2019 CPA hacks: Data-driven financial analysis

Event Details

Embracing data-driven financial analysis

CPAs offer a strong set of accounting and financial statement analysis skills required for today's complex and evolving business environment. Financial statements are the universal reporting tools which investors, banks, and other professionals use to evaluate a business. However, stakeholders are increasingly relying on non-traditional data, alongside environmental, social and governance (ESG) information to monitor and evaluate businesses, often in real-time. Therefore, traditional approaches to financial statement analysis must evolve to meet the expanding needs of these data-driven stakeholders.

Challenge statement

Develop and build an idea that incorporates both financial information and non-traditional data (e.g. customer reviews, social media sentiments, logistics data, climate impact, etc.) for investors and other stakeholders to evaluate and predict business performance.

Explore the possibilities below or come up with your own idea

Is there a correlation between the number of customer complaints recorded by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and sales malpractice by financial institutions? And if so, how could this be included in the assessment of business performance? Interestingly enough, according to the CFPB data on consumer complaints, Wells Fargo has one of the highest number of complaints by consumers.

Airline price data can be collected from the web, alongside flight schedules. How could this information be used to forecast airline revenues?

U.S. government procurement data is recorded by USAspending.gov and it includes information around defense contracts awarded to corporations. Are there correlations to the number and value of contracts awarded and the political party in power? Is this impacted by whether it is an election year? How do we build a model that can predict which corporations may perform better under certain governments and time periods?

Note: CPA Canada’s partnership with ThinkData Works provides access to their Namara platform for working with certain open data sets which are accessible through their APIs. They will also provide in-person support for their platform during the event. However, participants are not required nor limited to the data sets available on the platform when developing their ideas.

When is it?

September 13, 2019 (6:30 pm) to September 14, 2019 (7:30 pm)
Location: Devhub Toronto

Are you up for the challenge?

Assemble your team of four to six individuals, develop a solution, and present it to a panel of judges for a chance to win one of two cash prizes.

Don't have a team? Don't worry! We'll match you up with other participants.

• registration is limited
• a chance to win one of two cash prizes:
  • 1^st Place Team: $3,500
  • Runner-up Team: $1,500

Prize amounts will be split equally between all members of that team.

Why join?

• work together with others
• connect with other professionals
• learn new skills
• tackle real-world problems while having fun
• free food!

Who should attend?

• CPAs
• data scientists
• creative designers, developers, and engineers
• early-career professionals and students 18 years and older

More Details:

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