Next-Gen Accounting: The Push for Innovation in Tech

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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We've been focusing all

this week on the question.

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What could the tech software vendors

do better to serve accountants?

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The answers you hear covered?

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The vendor accountant relationship and the

needs of accountants that are not being

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addressed by current accounting software.

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How could this software be more

user-friendly and intuitive for

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accountants and their clients?

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How is AI playing its part in the

evolution of the accounting role,

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all these aspects and more come out.

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As we check out the answers

of our resident experts.

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Um, next is the wonderful Roger connect

president of universal accounting

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center off the host father, husband,

who brings a holistic approach.

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To accounting education focusing on

both personal and professional growth.

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Roger Knecht: Beautiful question.

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My thinking is, is that the accounting

software, the programs, the vendors that

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are out there servicing the accounting

community need to actually help us not

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just do tactile work, the commoditization

of the work of the accounting that we

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do, what they need to do is therefore,

basically help us answer the question

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of how does this apply or what's next?

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And I'm going to suggest that what.

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Every accounting vendor, every

software company that services

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the accounting community needs to

answer is therefore what here we

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are, we're doing this automation,

we're systematizing this process.

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We're automating this.

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We're bringing in the AI.

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Once we have all this systematized,

therefore, how do we actually

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take this to the clients we

service and help them take this?

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Systemization that we've done the

automation that we've done and now answer

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the question, therefore, what, and that's

something that I would like to see every

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company be able to explain and answer.

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They've systematized something.

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they've accelerated the process

of doing something, simplified it.

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Therefore, what?

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Rob Brown: John.

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And the debate now is Russell Frain

director transformation at gravity

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way's expertise with technology is

redefining how accounting firms leverage

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technology for better service delivery.

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Russell Frayne: Absolutely.

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And two things always stick out

for me, and I've spoken to many

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vendors about this as well.

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So, one is optimizing their platform,

as I think too often vendors can, leave

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accounting firms to figure it out on their

own, which can result in suboptimal use.

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reduces the return on investment from

the firm, which means that sometimes

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they give up on software adoption at

all because they don't see the benefit.

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plus there's a lot of wastage in the

cloud accounting space with undeployed

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subscriptions, floating all over the

place that the firms are paying for,

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which are sort of being returned as.

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adoption metrics for software

vendors, which is skewing

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the actual adoption rates.

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I think, practices have a scattered

approach to technology adoption as they

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move from platform to platform, looking

for some magic secret bullet to success.

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So I think getting the best out

of the platforms absolutely from

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a vendor perspective is a focus.

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And then secondly, is the soft

skill and change management

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support because these are skills

that accountants don't inherently

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have and they're not trained on.

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So when you do your training, you

don't get trained on change management,

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transformation, soft skills.

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So any support bringing

people along on the journey.

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is value add from a

software vendor perspective.

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And we've seen this with some vendors

historically who have paired a partner

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consultant with an account manager to

help deliver and deploy to get the most

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from a solution, which then leverages the

best return on investment for the business

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and the business owner or the practice.

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But from a vendor perspective, you've

got the optimal long term value in

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terms of the client's stickiness.

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So when you kind of pair, you know, best

in breed technology with an accountant

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optimized, you end up with, the best

overall result from my experience anyway.

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Rob Brown: And now insights from

Seth Feinberg business journalist

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turned accounting, professional

consultant and content strategist who

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uses his media expertise to elevate

the conversations around accounting

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practices and industry trends.

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Seth Fineberg: Talk to each other more.

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Be present.

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Be, like, you listen on both sides.

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They both need to, be on

the same page a lot more.

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I understand that, developers on the

software side, you know, they, tend to

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do things in a bit of their own, bubble.

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Just as accountants do.

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Accountants, do things in their own way.

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One of the reasons why, particularly

with practice management systems.

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there's always something that,

frustrates, the accountant because

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it's not that necessarily something

wasn't built right for them.

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It's just, they just have

their own way of doing things.

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So there are certain things that exist

in a bubble on the developer side, on

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the accountant side, but by and large,

they're only going to, you really,

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you know, move everything forward,

move the entire profession forward

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if they're on the same page, more.

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So that's, that's something I

think that, They should be doing

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better, to, you know, to serve

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Rob Brown: accounts.

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We now tend to sit down with Qatari owner

digital outsourcing services, a strategic

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partner to accountants, where he provides

innovative outsourcing solutions that

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enhance efficiency and capacity for

accounting firms all over the world.

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Siddarth Kothari: so right now there are

very, tight competition in the technology

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industry to provide more and more

solutions to the accountancy industry,

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and there are very good companies who have

come to a very breakthrough technology

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to do much and much of an impact on

how accountancy firms are working.

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Let's just think of bookkeeping, right?

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It has changed significantly

on how everyone is working

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right now all over the world.

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But the thing is, now the accountancy

firms would also be looking on how they're

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leveraging technology because if they are

subscribing to, let's say, 10 different

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technologies, one would be for bookkeeping

or tech, accounting or practice

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management, or taxes, filings, everything.

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the most important thing

they would be looking for.

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They should be looking for.

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Is that the technology should

not be overlapping different

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subscriptions, different technologies

that they're already using.

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So the tech industry would be now also

focusing on those areas that how they

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are being niche in their services, their

products, their, their service developers.

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And the second thing is, that would

be a game changing is the, strong

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customer back office support.

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Because if they are having an issues on

a real time basis for their accounts,

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for their audits, for any other, uh,

requirements, they should have a team

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in the software companies in the tech

companies will be, uh, you know, available

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to speak to them, provide a support.

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solution at that moment, and then

the accountancy don't, uh, miss

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out any deadlines or they don't

feel any backlogs because of that.

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So, yeah, that would be much, much impact.

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Rob Brown: Next step

is a favorite of mine.

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One of the most respected accounting

influences in the United Kingdom

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and certainly a big figure in

the round table that we run here.

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It's Steve Cox.

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Accountant thought leader,

technology, strategist.

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20-year software vendor veteran.

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Who brings a wealth of experience

in leveraging technology to solve

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complex accounting challenges.

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Here he comes.

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Steve Cox: Being a software vendor, I'm

working for one for many, many years.

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We've worked hand in glove with

accountants globally for, well, certainly

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for my reign of 21 years, but from

an Irish perspective for 45 years.

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However, is the job done?

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No, we've got to continue to work really

closely with accountants and bookkeepers

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to be able to understand what they need.

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So it's a constant listening

piece, which is something that any

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software vendor should be doing

is listening to the profession.

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To understand the challenges of what's

going on, what could we be doing better?

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Ultimately, showing people how

to use the software better,

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how to get the most out of it.

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It's a worrying statistic that actually

most firms that buy software only use

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about 20 percent of its functionality.

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You're not getting a great return

on your investment for that.

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It's on the software vendors

primary objectives to get them

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to use as much as possible.

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It doesn't drive additional

revenue, but what it does do

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is drive customer satisfaction.

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And ultimately, a happy customer is one

that's going to stay longer and buy more.

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So actually, it's a win win for both.

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So really, it's around how do you

get the most out of the software

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that we're providing to accountants.

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Rob Brown: So they have five

grand 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.