The age of the digital accountants
An insight into the daily life of a digital accountant
The world seems awash with the latest AI craze but it can all feel overwhelming.
Whether it is dumbstruck awe at how a 10 word prompt can give rise to such wonderful art, or that it's the dawning that these things are going to take my job, what am I going to do with my life??
The purpose of this is to demonstrate real world applications of not just AI but all digital solutions within an accountancy practice.
We will cover what my firm is currently working on and how it can be implemented in accountancy firms across the country.
Firstly, about me and my accountancy practice.
My name is Jonathan Mackie and at the time of writing I'm a 34 year old chartered accountant that has a passion for efficiency and systemisation. If there is a way to invest time now into a process used frequently that saves time, then I'm doing that. This had led me to investing my time learning the basics of Python (a computer language) and other IT knowledge, to cut out the mundane from my job and allow me to concentrate on the exciting value added work.
I jointly own NRB Chartered Accountants a 75 year old accountancy practice based in the delightful town of Wigan in the North West of England. It's not wrong to say that the firm has had quite the journey in the last 5 years since joining.
We were a typical accountancy practice, operating out of three terraced houses in the centre of Wigan, each room a myriad of extension cables plugged into the one plug socket. All our files were paper based, we sent accounts out in the post for signing along with a paper bill and accepted payment by cheque. I think you can imagine the scene.
We now operate out of one floor of an office block, 3 meeting rooms, open plan, natural plants and not a printed set of accounts in sight, as we are now fully paperless.
There is a still a long way to go on mine and the firm's journey but I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all.