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Infiniti provides a tool to guide your professional journey as an accountant
- 18 January 2021
- Accounting
- Ciaran Ryan
The SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) has recently changed its CPD policy from input-based (in other words, a requirement to put in a certain number of hours) to an output-based system requiring the attainment of certain skills and competencies. This new system became effective on 1 January 2020.
CPD (Continuous Professional Development) has been a challenge for many accountants who would go through the motions of clocking up CPD hours, but without advancing their professional goals or competencies. The new Saica CPD system changes that.
Infiniti is a learning assessment and planning tool for all accounting professionals and is applicable to Chartered Accountants (CAs (SA)), Associate General Accountants (AGAs (SA)) and Accounting Technicians (ATs (SA)).
Why SA accounting has crashed in global terms
The audit profession in SA has dropped from Number 1 to Number 30 in the world because of the various accounting scandals of which we have all read.
This, and the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, prompted Saica to develop a new Competency Framework which identifies deficiencies in the profession, such as lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills.
The accounting profession is racing through technological evolutions that require continuous updating, as well as new skills and lifelong learning. Like it or not, acquiring multi-disciplinary skills will be expected of accountants going forward. Implied in this is the reality that many accountants have strayed from the profession’s core focus on ethical and trusted leadership.
Accounting today is not the number one career choice for bright young people. The accountant of the future will have to embrace many different skills not traditionally association with accounting: this includes technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, softer skills and the ability to work internationally – to name a few.
Accountants are more than box tickers
Accountants are seen as box tickers in many industries, which suggests they have lost their ability to provide deep-level analysis and guidance to businesses. Management accounting is a critical part of the accountant’s toolbox, and this is one of the skills in demand from businesses at a time of great economic stress.
Surveys among accountants tells us that most of their work is compliance-related, which is necessary, but not particularly challenging.
What’s demanded of the accountant of the future
What’s coming is technology – in fact, it’s already here – that will allow for audits in real time rather than once a year. Accountants doing this (and there are quite a few) doing this are becoming essential to business efficiency on a daily basis. Accountants will have to have their pulse on the finger of the business, rather than mere compliance officers. This more than anything else makes accounting a vital, if not critical, engine of all businesses and organisation.
Accountants will have to develop skills and competencies is areas such as ethics, management accounting, technology, communication and strategy. It is evident that the current educational pathway for accountants is weak in many of these areas.
The CPD Reflective Plan
What is required of the accountant of the future? They will have to undertake relevant CPD activities annually and use the outcome-based measurement approach and generate what is called a CPD Reflective Plan. You will have to keep records of this and send to Saica for monitoring.
CPD Reflective Plan has 3 phases: Planning, Action and Reflection. Different professionals have different professional needs, so there is no one-size-fits-all. Every CPD plan must be tailored to the professional gaps and needs of each individual.
Saica has defined 10 career pathways to assist you on your journey, and the Infiniti app allows you to self-assess your progress.
Compiling your comprehensive CPD plan with Infinit
Infiniti can be used to compile your comprehensive plan
- Profile yourself, based on your roles, skills and functions, both present and in the future
- The app allows you to self-assess your competencies, based on the activities undertaken
- Benchmarks you against Sacia’s standards, providing a dashboard to tell you where you stand
- CPD gives you urgent and less urgent CPD needs to address shortcomings.
- At end of each year, allows you reflect your learning and developmental needs.
It’s important to note that there are no minimum hours required for CPD under this new system. Only you as an accounting professional can determine whether the desired outcome was achieved. Once you register for Infiniti, you will be guided through a profiling and self-assessment stage where you will choose your professional pathway and the level at which you operate in that pathway.
The next step involves planning your CPD programmes, and a dashboard will assist you in this crucial step. This is followed by the last step, an Action Plan, where Infiniti will provide you with all the self-identified professional and personal developmental needs for the year.
You can find out more here: www.myinfiniti.co.za
SA Accounting Academy (SAAA) offers Subscription Plans, Live Webinars, Webinars On-Demand, Access to Experts, Courses, Articles and more: https://cpd.accountingacademy.co.za