Gartner Finds Overwork Increasing Accounting Mistakes

In a recent survey of 497 individuals working in the controllership function, Gartner found that 18% of accountants make financial errors daily, and one-third make at least a few errors every week. The survey identified increased workload and low capacity as key causes of these errors.

"In the past three years, 73% of accountants report that their workload has increased because of new regulations, and 82% say economic volatility has increased demands for their work," said Mallory Barg Bulman, Senior Director of Research in the Gartner Finance practice. “If these financial and regulatory pressures continue to increase, as history suggests it will, the already-limited capacity accountants will be stretched further and increase error rates.”