PODCAST: What should CPAs know about the metaverse?

By Jessica Salerno-Shumaker, OSCPA senior content manager  

While you might not be interested in the metaverse right now, it’s something to consider as keeping up with evolving technology becomes a business imperative. 

“It's advancing that virtual reality aspect, which means interacting or conducting business in a different way,” said Brandon Fredericks, CPA, principal at Apple Growth Partners.  

Fredericks joined the State of Business podcast to discuss what accounting professionals should know about the metaverse after writing a blog post on the topic earlier this year. The metaverse is a virtual-reality space where users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users. Fredericks said it’s helpful when applying the metaverse to business to think about it from the perspective of technology evolving.   

He said conference calls used to mean dialing an 800 number on the phone until the pandemic happened and using video calls like Zoom and Teams became more popular.   

“That's just a step in that direction,” he said. “So, if you're starting to read more on the metaverse and thinking ‘Well, why would I need that?’ thinking about the evolution of the metaverse space and how we can interact more from a CPA and accounting space with our clients or teams, or any other type of provider.”  

The metaverse could prove helpful when training and onboarding new employees, Fredericks said, especially with more hybrid and remote environments. It could allow new employees to interact more in a virtual break room or common area with other staff, making them feel more included and part of the company culture.  

Fredericks said it’s not as if the business environment will become “The Matrix,” but it’s worth starting discussions on the impact this could have on your company.  

“It's already here, and it will continue to creep more and more into our lives,” Fredericks said. “And it’s about how we can learn to use it as a tool. The most important thing is to create more efficiencies, like the ‘work smarter, not harder,’ adage. That's where firms will excel and be able to position themselves as leaders in this space and in the next generation of technology use.”  

Listen to the podcast here.