How accountants responded to the financial fallout owing to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the last time a crisis affected businesses worldwide by putting economies into hibernation was in 1918 – the Great Influenza Pandemic. Environmental, social and governance frameworks require businesses to respond to such crises as it significantly changes the business environment. With approximately 2.84 million accountants existing across 130 countries, this study aims to determine whether the accounting profession responded to this crisis. As these responses can provide insights into the type of activities accountants performed during the lockdown, the authors analysed them for emerging themes and identified changes in the way that accountants performed tasks. Design/methodology/approach Using search engines, the authors examined publicly available secondary sources such as websites of professional bodies, the Big Four and mid-tier accounting firms and government organisations using the keyword “COVID-19” to identify responses on issues faced by accountants during the 2020 lockdown period in New Zealand. The authors used interpretive text analysis to examine the responses for emerging themes. Findings The accountants’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic emphasised information technology and soft skills but most importantly the interaction, integration and immersion of technical skills with information technology and soft skills. The findings also highlight changes in the way accountants performed their tasks. Originality/value The study insights enable accounting academics to better understand the interconnection between hard and soft skills for incorporating it in syllabi, thereby preparing students for future roles. In addition, the study findings will assist both practitioners and researchers to explore the emerging changes in the way accountants perform their tasks.

Self-efficacy, remote audit proficiency, effort, and performance in the COVID-19 crisis: an auditor’s perspective

“…Drones were used prior to COVID-19 by some of the big 4 audit firms in their audit examination of assets (Appelbaum and Nehmer, 2017), and they will be helpful the COVID-19 for inventory counting or observations (Appelbaum et al, 2020). In sum, COVID-19 made a large number of advanced technologies as extreme for conducting audits (Botes et al, 2022). Thus, we posit that auditors with a high level of proficiency in using remote audit are more likely to exert more effort and achieve a high level of audit performance during COVID-19.…”

“…Considering the disruption to life during COVID-19, the audit profession and auditors have greater opportunities to change their audit approaches and deliver effective and efficient audits (Christ et al, 2021). The onset of COVID-19 at the end of 2019 and its severity at the beginning of 2020 afforded only a short period of transition from regular to remote auditing, creating an urgent need for auditors to become professional in terms of technology use (Botes et al, 2022). The use of technology in auditing has long been recommended (Teeter et al, 2010), but its adoption of advanced technologies has not been MAJ 38,6 persuasive prior to COVID-19 (Botes et al, 2022;Schmitz, 2020;Bennett and Hatfield, 2018;Sharma et al, 2022).…”

“…The onset of COVID-19 at the end of 2019 and its severity at the beginning of 2020 afforded only a short period of transition from regular to remote auditing, creating an urgent need for auditors to become professional in terms of technology use (Botes et al, 2022). The use of technology in auditing has long been recommended (Teeter et al, 2010), but its adoption of advanced technologies has not been MAJ 38,6 persuasive prior to COVID-19 (Botes et al, 2022;Schmitz, 2020;Bennett and Hatfield, 2018;Sharma et al, 2022). Appelbaum et al (2020) report that innovative technologies can offer several opportunities to conduct an effective and efficient audit during the pandemic.…”

“…Bauer et al (2022) suggest that conducting remote auditing prior to COVID-19 considers the personal circumstances of audit team members, as not all auditors are familiar with more advanced technologies (Schmitz, 2020). Farcane et al (2022) and Botes et al (2022) note that auditors were adapting to technological advances, but COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated the transition to remote auditing, affording audit firms limited time to train their audit staff. They also report that the adaptability of auditors to remote auditing depends on the degree of their digitalization.…”

“…Bauer et al (2022) argue that remote audit prior to COVID-19 is determined for particular audit tasks with considerations such as personal circumstances, task requirements and geographic constraints. Botes et al (2022) and Sharma et al (2022) note that the COVID-19 crisis accelerated the adoption of more advanced technologies, but many auditors are still grappling with the understanding of emerging technologies at the turn of the millennium. That is, auditors are familiar with spreadsheets for checking samples, macros for running analyses and emails to engage with clients, but these only allow them to work remotely to a limited extent (Schmitz, 2020).…”