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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
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Audit committee book

You know how all the auditors put so much effort into the powerpoint template for presentations for the audit committee. Flash news - don't waste that much effort, nobody looks at it - especially all the fluff. All the AC cares about are any fee updates and misstatements. It's amazing how much time and effort goes into these decks that go nowhere.
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Fridays

#RemoteFridays Doesn't it feel like everyone working remote is essentially off on Fridays? People respond to an email and get back to watching TV or doing errands, don't bother to shave/shower. Bosses are doing  the same, sometimes in their second homes, so they stop sending emails too. It's almost like we are essentially adopting the four day workweek working remote, unless of course it's an accountant's busy season. It's always fun when calls on Thursdays accidentally end with - "have a good weekend".
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Remote accountants

It'll be interesting to see how many companies react once they realize their back office can truly be remote and they don't  really need face to face communication. If they just need a bunch of left-brain people to run processes and numbers, why bother putting  them  under the same roof and taking on all that additional  overhead. Think about the rent and salaries for accountants in major cities compared  to the suburbs. I know outsourcing isn't new, I completely get that. I also know that companies that do not like outsourcing also have their back-office be located in tertiary cities. That's nothing new. But now they will really start to realize it. Every CEO and CFO will sit back and review the numbers while coming up with their liquidity analysis and forecasts and start to realize - "I guess we don't need them next to us". In the areas where  offices have fully resumed at full capacity, they probably didn't have enough time to fully realize it. F
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Zoom calls by office department

Anyone notice the disparities in home by department when doing zoom calls? Front office - Usually at their second homes Marketing - Usually at their parents' homes; sometimes you can't even see a wall behind them  since their houses are so large. Accountants - Walls, wailing kids, remote lessons in the background, husbands and wives in and out of backgrounds, What do you guys see?
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Working remote

Man it's been years since I posted. Two reasons - not much to vent about, and not enough pent up hatred amongst accountants in the Private world. Now that we're remote - I do need an outlet since it is a weird world that we live in. Since this is a global event - I'm very curious how everyone is doing working remote - what are the pros and cons in this ever-changing world? I'll start - here's what I can think of based on conversations I've had with friends and co-workers- Pros - a) No commute - That's extra 1-2 hours of people's lives daily - yes it can be meditative for some, but the vast majority love not having this. b) More quality time with family c) No time spent to get ready - No work attire, no make-up. Shaving can be intermittent, up until the next important Zoom call. d) Widens the swath of job opportunities available - There could be more opportunities available to you because you can now work remote Cons - a) No boundary betwe
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Out of periods

The more I stay in private, the more I realize how much auditors waste time on certain things - like out-of-periods, for example. At the end of the day, unless it rises to the level of a restatement, or affects a measure that investors/analysts care about, these out-of-periods are really just not worth the amount of time spent. Sure it's a requirement, I get it; but there's so much more value that the auditors can add instead of wasting time on these matters. And then they'd have to consult up the chain, and that's a few more people wasting time when everyone knows the ultimate decision is that most of the time, they don't rise to a level of restatement.
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