Ep: 8 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:
Zane Stevens | Thought leader, podcaster, and account business owner helping wineries succeed
Ellen Choi | Co-founder of Aiwyn, bringing practice automation tech to accountants
Eric Gregg | CEO of ClearlyRated, exclusive client experience intel for accounting firms
Eriona Bajrakurtaj | CEO, Major's Accounts, Accounting Leader and Early Tech Adopter
Gary Boomer | Founder/Dot Connector at Boomer Consulting
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 hadn't advised a robot 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 billion 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 that's deep dive into today's episode. In this episode, we'll continue to probe with our accounting influencers and leaders, whether accounts are getting better with client advisory services or whatever you call that. It may seem obvious because accountants are the trusted advisors, right, which means being future focused and proactive rather than historically focused and reactive. But maybe we're not so far on as we think. Let's find out as we ask our experts. And now we have Zane Stevens, thought leader, podcaster, accounting firm on a helping winer is succeed, where he combines his passion for accounting with the unique challenges of the wine industry to drive success and growth. I would say some of the time. The problem that we have, and I think it's a little self-inflicted, is that as in the accounting industry, we've made up a bunch of titles. And a lot of these titles don't really mean anything. And a lot of them don't even need any experience to be them, right? So there are a lot of really good outdoor CFOs that have experienced being CFOs. And there's a lot of outdoor CFOs that are really controllers, you know, financial managers, people that have a bunch of experience, but never had the strategic sole process behind it. So because we've created all these titles, people don't really know who to turn to and who to trust and what the right resources are. So I think there is a lot of people doing really good work that can give clients that proactive information they need. But because we've made the water because we all want to sound important, I think it's a little bit of distrust. And people are a little less likely to go out and hire somebody unless they're specifically referred into that person to say that's a good person. So we've made it harder for people to find the good resources because we're all worried about ego rather than helping people out. And you can see the people who are successful or the ones that are simplified and say, this is what we do, and this is how we'll help you, rather than putting some fancy title behind it. So I think the industry's moved to a good spot where people are there to help business owners make decisions, but there's way too much mad in the water for people to find those people all the time. And there's a lot of ego about it, right? Like the biggest thing is like, I don't care, anybody can call me a bookkeeper. I'm happy to be called a bookkeeper. There's so many people like, oh my word, that's like derogatory. I'm like, no, it's the foundation of a whole industry. We don't have bookkeeping. We don't have anything else. So you can be the fancy CFO all you like, but if you don't have a good bookkeeper, you're worth nothing. Next is Alan Choi, co-founder of A Win, bringing practice automation technology to accountants, helping them to transform their practices with innovative solutions that save time and improve accuracy. They absolutely are. And it's because accountants are very client-centric. It's all about client surface. It's all about serving their needs. And the clients, the needs itself, it's getting more complex. The world is getting more complex. Their needs are getting more diverse. And we see this so commonly with a lot of the accounting firms that we work with, they buy an IT firm. Oh, they're clients. And now I want this other service that's different than a compliance, you know, angle. They want to be proactively advised on tasks or whatever maybe they go to whatever their clients need. And because the clients are asking for more advisory services and advice, not just compliance, that's what they expect from their accountants today. That's what they're going to be offering. And accountants are great at that. And I think just with the new generation of accountants and their orientation towards natural compliance, which they are seeing, they will front row C to AI and outsourcing and all of that good stuff, they understand that they have to go there in terms of the advisory services to remain relevant and thrive in this career. Joining the conversation is Eric Greg, CEO of Clearly Rated, offer an exclusive client experience intelligence for accounting films, helping them to differentiate and excel through superior service. I was so glad when this was one of the questions, because what we see in our data is that pro-activeness and accounting firm relationships are oftentimes this far apart. And the reality is that it's a challenge with almost every accounting firm that I've ever seen feedback from their clients. They all wish that those accounting firms could be more proactive. So let's go a couple steps into this and say, why is that not happening? One of which is the information systems and accountants are different levels of good at keeping track of their individual accounts and what's going on broadly within those individual accounts. A lot of adherence to a CRM or note-taking or abilities to do that is really all over the board from accounting firm to accounting firm and from accounting to account. So we have to have better data to which we can actually be proactive on. And that's part on the accountants and it's part on the firms in terms of the discipline that they have and the systems that they have in place to be able to take action on that. What we know is that when somebody is proactive, it is a value creation game and it is ultimately the key to not just retaining those accounts but expanding those accounts, cross-selling into different lines of business, different practice areas and really the ultimate goal of what a lot of the service delivery is for an accountant. And now insights from Mariana Barakata, CEO of Major's Accounts, an accounting leader and early tech adopter at the forefront of incorporating technology into accounting for enhanced efficiency and compliance service. Business owners can be a bit closer to receiving that proactive advice. It just depends on the accounts, right? But is there a - you've got two end of the spectrum. Those accounts are super tech savvy and they have the ability to have more conversations with their clients because they have the technology and the figures to earn at any point and they know what's going on. But then you have the more traditional accountants who will still need some time to cut those figures together. So it really just depends on the type of account that unfortunately there aren't so many as there should be who are proactive because the tech has not adopted well enough or at all. But yeah, we can do this. The consequences of those accountants who are not adopting their technology as well as they should be are with clients who look around them and see who can provide their information. They'll ask their friends, they'll ask Google and they'll find out who can help them and of course they'll end up losing those clients because we are expected to provide so much more than we have done traditionally. We turn now to none other than Gary Boomer, founder and doc connector at Boomer Consulting, a visionary driving the accounting profession forward with innovative strategies and technologies that facilitate growth and efficiency. Yes, from those accountants that have moved up the value chain to advisory and consulting services and knowing what questions to ask is the big differentiator. And by saying what questions to ask, I think in the advisory role, we've always been the smartest person in the room, but we have clients that are very good at what they do and asking them the right questions with regard to their vision, their strategy and how they plan to grow can be key insights in this lonely being the entrepreneur out there and having a advisor or consultant that can talk to you and communicate with you is very important. So there you have five grand answers to the question. Are business owners any closer to receiving proactive advice from accountants? Every working day of the week, Monday through Friday, we give you the insights of five top influencers in the accounting world on this critical area for 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 new show with your friends. If you want to join the conversation, you can plug into our community of influencers at accounting influencers.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. [BLANK_AUDIO]
