not computer engineers. No one expects them to create digital systems, but they need to be able to monitor the functions and outputs of digital systems, as well as to understand them — to be able to change them — so that they can make better decisions.
We can define accounting engineering as bringing mathematical applications, system design, analytical thinking, engineering methods, technical tools, and case studies to the field of accounting.
In the engineering profession, when events are evaluated more broadly, then problems can be solved more easily. In business life, engineers are preferred for problem solving and numerical work. The best example of this is the banking sector. Engineers are hired in this sector because complex derivatives in banking include numerical questions and engineers have the ability to think fast and analytically to address these questions. For example, today’s cancer research is done by software engineers, not by doctors. Engineers can actively use high-tech products and design flows and systems using them. The accounting engineering education program also aims to bring these competencies to the members of the profession.
Technology has the potential to commodify the basic services of the accounting profession and to radically reshape all roles of accountants. We can benefit from technology by applying a methodology that does not resist constant optimization and change in our workflow.
It is of critical importance to understand and adopt the technological developments for the future of the accounting profession. We have to know new technological tools such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, RSO, cloud systems and big data. Engineering gives us the capabilities we need to understand and use these technologies. Engineering knowledge is required to manage the continuous workflow optimization required by today’s accounting practices and to analyze and interpret data in digital systems. For example, businesses need good quality data to perform complex tasks such as predicting accounting and finance trends. This is where accounting engineers come into play. Accounting engineers can collect, verify, analyze, interpret, and develop strategies for accounting information in a manner that businesses can use.
Presently, in the education given in universities and professional organizations, some efforts are made to adapt to digitalization. However, the current accounting education system is not enough to prepare accountants to work with technology. The accounting engineering education program can manage this process by directly using technologies in education. In summary, while the present education is trying to adapt to digitalization, accounting engineering aims to manage this process.
Conventional education is far from digital transformation culture and thought. Another objective of the accounting engineering education program is to bring this culture and idea to the members of the profession. The support of the members of the profession, international professional organizations and universities is very important in the implementation and legal framework of accounting engineering.
