Digital transformation and its impact on the accountant profession: brief reflections and some evidence using a case study

Objective: The digital age has raised competitiveness to such a level that people and organizations have been forced to reinvent themselves to optimize processes and achieve higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness. A new reality that has been producing transformations at the level of processes and threatens to represent important technical, ethical and moral challenges. It is in this context that this research is carried out, with the general aim of analyzing the impact of the digital transformation on accounting, although with a particular focus on identifying its advantages, obstacles, risks and challenges for the profession and, in addition, highlighting the skills that the new accounting professional should develop in order to be prepared to face the paradigm shift, using a case study in the accounting department of the XPTO company. Methodology: The research was developed based on a qualitative methodology, using an exploratory case study. It was, therefore, carried out in its real context, with the researcher going to the field to do a direct analysis and collect data, by observation, observing the people and the procedures instituted and analyzing documents, and by interview, the two main sources of information used, although mostly using the application of a semi-structured interview, carried out to the four professionals who are part of the accounting department of the company XPTO.Results: The results suggest that professionals still do not have an explicit knowledge about some of the new emerging technologies in accounting and that, despite the progressive and exponential technological advance, they do not feel that the accountant profession is at risk of disappearing entirely.Originality/value: Important systematization and reflection on emerging technologies in accounting and their potential impact on the exercise of the profession.