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The lack of attention to the proper and timely accounting of business transactions has significant consequences. Management is not properly guided when making business decisions, resulting in foregone opportunities or bad decisions that could lead to losses. Reliance on cash flow reports or the movements of funds in the company’s bank accounts, which are used as an alternative basis for assessing the business’ position, poses dangers to decision-making. In this scenario, business owners usually fail to consider other critical aspects affecting the business such as contingent liabilities, unrecorded obligations. Likewise, fraudulent transactions within the organization may go undetected when accounting records are not in order.

Companies outsource back-office business processes mainly to boost efficiency and reduce costs. Payroll, HR and accounting processes – the most common to be outsourced – are heavily transactional, and many companies determine that external specialists can execute these far more cost-effectively than they can themselves. It might therefore be expected that providers’ mastery of the relevant technical skills is the critical success factor in any relationship. The intangible aspects of these relationships – a partner’s reliability, trust and other 'non-technical' skills – count as much as (or even more than) harder factors, such as their specialist capabilities, in making outsourcing relationships work.

IMF Resident Representative to the Philippines Shanaka Peiris, in a presentation about the country’s economic outlook for 2016 and the opportunities and challenges ahead, he reported about the impressive growth achieved by the economy in recent years. Peiris said the Philippines’ economic fundamentals, such as real GDP growth, inflation rate, current account balance and general government debt, have been improving. Domestic private demand remains strong, supported by OFW remittances and the rapidly growing BPO sector. He also mentioned that the Philippines continues to have favorable endowments such as a huge English-speaking and literate workforce and an expanding domestic market, which now includes the Asean economic community. Indeed, there is great potential for the Philippines to take off economically.

To the veterans, baby boomers, old guards, or the so-called “dinosaurs,” the idea of office work is a 9-to-6 affair that involves sticking to a routine and ticking off tasks designed and intended to meet an organization’s objectives and goals. This “well-oiled machine,” where individual parts function in accordance with a particular template to deliver an intended objective, is a management concept taken from the Industrial Revolution and perhaps, inappropriately adopted by service organizations.

Under the Asean Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on Accountancy Services signed in November 2014, CPAs in the Philippines may be recognized as such in other countries in the region, namely: Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Burma and Cambodia. Thus, a Filipino CPA may qualify to provide and render accountancy services beyond Philippine borders and across the Asean region.