Workshop on latest IT technologies for accountants and how the accountants must change to remain relevant.

1. Latest IT Technologies for
Accountants
GGI World Conference – Vienna 2017
Richard Jahoda Jr.

2. 1. Introduction
2. Reasons for this workshop
3. Artificial Intelligence and Automation
4. Transform accounting data to a data model
5. Microsoft Power BI
6. Multidimensional analysis
7. Microsoft Flow
8. Automation of financial analysis
9. Automation in tax advisory
10. Automation in audit
11. Blockchain
Workshop agenda

3. About the speaker -
Richard Jahoda Jr.
Grinex Czech Republic - (2017 – Now)
Programming solutions for automation of various agendas
Responsible for operations of the company
KPMG Czech Republic - (2015 – 2017)
Programming solutions for automation of accounting and of financial controlling
Grinex Czech Republic - (2012 – 2015)
Person responsible for internal reporting for 5* hotel (10M EUR annual turnover)

4. Reasons for this
workshop

5. Significant percentage of sales of accountants, auditors, tax
advisors is coming from compliance services.
BUT! clients do not really want these services – they are forced
by the government to buy them.
We must become true business partners of our clients and help
them achieve their business goals.
Compliance is not enough
Compliance rules
are same for
everyone
It is easier to
develop mass
market solution
to automate
compliance
services
Compliance
becomes much
cheaper and
clients are leaving
„traditional
advisors“
We are
here

6. Can the non-accountant really
comfortably use this?
Example of the Czech statutory
balance sheet.
What is this good for???

7. You can do huge bang for very
little buck
Chose my system because ongoing SAP implementation had no progress
in the controlling department within one year.
Second largest pharma company
on the Czech market
• 180M EUR annual turnover
• more than 1.000 SKU‘s
• used in Czech and Slovakian
branch
• more than 30 users
Done singlehandedly in two
months.
I have used only Excel with
macros and SQL Server database
(free version would be
sufficient).
Client did not pay anything for
licences, only for my time.
Feedback was very positive.

8. „Stop doing accounting the old way and
start working with accounting data.“
The most important message
of this workshop

9. Artificial Intelligence and
Automation

10. Huge difference between Automation and Artificial Intelligence.
Automation:
• Software is working based on the defined rules (algorithm)
• Often contains machine learning abilities
• Online ads, Shopping basket suggestions, Spam filters, ….
Artificial intelligence:
• Does not follow defined rules – understands the problem
• Currently does not really exist (maybe IBM Watson)
Artificial Intelligence

11. This whole workshop is about automation!
People and computers amazingly complement each other.
Why should we care about
automation?
People:
Creative and can put
things into context
Takes us very long to
process data.
Computers:
Can process data very
fast.
Don‘t understand the
context (yet).

12. Automation will allow us to focus on things with more added
value for the client.
Put this into context with threat of commoditisation of our
services.
Why should we care about
automation?
Accountants
• Move towards advisory.
Tax advisors
• Automate manual tasks.
• Can save time on „simple“ cases.
Auditors
• Can move from sample testing to population testing.
• Putting more emphasis on understanding the processes.

13. Uses for Artificial
Intelligence/Automation
Basic automation
• Screen scrapping
• Rules-based
workflow
• Imitation of human
work
• Process mapping
Advanced automation
• Uses knowledge
base
• Ability to learn
• Able to work with
unstructured data
• Pattern recognition
Cognitive automation
• Artificial intelligence
• Understands
language
• Unsupervised
learning
• Uses big data
• Predictive analysis
Source: KPMG Czech Republic

14. What are the possible uses of automation
in accounting?
Is your firm using automation in
accounting? Give us examples.
Questions for the audience

15. • Automated data entry
• Automated bookkeeping
• Data analysis
• Data processing
• Report preparation
• Answering client‘s requests without human involvement
Uses for automation in
accounting

16. Transform accounting to
a data model

17. Accounting data model
Separate data storage and data presentation.
Each step should have dedicated processes and software
solutions.
In principle applies to accountants, tax advisors and auditors.
Data from
the client
Data
processed
and stored
with
additional
dimensions
Analysis of
data
Presentation
of
information
to the client
„Stop doing accounting the old way and start working with accounting data.“

18. Move to the accounting data model mindset enables us to use
automation solutions – you can‘t do that if you have everything
stored in custom made Excel files.
Have a data system that can be used for multiple clients.
Work hard only when creating the data model.
Generating reports each month should be done automatically
or by one click.
Accounting data model

19. How many of you think that accounting in
your firm is following this approach?
Question for the audience

20. Microsoft Power BI

21. Is your firm using any advanced tool for
visualisation of data?
(Power BI, Qlikview, Tableau,…)
Question for the audience

22. Positives:
• It is very strong in visualising
large data sets.
• It costs 10 USD per month
per user (for free for some
uses)
• Can be linked to plenty of
sources of data
Microsoft Power BI
Negatives:
• Is not that great for
presenting accounting
statements with fixed
structure.
• You and your client must
trust Microsoft – Power BI is
cloud based
Tool to design and present dynamic dashboards based on large data
sets.

23. Microsoft Power BI Report dynamically
filtered by clicking
on chart

24. Microsoft Power BI

25. Microsoft Power BI chat
interface
Question: What is profit in scenario Actual of product Velo per month name in
2017 in Prague

26. Microsoft Power BI on mobile
Dashboards can be
customized to be used
on mobile devices.
It is not possible to
achieve same
functionality with
Microsoft Excel.

27. It perfectly fits into accounting data model approach – reports
are done automatically.
Why should we use Power BI?
Provides much better
experience to our
clients.
Empowers our clients –
they do not have to ask
about everything when
they have it at their
fingertips.
Can help us to better
analyse the data and
provide better advice to
the clients.

28. Our customer profitability analysis system
Example of usage in Grinex
Bookkeeping
software
CRM software
Inhouse database
solution
Calculates:
• Planned and Actual
margin per client
• Timesheet data
• Average Hourly Rate,
Realisation,
Utilisation
• More detailed
information
Everything
presented in
Power BI

29. Do you see an opportunity to use Power BI
to improve the value of services for your
clients?
A. Yes
B. No
Question for the audience

30. Multidimensional
analysis

31. „Dimension = one characteristic of the data“
Examples: Scenario, Cost Center, Month, City, ….
Accounting reports usually show only few dimensions and
struggle with showing combinations of dimensions.
It is possible to build hierarchies of data in the dimensions.
Multidimensional analysis

32. Multidimensional analysis
Traditional accounting report
• Showing data for cost center in
12 months in one scenario.
• Not really possible to combine
more filters.
• You are stuck with filters that
you have -> no drill-through
Multidimensional analysis report
• Sales in Prague made by clients
between 45 and 55 years old
who have more than one
previous purchase.
• Uses dimension hierarchies
• Can move from Overview of
data to a very deep detail
Multidimensional analysis is especially useful in analysis of sales.
• But you will often encounter problems with software capabilities
Multidimensional analysis must use tool such as Power BI
to visualize data.

33. Automation of Financial
Analysis

34. Because it will allow us to spend more time thinking
about the performance of the client‘s company.
• Instead of wasting time on automatable work in Excel
Do you agree?
Why should we automate
financial analysis?

35. Example of usage in Grinex
Data recorded in
the bookkeeping
software
Our inhouse
database
Calculates and exports
to Excel report:
• Balance sheet
• P/L report
• Financial analysis
with textual
explanation
Bookkeeper imports
journal to the database
Report
to be
sent to
the
client
Takes approx. one minute

36. Financial analysis report
The system is following
accounting data model
approach.
It does not matter if I
want to show the
analysis in Excel, Power
BI or send it
automatically by email.
It is always stored in the
database ready to be
used.

37. Do you believe that such system would be
helpful for your clients?
A. Yes
B. No
Question for the audience

38. Microsoft Flow

39. • Drag and Drop cloud based
software for automating tasks.
• Can‘t do much on its own – it
must be linked with other
systems
• Can be linked with plenty of
services
• Runs periodically, by trigger or
on demand
Microsoft Flow

40. Checking the invoices that are overdue
• Management periodically receives email with list of overdue
invoices
Automation of financial analysis
• MS Flow can be used to automatically send emails to
clients/consultants with financial analysis
Checking timesheets
• Monthly check for any serious problems
Examples of usage in Grinex

41. All ideas would require accounting data model.
• Inform the consultant about unfavourable indicator value
• Send report on demand
• Email bank account balance automatically each morning
• Email yesterday‘s sales to the management
• Inform management about breaching some KPI value
Possible uses for the
accounting client

42. What other uses you see for MS Flow?
Question for the audience

43. Automation in tax
advisory

44. Two very
distinct paths
Automation in Tax Advisory to
improve client‘s experience
Cognitive automation – system would understand the
company and automatically calculate and prepare the tax
return
Automated data processing – solution that helps with
processing the data – human tax advisor has to decide on
the content of the tax return
Being tested by IBM Watson – not yet
available to us
Can sometimes help us

45. My experience with automated data processing:
Leading operator of petrol stations in the Czech Republic had
problems with processing documents for the monthly VAT
return.
I have developed database solution to process the invoices and
to generate XML file to be sent to the tax authorities.
The solution is totally customized to the particular client and
not useable for anybody else.
Automation in Tax Advisory

46. There are probably some opportunities for automation when
communicating with clients.
Automation of sharing the tax documents is possible with MS
Flow.
The biggest amount of automation in tax advisory will come
from technical solutions in accounting.
• It was discussed on ITPG meeting here in Vienna
Automation in Tax Advisory to
improve client‘s experience

47. Any other ideas for automation in the tax
advisory to improve the experience of the
client?
Question for the audience

48. Automation in audit

49. Automation in audit
Two very
distinct paths
Cognitive automation – system would understand the
company and its processes
Automated data processing – can help with move from
sample testing to population testing
I believe that this is total science fiction.
This is achievable for us

50. Develop database solution or Excel solution universally useable
to analyse accounting journal.
It is difficult to estimate ROI in a small audit firm.
Automation in audit
Things to focus on:
• Entries done in the night,
during holidays and weekends,
by unauthorized personnel
• Figures ending with zeroes
• Figures fitting the Benford‘s law
• Duplicate records
Things to focus on:
• Transactions done long after
they were relevant
• Blank transactions (correct
figure erased)
• Gaps in document numbers
Blockchain could have big impact on audit if it becomes widely adopted.

51. What audit automation solutions you see
as viable for you company?
Are you already using any audit
automation solutions?
Question for the audience

52. Blockchain

53. Technology that enables existence of cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Type of database that is copied to everybody that is using it.
Every user has all the data – this provides the security. Data is
anonymized so everybody can use only their part.
Has big advantages and significant disadvantages as well.
Technology to be watched but need to develop more.
Blockchain

54. Advantages
• In theory, data stored in
the blockchain can‘t be
altered
• No central authority
• No intermediaries
• Every participant has
access to all the data (can
automatically react to their
data)
Blockchain
Disadvantages
• Very inefficient –
everybody is storing and
calculating the same thing
• Not fast enough (Bitcoin
does 7 transaction per
second worldwide)
• Can be hijacked by 51% of
users

55. Uses for blockchain in general
Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/innovation/solutions/deloitte-blockchain-practice.html

56. Further digitalisation of accounting
Electronic documents can become totally reliable
Companies share one ledger
• Blockchain taken to extreme
Accounting will not be the first area where blockchain will
succeed.
There is one blockchain startup per week – let‘s see if there will
be „new Facebook“.
Uses for blockchain in
accounting

57. Even if this technology does not become widely used, the trend
in accounting is clear. Digitalisation will lead to cheaper
compliance through automation.
We must concentrate more on areas other than compliance to
remain relevant to our clients.
Why should we care about
blockchain

58. Do you think that blockchain will cause
revolution in the accounting industry?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Not decided yet
Question for the audience

59. Conclusion of the
workshop

60. Technologies are amazing – let‘s find
reasonable and profitable uses for them so we
can modernize our profession.

61. What is your impression?
Would you like to implement any of the
solutions presented here?
Questions for the audience

62. Thank you for your attention.
Richard Jahoda jr.
Mob: +420 724 311 146
Tel: +420 222 516 889
richard.jahoda_ml@grinex.cz
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardjahoda