We live in an increasingly competitive and globally reaching economy. This combined with a weak domestic economy creates an increased need for practitioners of accounting to use their communication and interpersonal skills in order to retain clients. According to the Arica’s American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 2009 CPA Firm Top Issues Survey, client retention has now outpaced staffing concerns among practicing CPAs. As AICPA vice president states:
“There is no doubt that the weakened economy has shifted CPAs’ concerns from staffing to client retention. Client retention did not even make the Top 5 list in the last survey in 2007.”
As such, practitioners who have difficulty with communication, especially oral communication, may find that they have difficulty retaining their clients. This appears to be the case for both, small and more individualized practices as well as for larger accounting firms. One may also be surprised to learn that as recently as 2004, the top two preferred methods of communication expressed by 80% of the clients were telephone calls and personal visits, and not via e-mail, as one may presume. Exhibit 2 illustrates these findings (Koski, Ehlen and Saxby, 2004):
Exhibit 2
Accounting professionals should consider several communication options when reaching out to clients in order to improve retention rates. By doing so, professionals and their firms will be able to more effectively determine clients’ needs and fulfill these needs once they are identified. These two-way communications can be in the form of written communications such as surveys. Alternatively, accounting professionals can communicate in a more personal way with their clients during face-to-face meetings in the office or over lunch. Face-to-face meetings allow accountants to communicate in a more personal way. These types of communications also give the accountancy professionals an opportunity to introduce clients to other supporting members of the firm who can provide assistance during busy times. (Szczepaniak, 2010)
It is important to identify which specific communications skills entry-level accountants should possess as well as an understanding of which skills practicing accountants feel universities are not adequately teaching in the classroom. A 2002 study conducted by David S. Christensen and David Rees, which queried both members of the AICPA and the IMA using a survey instrument, sought to gather just this information. It should be noted that response rate for this survey was approximately 3%. Additionally, 87% of the respondents were members of the AICPA and of these, 80% were in the sectors of assurance and tax. Only 13% of the respondents were from the IMA. The authors hypothesized that this may be due to the lack of entry-level finance positions. Nonetheless, the findings were interesting. Communication skills were ranked by importance on a scale of 1 (unimportant) to 5 (extremely important) as well as by satisfaction with skills found in new-hires on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). The top ranked skill, based on importance with a mean score of 4.51, was “listens effectively.” Other skills which garnered a score of 4 or above, based on importance, were the use of correct grammar (in written and oral communication), spelling and effective business vocabulary (categorized as “English skills”), asking appropriate questions to clients (“Oral/Interpersonal skills”) and the ability to write clearly, concisely, correctly and completely, while “[organizing] information into effective sentences and paragraphs” (“Writing Skills”.) The study identified five skills that respondents felt were important (>3) but not being satisfied by university coursework (<3.) These skills were “[using] grammar in both spoken and written communications”, “[editing and revising] documents conscientiously”, “[organizing] information into effective sentences and paragraphs”, “[writing] persuasively,” and lastly, “[writing] well – clearly, concisely, correctly, completely.” (Exhibit 3) Researcher also received five hundred open-ended responses, in form of written comments, from respondents during their study. Two comments of note include: first,” Business communication skills are essential, regardless of accounting specialty,” and second, “Promising careers in accounting are impaired by poor communication skills.” (Christensen, Rees, 2002)
Exhibit 3
To illustrate the importance of communication skills in accounting in an applied way, we would like to step through a few examples within the accounting communication process to emphasize the need for effective communications in practical application.
Before management can prepare the financial reports for a given period, it must first develop the company’s internal controls, or corporate guidance. Effective corporate guidance will be used to create and maintain the checks and balances necessary so that management can ensure the financial reports are prepared not just lawfully, but also ethically and with the best interest of the company in mind. However, internal controls cannot come at the expense of effective communication. This is an area where the role of the accountant and the importance having both strong interpersonal and communication skills are important. Oftentimes, an accounting professional may be involved in the design of internal financial controls thereby acting more in the capacity of business partner. Such a professional must be able to understand the communications process, how it relates to the given business and how the flow of information is passed between the accounting division and business operations. Additionally, an accounting professional must be able to express himself or herself clearly, tactfully and sometimes firmly if they have concerns about the internal controls to management once these controls are in place. (Mitchell, 1995) This especially sensitive role requires accounting professionals to both, act as a business partner and assure that proper controls are in place to protect corporate assets.
“I call it wearing two hats. But you have to wear the hat of the management team you are on to help them achieve the goals. You also have to wear the corporate finance hat to recognize that you have a duty, an overall duty to the corporate finance function to do things right and do them correctly, to stand up for what has to be done, and to say no when no is the appropriate thing to say.” (Abbot Labs) (Segal, Sorenson, 1999)
Therefore, Ethics is another topic that accounting curriculum must address. The cost accounting textbook, “Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions,” introduces ethical issues throughout the book. For instance, when discussing the topic of product costing, the book brings to light the problem of intentionally overproducing inventory to improve the “bottom line.” The book also discusses the use of the cost flow model as an internal control and stresses the need to avoid unethical accounting practices in activities such as job and project costing. (Hilton, Maher, Selto, pp. 69-98)
“Practitioners must be able to present and defend their views through formal and informal, written and oral, presentation. They must be able to do so at a peer level with business executives. Practitioners must be able to listen effectively to gain information and understand opposing points of view. They will also need the ability to locate, obtain and organize information from both human and electronic sources. (American Accounting Association, Appendix B, 1986)
This passage underscores the importance of perception as a communication skill as well. A study published in 2003, in the British Accounting Review, found that there was a wide variance in perception accuracy, which they called the “perception gap,” between management and managerial accountants. While some managerial accountants were clear in their awareness of what information management needed and expected from them since management felt that managerial accountants were providing them with the necessary information; however, in other instances, there were noticeable discrepancies in perception. This often occurred because of the managerial accountant's failure to understand the differences in the needs of management from different functional business units: the communication of financial information to and from production management would be different from those of a sales manager. However, management responses also indicated that the communication failure was a failure to present financial information in a timely and more flexible manner. In other words, the student of accounting must hone the “translation mechanism” if they are to be successful in minimizing these types of miscommunications. Accounting curricula must teach students when accuracy is paramount, as in the case of external reporting, and when time is of the essence and management is asking for a broader picture of business circumstances. In the case of the latter, the accounting practitioner must be able to take complex information, distill it, decide what is important and communicate that and only that. Oftentimes, management found it helpful when managerial accountants presented this information using graphical representations as well since this form of communication often helps to illustrate “the bigger picture” rather than focusing too narrowly in minutia. If an accounting student only possesses merely strong technical skills, rather than the additional communication skills, this type of communication may seem counterintuitive and awkward. (Pierce, O’Day, 2003) Exhibit 4 below (Pierce, O’Day, 2003) illustrates this perception gap:
Exhibit 4
While the legalities and specific requirements of external financial reporting are beyond the scope of this paper, there are important communication skills that do come into play when executing such documents. As is the case when an accountancy professional must be clear when communicating with management, so it is with external reporting especially when it comes to readability. In the book, Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency, the authors state that financial information disclosed by publicly traded company “deeply imbeds information into decision processes of both information users and corporations.” The users of this information include institutional and individual investors—using “key indicators from quarterly and annual reports to [make informed] stock purchases and sales.” Other users include securities analysts, brokers, financial advisers, and other intermediaries that “translate these reports into user-friendly data for clients” (Fung, Graham, Weil, p. 82). A paper written by Mark Sever and Ronald Boisclair, of Ernst and Young, for The Journal of Accountancy suggests readability as:
“that quality in writing which results in quick and easy communication. Readable writing communicates precisely – and with a single reading.”
Meanwhile the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), of course, addresses well-known concerns about the accuracy and transparency of external reports; it has also expressed, on several occasions, the concern that disclosures be easy to understand to outside stakeholders. The emphasis on this type of written communication should “express rather than impress.” Additional suggestions for improving readability include, using technical terms only when they are expressly needed, keeping word and sentence length shorter and minimizing the use of passive voice. (Shroeder, Gibson, 1990)
Readability is also important when compiling footnotes to financial statements. Financial reporting requirements, businesses can choose to add footnotes to disclose information that can be easily comprehensible to a common person rather than sifting through lines of numbers, which companies can keep can to “a minimum for competitive reasons” (Green, p. 72). In addition, in this instance, lack of strong written communication skills in and of themselves can lead to legal consequences. Language must be understandable by investors who may not have formal training in finance and/or accounting. This requires the writer to be able to understand the content he or she is preparing from the standpoint of the user. Again, an accounting professional who does not have a great deal of experience distilling highly technical information into easily understandable language may find this task quite frustrating. (Worthington, 1977)
In his book, Sarbanes-Oxley and the Board of Directors, Scott Green states that “communication becomes critical during a crisis,” and he provides some guidance regarding what to communicate to various stakeholders during times of corporate stress. Green advises that “the more informed eyes are that remain alert for a disclosure-yielding event, the better the chances of remaining in compliance with a company’s obligation to the public.” (Green, pp. 209-213) Indeed, a well thought out, transparent and clear communication can be the difference between mitigation of damage or the worsening of this damage during reporting events such as, changes in estimates, correction of errors and financial restatements. Even if such an event is the result of an accounting irregularity or accidental error, an accounting professional that can communicate the exact nature of the oversight to users of this information, will likely be able to help preserve market value better than if this information was not clearly communicated. (Gersten, van Riel, Berens, 2006)
Auditors must also be keen communicators. They must call upon exceptionally strong written communication skills when preparing audit budgets, audit memos, risk assessments and final written opinions and reports. Auditors must have strong oral communications skills and must be comfortable speaking in front of others when presenting findings to management and/or the audit committee as well. Additionally, according to Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) as part of an auditor’s standards regarding fieldwork:
“The auditory must obtain a sufficient understanding of the entity and its environment, including its internal control...” (GAAS, AU 150.02)
We feel that this requirement calls on an auditor to use his or her communication skills with additional finesse. As highlighted in the beginning of this paper, listening skills are paramount as is the ability to ask the correct questions in a way that will both yield an accurate picture of the company and assure the information management and/or an audit committee is supplying to the auditor. At the same time, an auditor must always remain tactful and non-threatening under circumstances that will likely be fraught with tension. Auditors must also be good at decoding non-verbal communications. These cues can alert an auditor as to how far they can push for information, when they should hold back and possibly even when someone may not be “presenting the whole picture” to the auditor. The ability to ask questions is also important. Often times, the auditor must direct the same questions phrased in multiple ways to different parties to obtain an answer they are looking for. Conversely, these different parties may answer the same questions in multiple ways. Asking questions serves to uncover and verify information about the company. Well thought out questions also help insure and clarify perceptions on the part of all parties involved. Questions also show another that one is listening and helps with the listening process itself. (Walters, 2001)
When auditors do their job correctly, management will receive accurate information in regarding risk identification and management, and stakeholders will be empowered to make decisions based on accurate information and a “clean audit report.” The audit overall will go much more smoothly when the relationship between the auditor and auditee is strong. Chances are better that a good relationship will be formed when the auditor communicates courteously and in a timely manner, and provides the auditee with a high quality copy of the audit report. (Ahadiat, Ehrenreich, 1996) When auditors do not perform their jobs correctly, through the lack of these communications skills, auditors may make devastating mistakes such as assuring fraudulent financial statements as was seen between Arthur Andersen and Enron.
Increasingly more often, as part of their audit report, auditors are being required to evaluate the two-way communication between themselves and those who are charged with governance within an organization. Unfortunately, auditors who do not in possess these communication skills will not be in a position evaluate them accurately. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently held a roundtable meeting to discuss a proposed auditing standard entitled “Communication with Audit Committees.” This meeting addressed the subject of two-way communications between an auditor and audit committee and debated whether, and if so how, an evaluation of this communication should be adopted as standard. (PCAOB, 2010) Interestingly, the International Federation of Accountants has already put this requirement into place as part of the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). The requirement for ISA 260.22, a subcategory of ISA 260, “Communication with those charged with governance” reads:
“The auditor shall evaluate whether the two-way communication between the auditor and those charged with governance has been adequate for the purpose of the audit. If it has not, the auditor shall evaluate the effect, if any, on the auditor’s assessment of the risks of material misstatement and ability to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence, and shall take appropriate action.”
This ISA requirement calls for an auditor, once again, to use deeper communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal as interpretation of these two-way communications that bear the additional challenge of consideration within the cultural context in which they are taking place. This can be particularly challenging when navigating the cultural norms of power equalities/inequalities within the hierarchy of a corporation, and the way cultural norms influence the quality of two-way communications. (Cowperthwaite, 2010) As such, ISA 260.22 also provides:
“…Since not all countries have the same way of dealing with inequality, methods of communication will not likely be consistent globally. If communication is to be effective in all audits, it must conform to cultural norms. The resulting evaluation will reflect this.”
During the PCAOB roundtable meeting, participants raised another point regarding the need for an auditor to determine “the tone at the top” of a company when assessing risk. In other words, how does top management view topics such as transparency in communications with stakeholders and business ethics? (PCAOB, 2010) Assessing such a “tone at the top” would again require a great deal of interpretational communication skills on the part of an auditor. Some participants considered evaluating and communicating the values and intentions of upper management to be of utmost importance. One participant also pointed out that, while this is currently not an audit standard, analysts often determine the “tone at the top” and consider it of high importance when evaluating the quality of an investment in a given company. Consequently, one may suppose that this sort of evaluation and subsequent communication to stakeholders on the part of an auditor might further protect stakeholders from such catastrophic events as took place in 2001.
Another aspect of business communication that has greatly improved over time is through the utilization of technology. During the introduction of technology into the core business processes, users from many cross-functional departments communicate their needs to the technology implementation teams to draft a set of requirements needed to transfer or reengineer the business processes. We have already discussed the use of computer based visual presentation aids as a mode of communication; however, technology is changing the way we communicate and with whom we are able to communicate. Because of technological advances, we are now able to transmit information faster than ever. In light of these advances, the “SEC now requires that information be reported by publicly traded companies within four business days of the ‘triggered event.” (Green, p. 227) Additionally, the SEC is also requiring publicly traded companies to publish several of their reports in an Internet based, interactive open-source computer language called eXtensible Business Language (XBRL.) The reports firms will be required to submit in this new format include annual reports, quarterly reports, current reports, transition reports and registration statements filed under the Securities act of 1933. The first phase of implementation for this electronic reporting standard began for the fiscal period ended June 15, 2010. Full implementation will be required to be in place by October 31, 2014. (Glusband, Lander and Rosen, 2010)
Some believe that XBRL that will change the way that the accountancy professional work. Use of this language will automate much of the currently manually transferred accounting information. XBRL is a universal “language” that will allow standardization of financial information. Once this information is standardized, accountancy professionals will be able to gather, analyze, arrange and communicate financial much more quickly and accurately. (Willis, 2005) In this way, some of the issues created by the differing accounting principles and practices as well as different definitions of single elements in financial information such as “asset value” and “price” across various global jurisdictions, will be considered and managed in a uniform way. This will further enable communication between international users of financial information as well the companies that seek to publish financial information. (Waldt, 2004)
As such, there is a need for accounting courses to incorporate XBRL education into the curricula. A 2006 study, which surveyed Accounting Information Systems (AIS) faculty, found that while 90% of faculty disagreed with the statement “Coverage of XML/XBRL is not necessary,” 26% of these schools were not exposing their students to XBRL. In fact, students at these schools were not familiar with, nor had they been exposed to the topic at all. Most respondents reported that the most effective way to teach XBRL is with hands-on tutorials. This method of learning will require universities to provide information systems facilities to students. Another challenge is the current lack of instructional material on the topic of XBRL. The survey concluded that overall, accounting curriculum is not including this topic as often as its perceived importance. Exhibit 5 helps to clarify what XBRL is and what it is not and Exhibit 6 illustrates the taxonomies of XBRL as they relate to the flow of financial information across various jurisdictions. (Deshmukh, Karim, Romine and Rutledge, 2006.)
Exhibit 5
Exhibit 6
The role of the accountancy professional is rapidly changing, and the curricula taught the universities must keep up—especially when it comes to incorporating oral, written, presentational, non-verbal and perceptual communication skills into their programs. The nature of these changes taking place, in part by the globalization of business and the increased use of Information Systems, calls for the realization of the need to possess these skills on the part of entering accounting students first. Additionally, a more experiential hands-on approach to teaching these skills and the ever more important interdisciplinary communication skills, as they apply to the use of Accounting Information Systems, must become a more frequently used pedagogy within our learning institutions. We believe that in this way, accounting students will be more suitably prepared to enter the workforce to take on the roles and fulfill the business needs of the ever-changing accounting profession.
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