Does every financial professional need programming skills? Some would say yes.

With the release in 2015 of the second series of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) Audit Data Standards, the AICPA asked the question, “Should Accounting Students Learn to Code?” (1) The question, related to new or existing CPAs/CAs, keeps coming up – from the CPA Canada (2), ICAEW (3), and others. 

There’s more to include in our analyses these days than the numbers on the report. With increasing structured legal requirements, Inline XBRL meshing visual reporting with invisible XBRL metadata, AI models and the interpretations, pulling together all of the pieces requires a new way of thinking. 

Electronic signatures make it possible to associate intent with an electronic document as writing a signature on paper does, no more.

Digital signatures add validation and authentication possibilities that electronic signature don’t offer.

Electronic signatures are to digital signatures as a PDF financial statement is to an Inline XBRL financial statement. One puts it on the computer, no more; the other changes from people reading things with no real understanding whether it is authentic to adding some real processing power with the possibility of automated checks.

Twenty years ago or so, J. Frank Brown (1), then PricewaterhouseCooper’s Global Leader, Assurance and Business Advisory Services, said this about the state of reporting and assurance in the Preface to the book The ValueReporting Revolution:

A few months back, I began a series on “financial professionals going graphical”. The goal was to focus not on presentation graphics (although that is very helpful, especially when numbers make our audience’s eyes gloss over), but on graphics as part of the planning, simulation, creative and analytical process. Over my last few entries, I’ve covered mind mapping, topic mapping, virtual worlds, and UML (unified modelling language). I will once again generalize by hitting on some alternatives to data entry in these tools.

As this is my first blog entry written since borders have closed and many regions have gone into lockdown due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus), I wish to acknowledge the situation, send my best wishes to all and especially those directly impacted by it, and recognize continuing a series on graphics for financial professionals may seem callous when non-essential businesses may even be ordered closed in your region, as they are in mine.