The Changing World of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance Divisions as Cost-Centres and COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought in a new world of work flexibility with extensive remote work. This has brought in new challenges, particularly for the accounting, auditing, and finance (AAF) divisions given the security and quality concerns associated with their functions. Every stakeholder, whether firms, their divisions, or policymakers, seems to have a different perspective on the best foot forward with respect to work from home, but the decision on the way forward has to be taken now! This article explores how accounting, auditing, and finance cost centres within firms have been structured over time, and discusses the takeaways from each structural change we’ve seen so far and the opportunities and challenges that firms will experience as they adapt to the new post-COVID world. Pre-pandemic, firms were choosing between shared services and outsourcing to establish their AAF functions. Post-pandemic, firms are still choosing between the same two alternatives (Rana, 2021) but with the added dynamic of where the employees should work from. Firms need to decide whether to ask employees to be in the office physically (as before), continue working from home (remotely as needed during the pandemic), or plan out a hybrid model. Figure 1 presents a matrix of the possible models that firms can adopt with respect to their accounting, auditing, and functions.