AICPA's 'The Digital Journey of Finance” paper is part of an 18-month global research project, exploring the future progress of the finance profession and its role in the wider organisational ecosystem. Through interactions with finance leaders, academics, and students, they examined and investigated the ambit of finance in a rapidly changing world, highlighting critical factors and the proficiencies necessary to our evolution and advancement as a profession.

The paper follows up from the 2019 white paper, ‘Re-inventing finance for a digital world’, confirming that the accounting and finance profession has been on a continuous transformation journey. Businesses are becoming more global and competitive. The workforce is becoming more diverse and dispersed. Demands from customers, suppliers, regulators, employees, and other stakeholders are steadily increasing. The pace of technological advancements is contributing to a fast-moving and multifaceted world. These factors and others are leading to new business models, new mindsets, and new ways of working. The profession is transforming, and technology is paving the way for its future.

This updated paper explores the challenges and the barriers that organisations face on their digitalisation journey. They consider the role of finance alongside the implementation of technology infrastructure, the automation of processes, emerging relationships with data and the skills required to drive digital transformation.

Today, more than ever, organisations are looking for ways to strengthen their digital capabilities by implementing new infrastructures, leveraging new technical tools, looking for innovative ideas, and capitalising on the vast amount of available data.

The research has revealed that digital transformation is no longer about gaining a competitive advantage; it is necessary to drive value and, ultimately, to survive.

To read 'Future of Finance 2.0 Emerging Themes: The Digital Journey of Finance' in full, click here.