TO THE POSITION OF THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Idea: In this paper we enquired representatives of profession about how does the accounting practice react to changes brought by new technology and how does the accounting education adopt to needs of practice. We investigate their opinion on accounting profession and importance of the role of accountant and change of accounting profession. Qualification requirements are reinforced by the changes that are currently taking place. These changes come mainly with Industry 4.0, which reopens the issue of training and qualification of accountants. Data and tools: This study has a qualitative nature. In this research, we have used semi-structured interviews with the main representatives of accounting profession - accountants, tax advisors, auditing firms, representatives of accounting union, providers of software for accounting practice and representatives from the ministry of finance Czech Republic. What's new: The structure of accounting activities is changing: the share of simple, not yet automated operations will be reduced in favour of operating data processing software and more qualified operations. Closer connection of the performance of the accounting profession with to the performance of other managerial functions takes place. So what: Accounting profession in the Czech Republic is not formally regulated, but there are expert accounting exams on various levels for accounting professionals, auditors and tax advisors. Furthermore, bigger industrial firms or specialized accounting and auditing firms require that their accountants actually have some accounting qualification either from the Czech Republic (accounting expert) or some international exams like ACCA, ACA, CIMA or similar. Contribution: This paper contributes to the literature stream on accounting profession. It is expected that the accountant may play more important role and have more responsibility attached. Further question is the issue of accounting ethics, which is becoming more and more important especially on the background of recent big accounting scandals. Schooling and further professional training should help accounting experts to perform the role.