Seamless Solutions: Tech’s Answer to Accounting Efficiency

Rob Brown: 00:00:01

The future of accountant, isn't just about

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numbers and financial statements.

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It's about empowering businesses to make

informed decisions, navigate complex

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challenges, achieve their financial goals.

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And everyone recognized that Kansans

are at the heart of this and must become

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trusted partners with business acumen

expertise in data analytics, storytelling,

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strategic guidance, taking the clients

towards success and whatever your role

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is in this ecosystem, you need to stay

ahead of the curve to stay relevant.

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And that's why this accounting

answers podcast was conceived to

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keep you informed and competitive.

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I'm your host, Rob brown, and

I've interviewed 111 accounting

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experts, leaders, advisors, vendors,

and influencers in the last few

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months and collected for you the

very best and latest thinking on

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what works and what is coming up.

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And this week, they show 10 to 15

minutes gets you the low down on

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what matters today in the rapidly

evolving accounting landscape.

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And the professional is shed

in its traditional image of

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number crunching, embracing a

bold new future data technology,

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strategic guidance, reign Supreme.

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I've asked the same five questions

throughout covering the next

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generation of accountants.

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The proactive advice they need to be

given the drivers have changed the

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role of tech and software vendors

post the best predictions for the

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next few years, let's get started and

hear what our experts have to say.

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Holy squeak, Raskin, our

accountant experts and influencers.

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What should the tech industry and

accounting software vendors be doing to

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better serve the needs of accountants?

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More than any other question?

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This is elicit.

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The most emotions technology is

playing an increasingly crucial

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role in the accounting profession.

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So how is the tech industry meeting

the evolving demands of accountants?

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Let's see what our experts think.

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Next, we will come to the microphone.

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Ted Stevens, founder of CPE, think.com,

CP providers to the accounting world

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where his commitment to quality education.

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Helps professionals stay at the

forefront of the accounting field.

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Tad Stephens: Uh, stop trying to

do what I call linear sell, people.

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And that is, here's my widget, buy it.

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You don't want to buy it?

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It's the best widget in the world.

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Please buy it.

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Oh, you still don't want it?

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Oh, please buy it now.

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I mean, that is just,

that's straight line.

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I think somebody else called

that straight line selling.

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I call it linear selling.

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And it's, if somebody is looking

for that widget, That's great.

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Then they'll make a sale.

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Everybody be happy.

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But if they're looking for a solution,

which most people are, a solution to a

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problem that they perceive they have,

that's what they're looking to solve.

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And to this day, software

vendors, and a lot of salespeople,

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really, don't address that.

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They don't look at that.

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They don't take a more holistic approach.

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will that change?

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I don't know.

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you know, people are pretty Pretty

comfortable where they are if

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they're making enough money enough

whatever to get by so they gotta

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have a reason to change And I don't

know that they have one right now

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I think both I think the vendors, you

know As long as they're making their

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quotas as long as the you know, the

software company is making a profit And

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they're, you know, they, if they don't

see a reason to change, they won't.

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It's kind of like a spectrum.

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If you've ever studied psychology,

um, and bipolar, it's, it's, I

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would say the entire accounting

software industry is bipolar.

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And if you're familiar with

bipolar, you have euphoria on

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one end, and you have total chaos

and unhappiness on the other end.

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Well, you're not going to

change if you're euphoric.

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There's no reason to.

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And so they're doing well

enough on that scale.

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They're on this end of the scale and

they're not going to change when they

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get over here and they're destitute

and they going out of business and

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they're feeling pain, they will move to

someplace other and, but they're not here.

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And so until they get here.

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I don't see them changing because

they're happy enough as they are.

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Now, competition could change that

with software and AI coming on.

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there could be a lot of other vendors.

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competition could get a lot heavier.

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So, they could move over

to that non euphoric state.

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And, that would force

some change, I believe.

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Rob Brown: That's the perspective now

of Tamara Lowe's L passionate coach

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and facilitator advocating change.

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For next gen leaders focusing on

developing leadership and strategic

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skills within the accounting

profession for growth and innovation.

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Tamera Loerzel: The tech vendors

could integrate and automate more.

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We need to create capacity.

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And 1 of the ways to do that is.

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Automation and integration, the use of AI

and figuring out how we can create more

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efficient processes, reduce a lot of the

redundant work, reduce a lot of the time

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and duplication of work and entry and, you

know, systems not speaking to each other.

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Um, make it usable mobile device ready.

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It has to be mobile device ready for

our next gen to be able to access

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it anytime, anywhere in each of the

different systems that they might need

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to have access to same for clients.

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I would say that's another piece of it.

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How do we make that available to clients?

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Real time, easy, um, you know, that

they can get in there and see their,

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uh, company information or their

personal information at any time.

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Uh, so that it could just be a non

issue and how we serve our clients.

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And we can focus on the advisory

services that we need to be

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providing for our clients.

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So 1 of the concerns with that, and I

come from a technology software vendor

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background, and I know the issues with

legacy systems that we have and being

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able to translate the information

and have new technology that we're

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building for our platform forms and

our accounting software and all of the

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other applications that we're using.

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And so, you know, as a vendor, Okay.

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We also have to take care

of our current clients.

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We also have to focus on sales.

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Sometimes, you know, if it's a publicly

held company, we have those stakeholders.

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So there's lots of reasons that

it's hard to move off of that.

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And some of the newer vendors that are

starting grounds up with new technology

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are going to be faster at this.

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We've seen this already.

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But one of the things that software

vendors could do is more collaboration.

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I think there's We come from an

abundance mindset, and there is

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more than enough opportunity.

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If we could figure out how

do we speak to each other?

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What is everybody focusing on?

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How could we integrate and work

together to provide a broader

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client solution to the accountants

and clients by working together?

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Rob Brown: We welcome to the microphone.

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Now, Tom barring managing partner at G

H J father entrepreneur partner, coach

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business advisor, who combines his diverse

roles to lead his family and clients

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towards achieving their full potential.

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Tom Barry: What can the tech software

vendors do better to serve accountants?

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I think, there is a need.

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I won't name any of the main vendors

that serve the industry, but there is a

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need to kind of keep up with the times.

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I think, And, whether it's tax preparation

software or, even just time and billing

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and all these other kind of basic

things that we use, as a profession.

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there's not a lot of

innovation going into those.

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Now, there's a lot of innovation coming,

from the outside and how that comes in.

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And I think it's a little

bit of the consumerization,

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if you will, of technology.

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I'll give a great example.

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Once upon a time for like document

storage and all the big vendors

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had their own document management

solution and how this, you know, was

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gonna change things fundamentally.

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Things like Dropbox or Box or, you

know, these things that are being

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used by everyone really just got

adopted into, the workflow or the

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work, tech stack, if you will, of

all the firms, that are using them.

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So I think if they don't, incorporate.

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More data availability, more usability

by the firms and you know, they're

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starting to roll in some AI and

RPA functionality in these things.

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But I think most of that innovation

is either coming from the firms

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or some third party vendors.

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I think that those those tech firms that

serve the accounting industry are going

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to be at a risk of existing because

there's just other technologies that

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are kind of doing an end around on them

to provide the value or the services.

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I should say that the firms need.

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When I look at, just putting

a I again to the side.

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If I even look at something like

Google and you think about the research

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tools that have been used for decades

by firms and service providers.

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You can go to Google and get a pretty

close to good answer without having

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to subscribe to any type of service.

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Now, I didn't trust, we still need

to use our, our technical knowledge

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to go into the next layer of research

and make sure that we're getting

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the, validating sources and such.

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But I think Google is just a great

example of how, you know, firms used

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to have libraries full of research

and they don't need that anymore.

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And I think that is, kind of a, red flag,

if you will, how I see all these other.

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Traditional text services to

the, uh, profession are at risk.

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Rob Brown: I'm thrilled

to have with us today.

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The evergreen pioneer of accounting

toll wheel ride best-selling author,

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entrepreneur, worldwide authority on

tax known for his ability to simplify

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complex tax concepts and strategies.

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For building wealth and saving tax.

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Tom Wheelwright: Stop

competing with accountants.

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I mean, that's really the primary

issue is that the tech companies They

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don't want to work with accounts.

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They want to replace accountants.

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So instead, why not work with

accounts and say, look, here's

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some tools that you could use.

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I mean, think about AI and

the amazing power of this.

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Here's some tools that we have,

and you can, deliver reports.

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You can deliver analysis to

your, business owners, right?

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We don't want it.

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We don't want to take over.

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What we want to do is we want to

replace all the bad stuff you're doing,

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all the boring stuff you're doing,

make that simple, make that done for

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you and actually give you the tools

to do the more interesting stuff.

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So that hard work we were talking

about doesn't become so difficult.

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Rob Brown: It's time to listen to

Tony Stevenson, refund, accountant

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cloud specialist, and accountant

tech specialist at free agent where

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he applies his accounting expertise.

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To help firms leverage cloud

technologies for growth and efficiency.

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Tony Stevenson: So this one is the one

that's quite close to my heart, this

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topic, because I've sat on both sides

of the fence and I find it a really

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interesting topic for discussion because

I feel like the embedded bias in the

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question is always that it is on the

technology and accounting industry to

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make those changes, to improve things

and to facilitate better relationships,

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partnerships, engagements, you know,

professional and profit bearing

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outcomes between those two parties.

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my personal belief is, that whilst there

are Some vendors out there who could

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definitely do an improvement in that

area and we can all get better, right?

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I think the big jump is to be

made on the buyer side not on the

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seller side and I think that if the

accounting technology industry could

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do anything for the Profession it

would be to help the profession become

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better buyers I don't think there's

much pride in being a good buyer.

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and I think i've seen it Hundreds if

not thousands of times turn up to these

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conversations, and it's like, right.

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Okay, we don't know what our pain is.

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you know, we've come to this conversation

because someone recommended it.

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Or, you know, we saw somebody doing

it, somebody else at a trade show,

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whatever it was, no research on the

industry, no understanding of the problem

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that trying to solve or opportunity

that they're trying to exploit.

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and always the one that

really is missing is the okay.

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So practically, what are going to be

the barriers to implementing this?

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What can I afford?

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you know, what problem

is this trying to solve?

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And how is that feeding

into my overall strategy?

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So I think that if the vendors could

help accountants or encourage accountants

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to become better prepared for these

interactions, both parties would get

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loads more out of it, which I know is

probably an unpopular accounting side.

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but, turning up and being a

good buyer is, you will get.

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10x, 100x out of that interaction if you

are prepared for it and ready to make

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the most of it and entering it with a

partnership mindset, not a, you know,

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this is a second class citizen that I'm

dealing with here and I can cancel their

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meetings and I can, you know, I can

ghost them if it doesn't quite fit in

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with what I was expecting because they've

opened my eyes to things that I hadn't

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really given some consideration to.

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So, I'd love to see better buyers

on, average in the industry.

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and you know, the tech industry

can potentially help with that by

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providing better education and better

insight and better stuff up front.

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So

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Microphone (TONOR TC30 Audio Device)-2:

So they have five grand

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answer to the question.

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What could the tech and software vendors

do better to serve accountants each

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work in depth that week, Monday through

Friday, we give you the insights of five

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top influencers in the accounting world.

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On this critical area of the

tech providers, software vendors

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and how they serve accountants.

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That's 25 valuable perspectives,

viewpoints and best thinking every week.

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And with each fresh week comes a

fresh question and more thoughts

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from the best accounting leaders

and influences we can find.

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Thanks for listening to this brand

new accounting answers podcast.

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And sharing the show with your friends.

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If you want to join the conversation,

you can plug into our community of

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implementers@accountinginfluencers.com

and check out our virtual

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speed networking events.

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These happen every few months

for the north American region

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and the UK Europe region.

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The great opportunities to raise your

profile, build valuable connections and

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share your thoughts with influential

peers until next time, this is your host.

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Rob brown, saying stay informed,

stay relevant and stay connected.