“Accountant as a profession won’t go away. Laws and tax systems are extremely complicated and tend to change quite often. A regular person finds it hard to understand,” says Lyubov Monich, CEO of accounting company Bukva Audita. “This expertise requires continuous updating. One has to keep the finger on new laws and features of accounting. These days, accountants are also lawyers, HR experts, and a person that can advise as to how to save on taxes.”
Coleman Services doesn’t agree with those pessimistic predictions either. “Considering the demand for accountants, one shouldn’t expect that shrinkage. Operations require participations from accountants. State bodies conduct audits all the time. Proper tax work is the most important phase of pwerations as violators will be strictly punished,” says the company’s marketing expert Mikhail Kirianov.
“Over the last three years, the section of Accounting, Finance, and Banks has been steadily in top 5 of all sections in terms of the number of job offerings. What is interesting, high demand generated high supply: there are more CVs in this realm than in any other. Still, the competition is about 3 people per job,” says Olga Pavluchenko, head of press office at Zarplata.ru.
However, automation of business processes is the main trend of present day. There’s no sense in keeping an army of employees if the job can be done by just one person. For that reason, specialists that poorly work with software, regular operationists, and aged employees (they can’t keep up with the technologies) are at risk of losing their job.
“Today, a rookie accountant can do what yesterday required hiring highly qualified specialists,” says Dmitri Kovalenko, head of accounting at BDO Unicon Ousourcing. “However, aside from typical operations, there is always a realm in accounting that requires individual approach to interpreting. For instance, how to classify some expenses? Depending on the decision you make, your company will pay different taxes. A misguided decision involves risks: if tax authorities challenge your actions, and you fail to justfiy then, your company will pay a penalty, let alone management accounting where you have to analyze and interpret your company’s financial data so that the managers could decide on its further development. I’m afraid nobody will be able to automatize those realms in a few decades to come. Highly-qualified specialists, analysts, and people with organizational skills and ability to manage projects will always be demanded.”
Pavel Kozlovski, the author of Keepsoft’s Accounting at Home added: “The future of accounting isn’t about being a bookworm, but a financial advisor. It’s about being a trusted person for a family, an assistant in planning household incomes and expenses, it’s about cutting mandatory payments and increasing profits. A good accountant is resourceful and omniscient, and they can make several scenarios, both optimistic and pessimistic.”
Labor Market Conditions
Zarplata.ru's research group has analyzed demand/supply dynamics over the past year. In Accounting, Finance, and Banks, everything’s steady. Thus, in the city of Yekaterinburg, average salary in early 2016 comprised 29,725.86 rubles, and increased by almost two thousand by the end of the same year to reach 31,714,78 rubles. In Novosibirsk, the situation is nearly the same: 29,745.44 in early 2016, and 30,528.93 later the same year.
Dmitri Kovalenko believes that accountant’s shouldn’t expect their salaries to grow in 2017. Only those experienced in international accounting have some chances.
Coleman Services’ Mikhail Kiryanov notes that it’s easier for accountants to find a job in the regions. “Businesses tend to demand services from outsourcing companies, which includes accounting outsourcing as well. Considering an accountant has an option to work remotely, outsourcers often hire experts from the regions, thus cutting their operational expenses,” he says.
How to Stay in the Profession?
“Usually, they imagine an accountant as a loner who can’t speak any language but numbers. It’s not true. In order to make accounting work properly, you have to correctly formulate tasks, receive proper data from employees and managers, and so on, which is impossible without ability to forge relationships and communicate,” Dmitri Kovalenko says. The experts noted that those willing to remain in the professions have to acquire new skills from their colleagues, methodologists, and grasp new IT systems. Responsibility, self-discipline, communication skills, and flexible thinking are of equal importance.
In order to keep the job and retain salary, you have to upgrade your skills, undergo annual attesting, or at least watch relevant webinars or seminars, Lyubov Monich believes.
“Accounting includes numerous fields of expertise, each of which has its own specific features. Professional development in this area usually happens in a certain group. However, if a company is very big, there’s an opportunity to get more experience by working in different sections. It seriously boosts one’s chances to climb carrer ladder,” Mikhail Kiryanov believes. “For those who strive to earn more, we recommend to study international accounting standards of IFRS as it expands their opportunities, and makes them demanded by international companies. An accountant may also become a financial expert, an economy expert, or an auditor.”
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