Finance professionals, auditors and accountants have always exploited emerging technologies to help them complete their tasks more accurately, quickly or simply: from the incised clay tablets of the Sumerian scribes, through the adding machines of the 19th century, to the calculators and computers of the 20th century. But all of these technology developments were very simple propositions compared to the myriad technologies that are now rapidly reshaping the worlds of business, accountancy and audit.