Celebrate and Connect: FEI Grand Rapids Holiday Social and Awards Evening

Join FEI Grand Rapids for an evening of celebration, connection, and recognition at our Holiday Social and Awards Evening. Enjoy the opportunity to reconnect with fellow FEI Members and guests, celebrate the accomplishments of our finance community, and recognize this year’s award recipients as we close out the year together.

As part of the evening, we’ll also look ahead to what’s next for the finance profession with a thought-provoking presentation, “The Future of Accounting is Data-Centric.”

Drawing from a two-year project implementing knowledge graphs and ontologies in accounting, as well as insights from The Future of Accounting, this session will explore how a data-centric approach could transform accounting from backward-looking recordkeeping into forward-looking strategic decision support.

Attendees will learn how Data-Centric Accounting could provide more complete and timely financial reporting, enable flexible reporting intervals, create greater transparency through immutable audit trails, and automate the application of accounting policies. The session will also explore the role of GenAI and LLMs alongside ontologies and knowledge graphs in the future of accounting.

CPE Learning Objectives:

• Explain why accounting remains a significant hurdle for enterprises seeking to become fully data-centric.
• Distinguish between how financial information is presented under accounting standards and how accounting data is stored and processed within enterprise systems.
• Identify how Data-Centric Accounting can provide more complete and timely financial reporting without relying on traditional accounting periods and closing processes.
• Explain how machine-readable accounting policies and event-level classification can improve consistency, transparency, and automation.
• Recognize how immutable audit trails, knowledge graphs, ontologies, and emerging AI technologies can support the future of accounting.

Agenda: