With continued advances in technology, how often do accountants learn new software to do their job? What are some of the most common ones currently used?

As an associate at PwC, a Big 4 public accounting firm, I've come to realize what a big effort there is around the industry to be digitally savvy. We are constantly learning about up and coming technology that can help us be more efficient at our jobs. I encourage you to get familiar with programs like Alteryx, Tableau, and UIPath. When you begin the career search process, job recruiters will find a lot of value in you having those types of technological skillsets.

Hi Andy,

There's currently a big push, at least at PwC, for digitization/automation. Trainings on software such as alteryx and tableau are now required at every level. Additionally, they've rolled out sharing platforms for creating bots and programs. Many teams are putting a large emphasis on utilizing these digital capabilities, and they are huge time/money savers when providing client services.

Hi Andy,

I'll add on to previous responses from PwC that there is currently a large digital push to adopt programs such as Alteryx, Tableau and UIPath. Alteryx and UIPath in particular may not be feasible for an individual to purchase, but you can still impress people that you network with if you mention these programs. As you speak with more and more people, you may be able to pick up stories they share with you on how the programs were used and you can reference their stories (in simple, distilled and general language) as you speak with each subsequent person.

As always, have fallback topics if the person you're speaking with happens to not be interested in technological upskilling. The push is large, but it will be difficult to reach 100% participation. Hence, this is just a heads-up that you may encounter the rare individuals that have not chosen to become involved with technology.

However, taking a step back, I should mention that the base for data presentation has been Excel for quite some time and Excel should persist into the foreseeable future. If you opt for hands-on learning (as opposed to just being able to describe the features and uses of programs) before beginning employment, Excel is an excellent go-to, for which there are myriad courses online or even on Youtube. When I began, I had very basic knowledge of excel, but quickly built it within my first few months out of personal willpower. It was one of the best decisions I ever made because it introduced me to efficient ways that data can be managed and upon learning the more advanced programs, I saw that the advanced programs are doing what one would do in Excel, but in even more streamlined ways.

I have been working in public accounting, specifically in Tax, for about 1 year and I have found that technology has been extremely important in my day to day activities. It is great that you are already thinking about it! I use Excel and Alteryx most often and I have some experience in UiPath. I would recommend getting as much experience with technology as possible! Professionals in accounting are always looking for way to improve processes and automate!

Most common programs -

Speaking as a Tax Associate in Public Accounting, we most often use Excel. At PwC, there's a push to use newer more advanced programs like Alteryx, Tableau, and UiPath to help either automate processes and/or create visualizations. We also use OneSource, GoSystems, CCH, and CorpTax tax software (or SuperForms when we need one-off forms) to actually do the returns.

How often -

As I mentioned earlier, there's a push to learn the newer programs right now, which is great because they should make our outputs better and our processes more efficient. There's always going to be changes in Tax (including changes in technology but also changes in the tax law itself) and as a tax professional preparing for and implementing those changes is just part of the job. From my experience, it takes time for new technology to be used throughout the business, but people start to adopt it very early on. But for that reason, the actual frequency can vary depending on what you do, what your managers prefer, and what works best for the client.

As far as bookkeeping and standard accounting software, I'm not that familiar but in addition to what Ashley listed there is QuickBooks (used by small businesses) and Workday. I also expect that accountants/bookkeepers would probably use Excel as well.

 The accounting field is always upscaling their technology. We continue to learn new technological advances everyday in the workplace.  Alteryx and Tableau are very common ones used in the industry right now. Learning is always a part of the job!

Two commonly used are SAP and PeopleSoft. Verizon uses both. Depending on the size of the company there are smaller software options like Freshbooks.

How often the programs change depends on the area of accounting you are working in and the company you work for.

Having a proficient knowledge of Microsoft products such as Excel, Powerpoint, etc as they are used widely. Also, Alteryx, OneSource, and Power BI are very helpful tools that are increasing in use.

Xero Accounting. ...

FreshBooks Cloud Accounting. ...

Wave Accounting. ...

Sage 50 Accounting.

Here are some software that is used

Technology is constantly being upgraded or changing, and therefore, we are learning new technology applications very often.

This is a great question. In my experience, I learn new software about 3 times a year. Some common software programs we use for tax return preparation include GoSystems, ONESOURCE, CorpTax and other Thompson Reuters projects. We also heavily use Excel, PowerPoint, Alteryx, Tableau and Visio.

Many successful successful professionals participate in professional associations to which others in their speciality area belong. It is through these professional associations that accountants keep up with developments and training opportunities related to the their specialty area.

It is best to become more aware of how you fit into an accounting speciality and get to know others working in that speciality area early on in your education, so that you might best able keep up to speed.

Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .

Technology is always evolving.  Power Query is the data connectivity and data preparation technology that enables end users to seamlessly import and reshape data from within a wide range of Microsoft products. 

Hey Andy,

Great question! I am a new hire at PwC, one of the big 4 accounting firms, and have found that there are tons of different softwares out there. Personally, I have been using Alteryx, UiPath, and Excel the most. Before I began work I had not worked in Alteryx at all, instead I had learned Tableau in college. Luckily PwC, and most accounting firms, offer various digital trainings so learning new software is a lot easier than one would think.

I would say that every two or three years a new software is coming out and is considered to be the "new best thing" in the accounting profession. So in a digital age it's best to try to stay ahead of the times and know at least a little bit about the most common software platforms!