Ep: 7 Top experts answer: "Are business owners any closer to receiving proactive advice from accountants? "
The Accounting Answers Podcast, hosted by Rob Brown, asks critical questions of the experts, leaders and influencers who shape the decision-making of accountants, CPAs and finance professionals. Today we ask:
Are business owners any closer to receiving proactive advice from accountants?
You'll hear insightful and passionate answers from these 5 experts and influencers:
Des O'Neill | Chief Delivery Officer at ProfitPro, helping accountants build better businesses
Diane Yetter | The Original Sales Tax Nerd who loves sharing knowledge
Martin Bissett | Advisor to CEOs of 6-9 Figure Accounting & Fintech Organisations
Ed Kless | MetaConsultant/Iconoclast who believes that entrepreneurs continue the work of creation
Elaine Godley | Inspiring dynamic accountants to optimise personal, team and business wellbeing
Tune into more on this weekly show for short, sharp episodes that keep you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.
This episode was first published in an earlier season of this podcast.
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How do you stay informed about what's happening in the accounting world? Not so much the news and the day today, but the trends, the patterns, the drivers of change. What if you had an advisory board of experts to help you gauge what the world is thinking about vital trends and patterns in the accounting world? About what's working and what isn't? You could put some prompts into chat GPT and get an idea, but what if you could go to the real people themselves who are on the front line working with and in accounting firms? I'm talking about real people, real opinions, real insights. I'm Rob Brown, and for this brand new accounting answers podcast, I've interviewed 111 people in the know from tons of different countries, roles, viewpoints, all to keep you ahead of what the world is thinking in accounting finance and tech. And I've asked them all the same five questions about change, talent, people, tech, and the future of accounting. That's over 500 billionth passionate and articulate perceptions, insights, viewpoints from professionals with a say in this game. And in this show, coming out every working day for the next few weeks, you're going to hear every single answer. Each episode will focus on one of the five questions and give you answers from five of our experts. So let's deep dive into today's episode. Today we're soliciting the views of our experts on how good accountants are at giving proactive advice to their business clients. It impacts the whole compliance versus advisory debate and what being proactive really means. What's fascinating is the variety of answers. Let's hear from our experts now about whether business owners are any closer to receiving proactive advice from accountants. And now here is Des O'Neill, Chief Delivery Officer of ProfitPro, helping accountants build better businesses through strategic advice and tools designed to enhance profitability and efficiency. That's a bit of a loaded question because a lot of business owners are getting a hell of a lot of proactive advice from their accountants. We've got to look at the entire profession and we've got to look at the entire spectrum. We've got to look at the businesses and what they want to need and the people that are serving them. So there are some accountants out there who, they're not heavy into advisory. They do the compliance work and that's what their clients want to need. Now maybe they could do more and should do more. That's what the client asks for and they're happy with the service. If they weren't happy with the service, they'd be somewhere else. So at the smaller scale, the smaller size, receiving proactive advice, do they want to do they need it? If I go to a certain hotel, I go there for a certain type of service at a certain price. If I go to a fine-star hotel, that's the type of experience I'm looking for. Sometimes I just need a bed for the night. So it could be a hotel, an airport hotel where I'm in, I'm out, lie down, go sleep. So from a customer service perspective, the market obviously needs to be educated. The businesses need to understand there's more, there's more we can get. But I think there's a hell of a lot of accountants out there are given really good proactive advice to their clients and sometimes proactive advice, good compliance can be proactive advice. So it's not all about the fancy advisory. Some people are into it and they should do it. Some accountants are not into it and that's okay too. Everybody has to be themselves. And as I always say, you got to be yourself because everybody else is taken. So yeah, should the profession improve how they serve their clients? Of course they could and should because that's what business is. It's about serving the needs of the customer. I do think that a lot of businesses are getting proactive advice. I think technology is moving us towards rather than rear view mirror historical complaints to real time reporting, which in itself is proactive advice. I think that the future is going to bring us even deeper into that whole area that whole field. Let's get the thoughts of Diane yetter, the original sales tax nerd who loves showing her extensive knowledge on sales tax with professionals and businesses demystifying complex regulations. I think some are, but I think the big issue is a lot of them don't see their accountant as their trusted business advisor. I'm a small business owner. I look to my accountant for some things. There's some things that I wish he did a little bit better that I would like as a business owner, but business owners can gain so much insight from their accountant, even from somebody like me who is the sales tax consultant. I think what makes a business owner comfortable looking to their accountant is when their accountant takes the time to learn about the client, to learn about them as a person and to learn about their business. They need to gain that trust. I'm a sales tax consultant. I've had my clients ask me marketing questions or payroll questions or other types of questions that are not within my wheelhouse, but I know people and as a small business owner, I can also give them advice as a fellow small business owner, not necessarily as an accountant. I think that is going to happen before business owners are going to come to their accountant as their first point of asking questions, rather than somebody that they're just going to validate information that they got from all their other advisors. It's a special treat now as we tune into the thoughts of Martin Bissett, my co-founder of the Accounting Influences Roundtable, advisor to CEOs of six to nine figure accounting and fintech organizations providing unparalleled guidance and strategy to elevate firms and fintechs to new heights buckle up because Martin always speaks his mind. He would have thought so with all the software there to help them, but sadly not. I don't see evidence of it and I don't see any reports that would suggest that's the case. I would love to think that all of the technological improvements that have improved process and systems within accounting firms have freed up time to be able to be more proactive, but I think the reality is that the individuals within the accounting firms are not proactively minded or not proactively wired and therefore whether they don't want to, or they don't know how to, either way, the client doesn't ultimately receive that arm round the shoulder phone call to say, "Hey, how are you doing? Can we be useful to you?" I am sure that when a client makes the first step and calls the accountant, then supports and advice is there for them, but not if it happens the other way around. Now is the legend ed plus meta consultant iconoclast who believes that entrepreneurs continue the work of creation, challenging the status quo and inspiring innovation within the profession. Infinitesimally so, I still think there are far too many people who are concerned about getting the numbers right and not about explaining what the numbers mean to people. I think one of the, I definitely see this when I talk to folks in Canada. I think the bookkeepers are far ahead of the accountants in this area. I think they do a much better job of explaining stuff. They're more relationship oriented rather than transactionally oriented, the way that many accountants are, and there's still too many accountants in my view who are brain surgeons who pierce ears. They're, again, getting back to the idea of specialization. They have all of this wonderful expertise, but then they're still doing knocking out tax returns. Insane to me. That's what they're doing. So, yes, it's happening not as fast as it should be, and it's also happening not necessarily in the account, it's happening in the accounting profession, but not among CPAs. The impact of this slow progress is really something that could be decimate the accounting profession and decimate in the actual true sense of the word, like one out of every 10 going away. We can't get people into the profession, and the model just doesn't work anymore. They're going to have to change or become irrelevant. There's a great quote from General Erickson Shecky, who is the head of the chief of staff of the US Army under the first bush and then Clinton, and he said this, if you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less, and I think that's the impact. The next verse you hear will be Elaine Godley inspiring dynamic accountants to optimize personal team and business wellbeing, focusing on the holistic success of accounting professionals. I don't think they are, no, because we've got, we still have these old fashioned accountants who haven't embraced the technology, but I do think that as we're getting younger generations of accountants coming to the fore, it will be a natural evolution. We will see a change, but I don't think it's going to be a quick change. So there you have five great answers to the question. Are business owners any closer to receiving proactive advice from accountants? Every work in day of the week, Monday through Friday, we give you the insights of five top influencers in the accounting world on this critical area, four proactive advice from accountants. That's 25 valuable perspectives, viewpoints and best thinking every week, and with each fresh week comes a fresh question with more thoughts from the best accounting influencers and leaders we can find. Thanks for listening to the Accounting Answers podcast and sharing this brand you show with your friends. If you want to join the conversation, you can plug into our community of influencers at accountinginfluencers.com and check out our virtual speed networking events. These happen every few months for the North America region and the UK Europe region. Great opportunities to raise your profile, build valuable connections and share your thoughts with influential peers. Until next time, this is your host Rob Brown saying stay informed, stay relevant and stay connected. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
