Will accountants and auditors be remote forever?

Can you visualize a future where the back office is now all the way back - like never back in the office back. I know many companies already have their back offices in cheaper locations - the pandemic will likely accelerate this narrative, and  make it more acceptable. If I'm the front office and I'm looking to cut costs, this is all too easy. Accountants are generally more likely to want to work from home and will love that work-life balance, moving up in the chain up to a certain point. I'd bet that it's something many will ask for once the crisis dissipates.

What does that  mean? Accountants will be relegated to Zoom discussions with the front office, who will be in their fancy offices in the suburbs or the city. All the work will be done and saved in the cloud - we'll continue to execute on controls and pump out financials. I mean - what is the argument against this?

The only argument I can see is Company Culture - but I mean, how truly important is this for Accounting? I would argue that it isn't - if you have a set of deadlines and you adhere to those deadlines, you continue to churn like a machine. I do this limiting growth for the accountants though - those natural conversations in the office that can turn into projects, the brainstorming, the impulsive inclination to volunteer for interesting work - will all give way to virtual ceilings.
It's a terrifying thought - but this would be a  perfect sweet spot for your typical accounting middle class family that's happy in the suburbs. But what about the youngsters, the auditors...

Culture is super important when you are grinding out work - and young people out of college can't be isolated in their homes with their parents. They need to be around like-minded people, spending hours in conference rooms together absorbing company culture.....or do they? I mean, many of my friends out of college were people from work - if that dissipates, it's just our friends from college or friends we meet at networking events.

 Could audit  work be done remotely? I guess the answer is yes. A lot of  audit work is already outsourced, and if all that remains that can't be outsourced is the knowledge base, Companies don't need the auditors to be around - Zoom calls will suffice. And since the Big 4 are heavily invested in technology and most if not all the work is done in the cloud anyway - it's all leading there.

Thinking back to my audit days --- once I got past a learning curve, I could have done a lot of that work remotely. But that learning  curve is a critical one to get over. Then again, I don't see why Zoom calls and shared screens won't suffice for the learning curve. I just don't see going remote immediately as attractive jobs for college grads.

Ultimately - yes, we can easily go remote forever. I just hope it doesn't - I don't think human beings are wired to be remote.

#remoteaccountants