Stereotypical accountants – depicted tirelessly in literature and cinema – hunch lifelessly over their desks adding and subtracting endless columns of numbers. It is a dismal job held by nameless, glassy-eyed hordes. While these fictional portrayals were never accurate, the focus on numbers carries more than a grain of truth. Traditionally, accountants kept the books and assured that statutory requirements were met. Even as the role became more complex with innovative organisational models, a proliferation of regulations, and a glut of new financial instruments, the focus on the books remained. Or so has been the perception. This picture has.
