More and more collaborators will become solopreneurs

According to Margus Tammeraja more and more collaborators will become a solopreneur – or act as one – and work for clients all over the world. This will create a new kind of demand for accountants, and that will also have its implications on the technology. 

Margus Tammeraja has been at the forefront of the accountancy profession since he was working at the Taltech university in the eighties when Estonia was just on the brink of getting free from the former Soviet Union. “I still remember a very old man writing accounting entries manually with his calligraphic handwriting in a huge book, called the Nominal Ledger. To our surprise Mr Bookkeeper was very supportive when we built and introduced the first PC-based accounting program for the university finances,” remembers Margus.

As an accountant inclined towards IT he has followed the digital evolutions of the accountancy business. He was also close to the digitisation of the Estonian public administration. And, he is now looking into AI. “I am curious to witness another potential increase in the accountancy productivity, when accountancy firms will use AI to reduce the number of ‘dumb’ tasks, and be more focused on client interfacing”, adds Margus.

When ‘collaborators’ are no ‘employed workers’ any longer

Margus sees a fundamental change in the way work is going to be organised in the future: “Nowadays, people are dedicated to one job typically. They do all sorts of tasks, because they have to. Even when they do not like those tasks. And even when they are not so good at it.”

According to Margus, more and more tasks will be executed by ‘task experts’ all over the world. By flexible resources. “Each of these experts will work for many employers as a freelancer. But, those flex-workers will be confronted by a new task they do not like: accountancy. Moreover, their margin will not be sufficient to pay for an external accountant and all the apps and software they need. That’s why I believe there is a growing potential for a solution that allows all those flex-workers to focus on their clients, and accountants to help them forget about accounting.”