Accounting Apps | Accounting Technology | Modern Practice

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Discover the biggest announcements from XeroCon London 2026, including Xero Force, Partner Hub, Smart Document Capture, AI-powered automation, and what's next for accountants.

At XeroCon London 2026, Xero unveiled a wave of AI-powered innovations designed to help accountants and bookkeepers work more efficiently while supporting the needs of increasingly complex businesses. In this episode, Heather Smith speaks with Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero, about the company's latest product announcements, the thinking behind its AI strategy, and how these developments will shape the future of the Xero ecosystem.

XeroCon London 2026 highlights: Xero celebrates reaching five million subscribers and unveils major product announcements, including Xero Force, Xero Ultra and the new Xero Partner Hub.
Smarter practice workflows: Learn how Book Health, Month End Readiness, Auto Bank Reconciliation and Smart Document Capture use AI to reduce manual work and improve bookkeeping accuracy.
Building for larger businesses: Discover why Xero Ultra has been introduced and how Xero plans to support businesses as they grow without requiring a move to enterprise software.
The future of AI at Xero: Diya explains Xero Force, AI agents, practical automation, and how AI is being embedded across the platform to help accountants deliver greater value.
Lessons from the Australian outages: An open discussion about the AWS infrastructure incident, what happened behind the scenes, and how Xero is strengthening platform resilience.

Whether you're an accountant, bookkeeper or Xero user, this conversation offers an inside look at the strategy, technology and product direction emerging from XeroCon London 2026. It provides valuable context behind the announcements and practical insights into how AI and automation are set to transform accounting workflows in the years ahead.

Apps & Tools Mentioned: Xero, Xero Partner Hub, Book Health, Month End Readiness, Auto Bank Reconciliation, Smart Document Capture, Hubdoc, Xero Files, Xero Force, Xero Ultra, Xero Payments, AWS, Amazon Web Services, OCR, JAX, AI Studio, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT

Episode resources and links:

Diya Jolly Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/diyajolly/

Xero https://www.xero.com/

If this episode helped you, the best way to support the show is to leave a review somewhere as it helps more people find us. And if you want to continue the conversation, come find me Heather Smith | Accountant and Storyteller on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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The second quarter of 2026 has delivered another wave of innovation across the accounting technology landscape. In this episode, Heather Smith is joined by Tyler Caskey from The Bean Counters to unpack the recent product releases, AI developments, payroll changes, reporting enhancements, and practice management updates shaping the profession. Alongside practical commentary on the latest features from leading accounting platforms, they discuss cybersecurity lessons, the impact of industry layoffs, emerging AI-first accounting systems, and several standout apps that deserve attention. Whether you're an accountant, bookkeeper, advisor, or business owner, this episode offers practical insights to help you stay informed and identify technology worth exploring.

Key discussion points

Heather and Tyler discuss major updates from QuickBooks, MYOB, Xero and Easy Business App, including AI-powered reconciliation, open banking developments, Employment Hero integration, and evolving automation features.
They explore emerging accounting platforms including Digits and Prosaic, examining how AI-native general ledgers could reshape the future of bookkeeping and financial management.
The conversation covers important payroll and compliance developments, including Beam, Employment Hero, Tanda, and practical considerations for Australian businesses adapting to the new requirements.
A wide range of specialist apps are highlighted, including RecHound, XBert, Calxa, HoneyBook, TaxDome, MinuteDock, DataSights, Archer Cards, Hello Cashflow, Kloud Connect, WorkGuru, EzyCollect and many more, with practical commentary on where each solution fits.
Heather also shares her recent experience recovering a compromised Google account, reinforcing the importance of cybersecurity, strong authentication, backup recovery methods, and maintaining trusted professional networks.

The accounting technology ecosystem continues to evolve at an incredible pace, with AI, automation, compliance, and integration driving much of the innovation. While not every new feature will suit every business, understanding what's available helps accountants and bookkeepers make better technology decisions for themselves and their clients. This episode provides a practical snapshot of where the industry is heading and highlights the solutions that are genuinely worth keeping on your radar.

This episode is also syndicated to Accountants Daily Under the Hood podcast.

Read here how I work with some solutions mentioned https://endorsementdisclosure.com/

Apps & Tools Mentioned:

Dext –https://dext.com/
Google Workspace (Gmail) –https://workspace.google.com
LinkedIn –https://www.linkedin.com
GoCardless –https://gocardless.com
Reddit –https://www.reddit.com
QuickBooks –https://quickbooks.intuit.com
Employment Hero –https://employmenthero.com
MYOB –https://www.myob.com
MYOB Solo –https://www.myob.com/au/products/solo
Airwallex –https://www.airwallex.com
NAB Connect –https://www.nab.com.au/business/internet-banking/nab-connect
CommBiz –https://www.commbank.com.au/business/online-banking/commbiz.html
ING –https://www.ing.com.au
Xero –https://www.xero.com
Claude –https://claude.ai
Anthropic –https://www.anthropic.com
Easy Business App –https://easybusinessapp.com.au
Digits –https://digits.com
Ignition –https://www.ignitionapp.com
Karbon –https://Karbonhq.com
Reach Reporting –https://reachreporting.com
Prosaic –https://www.prosaic.works/
Zoho –https://www.zoho.com
RecHound –https://rechound.com
Easy Month-End –https://easymonthend.com
HoneyBook –https://www.honeybook.com
TaxDome –https://taxdome.com
XBert – https://www.xbert.io/
Calxa –https://www.calxa.com
Beam –https://www.beamconnect.com.au
Hero Force –https://employmenthero.com
Tanda –https://www.tanda.co
MinuteDock –https://minutedock.com
Google Authenticator –https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2&hl=en&pli=1
Microsoft Authenticator –https://www.microsoft.com/security/mobile-authenticator-app
Xero Verify –https://www.xero.com/security/two-step-authentication
Archa Cards –https://www.archa.com.au/
Wise –https://wise.com
Weel –https://www.weel.com.au
DataSights –https://datasights.co
Microsoft Azure –https://azure.microsoft.com
Power BI –https://powerbi.microsoft.com
Lovable –https://lovable.dev
Cadence –https://cadenceapp.com.au
Hello Cashflow –https://www.hellocashflow.com/
Float –https://float.app
Kloud Connect –https://www.kloudconnect.com.au/
FYI –https://fyidocs.com
SharePoint –https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/sharepoint
com.au –https://pay.com.au
EzyCollect –https://ezycollect.com.au
Apple Pay –https://www.apple.com/apple-pay
Google Pay –https://pay.google.com
WorkGuru –https://www.workguru.io
Dashboard Insights –https://dashboardinsights.com.au
Wagepoint –https://wagepoint.com
Sage –https://www.sage.com

Episode resources and links:

Tyler Caskey : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

The Bean Counters : https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Not every opportunity that lands in your inbox is the right fit. In this episode, Heather (me!) explores the concept of "handball referrals" and why passing opportunities to the right person can strengthen relationships, build trust, and create value across the accounting profession. Drawing on real-world examples from speaking engagements, networking experiences, and community involvement, she shares practical advice on becoming a thoughtful connector within your professional network.

Key Discussion Points* Why saying "no" can be the most professional response when an opportunity falls outside your expertise. * How to identify the right person in your network and make meaningful referrals. * The importance of maintaining professional credibility by matching opportunities with genuine expertise. * Lessons learned from speaking engagements, panel discussions, and community involvement. * How strategic introductions build trust, strengthen industry relationships, and contribute to long-term professional success.

ConclusionProfessional networks thrive when people actively support one another. Whether it's a speaking opportunity, client referral, advisory role, or project, taking a few minutes to connect the right people can have a lasting impact. Heather encourages listeners to think beyond simply declining opportunities and instead consider how they can contribute to a stronger, more connected accounting community.

Episode resources and links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Technology should make accounting firms more efficient, but many firms have accumulated layers of disconnected tools that create complexity rather than clarity. In this discussion, Heather Smith is joined by Tyler Caskey from The Bean Counters and John Munden from Cloud Office to explore how firms can simplify their technology stack, improve workflow visibility, reduce manual work and make better technology decisions.

Key Discussion Points* Tyler Caskey shares why firms often accumulate too many disconnected tools and how visualising workflows can reveal inefficiencies. * John Munden explains how standardised workflows help reduce bottlenecks, improve onboarding and create consistency across teams. * The panel discusses common technology traps including decision fatigue, duplicated processes and underutilised software. * Practical advice is shared on auditing a tech stack, identifying manual processes and prioritising integrations. * The conversation explores leadership, change management, client communication challenges and the future role of automation and API-driven workflows.

The key takeaway is that firms do not need more technology. They need better connected technology, clearer workflows and a structured approach to change. By focusing on visibility, automation and process consistency, accounting firms can reduce overwhelm and create scalable systems that support long-term growth.

Episode resources and links:

Tyler Caskey : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

John Munden : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmunden/

Cloudoffis : https://cloudoffis.com.au/

Apps & Tools MentionedXero, SharePoint, APS, Excel, Microsoft Lists, HandiSoft, BGL, NowInfinity, FYI Docs, Xero Practice Manager, Content Snare, Annature, Adobe Sign, DocuSign, Employment Hero, MYOB, QuickBooks, Stripe, Pinch Payments, Macquarie Bank Feeds, Mayday, Seamless

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Accounting technology leader Ben Richmond joins the podcast to discuss his remarkable journey from regional accounting practice in New Zealand to becoming President and CEO of WagePoint in Canada. Drawing on decades of experience across public practice, corporate finance, Xero’s international expansion and payroll technology, Ben shares lessons on leadership, customer relationships, change management and the future of accounting. The conversation explores how accountants can broaden their career horizons, embrace public speaking, leverage AI effectively and build more meaningful advisory relationships with clients. Ben also reflects on what it takes to grow software businesses across different countries and why the accounting profession remains one of the most impactful careers available today.

Key Discussion Points* Ben Richmond's career journey from public accounting to Xero and WagePoint. * Lessons learned scaling accounting technology across New Zealand, the US and Canada. * Why public speaking, emotional intelligence and relationship skills matter more than ever. * The opportunities and challenges AI presents for accountants and bookkeepers. * How payroll, advisory and specialist services create valuable growth opportunities.

Ben’s perspective offers a refreshing blend of optimism and realism. While acknowledging the disruption created by AI and rapid technological change, he argues that accountants and bookkeepers who embrace innovation, strengthen their advisory capabilities and invest in relationships are exceptionally well positioned for the future. The discussion highlights the importance of curiosity, adaptability and customer-centric thinking in both accounting and software businesses.

Apps & Tools Mentioned:Ben Richmond : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-richmond-ca-b8794220/

WagePoint https://www.wagepoint.com/

Xero https://www.xero.com

Stripe https://stripe.com/

QuickBooks, https://quickbooks.intuit.com

Episode resources and links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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I sat down with Paul Wittich, General Manager APAC at Dext, to explore how the platform is evolving beyond document capture into a fully automated bookkeeping workflow. We discuss AI Assist, payments, underused features, pricing transparency and what 2026 looks like for the profession.

Paul’s career journey from management accountant to APAC leader at Dext
Dext’s evolution from OCR tool to end-to-end bookkeeping automation platform
AI Assist and how it learns user behaviour to reduce repetitive work
Underused features: Vault, supplier statements, supplier rules and practice insights
Pricing transparency, ecosystem competition and what is coming next in 2026

The profession is shifting rapidly. As AI accelerates change, the firms that embrace automation thoughtfully and strategically will be best positioned to move beyond compliance and into higher-value advisory services.

Episode resources and links:

https://dext.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulwittich/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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This episode is a personal and confronting reflection on how quickly even a cyberaware professional can lose control of a long-standing Gmail account. What began as a seemingly legitimate brand collaboration unfolded into a carefully orchestrated phishing attack that removed all security measures within seconds. The experience highlights how modern cybercrime blends patience, credibility signals, automation and psychological triggers to bypass even cautious users.

The phishing grooming process and credibility signals used
• The red flags hidden in plain sight
• What happened in the 60-second account takeover
• The recovery journey and escalation through professional networks
• Three essential security measures: 2FA, passkeys and backup codes

This story is not about fear. It is about awareness, practical action and understanding how sophisticated attacks have become. The lesson is simple: five minutes of security setup can prevent four days of stress.

Apps & Tools Mentioned:1Password, LastPass Authenticator, Coursera, Impact, Google, Gmail, Revolut, Claude, ChatGPT, LinkedIn, Twitter, TeamYouTube

Episode resources and links:

Alex falcon Huerta’s story : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexfalconhuerta_fraud-alexfalconhuerta-share-7394786345610682370-s-49/

https://cyberwardens.com.au partners with the Australian Government to deliver free online security courses with verifiable CPD.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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This episode explores how a Chartered Accountant can move beyond traditional finance roles to create meaningful community impact. Josh Hickford shares his journey from Big Four accounting and banking to founding a cancer support app and leading Taranaki Foundation. It is a conversation about resilience, technology, philanthropy and the evolving role of accountants in a digital world.

Josh Hickford’s career journey from PwC and TSB Bank to CEO of Taranaki Foundation
Founding Ripple after a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis in partnership with the Cancer Society
Building a donor journey using digital tools like Raisely and Stripe
Technology, automation and trust in community foundations
Why human connection remains central to the future of Chartered Accountants

This episode reminds us that accounting is not just about compliance or reporting. It is about leadership, confidence and using financial skills to build stronger communities. Technology may accelerate the journey, but purpose and people still lead the way.

Apps & Tools Mentioned:

Raisely - https://www.raisely.com/

Sharesies https://sharesies.com.au/

Stripe, GoFundMe, Otter.ai, Xero,

Episode resources and links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshhickford/

https://taranakifoundation.org.nz/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, I sit down with Trent Yesberg, founder of Twine Apps and director of Regional Business Services in Townsville. We explore the realities of subscription billing, SaaS development, and what AI means for accounting firms today. This conversation moves from practical billing frustrations to the future of automation in our profession.

Trent’s journey from banking to building Regional Business Services and launching Twine Apps
The problem Twine Biller solves around subscription billing and margin recovery
Fixed fees vs mixed fees and passing on vendor price increases
Launching at Accounting & Business Expo and navigating Pitch Fest
AI, agents, automation and real examples saving hours inside a bookkeeping firm

This episode is a grounded, practical look at innovation from inside the profession. It is about solving real problems, protecting margins, and staying curious in a rapidly shifting tech landscape.

Apps & Tools Mentioned

Twine Biller – https://twineapps.co
Twine Apps – https://twineapps.co
Regional Business Services – https://www.regionalbusinessservices.com.au
Ignition – https://www.ignitionapp.com
QuickBooks – https://quickbooks.intuit.com
Xero – https://www.xero.com
MYOB – https://www.myob.com
Zoho – https://www.zoho.com
Uber Eats – https://www.ubereats.com
DoorDash – https://www.doordash.com
Deliveroo – https://deliveroo.com
Employment Hero – https://employmenthero.com
Claude – https://claude.ai
OpenAI – https://openai.com
Substack – https://substack.com
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com
Otter.ai – https://otter.ai

Episode resources and links:

Twine Biller : https://twineapps.co
Twine Apps : https://twineapps.co

Trent Yesberg : https://www.linkedin.com/in/trent-yesberg-52b35366/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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The first quarter of 2026 has delivered an extraordinary wave of AI-powered enhancements, mid-market strategy shifts and workflow automation upgrades across the accounting technology ecosystem. This session, presented at the Sydney Accounting and Bookkeeping Expo, dives deep into what matters, what is hype, and where firms should pay attention.

MYOB Solo, MYOB AI BAS checks and Intuit Accountant Suite signal strong practice management evolution
Xero Ultra beta, dashboard upgrades and API pricing changes reshape the mid-market and app ecosystem
Karbon recurring billing, AI agents and Uncat integration enhance workflow efficiency
Paidnice transforms debt collection automation, alongside major payroll innovation from Tanda
Fathom AI commentary, Dext AI Assist and Dashboard Insights BAS Pro elevate advisory conversations

As always, the key message is this: block time in your calendar and properly explore these features. Many of these releases can immediately improve efficiency, reduce risk and deepen client advisory if implemented thoughtfully.

Jump across to the blog here : https://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ for all the links so you can deep dive into the details.

The podcast is also released on Accountants Daily Momentum Media’s Under The Hood brand : https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/technology/22289-under-the-hood-accounting-tech-update-for-q1-2026

MYOB – https://www.myob.com
MYOB Solo – https://www.myob.com/au/products/solo
Intuit Accountant Suite – https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/
Xero – https://www.xero.com
Xero Ultra –https://www.xero.com

Cloudoffis - https://cloudoffis.com.au/

Uncat – https://www.uncat.com
Karbon – https://www.karbonhq.com

Paidnice – https://www.paidnice.com
A2X – https://www.a2xaccounting.com
Tanda – https://www.tanda.co
Emerge – https://www.emergeapp.net
Restoke – https://www.restoke.ai
AdvisorLi – https://www.advisorli.com
Jazoodle – https://www.jazoodle.com
Fathom – https://www.fathomhq.com
Employment Hero – https://www.employmenthero.com
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com
ActiveCollab – https://activecollab.com
Calcs – https://www.calcs.com.au
Dashboard Insights – https://www.dashboardinsights.com.au
Sharesight – https://www.sharesight.com
Botkeeper – https://www.botkeeper.com
Zendu – https://www.zendu.com
NAB Bookkeeper – https://www.nab.com.au/business/accounts/online-accounting
SuiteFiles – https://www.suitefiles.com
Zapier – https://www.zapier.com
Process Street – https://www.process.st
EzzyBill – https://www.ezzybills.com/
Procore – https://www.procore.com
ServiceM8 – https://www.servicem8.com/au/
Dext – https://www.dext.com
MYOB Discover Live – https://www.myob.com/au/events/discover-live
Xerocon – https://www.xero.com/events
NetSuite SuiteWorld – https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com
Intuit Connect – https://www.intuit.com/connect

Episode resources and links:

Accounting & Business Expo : https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-business-expo/index.stm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, I share a practical and grounded introduction to the Second Brain concept, tailored specifically for accountants and bookkeepers. Originally delivered at the Sydney Accounting and Business Expo, this session explores how to better capture, organise and leverage the constant stream of information we face every day. If you are feeling overloaded, context switching constantly, or struggling to retrieve your best ideas when you need them, this conversation will resonate.

The Second Brain concept popularised by Tiago Forte and why it matters for accounting professionals
The CODE framework: Capture, Organise, Distil, Express
Practical tools including Obsidian, Google Keep, Evernote and voice memos
Using platforms like LinkedIn and newsletters as part of your knowledge system
How a trusted external system reduces decision fatigue and creates space for strategy, creativity and better advisory

A Second Brain is not about adding complexity. It is about creating a reliable system that supports your professional thinking. When you trust where your knowledge lives, you free up energy to serve clients, think strategically, and innovate with confidence.

Book

Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

Apps & Tools Mentioned

Obsidian – https://obsidian.md
Google Keep – https://keep.google.com
Evernote – https://evernote.com
Otter.ai – https://otter.ai
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com
ChatGPT – https://chat.openai.com

Episode resources and links:

Accounting & Business Expo : https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-business-expo/index.stm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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This special panel episode, recorded live at Accounting Business Expo, explores AI tools that are genuinely useful right now for accounting firms. With perspectives from firm owners and a software vendor, the discussion covers practical implementation, guardrails, and real-world results.

Chris Wheatley, Kylie Baxter, and Tim Garth share how AI fits into their tech stacks
Liam Hindle shares MYOB’s vendor perspective, including how AI is automating BAS preparation and removing the “work around the work” so accountants can focus on higher-value advice.
Meeting transcription tools like Otter, Fireflies and Copilot are becoming essential
Workflow automation using tools like n8n and ClickUp is reducing admin time
AI agents, sentiment analysis and BAS automation are emerging opportunities
Guardrails matter: paid accounts, privacy settings, and compliance boundaries are critical

The conversation reinforces that AI is not about hype. It is about removing grunt work so accountants can focus on strategic client advice and better outcomes.

Apps & Tools Mentioned:Otter – https://otter.ai
Fireflies – https://fireflies.ai
Microsoft Copilot – https://copilot.microsoft.com
Practice Ignition – https://www.practiceignition.com
Ignition – https://www.ignitionapp.com
Practice Protect – https://practiceprotect.com
Change GPS – https://www.changegps.com
Dext – https://dext.com
MYOB AE – https://www.myob.com/au/products/practice-solutions/accountants-enterprise
AccountKit – https://www.accountkit.com.au
Xero XPM – https://www.xero.com/au/practice-manager
BGL – https://www.bglcorp.com
BGL Infinity – https://www.bglcorp.com/infinity
Annature – https://annature.com.au
Seamless – https://www.seamless.com.au
Content Snare – https://contentsnare.com
Law Cyborg – https://lawcyborg.ai
n8n – https://n8n.io
ClickUp – https://clickup.com
Claude – https://claude.ai
Cursor – https://cursor.sh
Glean – https://www.glean.com
Abby – https://www.abby.com.au
OMBLE – https://www.omble.com.au
Planful AI – https://www.planful.ai
MYOB AI BAS – https://www.myob.com
Twine Apps – https://twineapps.com.au
Twine Biller – https://twineapps.com.au
Xero – https://www.xero.com
Intuit – https://www.intuit.com
Employment Hero – https://employmenthero.com

Episode resources and links:

Chris Wheatley, Director, Scope Accounting : https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wheatley-fca-29398533/

Scope Accounting : https://www.scopeaccounting.com.au/

Small Business Accountants & Advisers Brain Trust, Australia FaceBook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/977122739056681

Kyelie Baxter, Managing Director, IQ Accountants

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyelie-baxter-fcpa-43224334/

https://iqaccountants.com.au/

Tim Garth, Podcountant, Director and Co-host of the Two Drunk Accountants Podcast, CATS Accountants

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-garth-11721370/

CATS Accountants : https://catax.com.au/

Two drunk Accountants : https://twodrunkaccountants.com.au/

Liam Hindle, General Manager - Product, MYOB

https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamhindle/

https://www.myob.com/au

Accounting & Business Expo : https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-business-expo/index.stm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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The Sydney Accounting & Business Expo 2026 was one of the most energised and well-attended events I have seen in years. AI dominated the conversation, AML reform is reshaping workflows, and innovation across practice management, tax research, onboarding and payments is accelerating fast.

This episode captures conversations directly from the expo floor. You will hear insights from keynote takeaways and interviews with founders, product leaders and firm owners building practical solutions for modern accounting firms.

Key Discussion Points* AI Strategy & LLM Insights, including commentary on Claude, ChatGPT, prompting techniques and why leaders must build hands-on AI capability * Practice Management solutions on AI-enabled workflows, month-end automation, advisory reporting and co-worker agents * AML & Client Onboarding Tools featuring Seamless, Content Snare and Annature responding to Tranche 2 requirements * Tax Research Innovation with Law Cyborg and Tax Guru AI focused on verified, citation-backed AI research * Firm Evolution & Financial Independence, including Natalie Lennon’s lifestyle firm model and Shaye Thyer’s CFO advisory for female founders

The common theme throughout the expo was clear. We are in another platform shift. Firms that lean into AI experimentation, workflow automation and smarter onboarding processes will create capacity, improve margins and better serve clients.

This episode is a snapshot of where the profession stands right now. Curious, slightly cautious, but moving forward with intention.

Here is who I spoke with:

Kayur Patel – Director, Gen AI & Emerging Tech at PwC
Kayur unpacked AI with clarity and calm authority, encouraging accountants to become hands-on fast followers and treat AI as a trained digital team member rather than a magic solution. I shared his insight in my own words.

Natalie Lennon – Two Sides Accounting
Natalie shared her journey of intentionally redesigning her firm around lifestyle and purpose, reminding us that success in practice is something we can define and rebuild on our own terms.

Mary Delaney – CEO of Karbon
Mary spoke with deep conviction about the future of AI-enabled firms, where humans and intelligent systems work side by side to elevate the work accountants do best.

Manraj Singh Rahi – Product Lead, Law Cyborg
Manraj explained how structured, citation-led AI can support confident tax research, positioning technology as a reliable second set of eyes rather than a risky shortcut.

Samuel David – Founder of Actually Count
Samuel shared a heartfelt journey from persistence in his studies to building a solution that removes BAS friction, showing how lived experience often drives the most practical innovation.

Clayton Woods – Co-founder of Seamless
Clayton highlighted the quiet inefficiencies in onboarding and re-engagement, demonstrating how thoughtful automation can simplify processes accountants have long accepted as clunky.

James Rose – Co-founder of Content Snare
James reflected on solving one of the profession’s most persistent frustrations, turning the back-and-forth of client data collection into a structured, accountable process.

Ben Gill – Executive Director, Lightyear Docs
Ben reframed document creation as an opportunity for deeper client value, encouraging accountants to step into conversations around asset protection and long-term wealth.

Michael Jeffries – CEO of Tax Guru
Michael outlined a future where highly specialised AI agents deliver fast, structured tax insights, backed by curated expertise rather than generic internet scraping.

Shaye Thyer – Finance Coach for Women in Business
Shaye brought a powerful blend of practical financial strategy and lived experience, focusing on helping women build capability, confidence, and genuine financial independence.

Corey Cacic – CEO of Annature
Corey shared how Annature continues to evolve from e-signing into a broader workflow solution, with a strong focus on practical compliance and making everyday processes smoother for firms.

Apps & Tools Mentioned:

Claude – https://claude.ai
ChatGPT – https://chat.openai.com
Perplexity – https://www.perplexity.ai
Copilot (Microsoft Copilot) – https://copilot.microsoft.com
Karbon – https://karbonhq.com
Seamless – https://seamlessapp.com.au
Content Snare – https://contentsnare.com
Annature – https://annature.com.au
Law Cyborg – https://lawcyborg.com
Tax Guru AI – https://taxguru.ai
LightYear Docs – https://lightyeardocs.com.au
Actually Count – https://actuallycount.com
Xero – https://www.xero.com
XPM (Xero Practice Manager) – https://www.xero.com/au/accounting-software/practice-manager/
FYI – https://www.fyidocs.com
Dropbox – https://www.dropbox.com
Suite Files – https://suitefiles.com
Zapier – https://zapier.com

Episode resources and links:

Kayur Patel - Director, Gen AI & Emerging Tech at PwC

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayur-patel-nz/

Shared an overview of two talks he gave on AI.

Natalie Lennon of Two Sides Accounting

linkedin.com/in/natalielennon

twosides.com.au

Mary Delaney, CEO of Karbon

linkedin.com/in/marywdelaney

karbonhq.com

Manraj Singh Rahi Product Lead at Law Cyborg

linkedin.com/in/manraj-singh-rahilaw

https://www.lawcyborg.com/au/

Samuel David, founder of Actually Count

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelpravindavid/

linkedin.com/in/samuelpravin

Clayton Woods, co-founder Seamlss

linkedin.com/in/0claytonwood seamlss.com.au

James Rose, co-founder Content Snare

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrose0/

https://contentsnare.com/

Ben Gill, Executive Director of Light Year Docs

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-gill-b336b928/

https://www.lightyeardocs.com.au/

Michael Jeffries, CEO of Tax Guru

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjeffriess/

https://www.tax-guru.ai/

Shaye Thyer, Finance Coach for women in business

linkedin.com/in/shayethyer

https://www.wearepallas.io/

Corey Cacic, CEO of Annature

linkedin.com/in/coreyannature

https://www.annature.com.au/

Accounting & Business Expo: https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-business-expo/index.stm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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This episode was recorded on the way to the Sydney Accounting & Business Expo, offering a candid and practical conversation about AI in practice, peer communities, vendor relationships and the evolving accounting profession in Australia.

Chris Wheatley shares insights into running a 10 FTE suburban accounting practice with 1,900 clients
Discussion on AI in accounting tools and how most firms are already using it
The growth and impact of the Small Business Accountants & Advisors Brain Trust Facebook group
Peer-to-peer recommendations versus traditional vendor marketing
The rise of alternative and non-bank lending in the SME space

This conversation highlights the importance of community, practical tech adoption and staying grounded while navigating change in the accounting profession.

Episode resources and links:

Chris Wheatley, Director, Scope Accounting : https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wheatley-fca-29398533/

Scope Accounting : https://www.scopeaccounting.com.au/

Small Business Accountants & Advisers Brain Trust, Australia FaceBook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/977122739056681

Accounting & Business Expo : https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/accounting-business-expo/index.stm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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A practical conversation, with Tyler Caskey, Dan Osborne and Heather Smith, hosted by John Munden, on how accounting firms can grow through better systems, small efficiency improvements and intentional technology adoption including AI, automation and advisory insights. Presented by Cloudoffis.

Cloud Office is an Australian cloud-based platform that helps accountants and auditors streamline SMSF audits, tax workpapers and compliance workflows.

Summary

Accounting firms are entering a new phase of growth where success is no longer measured only by revenue. In this discussion, we explore how modern practices are improving profitability, efficiency and lifestyle outcomes through smarter systems and technology adoption.

The panel shares practical advice on reviewing your tech stack, identifying pain points and adopting automation that removes administrative tasks rather than replacing professional judgement. AI is already transforming workflows through data analysis, receipt capture, executive summaries and financial insights.

Importantly, the conversation also highlights the need for clear AI policies, strong client data protection and thoughtful implementation. As accounting technology continues to evolve, firms that focus on small improvements, better systems and intentional growth will be well positioned for the future.

Apps & Tools Mentioned: Cloudoffis, Excel, Google Meet, Zoom, Xero, Hubdoc, Dext, Wheel, JAX, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Power BI, Intuit

Contact details:

Cloudoffis : https://cloudoffis.com.au/

Dan Osborne : https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-osborne-985129121/

CATS : https://catax.com.au/

Two Drunk Accountants : https://twodrunkaccountants.com.au/

Tyler Caskey : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

Bean Counters : https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

John Munden : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmunden/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Fast-growing businesses eventually reach a point where their finance systems struggle to keep up. In this episode, CFO Anita Chow shares how Acusensus moved from a Xero and spreadsheet-based environment to a full ERP Oracle Netsuite platform to support rapid growth and international expansion.

The discussion explores what triggers the shift to ERP, the challenges of managing multiple entities and growing transaction volumes, and the benefits of having a scalable financial infrastructure. The move dramatically improved automation across key areas such as reporting, lease accounting, and financial consolidation while enabling the finance team to spend more time partnering with the business.

The conversation also highlights important lessons for finance professionals and advisors supporting scaling companies. Clean data, thoughtful change management, and clear success metrics are critical. Ultimately, technology is only the enabler. The real value comes from how finance teams use better systems to deliver insights, manage risk, and support strategic decisions.

Apps & Tools Mentioned: NetSuite, Xero, Excel, ProSpend, Zone & Co, Netgain, Employment Hero, Airwallex, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting

Contact details:

Oracle Netsuite : https://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml

Acusensus : https://www.acusensus.com/

Anita Chow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-chow-b77a0016/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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How do you modernise a family business when the older generation resists change? This episode explores emotional barriers, trust, and a practical tiny pilot approach to digital adoption.

Summary

In this episode, I explore the challenge of introducing new technology into long established family businesses. Inspired by a LinkedIn post from Tony Harcourt, we unpack why tech resistance is often emotional, not practical.

Key discussion points:

The generational technology gap in family businesses
Emotional drivers behind software resistance: identity, control, pride, risk
Insights from Xero’s behavioural research on tech adoption
Why trust and communication shape innovation success
The “Tiny Pilot” method for low risk digital change
Practical scripts to reduce defensiveness and build collaboration
Handling common objections like “It’s too expensive” or “We’ve always done it this way”
The role of external advisors in supporting family dynamics

Key Takeaway:

Successful technology adoption in family businesses is about protecting legacy while reducing friction. Start small, make it reversible, and focus on outcomes, not features.

Contact details:

Tony Harcourt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-harcourt/

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7432901025231159296/

WorkGuru https://workguru.io/

Behavioural Research by Xero https://www.xero.com/au/media-releases/behavioural-research-by-xero-uncovers-barriers-for-au-small-businesses/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Cameron Anderson General Manager XBert

What does AI fluency really mean for accountants and bookkeepers? This episode explores governance, prompting frameworks, and practical AI use cases you can apply immediately.

Summary

In this episode, we explore AI fluency for accountants and bookkeepers and what it really means in practice. From governance to prompting frameworks, we unpack practical steps firms can take today.

Key Discussion Points* What AI fluency means for modern bookkeeping firms * Traditional AI vs Generative AI explained simply * The AI and human partnership model * Governance, ethics, and client disclosure considerations * The RTRI prompting framework: Role, Task, Requirements, Instructions * AI use cases across client communication, reporting, and operations * Using AI for financial analysis and contextual insights * Capacity planning and workflow intelligence * Starting small and building sustainable capability * Why data quality underpins every AI initiative

Key Takeaways* AI should augment human judgement, not replace it * Start with low risk, easy to validate use cases * Build AI capability alongside human skills * Transparency and governance matter * Small, consistent learning builds long term fluency

Apps & Tools MentionedXBert, Xero, ChatGPT, Gamma, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook

Contact details:

Cameron Anderson : https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronanderson2/

XBert : https://www.xbert.io/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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AI is reshaping accounting roles, not replacing them. Explore what’s changing, emerging governance roles, and why strategic thinking and AI fluency matter more than ever.

Summary

As AI reshapes our profession, we're essentially seeing less demand for those routine tasks, a boom in strategic roles and new opportunities for those who understand the cross section between accounting and technology, so less routine, more strategy, more cross disciplinary. And today, I'd like to talk about what's changing in the roles, what's not changing in the roles, what new roles are emerging, and what accountants and bookkeepers should focus on now.

Key discussion points:

Why AI will replace tasks, not accountants
The decline of routine compliance work
The rise of advisory, virtual CFO and fractional CFO roles
Emerging positions: AI governance, risk reviewers, AI audit trail designers
The concept of AI “agent managers”
AI fluency as a critical professional skill
The growing importance of critical thinking and communication
Ethical obligations in an AI-embedded profession
Practical steps: auditing your task list and shifting time to interpretation
Why governance frameworks and AI policies are now essential

Key takeaways:

AI augments judgement, it does not replace it
Advisory creates value, productivity alone does not
Ethics and professional standards become even more important
Accountants are uniquely positioned to manage AI governance
This is a leadership moment for the profession

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Kyelie Baxter shares how AI is changing accounting firm workflows, boosting outputs, and freeing up capacity, while still needing strong guardrails and human judgment.

Summary

In this episode, Kylie Baxter discusses how artificial intelligence is transforming accounting firms, client expectations, and internal workflows, without replacing the human element.

Key discussion points include:

Kylie’s journey from accountant to firm owner and governance leader
Volunteering, advisory skills, and building confidence outside the firm
How AI is being used safely inside an accounting practice
Setting guardrails and values around AI adoption
Digitising client admin and finance workflows
Why accounts payable will become highly automated
Why payroll still needs strong human involvement
Paying staff based on outputs, not tools used
Using AI to reduce mental load and prioritise tasks
How AI is reshaping the competitive landscape for firms

Key takeaway: AI is a powerful tool for efficiency and capacity, but accountants who apply judgment, governance, and strategy will remain irreplaceable.

Kylie and I were guests of the LYD Unstoppable Growth Conference held at the JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa in one of the most amazing places in the world, Surfers Paradise!

LYD stands for Light Year Docs, and it is a platform for creating verified legal documents including companies, trusts and commercial agreements. If that’s of interest to you, I’m sure the team would be happy to speak with you.

Contact details:

Kyelie Baxter : https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyelie-baxter-fcpa-43224334/

IQ Accountants : https://iqaccountants.com.au

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather shares insights from MYOB’s Australian Open event, exploring AI integration, Google Gemini tools, new MYOB Solo app for micro businesses, and the power of keyboard aesthetics.

Summary

In this episode, Heather Smith shares insights from her time at the Australian Open with MYOB, exploring how technology, AI, and workplace tools are reshaping the accounting world:

MYOB discussed their internal program "AI Every Day," which focuses on mindset, skillset, and toolset
Overview of MYOB’s mobile-first solution, Solo, designed for freelancers and gig workers. It offers an alternative to spreadsheets for micro business clients
Discussion on multi-entity support and MYOB's ERP solution, Acumatica
It's worth remembering that MYOB still stores customer data within Australia across two local data centres
MYOB's product spectrum includes solutions for micro businesses through to larger companies using Acumatica
Heather shared her experience looking for a pink keyboard and how ergonomic design impacted her typing and comfort
She also outlined how using Google Workspace's Gemini AI features has supported her productivity

Contact details:

MYOB https://www.myob.com/au

Solo https://www.myob.com/au/products/solo

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_accountingandaccountants-activity-7423640248129298432-g81K

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_accountingandaccountants-myob-activity-7422403938831720448-E5Sw

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In the third of three instalments Heather Smith shares insights from TOACon 2025. She chats with industry leaders about business advisory, AI agents in accounting, community building, and embracing the future with purpose and relationships.

Summary

In this third instalment from TOACon 2025, Heather Smith explores the evolution of business advisory services and the powerful tech shaping the accounting profession.

Interviews recorded live at the Shangri-La in Boracay during TOA Global’s TOACon 2025.
Featured guests:
- Dale Pearson (Intuit QuickBooks): Discusses new AI agents, the power of relationships, and integrating QuickBooks with MailChimp.
- Mark Jenkins (The Gap): Talks about proactive advisory, community, and lifting average client value.
- Lynda Steffens (The Small Business Project): Shares a practical roadmap for implementing advisory services.
- Emphasis on strategic relationships and practical AI applications.
- Advisory isn’t just about knowledge—it’s about how and why you deliver it.
- Encouragement for accountants and bookkeepers to carve out time for growth and purposeful client impact.
- Reflections on the Boracay experience and the importance of personal development, community, and consistency.

Heather Smith attended the TOACon 2025 conference as hosted media.

If you want to find out more about TOAGlobal please visit their website :toaglobal.com

If you want further information about anything covered in this podcast, please refer to the show notes: https://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Insights from TOACon 2025’s tech stream: AI, cybersecurity, client experience, and building resilient firms with smarter systems, featuring Practice Protect, AccountKit, and more.

Summary

In the second of three instalments Heather Smith explores highlights from TOACon 2025. Recorded at the luxurious Shangri-La Boracay, this episode dives into practical tools and strategies reshaping the accounting landscape.

Main Topics:

🌟 Customer Experience Strategy: Jason S Bradshaw on reducing client friction and defining your service promise.

🔐 Cybersecurity Deep Dive: Jenny Caune of Practice Protect on multi-layered security and sleep-at-night tech.

📊 Cloud App Report: Real usage data across 13 categories: what apps firms are actually using in 2025.

🔄 AccountKit Expansion: Matt Taylor from AccountKit on new features including reconciliations, integrations, and centralized workflows.

📈 Building a Business That Runs Without You: TOA Global founder Nick Sinclair on separating identity from business.

🧭 Truth in Leadership: Dom Thurbon on the fine line between experience and baggage, staying curious is key.

🏝️ Conference Culture & Community: Live insights from attendees on the power of connections, resilience, and hospitality.

Key Takeaways:

Tech doesn’t build trust, clear communication does.
Cybersecurity isn’t optional; it's foundational.
Real-time app data beats outdated reviews: use the Cloud App Report.
Centralised platforms like AccountKit are simplifying workflows.
Leadership breakthroughs come from clarity, not complexity.

Heather Smith attended the TOACon 2025 conference as hosted media.

If you want to find out more about TOAGlobal please visit their website :toaglobal.com

If you want further information about anything covered in this podcast, please refer to the show notes: https://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Join Heather Smith as she explores highlights from TOACon 2025: building resilient teams, leadership mindset shifts, and inspiring stories from accountants shaping the future through global connections.

Summary

In the first of three instalments Heather Smith shares highlights from TOACon2025: focusing on mindset, culture, offshoring, innovation, and resilience in the accounting profession. Through interviews and speaker takeaways, you'll hear how accounting leaders are embracing small actions for big impact.

Insights from Dr. Shadé Zahrai on mindset, adversity, and recognising your own value.
Interview with Mariel (Accounting for Jewellers): from jeweller to niche accountant, offshoring success story.
Innovation tips from James O’Loghlin: tackle friction, protect thinking time, challenge assumptions.
Interview with Alan Lonie (AO Accounting): navigating complex Thai regulations, digital adoption challenges.
Human performance advice from Olly Bridge: fight burnout, habit stack, and walk through problems.
Interview with Mark Said (MKS Group): expanding through offshoring, shifting to CFO coaching, talent shortages.
Interview with Mareta Akari (TOA Global): TOA’s cultural values, post-conference celebrations, and resilience during natural disasters.

Heather Smith attended the TOACon 2025 conference as hosted media.

If you want to find out more about TOAGlobal please visit their website :toaglobal.com

If you want further information about anything covered in this podcast, please refer to the show notes: https://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this special year-end wrap-up, we explore the major accounting tech releases of 2025. From new AI capabilities to feature-rich workpapers and smarter reporting tools, discover the updates that could transform your current stack.

The accompanying article to this podcast can be found on Accountants Daily.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather shares why real-world networking still matters for accountants & bookkeepers, offering practical tips to build genuine, long-term professional relationships without feeling salesy or awkward.

In this episode, Heather Smith explores the timeless power of in-person networking for accounting & bookkeeping professionals. Based on her article for Acuity Magazine, she shares stories, strategies, and tech tips for nurturing relationships authentically.

Article : https://www.acuitymag.com/business/how-to-make-the-most-of-in-person-networking/

Why networking isn't about selling, it's about trust and relationships.
Tips for event preparation, including reviewing attendees and sending pre-event LinkedIn messages.
Digital vs paper business cards: the role of QR codes, NFC cards, and LinkedIn connections.
Best conversation starters (including complimenting shoes).
The importance of post-event follow-up, such as voice memos and task lists.
Why introverts might actually be excellent networkers.
How to stay top of mind with minimal LinkedIn activity (just 12 posts a year!).
Real examples of relationships built over 15+ years that still add value today.
Encouragement for all generations—young professionals and seasoned leaders alike—to show up and contribute.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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A lively panel reflects on 2025's tech-driven accounting trends, AI, automation, clean data, and what’s next for 2026. Ethics, awards, remote work, and receipts that must die!

Summary

In this panel discussion recorded at the Cloudoffis end-of-year event in Sydney, Heather Smith is joined by John Munden (Cloudoffis), Tyler Caskey (The Bean Counters), and Natalia Clark (Easy Super) to reflect on 2025 and forecast on the future in 2026 and beyond in the accounting and auditing industry.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Key 2025 trends: AI integration, automation pain points, rapid tech change.
The obsession with building AI agents into workflows.
Insights on award-winning success and staying unique.
The shift to remote-first work and global team building.
Strategic investments in talent vs. tech at Cloudoffis.
The call to kill receipts, wet signatures, and corporate cheques.
Bold forecasts for AI replacing admin roles and fast decision-making gaps.
Final takeaway: ethics, professionalism, and agility are your superpowers.

Contact details:

Sponsor Offers: Here

Cloudoffis : https://cloudoffis.com.au/

Natalia Clark : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliaclack-easysuper/

Tyler Caskey : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

John Munden : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmunden/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Jarrod Adam is Head of Production & Distribution at The Access Group

Explore how Unleashed helps small businesses thrive through AI-driven inventory management, smarter tools, and actionable data that streamline operations and empower strategic growth.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Jarrod Adam, Head of Production & Distribution at The Access Group. In this episode, we talk about . . . how Unleashed empowers small businesses with actionable data, AI-powered tools, and integrated inventory solutions.

Introduction to Jarrod Adam and his background in product management
The story behind Unleashed and its acquisition by The Access Group
Overview of the inventory and warehouse management landscape for SMBs
Unleashed’s value proposition for small businesses and advisors
When and why to move from basic inventory in GL systems to dedicated inventory tools
Implementation approach and onboarding process at Unleashed
Unleashed’s ecosystem: integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, Shopify, Amazon & more
Evolving supply chain issues post-COVID and solutions like Advanced Inventory Manager (AIM)
AI in Unleashed: Evo copilot, AI feed, and intelligent agents
Partner Portal for accountants and bookkeepers – real-time client access
Use of operational data for advisory services
The Unleashed Manufacturing Health Index – valuable for advisory insights
Discussion around the manufacturing “haves and have-nots”
Closing thoughts on simplicity, design, and real value from software

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:Unleashed, Xero, QuickBooks, Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Access Evo, Advanced Inventory Manager

⏱️ YouTube Timestamped Chapters00:00 – Welcome & Guest Intro: Meet Jarrod Adam from Unleashed.
01:58 – From Tigerland to Tech: A playful rugby-themed intro.
04:20 – Jarrod’s Journey to Product Management: How he fell into software.
06:20 – Auckland’s Thriving SaaS Scene: NZ’s impact on global tech.
08:10 – Inventory, CRM & WMS Landscape: What SMBs need today.
10:50 – What Unleashed Does: Efficient workflows + strategic insights.
13:00 – Signs a Business Needs Unleashed: From post-it notes to stock stress.
15:20 – Accountant & Bookkeeper Pain Points: Data, margins & advisory blocks.
17:30 – Implementation Timeline: Fast, guided onboarding sessions.
19:05 – Unleashed Integrations: Xero, QuickBooks, Shopify, Amazon & more.
21:10 – E-commerce Growth Post-COVID: Why integrations are essential.
23:15 – AI & Forecasting with AIM: Managing supply chain uncertainty.
26:00 – Using Data for Better Advice: The power of operational insights.
28:00 – Manufacturing Health Index: A free resource for advisory.
30:00 – Characteristics of Thriving Manufacturers: Mitigating supplier risks.
32:15 – Partner Portal for Accountants: Real-time multi-client access.
34:00 – AI Copilot & Agents: How Evo enhances the user experience.
35:45 – Final Thoughts & Outro: Software should solve problems, not add them.

Contact details:

Sponsor Offers: Here

Unleashed Software: https://www.unleashedsoftware.com/

Jarrod Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarrod-adam/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Insights from a global panel of women leaders in accounting, exploring influence, ethics, personal branding, and leadership challenges in a male-dominated profession.

Summary

In this special episode of the Accounting Apps Podcast, I moderated a global panel discussion at the Accounting & Business Show Asia 2025 in Singapore. I was joined by Kyelie Baxter (IQ Accountants), Uthaya Ponnusamy (RSM Singapore), and Magdalene Ang (R Chan & Associates, ACCA Singapore Chair) for a panel session I moderated called Influence, Integrity and Impact: Navigating the Reality of Women Leading in Accounting

Together we explored:

✅ Career journeys and leadership pivots

✅ Building confidence and personal brand (hello USP!)

✅ Ethics vs. earnings — where we draw the line

✅ Mentoring, connection and navigating invisible barriers

✅ Creating influence with integrity and making an impact

Listen if you're looking for insight, inspiration, or real-world stories from women reshaping leadership in accounting.

Contact details:

Sponsor Offers: Here

Kyelie Baxter, Managing Director at IQ Accountants

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyelie-baxter-fcpa-43224334/

Uthaya Ponnusamy, Partner & Industry Lead - Not For Profit sector at RSM Singapore

https://www.linkedin.com/in/uthaya-ponnusamy-5bab1763/

Magdalene Ang, Director, R Chan & Associates PAC and Chair of ACCA Singapore Member Network Panel.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/magdalene-ang-fcca-fca-singapore-03b2084b/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Live from the Accounting & Business Show Asia 2025 in Singapore, Heather chats with innovators about AI, e-invoicing, TikTok trends, cross-border payments and the evolving role of accountants in Asia

Summary

Heather Smith reports from the Accounting & Business Show Asia 2025 in Singapore, sharing floor interviews and key highlights. With strong Australian representation, she reflects on rapid regional digital transformation, cultural insights, and inspiring thought leadership.

Main Topics:

Singapore's digital drive: e-invoicing mandates and cheque phase-out
Government-backed AI innovation via AI Singapore
Roundtable on burnout, boundaries, and micro business sustainability
TikTok insights and media habits reshaping communication
Panel on women on boards and leadership pathways

Interviews Include:

Alvin Chia (OFX) – Cross-border payments with human-first support
Marvin Galang (Jaz AI) – AI-native accounting software for Southeast Asia
Bryan Sng (Simple AI) – AI agents automating accounting ops
Kelvin Koh (Identi.ly) – Face-key file security tech for sensitive documents
Andrew Paton-Smith (Jazoodle) – 60-second forecasts & valuation KPIs

Key Takeaways:

The future of advisory is now
AI is more than a buzzword in Singapore – it's a government initiative
Accountants must embrace tech and set strong boundaries
Social platforms like TikTok can't be ignored
Representation, integrity, and courage are crucial for boardroom progress

LinkedIn Posts from Singapore
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_abshowasia-accountingandaccountants-activity-7386538062283075584-1Vh2/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_acca-accountingandaccountants-abshowasia-activity-7386619905544056832-6Gdu/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_accountingandaccountants-abshowasia-activity-7386917433271439360-VY4Y/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_accountingandaccountants-abshowasia-activity-7386982271796490241-WgIh/

Contact details:Sponsor Offers: Here

Xero http://xero.com/

Koren Wines https://www.linkedin.com/in/koren-wines/

Sarah Foo https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-foo-fca/

Alvin Chia https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-chia-a15a6b65/

OFX https://www.ofx.com/

Marvin Galang https://www.linkedin.com/in/galangmr/

JAZ https://www.jaz.ai/

Bryan Sng https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryansng/

SimpleAi https://simpleaiworks.com/

Kelvin Koh https://www.linkedin.com/in/nivlekoh/

Identi.ly https://identi.ly/

Andrew Paton-Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/apatonsmith/

Jazoodle https://jazoodle.com/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Kerry Butler, CFO of Woolnorth Renewables, Tasmania shares her bold NetSuite rollout, revealing strategic insights on tech, budgeting, AI, and scaling clean energy operations.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Kerry Butler, CFO of Woolnorth Renewables, Tasmania

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Insights from attending SuiteWorld 2025 in Las Vegas
Strategic NetSuite rollout, starting with Planning & Budgeting (NSPB)
Overcoming implementation challenges with a lean finance team
Use of implementation partners: Pivot Two & Netgain
Multilingual board reporting (Chinese & English) and real-time forecasting
Integrations with SharePoint, virtual cards, and maintenance systems
Leveraging AI and Ask Oracle for smarter decision-making
Community involvement and commitment to renewable energy
Advice for scaling businesses and choosing the right tech stack

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:

NetSuite, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting (NSPB), Netgain, Pivot Two, SharePoint, Smart View, Camtasia

📺 Timelines 00:00 – Welcome & Guest Intro: Kerry Butler, CFO of Woolnorth Renewables 01:45 – Why Kerry Chose NetSuite: Flexibility and ecosystem advantages 04:12 – Board-Ready Reporting in Two Languages: How NSPB enabled it 06:57 – Implementing NSPB First: Breaking ERP rollout conventions 09:43 – Smart Budgeting Tools: Using Smart View for real-time inputs 12:21 – Leveraging Implementation Partners: Pivot Two & Netgain's role 15:02 – Complex Accounting Made Simple: Wind farms, loans & derivatives 17:35 – AI & Strategic Finance: What’s coming next in NetSuite 20:14 – Clean Data = Better AI: System integration & SharePoint sync 22:41 – Ask Oracle: AI-powered reporting for CFOs and CEOs 25:33 – SweetWorld Learnings: Building a global CFO network 28:08 – Advice for Scaling Businesses: Plan for future pain points now 30:17 – CFO Life at SweetWorld: Pitbull concert & Aussie networking 33:42 – Final Reflections: Strategic finance, partnerships & impact

Contact details:

Sponsor Offers: Here

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-butler-1333kes/

NetSuite: https://www.netsuite.com.au

SuiteWorld: https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Scott Wiltshire, VP & GM of Oracle NetSuite ANZ, unpacks key SuiteWorld 2025 announcements, highlighting AI-driven tools, productivity boosts, and why NetSuite is a game-changer for growing businesses.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Scott Wiltshire, VP & GM of Oracle NetSuite ANZ.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Event recap: SuiteWorld 2025 highlights relevant to ANZ
Key tools: AI Connect Services, Prompt Studio, Autonomous Close, Subscription Metrics
NetSuite Next: Major platform upgrade promising zero-day close
Emphasis on AI for automation, reporting, and decision support
Discussion on value of attending SuiteWorld for ANZ professionals
Growing importance of NetSuite's partner ecosystem
Comparison between “automated” vs “autonomous” workflows
Advice on bridging the knowledge gap with dedicated support
NetSuite as a scalable “single source of truth” for growth-focused businesses

🧰 Apps & Tools MentionedNetSuite, AI Connect Services, ChatGPT, Prompt Studio, Subscription Metrics SuiteApp, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, Safe Search, Advanced Customer Support

⏱️ Timelines00:00 – Welcome & Introduction: Heather sets the stage for the SuiteWorld 2025 recap
01:15 – NetSuite AI Connect Services: Plug in your AI assistant for real-time action
02:50 – Prompt Studio Explained: Build & deploy GenAI prompts in workflows
04:35 – Subscription Metrics SuiteApp: Real-time visibility into recurring revenue
06:10 – Interview with Scott Wiltshire Begins: First impressions from Las Vegas
08:05 – The AI Buzz at SuiteWorld: Surge in demand for AI-powered accounting
10:00 – Why ANZ Pros Should Attend: Learning, networking, and discovering tools
12:00 – NetSuite as a Growth Platform: From MYOB/Xero to scalable ERP
13:45 – NetSuite Next Preview: Major AI-powered platform upgrade incoming
15:30 – Autonomous Close Feature: Moving towards zero-day book closing
17:20 – Natural Language Reporting: Talk to NetSuite using plain English
19:00 – Prompt Studio in Practice: Real examples from product-based businesses
21:00 – Most Underused New Feature: AI model integration & free querying tools
22:40 – NetSuite’s Partner Ecosystem: Extending NetSuite through collaboration

Contact details:

Sponsor Offers: Here

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpwiltshire/

NetSuite: https://www.netsuite.com.au

SuiteWorld: https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Dianna Butterworth, CFO of Kieser Australia shares the move from 27 Xero files to NetSuite, improving scalability, budgeting, and team empowerment.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Dianna Butterworth, CFO of Kieser Australia s

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Background: Dianna’s path from financial advisor and entrepreneur to CFO
Company Overview: Kieser Australia is a physiotherapy-led strength training provider with 31 clinics
Initial Challenge: Managing 27 separate Xero files across clinics
Solution Chosen: NetSuite ERP with implementation by Anexa
Key Outcomes:

Replaced 80+ spreadsheets with NetSuite Planning and Budgeting
Improved team efficiency, moving from 1:5 to 1:12 clinic-to-bookkeeper ratio
Faster monthly reporting and greater data visibility
Budget cycle shortened from six months to one to two months

Integrated Tools: Celigo, Zone & Co, ExpenseMe
Conference Takeaways: Upcoming AI features in NetSuite and the value of peer networking
Advice to CFOs:

Invest early in scalable systems
Prioritise agility as much as accuracy
Build confidence in the numbers to support growth

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:NetSuite, Xero, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, Celigo, Zone & Co, ExpenseMe, ApprovalMax, Rippling, Blue Collar Cloud Solutions

⏱️ Timelines00:00 – Welcome and Introduction: Meet Dianna Butterworth, CFO of Keiser Australia
01:40 – Career Journey: From cufflinks to CFO
03:55 – About Kieser: What the business does and how it helps Australians
06:40 – Before NetSuite: The chaos of 27 Xero files
09:10 – Choosing NetSuite: Finding the right ERP for growth
11:30 – Empowering the Team: Moving from manual tasks to analysis
13:45 – Budgeting Breakthrough: Ditching spreadsheets for better planning
16:00 – Role of Anexa: Importance of a strong implementation partner
18:35 – Tech Stack Deep Dive: Celigo, Zone & Co, ExpenseMe
21:00 – Budgeting Speed: From six months to one month
23:30 – Advice for CFOs: Invest early and trust your data
25:20 – Insights from SuiteWorld: AI, networking and lifelong learning
28:10 – Wrapping Up: Thinking big and enjoying the journey

Contact details:

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianna-butterworth-9088947a/

NetSuite: https://www.netsuite.com.au

SuiteWorld: https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Craig Sullivan, Group VP of Product Management, NetSuite joins Heather Smith at SuiteWorld25 to reveal AI, automation, and global ERP innovations transforming how accountants and businesses scale smarter.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Craig Sullivan, Group VP of Product Management, NetSuite

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Insights into NetSuite Next: AI-native ERP, natural language queries & agentic workflows
Grounded AI: Role-based, explainable responses tailored to accounting & finance users
Internationalisation & multilingual support coming to NetSuite AI
Global compliance & e-invoicing updates—AI-enabled validation for governments
AI Connector: Bridging NetSuite with tools like ChatGPT for insights and storefront integration
Advice for accountants stepping into ERP consulting
Importance of planning in successful NetSuite implementation
"Suite Success" methodology explained
Closing with Pitbull (Mr. Worldwide) and the global theme of SuiteWorld25

🧰 Apps & Tools MentionedNetSuite, Oracle, ApprovalMax, Soldo, Synder, ChatGPT, Claude, Shopify

⏱️ Timelines00:00 – Welcome to SuiteWorld25: Craig Sullivan joins live from Las Vegas
02:15 – Why Accountants Should Care: NetSuite's role in SME digital transformation
04:40 – From Frustration to Innovation: Craig’s journey from accountant to product leader
07:55 – Big Reveal: What NetSuite NEXT brings to ERP and accounting
10:30 – Grounded AI & Natural Language: Role-aware, explainable ERP queries
13:25 – Jet Engine, Not Co-Pilot: NetSuite’s bold AI claims
15:40 – Going Global: Supporting business in 160+ countries with OneWorld
18:20 – AI in Multiple Languages: Multilingual support explained
20:05 – E-Invoicing Powered by AI: Compliance turned efficiency booster
22:40 – Ask Oracle & Contextual Insights: Smarter decision-making with AI
24:55 – AI Connectors in Action: Real-world ChatGPT and Claude integrations
27:10 – What Accountants Should Know: Scaling smart from Day One
29:00 – Implementation Pitfalls: Planning as the missing puzzle piece
30:35 – The Power of Sweet Success: Best practice baked into ERP deployment
32:10 – Craig’s Final Insights: AI’s future role in accounting
33:55 – Bonus Fun: Pitbull, Mr. Worldwide, and SuiteWorld party prep!

Contact details:

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigssullivan/

NetSuite: https://www.netsuite.com.au

SuiteWorld: https://www.netsuitesuiteworld.com

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Madeline Reeves shares how Advisory Amplified is reimagining accounting conferences with community focus, practical advisory content, and a women-led, inclusive approach.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Madeline Reeves, Founder & CEO of Fearless Foundry, creator of Advisory Amplified.

In this episode, we talk about . . . Reinventing accounting conferences through a six-city U.S. tour focused on practical advisory content and community building.

Challenges with traditional conferences and the need for real-world application.
Advisory vs. CAS: Clarifying the terminology and implementation.
Empowering women and underrepresented voices in accounting events.
Localised content and community connection via hometown hosts.
Practical tools and strategies for implementing advisory services.
Workbook-based workshops with real, actionable takeaways.
Partnering only with vendors who deliver educational (not salesey) content.
Launching a virtual version of Advisory Amplified on November 18.
Vision for future global expansion and continued grassroots connection.

🌟 Advisory Amplified Sponsors* Fathom – Financial analysis and management reporting tool for accountants and business owners. * Ignition – Client engagement and billing platform that automates proposals, contracts, and payments. * Karbon – Practice management software for accounting firms, streamlining tasks, emails, and workflows. * Relay – Online business banking designed for accountants and small businesses, with integrated financial controls. * OnPay – Payroll and HR software for small businesses, handling wages, tax filings, and benefits. * Fearless Foundry – Creative consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs and organisations with branding, marketing, and strategy.

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:Avalara, QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA), TSheets, Hubdoc, Abacor, Firm360, Taxfyle

Timestamp 00:00 – Welcome Madeline Reeves: Advisory Amplified rethinks accounting events.
02:05 – From Avalara to Advisory Leader: Madeline’s tech-to-advisory journey.
06:10 – Why Advisory Amplified Exists: Gaps in traditional conferences.
09:30 – Real Talk: Advisory in the US vs. Global: What's missing in America.
13:25 – Designing Inclusive Conferences: Women-led by design, not default.
17:15 – The Power of Representation: All-female AI panel moment in Chicago.
20:40 – Tools Driving the Advisory Shift: What tech supports real advisory?
23:55 – Advisory Tech Stack Talk: Practical sessions with partner input.
27:10 – From Random Acts of Consulting to Service Lines: Productizing advisory.
30:35 – AI + Advisory Integration: Using AI for better client conversations.
34:00 – Hands-On Learning With Workbooks: Goodbye chicken scratch notes.
37:15 – Building Community with Local Flavour: Hometown hosts & local vendors.
41:05 – Sponsors with Substance: No sales pitches—only educational value.
44:25 – The Value of Diverse Perspectives: Unlocking new ideas through inclusion.
47:00 – Advisory Mindsets & Skills: Let go of perfection, focus on listening.
50:15 – Stop Selling, Start Serving: Grow advisory with current clients.
53:10 – Advisory Amplified Goes Virtual: November 18 launch details.
55:30 – Global Ambitions + The Bus Dream: What's next for the conference.
58:00 – Final Thoughts: Building a future-focused, community-powered industry.

Contact details:

Madeline Reeves: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelinefearless/

Fearless Foundry: https://www.fearlessfoundry.com/

Advisory Amplified: https://www.advisoryamplified.com/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Liam Hindle, GM of Product & Product Marketing at MYOB

MYOB's Liam Hindle shares insights from the Accounting Industry Monitor, the future of AI in accounting, and how practices can evolve through tech, efficiency, and growth mindset strategies.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Liam Hindle, GM of Product & Product Marketing at MYOB

Liam highlights "intentionality" as a key to the cultural and operational trait that sets progressive accounting firms apart.

"I think for me, the word that comes to mind is that they're intentional."

He elaborated that these firms:

Don’t improve by accident or as a byproduct.
Make conscious decisions to invest in their people and operations.
Regularly review processes and strategies.
Prioritise professional development and operational efficiency.
Make strategic use of technology to free up time for high-value work.

Liam emphasized that intentionality helps firms shift from reactive, deadline-driven work to proactive, strategic engagement, unlocking value for both clients and team members.

In this episode, we also talk about . . .

Focus on MYOB’s vision for accounting practices;
Key takeaways from the MYOB Accounting Industry Monitor;
Strategies for handling talent shortages & fostering a growth mindset;
AI literacy and upskilling as tools for retention & recruitment;
Operational tips for improving efficiency through standardisation and automation;
Importance of strong onboarding and client engagement;
Data security and AI risk management in MYOB’s product development;
Future of accounting tech: Agentic AI and embedded AI in workflows;
MYOB’s upcoming compliance-focused tools and strategic advisory enablement

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:

Apps & Tools Mentioned: MYOB, ChatGPT, Claude, AWS, Teams Copilot, Fireflies

Contact details:

Liam Hindle https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamhindle/

MYOB https://www.myob.com/au

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith shares why she’s running for the ACCA Global Council, highlighting her advocacy work, global experience, and vision for a future-focused, member-driven ACCA.

Summary

📌 Episode Summary (Bullet Points)* Heather Smith announces her candidacy for the ACCA Global Council. * She reflects on 30 years as an ACCA member and her international career. * Advocates for stronger representation from the Southern Hemisphere. * Discusses her roles in ACCA’s global SME and technology forums. * Emphasises her long-standing commitment to member support and tech innovation. * Calls for members to vote, noting the significant impact of each ballot. * Encourages non-voting listeners to spread the word within their network.

Hi, my name is Heather Smith, and you’re listening to the Accounting Apps Podcast.

I’m jumping in with something a little different today. As you may have seen on my socials, I’m standing as a candidate in the ACCA Global Council elections.

I’ve been a proud member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants for nearly 30 years. It’s opened doors for me to work across Australia, Singapore, England, and Canada, and it’s connected me with inspiring accountants worldwide. ACCA has been the foundation of a rewarding, impactful career, and even enabled me—through a memorandum of understanding—to join Chartered Accountants ANZ.

Now, I’m standing for Council as a way of giving back to the membership that has given me so much.

If you’re an eligible member, I encourage you to listen on. If you’re not, perhaps you know someone who is—please nudge them to vote. It can be hard for candidates from the Southern Hemisphere to gain momentum, so every vote really matters.

Why Council Matters
Council sets ACCA’s direction:

How it supports members
How it advocates with regulators
How it prepares for challenges like AI, sustainability, digital transformation, and the talent pipeline

These issues affect every member, everywhere.

A Bit About Me

I’m the first Australian-born ACCA Fellow.
In this election, I’m the only candidate from the Southern Hemisphere. Once elected, however, you represent all members globally.
I chair the ACCA Global Forum for SMEs.
I’m a member of the Global Forum for Technology.
I’ve authored 10 business books (and am working on my 11th).
I’ve hosted this podcast for 10 years.
I’ve represented ACCA at more than 100 international conferences, championing innovation, ethics, technology, and inclusion.
In 2024, I was named Accounting Thought Leader of the Year.

Over the years, I’ve also represented ACCA to the Australian Tax Office, funding my own travel and accommodation to secure recognition for ACCA members. These things aren’t always visible, but they matter.

I’m passionate about giving SMEs and SMPs a strong voice, about using technology to work for us, and about ensuring members are at the heart of every decision.

Why Your Vote Counts
Last year, fewer than 5% of members voted. That means each vote carries the weight of about 20 votes in a typical election. You can select up to 21 candidates, and I’d be honoured if one of those votes went to me, Heather Smith.

Voting instructions should now be in your inbox.

Together, let’s build a future-focused, globally connected ACCA that supports members everywhere.

Please take five minutes to vote—and if you’re not eligible, encourage someone you know who is.

Thank you for listening. I’m Heather Smith, and this is the Accounting Apps Podcast.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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A vibrant wrap-up of Xerocon 2025 from a Kombi van, covering AI tools, new Xero features, community energy, and standout apps like SYFT Analytics, Cradle IO & Manage My Renewals.

Summary

On day 2 of Xerocon I jumped into a community group and asked people to join me at the van at 2pm, and 40 minutes later 5 people showed up. We squeezed into the Kombi and debriefed on the two day Xerocon conference. I can not quite believe that I managed to get 6 people into a Kombi van, and recorded what could possibly be the greatest Xerocon podcast recording ever!

There have been a lot of post following Xerocon, about the strength of the community, and you can really feel a sense of community in this conversation. Today I’m speaking with

Alex Falcon Huerta FCCA (Soaring Falcon),
Jolene Elliot of Karlaya Accounting & Business Advisory
Michelle Kvello of Lantern Partners
Emma Baxter of YouTax
Kyelie Baxter of IQ Accountants

In this episode, recorded on Day 2 of #Xerocon 2025 inside a vintage Kombi van with six passionate accounting professionals, we talk about . . .

AI innovations including OpenAI, JAX, and the future of automation in accounting.
Hot app discoveries like Manage My Renewals, Cradle IO, SYFT Analytics, and Fishbowl Inventory.
Key product announcements from Xero: ATO Portal integration, Tax Manager, and Workpapers for individual tax returns.
Reflections on session highlights: resilience, time management, and generational engagement.
Talks about stage experiences, community strength, and the power of networking.
Trends ahead: more automation, younger entrepreneurial accountants, and the growing importance of soft skills.
Each guest shared a final thought on embracing innovation, avoiding conference fatigue, and staying connected.

🧰 Apps & Tools Mentioned:SYFT Analytics, Manage My Renewals, Cradle IO, Fishbowl Inventory, FYI, Translucent, XBert, Xero, Dext, ATO Portal, Xero Workpapers, RPA, JAX, RecHound

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Xero’s Chief Product & Tech Officer Diya Jolly shares product highlights from Xerocon, how AI is shaping features, and what drives her mission to empower small businesses globally.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Diya Jolly, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Xero

In this episode, recorded live at Xerocon Brisbane inside a blue Kombi van we talk about . . .

Reflections on leadership, childhood inspirations & her father’s influence
Diya’s approach to customer-driven product development
Highlights from recent Xero product announcements:

New homepage & navigation redesign
Enhanced Partner Hub
Intelligent bank reconciliation with human + AI synergy
Actionable insights for accountants & bookkeepers
The impact of user feedback and communication on product strategy

Contact details:

Diya Jolly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diyajolly/

Xero: https://www.xero.com/au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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A live panel unpacks how accounting tech reshapes advisory, global work, and lifestyles: covering cloud, AI, ethics, niche healthcare, and why some accountants invest in apps. Guests: Gardner, Falcon Huerta, Chard.

Summary

Host Heather Smith moderates a lively panel on accounting + technology at the Brisbane Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand offices.

Guests:

Alex Falcon Huerta FCCA (Soaring Falcon) https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexfalconhuerta/

Kelly Chard (GrowthMD) https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellychard/

Paul Gardner (fresh accounting) https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-gardner-3b85322/

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Cloud tools lower barriers for boutique firms; data enables deeper advisory.
Lifestyle design: remote teams, digital-nomad workflows, and flexible careers.
Global work: Hong Kong/Singapore complexities—multi-entity, multi-currency, consolidation.
Specialisation: healthcare niche delivers powerful benchmarking and insight.
Founders as investors: why accountants back apps they implement.
AI: more a shift than a threat; ethics and guardrails remain paramount.
Practical stack talk: standardising platforms, comms, and change management.

Apps & Tools Mentioned: Xero, Sage, NetSuite, SAP, Expensify, Dext, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Copilot, Excel, WhatsApp, Brieff, Otter.ai

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this solo episode Heather Smith explores how accountants can harness AI as a strategic enabler, boosting data-driven decision making, enhancing client value, and leading with ethics, integrity, and curiosity.

Summary

In this solo episode, I talk about . . .

Key Points:

Technology as a strategic enabler, not just an operational tool
AI reduces repetitive work, empowering advisory services
Algorithms + data = core to accountants’ strengths
Data as a strategic asset: dashboards, analytics, forecasting tools
AI skills now a core competency—embrace continuous learning
Importance of curiosity and experimentation
Changing client expectations around speed, transparency, and insights
Data security, ethics, and integrity as professional superpowers
AI governance—opportunity to lead and educate clients
Leadership moment for accountants in shaping AI adoption

00:00 – Welcome & Episode Overview
Heather introduces the AI in accounting theme.

00:45 – 1 AI as a Strategic Enabler
Why technology is more than an operational necessity.

02:10 – 2. Automation Frees Accountants to Be Human
From data entry to strategic advisory work.

03:30 – AI in Simple Terms: Algorithms + Data
Why this formula matters for accountants and bookkeepers.

04:50 – 3. Data as a Strategic Asset
Leveraging dashboards, analytics, and forecasting tools.

06:15 – 4. AI Skills Are the New Core Competencies
From spreadsheets to generative AI proficiency.

07:35 – 5. Curiosity & Experimentation Drive Innovation
How to create space for trying new tools.

09:10 – 6. Meeting Evolving Client Expectations
Speed, transparency, and tech-savvy service delivery.

10:40 – 7. Data Security & AI Disclosure
Best practices for safeguarding sensitive financial data.

12:05 – 8. Ethics & Integrity as the Accountant’s Superpower
Embedding responsible AI use into daily decisions.

13:25 – 9. AI Governance: A New Service Opportunity
Helping clients set rules and policies for AI adoption.

15:00 – 10. Leadership Moment for Accountants
Shaping how AI delivers value and manages risk.

17:10 – Final Thoughts & Resources
Encouraging continuous learning and professional community engagement.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith & Tyler Caskey join ApprovalMax to have a conversation exploring how finance automation boosts accuracy, prevents fraud, and streamlines processes.

Today I’m speaking with Tyler Caskey Partner at The Bean Counters

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Key Points:
- How automation reduces human error and speeds approvals
- Real-world case studies with ApprovalMax & Xero
- Common vulnerabilities: hacked emails, invoice scams, credit card fraud
- Risk reduction strategies: 2FA, segregation of duties, virtual credit cards
- The role of password managers & proactive anti-fraud controls
- Fraud detection warning signs & team training
Stats:
- $277M lost to payment redirection scams in Australia (2023)
- 80–90% of finance errors caused by human error
- Automation can detect fraud 50% faster & reduce losses by 50%
Event Preview: Brisbane Xerocon tips & networking advice

Apps & Tools Mentioned: ApprovalMax, Xero, Mayday, Power BI, OnePassword, Practice Protect, EFTsure.

00:00 – Welcome & Introductions Hosts set the scene, introduce Tyler Caskey, and outline today’s automation & fraud prevention focus.

02:15 – Why Finance Automation is a "No Brainer" How automation improves efficiency, accuracy, and security for finance teams.

05:04 – Real-World Automation Wins Case study: $50M invoice group transforms processes with ApprovalMax & Xero.

08:42 – Common Fraud Vulnerabilities in Small Business From hacked emails to bank detail changes—how fraudsters infiltrate.

12:15 – Invoice Scams & How to Spot Them Practical warning signs and red flags finance teams should never ignore.

15:50 – Credit Card & Virtual Card Fraud Prevention Reducing risk with approval processes and controlled card usage.

19:32 – Passwords, 2FA & Segregation of Duties The non-negotiable security practices for finance teams.

23:05 – Fraud Cost & Prevention Statistics Eye-opening data on human error, scam losses, and automation benefits.

26:40 – Training Your Team for Fraud Awareness Creating a culture that detects scams before they succeed.

29:55 – ApprovalMax Features That Reduce Risk Notifications, audit trails, and bank account verification tools.

33:12 – Xerocon Brisbane Preview What Heather & Tyler are excited about—plus networking tips for attendees.

37:18 – Final Advice for Accountants & Bookkeepers Leading clients toward best-practice automation and fraud prevention.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this solo episode Heather Smith shares her proven process for creating impactful presentations, from topic selection to AI tools, helping accountants communicate with clarity, confidence, and audience engagement.

The accompanying article to this podcast appeared in Karbon Magazine : https://karbonhq.com/resources/creating-impactful-presentations/

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Key Topics:

Choosing a clear, focused topic tied to your strengths.
Event prep checklist (theme, audience, timing, learning outcomes).
Leveraging AI tools like Gamma.ai & ChatGPT for brainstorming and refinement.
Presentation design tips with Canva & accessibility considerations.
Audience engagement strategies (polls, paired discussions, live reflections).
Practising delivery, managing timing, and adjusting to conference themes.

Apps & Tools Mentioned: Canva, Gamma.ai, ChatGPT, Otter.ai, Mentimeter, Slido.

00:00 – Welcome & Episode Introduction Heather introduces the Accounting Apps Podcast and today’s focus on presentation skills.

03:05 – The Accountant as Storyteller Why storytelling matters in accounting presentations.

05:12 – Picking Your Presentation Topic Identifying core strengths and aligning with audience needs.

08:20 – Event Prep Checklist Heather’s go-to template for conference and session details.

12:18 – Knowing Your Audience & Agenda Positioning Adapting delivery based on audience energy levels and schedule timing.

16:05 – Drafting Content & Reusing Resources Repurposing past slides, articles, and podcasts to save time.

19:40 – Designing for Clarity with Canva Practical slide design tips and exploring Gamma.ai for inspiration.

24:10 – Essential Presentation Structure Key slide elements from title page to call-to-action.

27:55 – Engaging Your Audience Using polls, paired discussions, and live reflections to boost interaction.

32:05 – Slide Strategies & Accessibility Heather’s approach to slide density, colour choices, and design resources.

35:40 – Leveraging AI for Content Review Using ChatGPT to refine flow, style, and relevance.

39:05 – Practice, Backup Plans & Conference Day Routine Preparation techniques, tech checks, and handling unexpected issues.

41:25 – Lifelong Learning for Accountants Encouragement to keep developing skills for impactful communication.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Tony Harcourt CEO & Co-Founder of WorkGuru

Tony Harcourt returns to chat with Heather about WorkGuru’s recent product updates, the challenges facing SMEs, and the role of automation and integrations in improving day-to-day operations.

Summary

Today I’m speaking with Tony Harcourt CEO & Co-Founder of WorkGuru

WorkGuru is a Project Management solution tailored for SMEs in manufacturing, construction, engineering, and fabrication.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

WorkGuru Highlights:

Celebrating 7 years.
Focus on automating business workflows and enhancing project visibility.

Feature Releases Discussed:

Workflows Engine: Automate project actions (e.g. invoice alerts, follow-ups).
Scheduling Optimization: Drag-and-drop team allocation with load visibility.
Gantt Charts: Visual project timelines with logical dependency control.
Mobile App Overhaul: New UI with mobile-friendly features including receipt upload.

Integrations:

Accounting: Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB
OCR & Approvals: EasyBills (with PO matching)
Payments: Pinch Payments (GuruPay)
Task Management: Asana (two-way sync)
Document Storage: SuiteFiles, Dropbox, Google Drive
Payroll/HR: Tanda integration
E-commerce & CRM: New integrations with Shopify and HubSpot

Tony’s Take on Tech:

Clear distinction between automation (repeatable tasks) and AI (tool for speed & code support).
AI is useful but not foolproof—best as a developer accelerator.

Heather & Tony Discuss:

Why advisors should niche and partner with robust platforms like WorkGuru.
The importance of support and access—WorkGuru runs live drop-in support twice a week.

Upcoming at Xerocon 2025:

Branded swag, travel prize giveaway, live demos at the WorkGuru booth.
Mid-con party on Emporium Hotel Lina rooftop with Brisbane-based apps.

Register here : https://lu.ma/qxj8umqt

Contact details:

Tony Harcourt : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-harcourt/

W: https://workguru.io/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith and Tyler Caskey explore major Q2 tech updates, from payroll developments to NetSuite integrations, AI trends, multi-entity reporting, and smarter expense and project tools.

Today I’m speaking with Tyler Caskey, Founder at The Bean Counter.

In this episode, we talk about . . . industry insights and key accounting technology updates from April to June 2025. We highlight the competition in HR and payroll, noting Rippling's market leadership, Employment Hero's implementation improvements, and Tanda’s attractive pricing . We discuss Xero's integration of Syft into its dashboard. Tyler praises the project management solution Work Guru for its native integrations across different systems. We also cover the integration of the ERP solution Oracle NetSuite with Airwallex, Weel and ApprovalMax, and highlight changes in Xero, QuickBooksOnline, and MYOB, including the release of Solo Money by MYOB. We wrapped up with a quick look at recent investments and a preview of upcoming Accounting Technology events.

Key Themes & Takeaways

Payroll & HR Tech
- Competition heating up: Rippling, Employment Hero, Elmo, and Tanda making moves.
- Pricing pressures and feature sets vary widely—Tanda noted as great value.
Multi-Entity Reporting
- Strong contenders: Fathom, Join, DataSights, Calxa, Spotlight Reporting.
- Notable updates: Xero integrates Sift, Join introduces Board Packs, Calxa adds advanced tracking category grouping.
Expense Management & Virtual Cards
- ApprovalMax, Weel and Airwallex now integrated with NetSuite.
- Derive emerges as a serious AP/procurement tool competitor to ProSpend, especially for franchises.
Jobs & Projects
- WorkGuru praised for native integrations, suitability for construction and manufacturing.
- Gojee, Scoro, and Project Works also discussed. Project Works raised $12M Series A.
AI & ChatGPT Use in Accounting
- Clients are using AI for education and pre-queries—accountants need to stay ahead.
- Risks around DIY tax advice. AI as a review tool (e.g., Expert, future potential).
CRM Tools
- Wave CRM: Excellent for member-based orgs.
- Friendly Manager and Hello Club noted in the sports/event space.
Core App Updates
- Xero: Practice Manager UI refresh, Tap to Pay on iPhone, invoicing redesign, Carbon integration, U.S. Melio acquisition.
- QuickBooks: New 3-year forecasting, workflow approvals, ATO integration enhancements.
- MYOB: Launches Solo Money – targeted at freelancers/sole traders.
ERP & Reporting Tools
- Hemesphere + Odoo for large-volume users.
- NetSuite growing as a high-quality GL platform, even for low-entity clients.
- Campfire (AI-first ERP) secures $35M Series A funding.

Events Mentioned

Heather & Tyler speaking across AU at Dashboard Insights, CloudOffice, CA ANZ & Women in Accounting events.
Upcoming: Xerocon (Tyler speaking), Suite World Vegas, Zoholics, Mayday’s Multi-Entity Webinar Series.

Upcoming events that Tyler or Heather are speaking at:

31 Jul - Fireside, Forecasts & Future Tech - Cloudoffis, Melbourne

1 Aug - FY25 Accounting Benchmarking Roadshow - Dashboard Insights, Brisbane

14-26 Aug Scaling with Xero

19 Aug Your Brain is Full: Build a Second Brain to Make Room for What Matters - SWAN Sydney Women in Accounting Network

25-26 Aug 2025 Zoholics - Sydney

1 Sep The Intersection of Accounting and Technology - CAANZ, Brisbane

3-4 Sep Xerocon - Brisbane

6-9 Oct SuiteWorld - Las Vegas

22-23 Oct Accounting & Business Show Asia - Singapore

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

The Bean Counters https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Your clients are using ChatGPT.

Your clients are going to try to do their accounts and their tax using ChatGPT.

Your clients are going to ask you questions generated from ChatGPT.

Your clients are going to ask you why you have not deducted THIS because ChatGPT suggested it.

Your clients are going to come to you with “the work finished by ChatGPT” and they are going to ask you to give it a quick look over and remind you that you should not charge them as much because ChatGPT has done the bulk of the work.

AND how are you going to react to this???

Firstly, be AWARE that it’s happening.

It’s good that your clients are taking an interest, and doing some of their own research.

REMIND clients that ChatGPT can make mistakes, and that important information needs to be checked. “That’s a helpful starting point, but it’s not always right, especially for tax.”

ChatGPT can help clients understand terminology, accounting concepts, simplify language, and help prep them for a meeting.

ChatGPT is not a professional accountant or bookkeeper. It may not know the latest tax legislation, may draw on international information, or suggest non-compliant responses.

ChatGPT rarely understands the nuances of a client situation, and has a tendency to oversimplify things, and be overconfident in its statements, as if they are facts.

I recall when I was pregnant, turning up to the Doctor's office with a large hardcover copy of Dr Miriam Stoppard’s Pregnancy Book, filled with post-it notes of my hand written questions. If the Doctor had been reluctant to answer my questions, then I probably would have found a new Doctor.

When your client comes to you with ChatGPT responses, how are you going to respond?

You could be prepared to suggest that ChatGPT can be a helpful tool, but it's not a substitute for the knowledge and judgment of a qualified bookkeeper or accountant.

Highlight where ChatGPT can be used, and where it’s not so good. Remind them that it needs to be triple fact checked! You could highlight that in some areas it could save them money, but in other areas such as reviewing ChatGPT responses may lead to inefficiencies and actually cost them more money.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Miquel Palet, Founder of GetInvoice

Miquel Palet is a Barcelona-based entrepreneur and product leader, known for founding Ucademy, an edtech platform, and GetInvoice, a tool for automating invoice retrieval from emails and other sources. With a background in engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Miquel combines technical expertise with a passion for simplifying business processes. His ventures reflect a commitment to innovation and user-centric solutions.

GetInvoice is an AI-driven invoice automation software that automatically retrieves and processes invoices and receipts from emails and web portals, including Amazon and Google Ads. We extract all invoice data and integrate with accounting tools like QuickBooks, Xero or Business Central, and other tools like Google Drive or Google Sheet, to automatically forward all processed invoices. GetInvoice is already used by more than +1,000 freelancers, startups, and small businesses around the world that are looking to automate their pre-accounting work and save +10 hours every week.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

· Guest: Miquel Palet, founder of Get Invoice and co-founder of Ucademy
· Background: Engineering and entrepreneurship from Barcelona
· Get Invoice: AI-driven software automating invoice retrieval from emails and portals like Amazon & Google
Integrations: Works with Xero, QuickBooks, Business Central, Google Drive & Sheets
· Origin Story: Born out of a pain point at Ucademy while scaling fast
· Market Focus: Small businesses (10–200 people) in Europe and the US
· Milestone: Bootstrapped growth reaching and surpassing $10K ARR within 6 months
· Security: Uses secure Google/Outlook APIs with strict access limitations
· Growth Strategy: Lean, product-focused, and quick iteration
· Fun Fact: Inspired by Spotify Wrapped to create an email analytics campaign
· Language: Currently English-only despite Spanish roots
· Reading: Balances business books with classical literature like The Iliad

Contact details:

Get Invoice https://www.get-invoice.com

Miquel Palet https://linkedin.com/in/miquelpalet

Miquel Pale https://x.com/paletmiki

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Cloudoffis co-founders Viral Kanabar and Manish Sheladia

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Cloudoffis' journey from SMSF audit automation to AI-first tax workpaper solution, TaxSorted.
Their goal is to create a complete cloud-based operating system for accounting firms.
The shift from manual processes (PDFs, Excel) to seamless AI-enhanced workflows.
The importance of integrations with BGL, Class, FYI Docs, and the ATO.
Key challenges facing accounting firms: time poverty, tech adoption hesitation, and rising compliance pressures.
Cloudoffis’ approach to fostering startup culture internally with hackathons and open innovation.
Vision for accountants to evolve into business analysts and trusted advisors, moving beyond data entry.
Viral's reflections on attending leadership events and staying energized.
Plans for international expansion into the US, UK, and Canada.

Key Takeaways:

Automation and AI can free accountants from repetitive tasks, enabling more strategic advisory work.
Building contextual, seamless AI into workflows is key to improving both efficiency and client outcomes.
Collaboration with tech partners and embracing startup thinking drives ongoing innovation.

Cloudoffis began its journey by supporting SMSF auditors and accountants with automated workflows, work papers, and collaboration tools that drive efficiency, compliance, and standardisation across their practices. With over 20% of Australian SMSFs now audited through the Cloudoffis platform, Cloudoffis has become the trusted brand for more than 2,000 auditing and accounting firms across Australia.

In 2024, due to popular demand from tax teams looking for the same benefits their SMSF teams were experiencing, Cloudoffis launched Tax Sorted - a new AI-first tax work paper. Tax Sorted streamlines the preparation, review, and approval of tax work papers for both businesses and individuals, enhancing efficiency and compliance across the Australian accounting market.

Read how I work with some apps here http://endorsementdisclosure.com/

Contact details:

Viral Kanabar https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanabarviral/

Manish Sheladia https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheladia/

Cloudoffis https://cloudoffis.com.au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Colin Hewitt, Founder & CEO of Float

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Evolution of cash flow forecasting from spreadsheets to intelligent cash flow platforms.
Differences between direct and indirect cash flow forecasting.
Float’s shift to support fractional CFOs and the growing need for 13-week forecasts.
New features in Float:
13-week forecasting reports with click-to-detail functionality.
Consolidated cash flow view for multi-entity businesses.
Enhanced PDF reporting capabilities.
Upcoming VAT & GST forecasting features.
AI-driven expected payment dates and "intelligent cash flow".
Importance of embracing AI internally and the concept of becoming an "AI-first" company.
Colin’s experience launching The New F Word podcast, focusing on the rise of fractional CFOs.
Building visibility via LinkedIn thought leadership.

Key Takeaways:

Cash flow tools should integrate seamlessly with reporting stacks, not replace them.
Fractional CFOs face context-switching challenges Float aims to solve.
AI offers new efficiencies but requires thoughtful, user-focused implementation.

Contact details:

Float: https://www.floatapp.com/

Colin Hewitt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinphewitt/

The New F*Word (F for Fractional Finance) https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-new-f-word-f-for-fractional-finance/id1779512563

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Ryan Pearcy, founder of Digital Transformers and co-host of the Digi-Tools in ACCruel World podcast.

Background: From theoretical physicist to chartered accountant with a passion for cloud technology

From Theory to Tech: Ryan shares his journey from theoretical physics to founding Digital Transformers, helping accounting firms streamline systems and gain smarter insights

Digital Transformation vs. App Advisory: Why true transformation is about processes, not just plugging in apps

Fixing the Wild West: Ryan’s mission to bring quality, accreditation, and structure to digital advisory services within the profession

Partnering with ICAEW: Efforts to integrate digital transformation into formal accounting practice standards

AI’s Impact: How AI is reshaping client relationships—from advice to assurance—and why pricing models need to evolve

Top Tools Mentioned:

FYI, FuseSign, Xero – for practice and financial management
ApprovalMax – to streamline approvals and bring in purchase order controls
Addfin – flexible payment options
Fathom – advanced reporting
Active Workpapers – modernising workpaper processes

Pro Tips for Firms: Start with expense management automation, consider phased system rollouts, and never underestimate the value of post-implementation support

Stay Ahead: Ryan recommends using tools like Feedly and following communities like Digital Disruptors to keep pace with evolving tech

Get Involved:

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99%EF%B8%8F-ryan-pearcy-a3883a34/
Follow the Digital Disruptors newsletter and live sessions
Listen to the DigiTools in ACCruel World podcast

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

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A dynamic panel explores how accountants can lead digital transformation, harness AI, train teams, and shift from compliance to advisory to stay relevant in a fast-changing tech landscape.

The role of trusted advisors in leading digital transformation.
Challenges in adopting new tech, especially in larger firms with undertrained internal finance teams.
The critical importance of training staff and upskilling, starting from the advisory end and working backwards.
Using tools like Dext and other cloud accounting apps to streamline processes and enhance client engagement.
The value of certifications, networking, and community learning.
Emphasis on simplifying processes before layering tech solutions.

This panel was held at the Accounting and Business Expo in Sydney, and was sponsored by Dext. Dext is a cloud-based accounting software platform that helps accountants, bookkeepers, and businesses streamline financial data collection and processing. Formerly known as Receipt Bank, Dext offers tools for automated data extraction, invoice and receipt management, and real-time financial insights. It integrates with leading accounting systems like Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Sage, making it easier to reduce manual data entry, improve accuracy, and speed up workflows. With a strong focus on automation and AI, Dext empowers advisors to shift from compliance work to more strategic, advisory-focused services.

Contacts and resources:

Lielette Calleja (BusinessDEPOT) https://www.linkedin.com/in/lielettecalleja/

Aleesha Bailey (RSM Australia) https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleesha-bailey/

Sabby Gill (CEO of Dext) https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabbygill/

Heather Smith : https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

KPMG : Keeping Us Up At Night https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2025/keeping-us-up-at-night-2025.pdf

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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My co-host Tyler Caskey Partner at The BeanCounters and I presented a taster of our quarterly Accounting Tech update podcast at the popular Accounting & Business Expo in Sydney.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Big Software Moves: Xero retires classic invoicing and introduces drag/drop bill uploads; QuickBooks enhances Projects and Work area; MYOB adds new reminders; Easy Business adds ABA payroll.

ERP & Practice App Upgrades: NetSuite introduces AI-powered “Text Enhanced,” while XonBoard simplifies Xero onboarding—praised as “worth its weight in gold.”

Insights & Oversight Tools: Fathom launches Portfolio for client-wide metrics; Dext refreshes its dashboard; Spotlight Reporting pushes ESG advisory via Sustain.

Standout Tools & Features: Modano’s online budgeting praised, Translucent adds 6 tracking categories & Deferred Revenue App, Karbon expands KPI reporting and integrates Chrome extension.

Ecosystem Growth: Sharesight adds Drawdown Risk and improved cost reporting; Fergus integrates with Xero for builders; Workshop Software boosts mobile bookings; EZRentout enhances order pipelines.

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

The Bean Counters : https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

Heather Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

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Today I’m speaking with Andrew Sims, CEO of SuiteFiles

Key Learnings from this episode include:

Understanding Fatigue: Decision, friction, and task fatigue impact productivity. Recognising them is the first step to overcoming them.

Practical Boundaries: Setting clear work boundaries and minimising interruptions can dramatically improve focus.

Calendar & Meeting Management: Colour-coded calendars, automated scheduling tools, and meeting transcribers save time and reduce cognitive overload.

Digital Decluttering: Organised digital workspaces reduce friction fatigue and make information retrieval seamless.

Deep Work Techniques: Methods like the Pomodoro technique, energy peak planning, and music-driven focus improve concentration.

The Right Tech Tools: Document management, email organisation, and workflow automation enhance efficiency and reduce time wasted on repetitive tasks.

Resources

To find out more about SuiteFiles: https://www.suitefiles.com/

Andrew Sims https://www.linkedin.com/in/adsims/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@heathersmithau

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/heathersmithau.bsky.social

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As a female founder in fintech, Jo Hurley shares her journey as a tech entrepreneur learning from other sectors, selling her business to Deloitte, and how endurance sports fuel her personal growth.

Today I’m speaking with Jo Hurley Chartered Accountant Motivational Speaker and Triathlete

Key learnings from this episode include: * Tech in Finance: How Jo leveraged technology to transform audit processes. * Women in Tech: Facing industry pushback & building networks beyond finance. * Selling a Business: The realities of selling to Deloitte & unexpected retirement. * Mindset & Endurance: How Ironman training fosters discipline & deep reflection. * Storytelling & Speaking: Using experience to connect with and inspire others.

Resources

The Light Year Docs 25 event

https://www.lightyeardocs.com.au/event-details/lyd25-unstoppable-growth-conference-online-2

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_lyd25-lyd25-accountingandaccountants-activity-7296297019323691009-etYO/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_lyd25-accountingandaccountants-lyd-activity-7294927985101393920-lT6K/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_accountingandaccountants-lyd25-futureofaccounting-activity-7294962990074765313-5JxZ/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heathersmithau_accountingandaccountants-lyd25-futureofaccounting-activity-7295609805522489344-pK6r/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@heathersmithau

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Discover how NetSuite’s new AI-powered Text Enhance feature is revolutionising finance teams, streamlining workflows, and boosting productivity with secure, business-specific automation —all while keeping data secure. Scott Wiltshire from Oracle NetSuite shares insights into AI-driven automation, its impact on finance and operations, and why Australian & NZ businesses should embrace this next-gen technology. Discover how NetSuite's new AI-powered "Text Enhanced" feature is revolutionising finance teams by automating manual tasks, improving productivity, and providing smarter business insights

Today I’m speaking with Scott Wiltshire, Vice President & GM, Oracle NetSuite ANZ

Key Learnings from the Episode: * NetSuite's "Text Enhanced" Feature: Uses generative AI to automate content creation within the ERP system. * Boosting Productivity: AI-powered automation helps finance teams with collections, journal entry annotations, and other manual documentation tasks. * Data Security & Compliance: The AI assistant ensures strict security protocols, keeping company data protected within Oracle Cloud. * Personalized AI Assistance: AI-generated content is tailored to specific company data, improving accuracy and relevance. * Competitive Advantage: Businesses leveraging AI early gain efficiency, scalability, and a productivity boost. * SuiteConnect 2025: NetSuite’s regional conference in Sydney will unveil more AI-powered innovations and training opportunities.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@heathersmithau

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/heathersmithau.bsky.social

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🎙️ Welcome to the Accounting Apps podcast, where we spotlight trends and tools shaping the world of accounting. I'm Heather Smith, and today we’re playing a little game of Accounting Bingo for 2025! What's on the bingo card for the year ahead? We’re talking about technology, tools, and trends that are transforming our profession. Let’s dive in! 🎙️

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://AccountingApps.io

This is the ChatGPT podcast script I used for the episode

Square 1: AI-Driven Automation 🤖 It’s no surprise that AI is at the top of our bingo card.

In 2025, AI is automating repetitive tasks, analysing vast amounts of data, and even predicting trends. Whether it's categorising transactions or providing forecasting insights, AI tools are making accountants' lives easier.

Brand Watch: Xero’s AI-powered bank reconciliation and QuickBooks’ Smart Suggestions are leading the charge.

Square 2: ESG Reporting Tools 🌱 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is no longer optional.

With mandatory ESG reporting becoming standard, accountants are helping clients track their sustainability metrics alongside financial ones.

Brand Watch: Spotlight Sustain: Measure and enhance the positive impact that your organisation or clients can create. SAP and Oracle are embedding ESG tools right into their platforms, making it simpler to comply with new regulations.

Square 3: Cloud-Based Collaboration ☁️ Cloud-first is the only way forward.

Accountants are embracing platforms that allow teams and clients to collaborate in real-time, from anywhere in the world. Cloud-based solutions have become essential for remote and hybrid work.

Brand Watch: Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks Online are household names, while Karbon is adding powerful collaboration features for practice management.

Square 4: Data Analytics and Visualisation 📊 Seeing is believing – and understanding.

Advanced analytics tools are helping accountants go beyond numbers to tell compelling stories with data. Visualisation tools are bringing balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements to life.

Brand Watch: Power BI, Fathom, and Tableau are must-haves for visualising financial insights.

Square 5: Enhanced Cybersecurity 🔒 Security is non-negotiable.

With the rise of cyberattacks, protecting client data is critical. Accountants need robust cybersecurity measures built into their workflows.

Brand Watch: Platforms like Practice Protect and 1Password are safeguarding sensitive financial information.

Square 6: Advisory 💼 Advisory is the future.

Accountants are evolving into strategic advisors, helping clients make data-driven decisions to grow their businesses. Offering more personalised services is the new normal.

Brand Watch: Clarity HQ https://clarity-hq.com/ The Gap https://www.thegaphq.com/

Square 7: Remote Work Technologies 🏠 Work from anywhere, but stay connected.

Accountants are relying on tools that keep their teams productive and clients engaged, no matter where they’re working from.

Brand Watch: Microsoft Teams and Zoom remain essentials, while Slack adds another layer of real-time communication.

Square 8: Automation for Compliance 📜 Stay compliant without the headache.

With ever-changing regulations, automation tools are stepping up to handle compliance tasks. From tax filings to payroll, automation reduces errors and saves time.

Brand Watch: XBert and ATO-certified tools like BAS Agent Portal integrations are a hit in Australia.

Square 9: Simplified Payments 💳 Get paid faster and easier.

Streamlined payment solutions are helping accountants and their clients manage cash flow more effectively.

Brand Watch: Ignition Solo is a new offering for automated agreements and payments.

Square 10: Sustainability in Practice 🌍 Greener practices for a better future.

Beyond ESG reporting, accountants are looking inward to adopt sustainable practices in their own businesses.

Brand Watch: Platforms like Dext are enabling paperless workflows, contributing to a greener planet.

Conclusion

🎙️ That’s our bingo card for 2025! Which trends are you already embracing, and which ones are still on your wishlist? The world of accounting is evolving rapidly, and staying ahead of these trends will help you thrive in the year ahead. Thanks for tuning in to the Accounting Apps podcast. Until next time, keep innovating! 🎙️

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://AccountingApps.io

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Translucent CEO Michael Wood discusses the company's recent launch event, new features like automated intercompany reconciliation and custom tracking categories, and the importance of addressing data model issues for multi-entity businesses.

Today I’m speaking with Michael Wood Founder & CEO of Translucent

In this episode, we talk about . . .

🎯 Innovating for Multi-Entity Teams: Translucent unveils tools designed to tackle complex multi-entity challenges.

🛠️ New Features Highlighted: Granular permissions, tracking category audits, and intercompany auto-reconciliation take centre stage.

🔍 Tracking Categories Expanded: Solving a long-standing limitation with additional data dimensions and smarter tracking tools.

📊 Custom KPIs Made Easy: Flexibility to build financial reports tailored to unique business needs.

🚀 Future-Proofing Finance: Quarterly updates promise a steady stream of impactful features and tools.

💡 Shape the Innovation: Listeners are encouraged to share their input on future product development.

Contact details:

Michael Wood : https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwood/

Translucent https://www.translucent.io/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Join Heather Smith and Tyler Caskey as they share global insights from Xerocon, SuiteWorld, and beyond. Discover the latest in accounting tech—new features, strategic shifts, and practical tools to boost your practice.

Here are the many reasons you should listen in!

🔹 Get Ahead with the Latest Accounting Tech: Key updates from Xerocon, SuiteWorld, and other global events to keep your practice at the cutting edge.

🔹 Learn from Industry Insights: Heather and Tyler share real-world experiences, insights from speaking at major conferences, and practical tools they use.

🔹 Discover New Apps and Integrations: Explore innovations in automation, AI, ERP solutions, and practice management tools tailored for accountants.

🔹 Stay Updated on Payment Solutions: Hear about new Stripe and Pinch Payments features that can streamline client billing and payments.

🔹 Tech Trends to Watch: Find out what’s trending in accounting technology, from AI-driven tools to expanded reporting capabilities, and what’s coming next.

🔹 Optimise Your Workflow: Get tips on integrating tools like ApprovalMax, XBert, and AccountKit to enhance efficiency and accuracy in your practice.

🔹 Insights on Flexible Work Benefits: Heather and Tyler’s global work and travel experiences offer unique perspectives on balancing work and exploration.

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

B: https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Gain insights from an experienced leader who has successfully scaled multiple professional services and technology companies. Learn strategies for driving innovation, improving operational efficiency, and providing real-time visibility for consulting firms.

Understand how to leverage patents and intellectual property to differentiate your business. Get advice on effective leadership approaches, including the power of being a proactive listener.

Today I’m speaking with Mark Orttung, CEO of Projectworks. The conversation provides a wealth of practical, hard-earned wisdom for anyone looking to grow and improve their professional services business.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Mark Orttung's journey from scaling Nexiant and Bill.com to leading professional services automation platform Projectworks
Insights on driving innovation and providing real-time visibility to reduce administrative burdens for consulting clients
Leveraging patents and his approach to effective leadership, including the importance of being a proactive listener
Strategies for scaling consulting firms, including differentiation, go-to-market, and continuous improvement
Collaboration with AICPA and enabling accounting firms to create new revenue streams

Projectworks is a professional services automation platform that’s easy to use and enables the world’s experts to focus on their passion. Professional services and consulting firms use Projectworks' to better plan their projects, resources, and profits and gain insights into real-time project performance and bottom-line projections. The platform integrates with leading accounting, reporting, and CRM systems, including Xero, QuickBooks, HubSpot and Salesforce.

I strategically partner with Projectworks.

Contact details:

W: https://projectworks.io/

Mark Orttung: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markorttung/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today's episode is part of a series of six interviews recorded at the Oracle CloudWorld and SuiteWorld conferences which were held in Las Vegas, September 2024. I encourage you to subscribe and add them all to your playlist!

In this episode, I speak with Brian Chess, SVP Technology and AI, of Oracle NetSuite.

Brian oversees the development and operations of NetSuite’s technology stack, platform, and AI-driven functionality. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering as well as more than a dozen patents related to integrated circuit design, web-based applications, and computer security.

We discuss:

The concept of "AI built in, not bolted on," referring to the deep integration of AI with NetSuite.
The philosophy of "human in the loop," emphasising the importance of human oversight and trust in AI systems.
Brian believes the best AI feature will likely be created by NetSuite customers, leveraging the platform's openness.

On my blog you'll find detailed show notes to accompany this podcast, and for those looking to earn free CPE, be sure to head over to the EarMarkApp and take the quiz for the podcast you are about to listen to!

Finally, thank you to the Oracle NetSuite teams for hosting me at your conferences.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, I speak with Matt Lowry, Chief Revenue Officer | GTM Leader at ApprovalMax.

Matt is a commercially-minded and proactive revenue leader with SaaS scale-up experience. Particular areas of expertise include GTM strategy, revenue operations, sales, special projects, and customer experience.

Matt and I have known each other for a few years, and he was representing Approval Max on the floor of the SuiteWorld conference. I jumped at the opportunity to speak with him, and get his perspective on the conference.

We discuss:

The vastness and variety of activities at the Oracle CloudWorld and SuiteWorld event, including a pottery studio and a bird conservancy!
Attendee's keen interest in learning about third-party apps, and the experience of being first-time exhibitors.
The importance of cloud integrators and technology solution providers in the NetSuite ecosystem, as they play a crucial role in helping clients implement and integrate solutions.

I’ll also highlight that afterwards he wrote a LinkedIn post highlighting that in the Mid-Market/ERP space, lots of third party apps don't offer free trials, and they tie you into an annual contract.

Add a bit more…

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7241770061076533250/

Finally, thank you to the Oracle NetSuite teams for hosting me at your conferences.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, I speak with James Chisham, Vice President Product Management at Oracle NetSuite. James has been instrumental in advancing NetSuite's international product offerings, particularly within the EMEA region. His leadership has helped shape NetSuite’s ERP and cloud solutions globally.

We discuss:

Key Innovations and Product Developments at Suite World
The importance of financial exception management and how AI can provide suggestions and guidance.
Oracle NetSuites "global be local" vision and the focus on localisation and compliance.

Finally, thank you to the Oracle NetSuite teams for hosting me at your conferences.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, I speak with Bruce Fitzgerald, CEO, Extel Technologies, a NetSuite customer. Bruce is keenly focused on systematising processes, implementing technology, and developing people, now to meet the growing demands of competitive manufacturing.

We discuss:

The selection process and decision to implement NetSuite
The NetSuite rollout, and the importance of change management.
The benefits of attending the Oracle NetSuite industry networking events, and learnings from other clients in this space.

Finally, thank you to the Oracle NetSuite teams for hosting me at your conferences.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, I speak with Meredith Rowan, Group Vice President ANZ + ASEAN, Applications, Oracle.

Meredith leads the strategic direction and execution of Oracle’s cloud application solutions across the region. With over 20 years of experience in the technology sector, she has a strong track record of driving digital transformation and helping businesses leverage Oracle’s suite of enterprise solutions

We discuss:

A key factor in their success is making enterprise applications more user-friendly through the new Redwood user experience interface.
Opportunities to leverage technology, particularly Ai to fill the productivity gap created by economic pressures, and drive better outcomes. Meredith noted that Australia and New Zealand have slipped in global productivity rankings, with the slowest productivity growth in the last 10 years.
Meredith shares some customer success stories, from the likes of Avis, and A2 milk.

OECD Productivity Statistics: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/data/oecd-productivity-statistics_pdtvy-data-en

Finally, thank you to the Oracle NetSuite teams for hosting me at your conferences.

Blog : https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/2024/10/03/unlocking-productivity-gains-meredith-rowan/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today's episode is part of a series of six interviews recorded at the Oracle NetSuite Cloud World and SuiteWorld conferences which were held in Las Vegas, September 2024. I encourage you to subscribe and add them all to your playlist!

In today’s episode, I speak with Scott Wiltshire, Vice President & GM, Oracle NetSuite ANZ. Scott is keen to help customers and employees identify and solve business challenges that deliver real value.

I interviewed Scott Wiltshire last year, I’ll pop a link in the show notes.

https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/2023/10/27/how-netsuite-helps-australian-businesses-grow-scott-wiltshire/

We discuss some of the new feature announcements from NetSuite, which includes

NetSuite's financial exception management, which helps organisations detect and mitigate financial risks.
Suite Analytics Assistant, which allows users to generate reports using natural language.
Prompt Studio, which enables users to configure AI-generated content to suit their business needs.
AI for SuiteScript API, which helps connect multiple systems,
and Code Assist, which assists developers in writing code.

As always, you'll find a comprehensive blog with detailed show notes available for you to dive deeper into the world of Oracle NetSuite.

And for those looking to earn free CPE, be sure to head over to the EarMarkApp and take the quiz!

A big thank you to Oracle NetSuite for hosting me.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Join me as I recount my journey through the vibrant Nashville Xerocon, where country spirit and tech innovation collided.

In this episode, I cover:

My personal takeaways from the conference
Insights from the Nashville Xerocon and key product announcements
Innovation from the exhibitor floor
Behind the scenes of speaking at my first International Xerocon.
Connecting with industry peers at events and activities around Xerocon.

There are lots of links in the show notes to explore more about everything I discussed.

SPONSOR

Today’s episode is brought to you by ApprovalMax. If you're looking to streamline your financial controls across accounts payable and receivable, ApprovalMax has you covered.

On average it cuts approval times by 85%, and boost AP efficiency by up to 50%. With ApprovalMax, you can swiftly approve vendor bills, purchase orders, expense reports, vendor return authorizations, and sales orders. It simplifies complex approval workflows with automated routing and lets you design multi-level approval processes with ease.

Discover more about how ApprovalMax can transform your business by visiting ApprovalMax.com.

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Val Steed, Director Accountants, Zoho Corporation

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Zoho Corporation's journey in the accounting technology industry, from its founding in 1996 to its current position as a leading provider of integrated business solutions

The company's focus on privacy, security, and long-term vision, with a family-like culture and commitment to employee retention

Zoho's conservative management approach and profitability since day one, even during challenging times like the pandemic

The challenges of working as a US-based employee for an Indian-based company, including navigating cultural nuances and time zones

Zoho's integrated platform, which offers a suite of over 55 web apps and 75 mobile apps, including accounting, CRM, and other business tools

Zoho's efforts to adapt its products to local markets, such as incorporating Australian tax and payroll requirements

The company's annual Zoholics conference, including the partner-focused Inspire event, and its plans for AI integration in its products

Insights into Zoho's growth and competitive landscape in the accounting industry, as well as the challenges of reaching the target audience in the Australian market

Contact details:

Val Steed https://www.linkedin.com/in/valsteed/

Zoho Corp https://www.zohocorp.com/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith and Tyler Caskey, Partner at The Bean Counters discuss features, functionalities and updates in the Accounting Apps from June July 2024.

Highlights from this episode include:

A discussion around the importance of Apps offering training, ongoing training and training to meet different learning styles.
Zohos expansion plans into Australia, and its vast platform offerings.
Employment Hero's Smart Match system which checks candidate interest levels for your new jobs and auto-shortlist those interested. A potential competitor to Seek & LinkedIn.
The payroll solution Gusto’s launch into the Australian market with an all-in-one platform for all-over-the-world teams.
The data quality tool XBert has released the ability to develop customisable XBerts, giving you the ability to monitor areas of interest to you.

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

The Bean Counters https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m sharing with you a recording of a keynote entitled "Developing and Keeping a Competitive Advantage," given by Philip Fierlinger, co-founder of Upstock and co-founder of Xero.

Philip Fierlinger discusses his experiences and insights on developing and maintaining a competitive advantage in the technology and accounting sectors. He shares his journey from working on the first smartphone at General Magic to co-founding Xero and Upstock. The talk focuses on the importance of creating extraordinary user experiences, transforming pain points into pleasurable experiences, and adhering to a strong vision and values.

Highlights from the session include:

Philip Fierlinger shares insights on developing and maintaining a competitive advantage, drawing from his extensive experience in the tech and accounting industries.

Discusses his journey from working on General Magic's first smartphone to co-founding Xero and Upstock, highlighting key milestones and lessons learned.

Emphasises the importance of transforming technology into "magic" through exceptional user experience design, making technology seamless and user-friendly.

Explains how Xero succeeded by turning the painful process of bank reconciliations into a pleasurable and engaging experience, fundamentally changing the perception of accounting software.

Describes the creation of Upstock to address friction in the B2B supply chain for foodservice, offering a digital platform that levels the playing field for small suppliers.

Highlights the significance of having a clear vision and strong values as the foundation for business operations, ensuring long-term success and competitive advantage.

Shares lessons on the critical role of customer research and feedback, and the importance of early adopters in refining and validating the product.

Discusses how cultivating a positive company culture and retaining employees can be achieved through adhering to guiding principles and providing support, such as coaching and counselling.

This is the third podcast I’m bringing to you from the 2024 Tropical Innovation Festival held in June, in Cairns, in beautiful Far North Queensland. If you are interested in the topic or the vibe of the event, I encourage you to go back and listen to the other two episodes and reach out to the Tropical Innovation Festival if you want to be part of future festivals. I will drop their contact details in the show notes.

The audio was recorded during a lunchtime session. At the start, you can hear the emcee of the event, who is also the conference co-organiser, Tara Diversi.

Contact details:

Tropical Innovation Festival: https://www.tropicalinnovationfestival.com.au/speakers

Phil Fierlinger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fierlinger/

UpStock: https://www.upstock.app/

Xero: https://xero.com/

Tara Diversi : https://www.linkedin.com/in/taradiversi/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Other podcast episodes of interest

Building Your Startup’s Profile with Media | TIF24 https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/2024/07/18/building-your-startups-profile-with-media-tif24/

MediaPhones, Accounting Dashboards & Digital Marketplaces: The Design Journey of Xero’s Co-Founder | Philip Fierlinger

https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/2023/11/30/mediaphones-accounting-dashboards-digital-marketplaces-the-design-journey-of-xeros-co-founder-philip-fierlinger/

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Marc Orchard and Heather Smith discussed the importance of accountants and bookkeepers in high growth tech companies, highlighting the challenges of serving early stage companies with complex needs. They emphasised the need for upskilling and capability building, as well as the importance of building relationships in the startup ecosystem. Marc Orchard added to the conversation by discussing the integration of accounting and finance with technology, and the potential for Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand to sponsor innovation events. Heather Smith and Marc Orchard later discussed the challenges professional service providers face in managing risk tolerance, emphasising the importance of differentiating between personal and business risk tolerance and valuing experience and wisdom in building up risk tolerance.

Marc Orchard

Website: https://planetstartup.com.au/

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcorchard/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Join us for insightful discussion on how startups can effectively build their profiles through media. I’m sharing with you a recording of a panel session entitled “Building Your Startup's Profile with Media” This was recorded at the 2024 Tropical Innovation Festival that is held in Cairns in June.

Here are the top five takeaways from our expert speakers:

Understand the Media Landscape:

Modern media is diverse and accessible, ranging from traditional outlets like TV and radio to digital platforms like podcasts and social media. Recognising the right platform for your message is crucial.

Craft a Compelling Story:

Your story should be relevant, relatable, and engaging. Focus on the human element to make your narrative resonate with the audience.

Build a Strong Founder Brand:

Before seeking media attention, establish your own platform with clear, consistent messaging. This controlled content can attract media interest and help shape your public image.

Focus on Trust and Integrity:

Authenticity is key. Media interactions should demonstrate integrity and trustworthiness to build credibility with your audience and the media.

Leverage Modern Media Tools:

Use trending platforms like TikTok to share behind-the-scenes content and engage with a different audience. This can help you document your journey and create valuable content for future media opportunities.

This discussion, was part of the Tropical Innovation Festival #TIF2024.

https://www.tropicalinnovationfestival.com.au/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Michael King: Michael is the CEO of KFE Solutions, which is the top rated Fractional CFO firm in Dallas, Texas. He’s also the creator of The CFO Accelerator, where he helps Accountants and fractional CFOs start, scale, and optimise their advisory services. He is also the host of, The CFO Report, where he shares tips, tricks, and hacks he discovered over the past 7 + years building his fractional CFO firm. https://www.linkedin.com/in/iammichaelking/

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Fractional CFOs should focus on providing insights, not just generating reports.
Accurate, timely financial data is critical for fractional CFOs to provide valuable insights to clients.
Automating financial reporting with tools like G-Accon can save time and reduce errors.
Building a simple, effective tech stack is crucial for fractional CFO success.
Partnering with the right technology, like G-Accon, is key for streamlining operations.
Fractional CFOs should start with simple, core financial metrics to empower clients for better decision-making.
The fractional CFO industry offers significant potential for impact and growth.
Leveraging pre-built templates and automation in tools like G-Accon can help fractional CFOs streamline report generation.
While emerging technologies like AI and ChatGPT have potential, they may not yet be ready for practical application in fractional CFO work.

Learn more about G-Accon:

https://www.accon.services/

support@accon.services

https://www.linkedin.com/company/g-accon

https://twitter.com/G_AcconServices

https://www.facebook.com/gacconaddons/

Contact details for Michael King:

W: https://www.thecfoaccelerator.com

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iammichaelking/

Contact details for Heather Smith

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://AccountingApps.io

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Earn CPE at EarMarkCPE

https://www.earmark.app/course/6981af0c-7e4c-4b33-a47a-7a282678040f

Webinar : https://streamyard.com/watch/ehqxCdXGcjAE

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AI will increase software productivity and enable users to create their own apps, multiplying software abundance

I’m sharing with you the audio from a session I hosted as part of the Australian CFO Summit 2024 produced by Weel. It’s called: “Scale your business on Xero without needing a dozen other Apps and Add-ons”

The presenter is Michael Wood, the Founder and CEO of Translucent.

Michael Wood discusses the exponential growth of software in businesses from the desktop era to the cloud and AI eras
Wood argues AI will increase software productivity and enable users to create their own apps, multiplying software abundance
The challenges of fragmented data, security, cost and vendor management with abundant software apps are highlighted
Compound startups are presented as a solution, exemplified by Translucent, consolidating finance apps and data into a unified platform
Benefits of the compound startup model include reduced cost, streamlined management, improved productivity and AI readiness

Contact details:

Australian CFO Summit https://summit2024.australiancfo.com/

Translucent: https://www.translucent.io/

Michael Wood : https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwood/

Translucent https://www.translucent.io/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Financial controls enable accountable growth by distributing responsibility across teams…

Today I’m speaking with:

Meena Berry, Senior Partnership Manager, Xero
Cassandra Scott, Head of Bookkeeping, ApprovalMax
Brendan Lucas, Head of Accounting, ApprovalMax

In this episode, we discuss:

ApprovalMax & Xero survey results revealing many businesses lack key financial controls
Stories of businesses defrauded due to inadequate internal verification processes
How financial controls enable accountable growth by distributing responsibility across teams
The importance of supplier verification and approval processes in mitigating fraud and non-compliance risks
The role of audit trails, budget checks, and real-time alerts in enhancing financial oversight
Case studies demonstrating how ApprovalMax and Xero streamline approval workflows
The significance of continuously improving controls as businesses scale

Key takeaways:

Revisit and continuously improve your financial controls
Discuss the value of financial controls with clients
Check E-invoicing capabilities in Xero and get registered

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Brendan Lucas https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlucasca/

Cassandra Scott https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassandrascott/

Meena Berry https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenaberry/

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Today I’m speaking with Damien Greathead Head of Marketing - Accountant & Advisor Group, Intuit Australia

Our guest is a dynamic sales and marketing leader who excels in helping venture-funded software companies build robust sales and marketing functions. With a specialised focus on the accounting and fintech verticals, he has a proven track record of establishing brands and expanding customer bases across North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific regions. He has successfully collaborated with both small and large teams across various time zones, driving impressive growth in scale-up companies, achieving over 70% growth year-on-year. He is the co-host of the Podcast: Strategy and the Virtual Controller with Penny Breslin. He worked at Ignition when it was called Practice Ignition and Dext when it was called Receipt Bank and now he is Head of Marketing - Accountant & Advisor Group, Intuit Australia.

Damien discusses his career in accounting technology marketing across the globe. He shares updates to QuickBooks features and upcoming events in Australia. He emphasised the importance of customer empathy and stories in SaaS marketing. We discuss how the Apps do have insightful data, and can truly partner with businesses, to help them grow.

In this episode, we also talk about . . .

Damien Greathead's background in the accounting industry across multiple global roles
Early experiences recognising technology potential in accounting firms
Embracing change management processes with clients at Receipt Bank
Navigating the complex US tax system and state compliance
Iterating Receipt Bank's value proposition without a GST/VAT system
Opening and growing Receipt Bank's US office
Returning to Sydney after 15+ years abroad
Leading Intuit Australia's adviser marketing team
Educating on QuickBooks features to boost confidence and adoption
QuickBooks Tax powered by Logic for seamless tax integration
Highlighting QuickBooks Online Advanced capabilities
Launching the QuickBooks Go community platform
Getting customer feedback through workplace observations
Marketing advice for Apps who want to connect with Intuit Australia, and their customer base.
Understanding problems through deep customer empathy
Sharing customer stories to fast-track app development
The podcast, "Strategy and the Virtual Controller," Damien co-hosts with Penny Breslin, the CEO of MoneyPenny, which focuses on intentional planning through small goals inspired by Strategy and the Fat Smoker: Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy by David H. Maister

Contact details:

Damien Greathead : https://www.linkedin.com/in/damiengreathead/

Intuit Australia : https://quickbooks.intuit.com/au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today, I’ve something exciting to share with you. You know how you get excited when a lost Beatle or Nirvana track is found, well the extraordinary Alexi Boyd uncovered the audio of a panel discussion from Sydney Xerocon PreXerocon 2023. I honestly thought I’d never hear it again, and then mid March she sent me a copy - making me a very happy podcaster cause I get to share it with you. The panel discussion was held at the beautiful Hinchcliff House at Circular Quay. Unfortunately the room was a little noisy on the day of the event. However much to my surprise the audio quality is really quite good.

The topic for discussion was “Unravelling the future of AccounTech” moderated by Alexi Boyd.

If you are a regular listener you will know, I value bringing diversity to these tech conversations.

The moderator Alexi Boyd ran a BAS and Bookkeeping business for 8 years. She is the Radio Show host of Small Biz Matters and now works in policy strategy and government relations. This led her to take the conversation in an interesting direction, consumer data rights and restrictions on data and innovation and the differences between data protection laws in Europe, UK, and Australia.

This event was the first time Sabby Gill, the new Dext formerly Receipt Bank CEO, had spoken in Australia. Sabby had literally just got off the plane, so he brought his overseas perspective,

Extraordinary diversity in this conversation, London based Sabby Gill brought an overseas perspective, as well as his 35 years in the UK technology sector. Aly Garrett is a modern, technology savvy accountant, from South Australia. She represented accountants, their small business clients, and living outside the major Australian cities, brought a regional perspective to the conversation.

Roger Gregg brought that unique energy that comes with being a Fintech founder. He also brought his expensive knowledge of the hospitality and brewing industry, which certainly flavoured the conversation.

I shall add in some recent relevant news, congratulations are in order, 10 months after recording this, it has been announced that the Access Group Has Entered Into an Agreement to Acquire Pioneering AP Automation Provider, Lightyear

Let me fill you in on a bit of a backstory. The Gregg brothers were one of the original App partners, with their solution InvitBox. I’m thinking within the first ten years? InvitBox won Xero emerging app partner in 2013. Then in May 2014 Intuit acquired InvitBox. The very blue boys turned green overnight. Several years later, in quite an unprecedented move, they bought InvitBox back from Intuit for a single dollar! And relaunched as LightYear.

Here we are ten years later, and they have sold again, this time to The Access Group.

Read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7194623580830105601/

Contact details:

Alexi Boyd https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiboyd/

Small Biz Matters https://smallbizmatters.com.au/

Aly Garrett https://www.linkedin.com/in/alygarrett/

Sabby Gill https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabbygill/

Roger Gregg https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogergregg/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith and Tyler Caskey discuss feature and functionality releases, new integrations, pricing adjustments, and acquisitions in the Accounting Apps space during March, April, May ‘24.

Today I’m speaking with Tyler Caskey Partner at The Bean Counters. In this episode, we talk about . . .

News and updates from Xero, QuickBooks & MYOB were discussed, including new features, integrations, pricing changes, and acquisitions

Stories from the Inventory management space, including pain points and promising solutions explored

Practice management tools for accounting firms featuring FYI Elite: Combined document, employee, and practice management solution.

Apps recommended for both work and personal use, such as donate blood and seven rooms

Lightyear acquisition by The Access Group analysed for hospitality industry benefits

Synder & Cin7: Integration for seamless inventory and financial management.

Fathom Reporting: Compare Actuals YTD + Budget against the Full Year Budget reporting.

Calxa Features: Bulk Connections for multiple Xero organisations, and Sub-Accounts for detailed financial tracking.

Finlert’s SubSync: Integration between Stripe and Xero.

A2X Accounting: New Settlements and Payouts page for e-commerce transaction reconciliation.

BOMA Marketing AI: Content Assist for customising marketing content.

Sharesight: Enhanced trade file upload functionality.

Netgain: Automates repetitive back-office tasks, specialises in ERP software solutions.

NetSuite Updates: Enhanced inventory transfer settings, batch payment approval workflows, and options to mask company bank account numbers in electronic payment files.

New apps we’ve tried recently and a few personal favourites

Follow up on stories from the last episode.

WorkflowMax by Xero Retirement: Last day to access is 26 June 2024. Users need a migration plan now!

Xero New Invoicing: Heather has switched to New Invoicing! But Tyler switched back to Classic invoicing.

Many thanks to the sponsors of todays episode:

Employment Hero
Fathom Reporting
XBert

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Sarah Lawrance, Founder & CEO of Hot Toast. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Sarah Lawrance shares her journey from childhood fascination with business to becoming a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) and founding her firm Hot Toast - Lawrance discusses her formative career experiences in Australia, London and fast-growth startups, and the inspiration for starting her own business - Sarah describes her role as a CFO for rapidly growing businesses, helping clients scale through advisory services, reporting, and finance team development - Sarah integrates technologies like G-Accon and SYFT to deliver data insights, and sees opportunities in AI and machine learning

"I'm a big fan of G-Accon. I really love that tool. It's such a beautiful little connector that we pull lots of data out. We use it with Google Sheets. The creatives love Google Sheets, and they love zeros. So to be able to just link those two up and then kind of manipulate those into our own kind of models is a massive win for us."

When she could not find an age appropriate soccer club, she started her own women's soccer team. The team has since expanded to over 100 members in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.- Frustrated by a lack of female board opportunities she co-founded the Global Women's Accounting Influencers community - The conversation covers mentoring the next generation, leveraging networks, and the power of community in the accounting industry

Contact details:

Sarah Lawrance https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-lawrance-fcpa-83894516/

Hot Toast : https://hottoast.com.au/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith moderates a debate between accounting software pioneer Michael Wood and tech strategist John Toon on the pros and cons of Excel vs Software
Michael argues that while Excel excels for individual tasks, software is better suited for collaboration and building efficient workflows for businesses
John counters that users, not the tools, are often to blame for Excel's downfalls, and that Excel can effectively replace basic accounting tasks for some clients
The debate weighs the impact of tools on practice efficiency, profitability, and eventual sale value, with both sides acknowledging Excel's enduring relevance alongside advancing software
Listeners are polled on the winning side to much debate, highlighting the complexities of choosing the right tools for each accounting need

Michael Wood https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwood/

https://www.translucent.io/

John Toon https://www.linkedin.com/in/johntoon/

Podcast https://digitoolsinaccrual.world/

Community https://www.digital-disruptors.com/

Beever and Struthers https://www.beeverstruthers.co.uk/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m debating Samuel Green, UK Partnership Account Executive of Employment Hero on AI vs the human touch in accounting at the Festival of Accountants and Bookkeepers

Smith argues the human touch is crucial for customer service and empathy while Greene emphasises AI's potential for efficiency and insights
Both agree AI can streamline repetitive tasks but human oversight is still needed
Attendees question how AI will evolve and what to consider when choosing software
Smith encourages evaluating long-term roadmaps and support while Greene discusses AI use cases at Employment Hero
They find consensus that selective AI use can enhance but not replace the human experience in client relationships

Write up from the debate

AI and the case for the human touch

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/ai-and-the-case-for-the-human-touch

Samuel Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelgreen14/

https://employmenthero.com/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Adam Riches, CEO & Co-Founder of Netgain

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Adam Riches discusses the new lease accounting standards IFRS 16 and ASC 842, and how Netgain helps clients navigate the complexities - Riches shares how Netgain automates lease data extraction from contracts using AI to save accountants time - The challenges of managing cash flow visibility and bank reconciliations for businesses are highlighted - How Netgain's tools like its close module help speed up the month-end close process and improve data quality - The history of accounting software development is examined, from mainframes to Excel, and how Netgain aims to continue innovating - Potential applications of AI in accounting are explored, such as automating bookkeeping tasks and catching previously overlooked errors

Contact details:

Adam Riches linkedin.com/in/adam-riches-cpa

Netgain: https://www.netgain.tech/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Heather Smith shares interviews from the Festival of Accountants and Bookkeepers in Birmingham, including conversations about launching a UK version of XBert, the funding journey of a founder, updates on Sage products, and Richard Sergeant's advice for vendors. Insights cover compliance, automation, growth and more.

Interview with Will Rush - GM(UK) for XBert discussing launching their platform in the UK
Conversation with Lucy Cohen - Co-founder and CEO of Mazuma, about starting her business and her recent funding journey (Featuring Alex Falcon Huerta)
Updates on BrightPay payroll from Donal Carr - Senior Account Executive Bright Software
Overview of Sage's offerings for accountants from Chris Downing - Director of Product Marketing | Accountants and Bookkeepers Sage
Richard Sergeant - Managing Director Principle Point shares tips for vendors working with accountants
Mark Lee Facilitator BookMarkLee.co.uk

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m sharing with you a webinar I hosted on behalf of Projectworks and WorkGuru that provides an overview of alternatives to WorkflowMax by Xero as it reaches end of life 26 June 2024.

The panellists who joined me were:

Heidi Seal Ops Consultant at Business Sense (NZ)
Matthew Peng Founder at Business Continuum
Matt Hayter Co-Founder at Projectworks
Tony Harcourt Co-Founder at WorkGuru

The panellists discussed the triggers for change, comparing features of the two solutions. They explored how each platform caters to different industries. The expert implementers shared case studies of successful migrations, highlighting challenges and opportunities clients faced. The presentation covered developing a migration strategy, including exporting data, mapping business processes, and change management. Attendees learned about assessing potential solutions by considering key questions, desired outcomes, and post go-live improvements. The session emphasised preparing early by testing new platforms and leveraging experienced partners for a smooth transition. Overall, the webinar helped attendees understand options for transitioning away from WorkflowMax by Xero to Projectworks or WorkGuru.

The Flow of the webinar

Understanding the Transition
1. Trigger for Change
2. Market Reaction
Comparative Overview of Solutions
1. Common Features
2. Target Industries
3. Points of Difference
Deep Dive into Migration
1. Migration Strategy
2. Case Studies
3. Assessing Solutions
Preparation for Transition

Relevant links

Heidi Seal Ops Consultant at Business Sense (NZ)

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiseal/

E: Heidi@BusinessSense.co.nz

B: https://businesssenseconsulting.co.nz/

Matthew Peng Founder at Business Continuum

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-peng/

E : Matthew@BusinessContinuum.com.au

B: https://businesscontinuum.com.au/

Matt Hayter Co-Founder at Projectworks

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-hayter-9180037/

B: https://projectworks.io/

Tony Harcourt Co-Founder at WorkGuru

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-harcourt/

B: https://workguru.io/

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Tyler Caskey, Partner at The Bean Counters joins me in this episode. Here are five interesting insights we talk about in the show:

Live Banking and Direct Digital Receipting: Tools like Weel and Airwallex enable real-time banking transactions, while solutions like Slyp and Tyro streamline payment processes by sending receipt details directly to accounting systems, reducing manual data entry.
Global Banking Solutions: Digital technology solutions like Airwallex, OFX, Paytron, and Wise facilitate international transactions with ease, offering competitive rates and near real-time transfers and bill payments in multiple currencies.
Google's Updates: Google is removing underutilised features across Android, including some related to voice controls, and shutting down its podcast app in favour of integrating podcasts into YouTube Music. This shift intrigued the author, who recently upgraded their device.
Updates in the Reporting Space: Various accounting software solutions have introduced updates, such as Calxa's unlinked accounts feature for cash flow forecasting, Fathom's improved KPI library experience, and G-Accon's introduction of automatic workflows within Google Sheets.
Xero's Invoices Changes: Xero is retiring classic invoicing in September 2024, prompting concerns from the community about missing features, like the ability to process an overpayment, inability to edit exchange rates, and inability to invoice bulk contact groups. However, you can quickly switch back if you need features only currently available within classic invoicing.

These insights highlight the ongoing technological advancements and changes within the accounting industry, offering both opportunities and challenges for practitioners and stakeholders alike.

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Cassandra Scott, Director of Laurus Bookkeeping

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Delve into how Xbert leverages AI to scrutinise client accounting data, spotlighting over 80 potential anomalies and risks.
Discover the power of automating routine tasks such as payroll, BAS, and bookkeeping with standardised workflows.
Learn how Cassandra efficiently mapped her first 10 workflows in just half an hour, enhancing consistency.
Explore Xbert's scheduling capabilities, enabling the assignment of recurring tasks to various cycles, from daily to fortnightly.
Understand the significance of using client notes to capture unique requirements for bespoke workflows.
Gain insights into data-driven reporting and analytics, offering a glimpse into staff performance and client engagements.
Uncover how customisable reporting allows practices to dissect data from diverse angles.
Get a peek at roadmap features like capacity management, utilising timesheet data for optimal scheduling.
Hear about the transformative impact Xbert has had on Cassandra's practice, facilitating work with global clients.

Contact details:

XBert: https://www.xbert.io/

Cassandra Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassandrascott/

Bookkeepers in Practice FaceBook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1652992464953692

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Jonathan Gaunt, co-founder of of Socket Digital, Xavier Analytics & FD Works

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Jonathan's transition from corporate accounting to entrepreneurship, embracing new opportunities and control over his career.
Insights from working with Dragon's Den investor Richard Farleigh, focusing on solutions over limitations.
Practical tips for enhancing your LinkedIn profile to attract more followers and connections with engaging content.
The importance of storytelling with numbers and identifying the pivotal "clunk moment" in business.
The role of co-founding Xavier Analytics in improving data quality and introducing new workflow automation tools.
Reflections on selling a business and fostering innovation within larger organisations.
Development of innovative proposal software for accountants, driven by needs identification and process innovation.
Advice for entrepreneurs: be courageous, focus on controllables, and enjoy the entrepreneurial journey.

This episode is kindly sponsored by Fathom all in one reporting, analysis and forecasting.

Contact details:

Jonathan Gaunt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-gaunt/

FD Works: https://www.fd-works.co.uk/

Xavier Analytics: https://xavier-analytics.com/

UseSocket: https://www.usesocket.com/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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In this episode, Tom Herbert, technology editor at Accounting Web, shares his insights on the British Post Office scandal, which has been ongoing for decades, ruining the lives of many subpostmasters. Heather and Tom discussed the problems with the Post Office's Fujitsu Horizon point of sale system implementation, leading to unbalanced reconciliations and accusations of theft against subpostmasters. The Post Office used its prosecution powers and prosecuted 700 subpostmasters between 1989 and 2015, resulting in jail time, financial ruin, relationship breakdown, lost homes, living in cars, and sadly much much worse. The scandal is discussed from the perspective of an accountant, the POS implementation, the forensic accountant who aided in uncovering the issues, the suspense account, the high tax hitting the subpostmasters when they received any compensation. The story behind this scandal, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, was broadcast on ITV in January 2024. We talk about the importance of storytelling in bringing this story into the narrative of the general public.

Contact details: Tom Herbert

Contact details:

Tom Herbert https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomherbert/
AccountingWeb https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/
Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM
Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting
X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I’m speaking with Tyler Caskey, Partner at The Bean Counters

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Accounting industry trends in 2024
Crafting accounting stories for clients, marketing and career coaching.
AI, Automation & ChatGPT in accounting.
Remote work trends and virtual teams in the accounting industry.
Pay raises, career progression, and work-from-home impact.
The role of accountants in strategic business planning and advisory
Trends in practice management software for accounting firms.

This episode is kindly sponsored by

Employment Hero: The All in One HR, Payroll & Benefits Platform https://employmenthero.com/

Translucent The Multi-Entity Accounting solution https://www.translucent.io/

Technology Mentioned

Account-Kit https://www.account-kit.com/

AirWallex https://www.airwallex.com/au

Dashboard Insights https://dashboardinsights.com/

Employment Hero https://employmenthero.com/

FYI Docs : https://fyi.app/

Handisoft : https://www.theaccessgroup.com/en-au/products/handisoft/

KarbonHQ https://karbonhq.com/

XBert https://www.xbert.io/

Xero Practice Manager https://www.xero.com/au/xero-practice-manager/

Weel https://letsweel.com/

Contact details:

Tyler Caskey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

The Bean Counters: https://www.thebeancounters.com.au/

"The Accounting Podcast," Blake Oliver's interview with Ben Richmond, the Country Manager of Xero USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqSYir84htg

Weel

Natalie Lennon https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalielennon/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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The biggest kept secret in the Australian accounting industry: The acquisition of Change GPS by Access Group.

This episode is kindly sponsored by

Employment Hero: The All in One HR, Payroll & Benefits Platform https://employmenthero.com/

Translucent The Multi-Entity Accounting solution https://www.translucent.io/

In this episode

David Boyar reflects on his upbringing in his father's accounting practice and early ambitions ( he was going to be CEO of Coca Cola!)
He discusses founding an association of CFOs and lessons learned from scaling advisory work
Boyar shares how he joined Change GPS and their aligned values (with Timothy Munro) in transforming accounting firms
Insights are provided on data analytics in accounting tech companies and marketing approaches, including wearing a suit !
Accountants take umbrage at people who've never had an accounting practice telling them what to do.
The acquisition of Change GPS by Access Group is explained as a strategic partnership
Client experience and standardised services are highlighted as priorities for the future

Contact details:

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidboyar/

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothymunro/

W: https://changegps.com.au/

Roadshow: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/changegps-2988249339

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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The big news is I'm rebranding the Cloud Stories podcast to the Accounting Apps podcast (fingers crossed)

In this episode, I talk about . . .

Summer adventures with family and Chester the Border Collie in Elanora and Crows Nest
Catching up on admin backlog and office makeover
Website update with recent photos and videos
Rebranding Cloud Stories podcast to Accounting Apps podcast
Introducing advertising to the newsletter and podcast
Clarification on ACCA Global Council election results
Embracing "StoryTeller" as the theme for the year
Upcoming speaking engagements in Birmingham and Cairns
Preview of the next episode with David Boyar, CEO of ChangeGPS

Contact details:

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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2023 has been a brilliant technicolour year for me, and I’m delighted to end it on yet another high, hitting 20 000 podcast episode downloads during the year. As an accountant I do like a nice round number.

Thank you to the many listeners, especially those who hit the subscribe button.

Thank you to the many guests who graciously share their time with me on the Cloud Stories podcast over the last year.

Thank you to the conference organisers for providing me with the opportunity to meet fascinating individuals and enabling me to share knowledge with our accounting & bookkeeping community.

The Cloud Stories Wrap of 2023 is as an opportunity to answer the following questions:

Which accounting technologies saw the most significant advancements this year?
What were the top 5 most popular episodes of 20
How did the podcast evolve over the past year?
What were the biggest challenges faced in podcasting about accounting technology in 2023?
What feedback from listeners surprised you the most?
What was the most unexpected topic or guest you had in 2023?
What was the most controversial topic discussed on the podcast?
How do you plan to evolve the podcast in the coming year?
What advice would you give to someone starting a podcast in the accounting technology niche?
How did you celebrate reaching 20,000 downloads?
What are your goals for the podcast in 2024?

Wishing you all health and happiness as we head into 2024.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Connect with Heather Smith here https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

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Heather Smith delves into the transformative role of ChatGPT in the accounting sector. The discussion begins with an early adopter's perspective, highlighting the initial challenges and the evolving capabilities of ChatGPT. She explores its practical applications in tasks like email drafting and webinar planning, emphasising its ability to add creativity and efficiency to mundane tasks.

The podcast then shifts focus to customise ChatGPT for more personalised and precise outputs. This includes tailoring the AI to align with specific language preferences, such as UK English, and ensuring the responses are concise and fit the intended audience's needs. Emphasis is placed on the tool's ability to mirror an individual's style and branding, making it a versatile asset in professional communications.

In the final segment, she discusses the importance of critically assessing AI outputs, acknowledging ChatGPT's limitations such as its tendency to "hallucinate" or provide incorrect information, and the inherent biases in AI based on its training data. This part of the conversation underscores the need for a responsible approach to using AI, balancing its remarkable benefits with an awareness of its pitfalls.

Overall, the podcast offers a comprehensive look at ChatGPT’s role in accounting, providing listeners with insights into how this AI tool can be a game-changer in the industry while also cautioning them to use it judiciously.

Then there is a surprise twist!!

Connect with Heather Smith here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Michael Wood truly lives and breathes the title entrepreneur. Currently he’s Founder & CEO of Translucent. His LinkedIn profile reveals he’s also the founder of 4 other companies. The company that you’re likely to know him from is Receipt Bank. Michael was the original co-founder and was there till April 2021, when it was acquired by private equity group HgCapital.

Please be aware I strategically partner with Translucent. I was an early adopter of Receipt Bank, and also am an early adopter of Translucent. I’m sure you will find this interview enlightening!

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Michael’s journey from pursuing a Bachelor of Science in zoology to founding a marketing and growth consultancy firm, Tweed London.
The origins and evolution of Receipt Bank, a digital receipt management platform.
The impact of Xero's API on the accounting industry.
Michael discusses how his experience at Receipt Bank led to the launch of Translucent, a solution for multi-entity businesses to manage their accounting setup.
How Translucent is using a compound startup approach to build multiple apps within one platform, aiming to launch four apps per year.
Michael explains that Translucent is like a data warehouse, providing a single source of truth for users to easily search and find data across all their entities.
Michael discusses upcoming features for their financial management platform, including bank consolidation and intercompany loans.
The future of accounting, globalisation, and the need for a more unified toolset.
Michael shares his views on the future of accounting and technology industry through 2030, emphasising the value of data and its journey towards maximisation.
Michael highlights the increasing importance of data in the industry, and how firms and finance departments will need to surf the technology wave to keep up.

Michael Wood : https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwood/

Translucent : https://translucent.app/

Heather Smith : https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

If you enjoyed this podcast please share it with someone else who you think would benefit from it. For in-depth discussions about the ecosystem, do join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook. I recommend subscribing to the Accounting Apps newsletter for a comprehensive insight into the ecosystem space, accessible at HeatherSmithAU.COM. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith, and this has been the Cloud Stories podcast.

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I had a brilliant time at the Expo. I delivered four sessions on Apps, Ai, ChatGPT & Habits and honestly was shocked at how packed they all were. Expos give me an efficient opportunity to catch up with Sydney friends and, as it was not purely an accounting conference, but also a business conference, there were colleagues from different industries. As well as speaking with lots of people, I attended a few sessions, and I’m not even sure how I managed it, but I recorded 8 interviews from the floor.

Bingham Archibald Presales Solutions Architect at Kodak Alaris document scanners, software, and professional services to streamline data capture workflows.

Malcolm Cameron Head of Solutions at MyTreasur-e manage and monitor their cash, payments, leases and risk activities

Chris Dodson Director Hero Blue Cloud based finance schedule creation and storage with Xero integration

Cathy Middleton Senior Licensing Manager One Music Australia Helping businesses meet their music licensing obligation.

Stan Corner CEO at AtoMate fast, simple, secure ATO document processing for accountants

Joel Hanna Customer Success and Enablement Manager (APAC) at Sustain Life

Anita Da Encarnacao Principal at Aretex re-engineer and optimises the entire accounting and bookkeeping process for multi-site businesses and franchises.

Lez Yeoh CEO of Clevero a business management system that integrates with Xero, and includes scheduling tools and a customisable dashboard.

Connect with me:

Accounting Apps newsletter http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

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Xero co-founder Philip Fierlinger shares the story behind building one of the world's most successful accounting platforms, Xero He discusses his early inspiration from car dashboards and the gamification of bank reconciliations. Fierlinger also reveals how his latest startup Upstock is transforming the inefficient B2B food ordering process and levelling the playing field for small suppliers.

Many of our listeners will know Philip Fierlinger as one of the 5 co-founders of Xero, but let me share with you a bit of background about Philip:

For over 5 years, Philip has been creating digital products and experiences that have set new standards of design, business and technology.

In 1992 a university project landed Philip an internship at General Magic where he conceptualised the “Mediaphone” a digital walkman, letting you download music anywhere, anytime. To give you some context this was 9 years before Steve Jobs introduced the iPod and 15 years before Jobs introduced the iPhone.

Philip went on to create a digital agency, with his brother in 1994, doing work for Apple, the Beastie Boys, Comcast, Disney, Dreamworks, Macromedia, Palm, Sony Playstation, among many others.

After moving to NZ, Philip co-founded Xero in 2006, where he was Head of Design for nearly 10 years. Philip was instrumental in Xero becoming a disruptive platform, an iconic global brand, and a market leading public company worth billions of dollars. And I suspect as he had a focus on design, he had something to do with making Xero beautiful software.

Philip is currently Co-CEO of Upstock, a B2B wholesale platform that's transforming the way the foodservice industry operates.

Along the way Philip has been an investor and advisor to numerous startups and scaleups including Sharesies, Milanote, Deputy, Atomic, Karbon, Chartio (sold to Atlassian) – helping with product, marketing, growth, team & culture, and investor strategy.

In this episode, I talk to Philip Fierlinger Co-Ceo of UpStock.app about . . .

Career journey from car design to tech entrepreneurship.
Xero’s history, developing an accounting system with a focus on bank feeds and beautiful design.
Prioritising business operations over tax compliance with real-time cash flow visibility.
How a three year old inspired the innovative design of Xero
Launching a foodservice marketplace, digitising B2B transactions.
The business model and pricing for a B2B marketplace.
Streamlining foodservice industry operations with UpStock platform.

A platform for farmers and suppliers to connect and grow their businesses.

You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to subscribe and leave a five star review, so other people can find this podcast. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.

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A collection of interviews from TOA Global clients, staff, and partners, including a special interview with the emcee Kat Davidson, who shares some tips on public speaking. Relive your time at TOACon ‘23, or get a taste for what happened.

Today I'm bringing you interviews from the TOA Global Transformational conference held at the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast early November 23. I had the pleasure of attending the conference, courtesy of the hospitable TOA Global team. TOA Global specialising in providing outsourcing solutions for accounting firms. In this collection of interviews you’ll hear from TOA Global clients, staff, and partners. Even if you are not currently contemplating outsourcing, there is a lot of interesting content in this podcast, including a special interview with the emcee Kat Davidson, who shares some tips on public speaking.

Keep your finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving world of Accounting Technology. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter at HeatherSmithAU.COM.

My friend and the CEO of TOA Global Nick Sinclair likes to run his conferences unconventionally! The audience is typically people from the Accounting Industry but interestingly the content is not accounting specific. Further to this, there’s no published agenda, so you remain curious about what will happen next! We listened to strategies for building high performance culture, body biohacking, growing sustainable businesses, systemising businesses and as you’d expect there was a dash of motivational speakers. If this intrigues you TOACON 2024 will be at the Shangri-La Boracay 30 June - 2 July 2024.

Daniel Shaw - DFK Benjamin King Money

James Bamford - Paytron

Mark Jenkins - The Gap

Kelly Segat - TOA Global

Aly Garret - All in Advisory

Kat Davidson - Comedian, MC, Corporate Entertainer, Keynote Speaker

Geoff Gartly - Gartly Advisory

Vicki Birch - Intuit

Carl Brooks - ProSpend

(Used to be called ExpenseManager)

Carolyn O’Brien - Class

Ben Gill - LightYear Docs

Vicky Shah - Accountancy Insurance

The TOA Global team kindly hosted me to attend the conference.

This episode was sponsored by Translucent, the multi-entity accounting solution.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Connect with me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

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What are your options when your tech stack is bursting at the seams? You’re struggling to get visibility over what’s happening. You’re balancing multiple spreadsheets and you’re spending a lot of time consolidating data.

If you are trying to resolving your business's data overwhelm there are a number of options:

Spring cleans all the files, and all the data. Merge duplicates and expunge old data, and trim down the data files.

Call in the professionals: Engage a professional cloud integrator to review your set up and advice of any efficiency opportunities.

Multi Entity Consolidation solution : I work with the Fathom team and they have a multi-entity financial reporting tool to help you compare and consolidate your organisations.

A new solution on the market that you may not have heard of is Translucent.io who I’ve recently started working with. It turns your existing single-entity accounting system into a multi-entity accounting solution. You connect your existing accounting software (Xero, QBO, etc.) and Translucent consolidates all your data to create a single financial system of record. Translucent Apps provide workflows for your muli-entity needs, such as searching for transactions at group level, creating consolidated reporting, managing intercompany transactions, live connecting your data to spreadsheets, and more apps being released every quarter.

While you may not have heard of Translucent before, it is likely that you heard of Dext, or Receipt Bank. The founder and good friend of mine, Michael Woods is the founder of Translucent.io and he’s built it as a tool he would have liked when running Receipt Bank.

A fourth option here is to migrate to an ERP solution. This is something you can potentially explore with a Cloud Integrator about or speak with a software consulting specialist. As you start to move into this area, you really want to engage an experienced specialist who can give you an unbiased assessment of your options to help you know what is possible, and suggest options to future proof your business.

Each option has a different price point, and it's important to understand the scoping, implementation, training, maintenance and ongoing costs involved. Likewise make an assessment of how many hours a solution will save you once implemented, and will it enable your business to scale.

You can get CPE for this and other episodes of the Cloud Stories podcast. Simply download the EarMarkCPE App, and answer a few questions correctly about this podcast, and they email you a certificate of CPE.

Connect with Heather Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

Accounting Apps newsletter https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/

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Discover how Grace Loves Lace transformed their bridal gown business with a strategic NetSuite implementation. Learn insights on scaling operations and enhancing efficiency in the fashion industry.

Today I’m speaking with Sarah Rynja, Global Systems Manager of Grace Loves Lace

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The NetSuite implementation she has been involved with at Grace Loves Lace. The business was founded in Burleigh Heads, Australia to provide luxury boho-style wedding dresses without structure or boning
They have gained global recognition through their unique dress styles and having the #1 most pinned wedding dress on Pinterest
Grace Loves Lace manufactures all their custom-made dresses locally in Australia
They implemented NetSuite to help scale their growing operations across stores in multiple countries
Key NetSuite features like WMS, dashboards, and OneWorld help with inventory, order tracking, financials, and multi-country operations
Sarahs Tips for optimally using NetSuite included leveraging dashboards operationally and getting involved in the NetSuite user community

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Explore how NetSuite empowers Australian businesses to thrive. Scott Wiltshire delves into the transformative impact of NetSuite solutions on local SMEs, offering insights and success stories for business growth in Australia.

Today I’m speaking with Scott Wiltshire, Vice President & GM, Oracle NetSuite ANZ

In this episode, we talk about . . .

NetSuite was born in the cloud 25 years ago and customers are always working on the same version.
NetSuite's architecture and vision have remained consistent under Founder and EVP Evan Goldberg.
NetSuite provides two major upgrades and 300 minor updates each year.
Triggers for considering NetSuite include
Outgrowing existing accounting software
Having more than one person on the finance team
Having a manual or time-consuming financial close or consolidation process
Struggling to get real-time visibility into the business to provide actionable insights
Not being able to provide accurate reporting to management or the board
Having to correct reported numbers multiple times
Needing real-time visibility
The NetSuite solution can start small and scale with consumption-based pricing.
NetSuite is introducing more flexible user licensing.
Key trends impacting Australian businesses include cloud adoption, AI, and embracing leading practices over customisation.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Explore the 20-year evolution of NetSuite partnerships through Don McLean's insights, highlighting key milestones and the future of cloud ERP solutions.

Today I’m speaking with Don McLean, CEO of PKF Digital, who shares insights and experiences from his 20 year journey with NetSuite.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Don McLean's background and history with NetSuite over 20 years
The benefits of NetSuite's multi-tenant architecture and how it cuts costs
How NetSuite enhances business productivity through integration and visibility
Triggers for when a small business should consider an ERP solution like NetSuite
The partnership between PKF and NetSuite and how they work with customers
A case study of how NetSuite improved Thermomix's profits and efficiencies
Topics discussed at Suiteworld 2022 like AI, benchmarking, and productivity tools
Don McLean's key learnings around NetSuite's investments and applications of AI

This is part of a series of interviews from SuiteWorld 2023.

Many thanks to Oracle who kindly hosted me to attend SuiteWorld 2023 in Las Vegas.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Connect with Don McLean here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldjmclean/

Connect with Heather Smith here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/

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Join Alex and I as we walk around the floor of the Accounting and Finance Show Asia.

We speak with:

Namrata Goyal - Regional Manager Grab for Business

Julian Sng - Head of Marketing & Communications - Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA)

David Hanna - Co-Founder & CEO Finmo

Darius Fong - Automation Evangelist at Blue Sheets

Kevin Fitzgerald - MD Asia Employment Hero

Koren Wines - MD Asia Xero

Zac Hayes CFO & Captain of the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel

Vikash Bengani - Cofounder and CFO Carbon Balance

Erik Ingvoldstad - Co-Founder and CEO Careera

AFShowAsia

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Today I’m speaking with Ash Brown, the Founder & CEO of Empiraa.

Ash Brown, a former leader with 15 years of experience in SME management. Frustrated with the disconnect between business planning and execution, Ash created a solution to help businesses align their plans in a simple and effective way. With a strong belief that work should feel good, Ash is committed to making business simpler.

Company Profile

Empiraa is a business planning and execution tool that takes business planning out of decks and spreadsheets and creates actions around them that your whole team can work on together. Unlike project management tools, which are good for single tasks and projects, Empiraa actually creates vision in your business as you can see what is and isn't working across the business. This is how Empiraa helps you feel good about business.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Adapting to new situations and building resilience.
Career transitions and the development of a business plan execution platform
Using Empiraa to streamline business operations.
Leveraging AI in business growth and development.
Using an accounting platform to provide coaching and advisory services.
Fundraising and product development for a tech startup.
Productivity tech tools.

Empiraa Demo links

Empiraa/Zapier https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/zzyfn0sdoiuv

Empiraa/Partners Zapier https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/d86qplkgmkgt

Empiraa Partner Portal https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/mtkbiuxoujcn

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

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Today I’m speaking with Alex Ghiculescu, co-founder of both Tanda and Workforce.com. Alex is known for blogging and has a Substack newsletter where he shares stories from his 10+ years of building Tanda. Additionally, through Keen Strategies, Alex invests in B2B SaaS companies offering early-stage investments alongside technical and operational experience. In 2012 he received a distinction Bachelor of Business and Information Technology, Software Engineering from QUT (Queensland University of Technology).

Tanda is an Australian Payroll, Rostering, and HR software designed for businesses that employ hourly workers. The company is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, and also operates internationally as Workforce.com. Tanda offers an all-in-one solution that includes time & attendance, workforce scheduling, payroll integration, and reporting tools. In case you’ve not realised, Tanda stands for Time and Attendance.

You can read the shownotes at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

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Today I’m sharing a panel discussion from the Weel CFO Summit ‘23.

This discussion covered key considerations for finance technology procurement strategies, including expense management solutions, revenue collection processes, and spreadsheet vs reporting apps. The panellists provided advice on touching multiple solutions, negotiating pricing, and engaging stakeholders to understand pain points and maximise existing tools.

The topic was Finance Technology ROI 2023: Where to invest?

The panel participants were:

Alex Miller Co-founder & CEO of Hudled

Jun Yan Director at Ravit Insights

Laurel Grey National Manager, Digital Advisory at RSM Australia

Tyler Caskey Partner The Bean Counters

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The typical procurement strategies
The key elements to developing a procurement strategy.
Challenges in the B2B market.
Procurement process for larger purchases.
Navigating step-up costs as part of a procurement strategy.
The state of the fragmented expense management space.
Dealing with painful is the expense reimbursement processes
Challenges businesses face when implementing expense management solutions.
The Magic Change Management Playbook.
How to convince the board to make a change

Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Read more about Weel here : https://letsweel.com

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In this episode, I’m sharing a talk I gave on Content Creation for Building your Brand at the Tropical Innovation Festival in Cairns on May 23.

I talk about:

Robot vs human-led content.
How to leverage ChatGPT and other tools in your content creation process.
Questions are a gift, how to leverage them in your content.
Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose content
Being clear on the brand and image you want to present to the world.
It’s also brimming with practical examples.

Tools mentioned in the talk included

Canva for creating visual content
Otter AI for transcribing audio recordings
Google Docs and Microsoft Word for voice transcription features
Grammarly and Hemingway app for proofreading
ChatGPT for generating content ideas and outlines
Loom for recording videos and conversations
MailChimp for newsletters

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Today I’m speaking with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Sabby discussed his first 10 months as CEO of Dext and the changes he has implemented
Sabby has been getting out to see accountants, bookkeepers and attending trade shows and regional shows. He has been listening to user feedback to better understand partners' needs. He wants to really focus on what partners are asking for.
He has prioritised requested features like “Multi-account management” which allows you to manage multiple businesses or practices under one email address, enabling you to easily navigate between your business accounts from within your Dext account. https://help.dext.com/en/s/article/multi-account-management
Developed an expenses module that users had requested
Dext shall be setting up regional advisory boards to get input from influential accountants and bookkeepers and a temperature check from the community.
Dext will be launching a Chrome extension called the “Dextension” at Sydney Xerocon ‘23 to better integrate Dext and Xero. It’s currently in beta - read more here : https://help.dext.com/en/s/article/how-to-use-the-dextension-browser-extension
The Dext Extension will provide new features like quicker navigation between the apps and improved data visibility

Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

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Today I am sharing with you the audio from a recent webinar I hosted on behalf of Xero and Approval Max. The topic was "Tightening Your Internal Financial Controls: How to Develop and Enforce for Maximum Effectiveness" the experts joining the session were Simon Foster GM Product - eInvoicing @ Xero and Cassandra Scott Director Laurus Bookkeeping, and Head of Bookkeeping - APAC ApprovalMax

How to Develop and Enforce for Maximum Effectiveness
Are you aware of businesses that have suffered from fraud as a result of inadequate financial controls?
How do you ensure that the right person has access to the financial resources and systems?
How do you get around fake emails and fake websites?
Have you ever used E invoicing for sending or receiving invoices?
Where the invoicing direct connection is going to help you is that because the information is coming in straight away.

Connect with me here:

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FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

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AI is such a hot topic at the moment! It was great to have a conversation with some experts, to identify some practical applications and dispel some myths.

Some of the highlights from this conversion were :

🤖 AI is here to stay in finance.

💡 Productivity gains are at the fingertips of everyone.

🌍 AI is accessible to all.

🔑 Why businesses should be open to implementing AI.

💼 Why businesses need to embrace AI.

💰There are huge opportunities and productivity gains for finance teams.

⚙️ How to use AI.

🎨 What is generative AI and how is it different from AI?

🔍 ChatGPT is not a search engine x 3!!!

📱 The app store moment for AI.

🔒 Risk, rewards, and privacy concerns of putting client data in ChatGPT.

🌐 Will ChatGPT and AI improve their understanding of the Australian tax system?

🔎 What are some key considerations for selecting your AI tool, and how can businesses measure success?

📈 From a measurement perspective, it's all about productivity gains. Huge productivity gains.

🧪 Experiment and don't overthink.

I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast..

Connect with me here:

Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Joining me today is Darren Glanville Country Manager - UK & EMEA @ Fathom. Darren is no stranger to the accounting profession and has more than twenty years experience helping accounting practices develop digital strategies and processes to drive efficiencies and profitability. Having worked for some of the biggest software providers including Sage, CCH, and Xero, Darren now heads up the EMEA region for Fathom and is passionate about leveraging technology to drive better business outcomes. Darren is a keen rugby fan (Newcastle Falcons), a self confessed coffee-holic and tech geek, you can find Darren walking his dogs on the beach near his home in Northumberland in the early morning and most weekends.

And I’d also like to share with you that I strategically partner with Fathom, and have been good friends with the team since the very early days.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The future of the technology landscape?
- The rise of a more strategic view of forecasting.
- One in three businesses is running with less than six months cash.
- Introduction to Darren Glanville and his journey in the accounting technology space.
- The profitable and sustainable practice.
What an extraordinary journey that you have taken.
- The extraordinary journey of an extraordinary journey.
- The sad passing of Jason Forbes.
- Fond memories of Rod Drury, Xero founder.
How has the accounting profession changed with the advent of digital technologies?
- Pivoting from data-driven intel to data driven intel.
- The power of connecting with people.
- How the accounting profession has evolved with the advent of digital technologies.
- API's.
- Opportunities for accountants in Africa.
- Faster cadence of development and API's.
What’s the biggest change in the last 12 months?
- End user experience when the platform completely changes.
- Australia and New Zealand are ahead.
- The bank feeds are the secret sauce.
- Darren keeps a tally of conferences he attended.
- Top tips for other sales professionals in the accounting technology space.
- Advice for young vendors.
What is Fathom’s purpose?
- Being able to absorb information and connect with people.
- Collaboration and thought leadership.
- Fathom provides clarity and confidence to courageous business owners.
- The dikw model.
What are some indicators that someone needs to move away from the spreadsheets?
- The ladder from knowledge to actionable insights.
- Indicators to move from spreadsheets to reporting solutions.
- The difference between spreadsheets and distributed ledgers.
- The rise of the digital financial advisor.
How do you get bookkeepers to listen to you?
- The rise of lotus 123 since 1990.
- The Australian Bas Agent regime.
- How to get consultants to revisit Fathom.
- The cyclical nature of the fathom industry.
Micro-forecast and forecasting.
- Fathom's micro-forecast feature and how it works.
- How the pandemic has changed the industry.
- Trends in the accounting tech space.
- The role of AI in the future of accounting.
- How clients will consume AI services.
What excites Darren most right now?
- How to get more information about Darren.
- What excites him about the next big thing.
- Darren is exploring how Chat GPT can help practices.
- Darren suggests starting a prompt club.
- The importance of being cynical about things.
- Physical presence changes everything.

I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast..

Connect with me here:

Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Medium: https://heathersmithau.medium.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ANISEConsulting/podcasts

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Joining me today is Andrey Kustarnikov, the CEO, Founder and visionary behind G-Accon. Andrey and G-Accon have been a strategic partner for many years, and they flew into Atlanta to meet me, and we spent several days together. Andret and his wife and co-founder Maria very kindly took me on a tour of Atlanta, in their Tesla - how lucky am I!!

Let me tell you about G-Accon. G-Accon is an effective tool that connects Xero, QuickBooks, Freshbooks, Sage and Work Flow Max to Google Sheets. Andrey brings over 20 years of experience in software development, microservices architecture, and cloud integration, focusing on the banking and financial sectors. His educational background includes an MBA and a Masters in Physics, which have been instrumental in building G-Accon. This software has been quite useful to its users and Andrey is interested to see what comes next for G-Accon.

Highlights of the conversation included:

🔍 GAcon integrates cloud accounting platforms with Google Spreadsheets.

❓ What are the features and functionalities that people like about G-Accon?

🎮 Memories of playing Tetris in Moscow, Russia.

💼 What is the brand identity of GAccon and how do customers connect with the solution?

💡 Encouraging innovation within the organisation.

🌍 Global expansion plans and lessons learned from expanding into new markets.

💻 Working with G Suite/Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel: Once you've developed something in Google Sheets, you can convert it to Excel.

🏢 The World of Coca-Cola museum and Coca-Cola as a business.

💰 The importance of the bookkeeper in the business.

🔍 John Pembroke invented Coca-Cola, and his partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name and penned the now-famous trademark "Coca-Cola" in his unique script.

Connect with me here:

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Interview with Paul Dunn Chief Story-Teller at CLARITY, and Co-Founder of B1G1.

💻 Technology is an enabler of more human things.

🎓 Edutainment, as education.

😬 Getting nervous when speaking.

👥 The way to connect is to be more focused on them than on you.

📜 The storyteller sets the vision and the agenda for an entire generation.

💪 The importance of having a strong presence.

🌍 The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world.

🔌 Tech is not about the inputs.

📖 The importance of telling stories that are relevant to people.

🏆 Outcomes are the key to a successful pitch.

🌐 TOAGlobal: The humanverse is a human-to-human thing in tech.

🧮 Paul’s first memory of an accountant world.

🚀 Becoming one of the first 10 in Hewlett Packard Australia.

💰 The standard accounting joke, the 9800, and how to use it.

🗣️ Hewlett-Packard seminars.

🖨️ The world’s first thermal printer and the first ‘trial’ balance.

📜 The world's first thermal scroll printer.

📊 The Australian accountants number crunch system.

📚 The story of Zig Ziglar.

🤝 The importance of getting your thoughts out into the world.

🎙️ The human element of the podcast.

🐜 The connection to tech and termites.

🌿 Nature does not solve problems. Nature solves for potential.

📞 What is a discovery call and how can you use it?

🚀 Hiring people based on their potential.

🌟 Tech is an enabler to create a better, more fulfilling human experience.

📝 The top three things accountants should do.

🤝 Engaged with original people impacted by Rod Drury’s vision.

💼 Opportunity for entrepreneurs to do their own thing.

💰 The opportunity for larger companies to grab that space and be able to say “this is not some sort of charity thing”.

🤲 Charity is a meaningful thing, not just a charity thing.

🤜 The importance of being bolder.

🔥 Be bolder in execution and in terms of reach.

📚 Sukhinder Singh Cassidy's book, Choose Possibility.

🚪 You can go through a door, but you can come back through that door.

I am thrilled to bring you an interview with Paul Dunn, the fourth and final interview in our series of interviews from the Accountants BootCamp. If you haven't already, I highly recommend you listen to the previous three episodes and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

When I first heard about the re:Boot of the Accountants BootCamp I was intrigued by the opportunity to see Paul Dunn in action. I have heard so many good things about him, from so many people. I was of course concerned that he could not possibly live up to the hype, but he was all that and more. He started in the industry in the early 70’s and at the re:Boot event he was extraordinarily sharp, energetic and charismatic. He made everyone in the room feel like a VIP, and I watched him take time out to speak with everyone. I don't even have that level of energy!

I was extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity to speak with Paul Dunn, and I think I have really saved the best interview for last, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Hg2rYG7mxiVFf1OL7tHuG?si=507287dc1e5f42a2

Before I introduce today's interview, I want to remind you of some ways to stay up-to-date with the accounting tech space. You can join the Xero Mastermind Facebook group, subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter at HeatherSmithAU.com, and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. Also, connect with me, Heather Smith on LinkedIn.

Now, let's get into today's episode, where I am joined by Paul Dunn Chief Story-Teller at CLARITY, and Co-Founder of B1G1.

Connect with me here:

Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ANISEConsulting/podcasts

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Interview with Graeme Tennick, Chief Impact Officer of Tennick Accountants

📋🏆 The process of applying for the Xero UK awards.
🎖️🚀 Accountants Bootcamp is all about pushing boundaries.
👍🏆 Every stage of entering an award is worthy.
👨‍💼 Aussies pushing boundaries in the accounting profession.
🥇💪 Competition in the North of England.
🗺️ What the northeast is like in the UK.
📣📈 Self-promotion and marketing.
🔍🤔 Exploring your greatest passion?
🔄💻 Transitioning from a manual to a cloud-based model.
🏆🥇 Proudest achievement of last year.
🤝💻 Approved software drunk, getting 50 licences in 2018.
😍💻 Falling in love with the software.
📝🔍 The three-step approach to software implementation.
⏰📅 Time range for implementing the solution.
💻🚀 It’s all about the implementation.
🎓📚 Lessons learned about implementations.
🤝🚀 We are hitting a buffer with accountants and technology, and how to overcome it.
💻👨‍💼 Challenges for accountants in the software industry.
🌅🚀 Early Adopters Hub.
🎓👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 What did you get out of BootCamp and what are you hoping to get from it?
🤝👥 Pushing boundaries with other progressive firms.
🌟🤲 Taking the leap of faith.
🤝👥 The importance of collaboration.
🏆📚 We either win or we learn.

I am thrilled to bring you the third interview in our series of interviews from the Accountants BootCamp. If you haven't already, I highly recommend you check out our previous two episodes and subscribe to the podcast to hear the upcoming interview with the inspiring Paul Dunn.

At the re:Boot event, we were fortunate enough to have attendees and speakers from the original Accountants BootCamp in the 1990s, including industry legend Paul Dunn himself. Led by Dunn and Aynsley Damery, CEO of Clarity, the three-day workshop focused on delivering repeatable, scalable services that benefit both the firm and the client. Many attendees used Clarity's software platform to assist in delivering these services. And in case you missed it, Aynsley Damery joined me on a previous episode of Cloud Stories in May 2021, where we discussed 'How to double your clients profits in 5 easy steps.'

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Hg2rYG7mxiVFf1OL7tHuG?si=507287dc1e5f42a2

Before I introduce today's interview, I want to remind you of some ways to stay up-to-date with the accounting apps space. You can join the Xero Mastermind Facebook group, subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter at HeatherSMithAU.com, and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. Also, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Now, let's get into today's episode. I am joined by Graeme Tennick, Chief Impact Officer of Tennick Accountants. Tennick Accountants recently won the Small Firm of the Year at the Xero UK and Ireland Awards, and a week later, travelled 30 hours to attend the BootCamp. This just shows the calibre of people in attendance at the event.

So without further ado, let's dive into the interview and hear from Graeme about his work at Tennick Accountants and his experience at the BootCamp.

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In this episode I speak with Paul Miller, Managing Director of Cornish Accounting Solutions.

🏙️👨‍💼 The impact of the 2014 Sydney Xerocon.

🤝📈 It’s your business, you make the decisions.

💪 The importance of staying true to one's beliefs.

📅🔙 The early days of Xero.

🤝🤝 The return to traditional values and relationships.

🤝👥 The importance of meeting clients in person.

💻🛠️ What are some of the things you have in your tech stack? Xero, Dext Prepare, Dext Precision, and Ignition.

🏆 Winner of the first effortless bookkeeping challenge in the UK.

📚 The importance of providing training to clients.

🔟 The 10 factors that determine if a client will work with you.

💡 If you don’t like what you’ve got, change it.

🤝 Refer to other local firms if not the right fit.

👥 Recruiting team members.

📞💬 The best way to communicate with people is to pick up the phone and talk to people.

❓ The importance of asking why.

🌟 True leaders plan succession and transition succession.

🧑‍💼🎓 Paul’s thoughts on the last 24 hours at the Accountants BootCamp and how it has impacted his life.

Today I’m bringing you the second interview as part of a series of interviews I conducted at the Accountants BootCamp. If you enjoy this episode, I encourage you to listen to the last episode, and subscribe to the podcast to hear the next two interviews.

The re:Boot event, brought together speakers and attendees from the original Accountants BootCamp in the 1990s, including industry legend Paul Dunn. The three-day workshop, led by Dunn and Aynsley Damery, CEO of Clarity, focused on delivering repeatable, scalable services that benefit both the firm and the client. Many attendees use Clarity's software platform to assist in delivering these services. In case you missed it, Aynsley Damery joined me on a previous episode of Cloud Stories in May 2021, where we discussed 'How to double your clients profits in 5 easy steps.'

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Hg2rYG7mxiVFf1OL7tHuG?si=507287dc1e5f42a2

Before I pass over the interview, to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in the accounting apps space can I encourage you to join the Xero Mastermind Facebook group, subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter, and to the Cloud Stories podcast also connect with me on LinkedIn .

For today's episode, I’m joined by Paul Miller, Managing Director of Cornish Accounting Solutions, as you shall hear in the episode I first met Paul when he visited Xerocon, in 2014, and I’ve keenly watched his journey since then.

Connect with me here:

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In this episode I speak with Gareth Burton Founder of Assure UK and Progress Accountants.

🤝 Why Gareth Burton decided to start two firms.
💯💡 100 1% improvements in 100 days.
💼 Why Gareth decided to start his own accountancy firm.
📈 The 100 1% improvement.
💻 Technology used in that business: Xero, Dext, Microsoft, BreatheHR, MyWorkPapers.
🌎 How Microsoft’s change to Teams has changed the landscape of the industry.
🎯 Finding a niche within a niche.
🔄 The transition from commodity to service-based business.
🚀 Key takeaway from attending the accountants bootcamp.
🐭🎢 How Disney would run an accounting practice.
🔑 Customer service and customer experience.
💬 Gareth’s advice for new accountants: “Look for small gains”.
📅 Making one small change each day or each week.

Today I’m bringing you an interview as part of a series of interviews I conducted at the Accountants BootCamp which was held in late April ‘23. I had the unique and rare opportunity to interview a few award winning UK accountants who travelled to Australia to attend the event.

The original Accountants BootCamp was held in the 1990’s at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast and this re:Boot was an opportunity to bring back many of the speakers and attendees from the original event, including a legend of the industry Paul Dunn. Along with the CEO of Clarity, Aynsley Damery, they delivered a three day workshop on how to deliver repeatable, scalable services that are profitable for the firm, valuable for the client and at a price they can afford to pay. Many of the attendees used the Clarity software platform, to assist them in delivering these services.

Also I wanted to let you know Aynsley Damery joined me on the Cloud Stories podcast, back in May 2021, the episode was called ‘How to double your clients profits in 5 easy steps’.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Hg2rYG7mxiVFf1OL7tHuG?si=507287dc1e5f42a2

For today's episode, I’m joined by Gareth Burton (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-burton/ ) the founder of two businesses, the first one is Assure UK which niches in the UK Pension market where they are Specialist Pension Scheme Auditors, and provide Assurance Reports for Independent Trustees, Master Trusts, Pension Scheme Administrators and other Service Organisations. While working in this field he recognised these professional practices were not being served appropriately by their accountants, and he drilled down into offering a double niched service, via his second business Progress Accountants: Accountants for forward thinking professional practices with more than three employees.

For all of these interviews, we are walking through the beautiful ground of Sanctuary Cove, so there is a little bit of ambient background noise, which I hope adds to the experience!

Connect with me here:

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In this episode I’m speaking with Mel Kettle author of Fully Connected.

Everybody should strive for a meaningful and purposeful life. And if you don't know what gives you purpose over your whole life, that's completely fine. But find a reason to get out of bed tomorrow. And one of the things that I love recommending to people is go to bed thinking about something that you're going to do tomorrow. That is going to bring you joy, something that you're going to do tomorrow that is going to make you happy. And it might be a day filled with Excel spreadsheets. And my husband's an accountant. He loves Excel spreadsheets. He used to send me one every day of our financial position and I'm just like, ah, once a quarter is enough I don't share your love. But you know, maybe it's you're going out for dinner with a friend or maybe it's you're going to the beach or you know walking Chester for you. But think about what are you going to do tomorrow that's going to light you up so that you can go to bed thinking of something exciting, and you can go to bed with something to look forward to the next day. Because when we have things to look forward to and then we do them, that gives us such fulfilment and such personal satisfaction, and that makes us feel valued in our lives. And when we feel more valued, we have a better life.

Mel Kettle background

Mel Kettle is an internationally recognised thought leader in fully connected leadership and communication. At the heart of everything Mel does is a commitment to self-leadership. She has an over-arching belief that we need to lead ourselves first before we can lead others.

Mel's sub-speciality is helping women and organisations better understand the impact of menopause in the workplace and she is the founder of the award-winning menopause blog, Just as Juicy (www.justasjuicy.com).

In January 2022 Mel was recognised by leadersHum as one of the Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership for 2022, one of only seven Australians on the list.

Mel is the host of the podcast This Connected Life and the author of two books: The Social Association, published in 2018; and Fully Connected, published July 2022

This is what we talked about!

Common communication challenges that individuals and organisations face and how to overcome them

The importance of having a conversation with your accountant about what you need.

What is a leader? What does work look like today?

Setting boundaries is an important aspect of personal growth and development in 2023. When setting boundaries, be clear on what it is.

Improving effective and active listening skills is crucial for individuals and organisations to enhance their communication.

Why it’s important for leaders to engage in self-care.

The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, It's not what happens to you; it's how you react to it that matters. Behaviour is inextricably linked to attitude. How do you let go of a negative attitude?

Don’t let other people make you feel smaller.

How do you reassess and refresh your life?

Mel Kettle website https://www.melkettle.com/

Fully Connected and The Social Association Book. https://www.melkettle.com/books

Donna McGeorge

The 25-Minute Meeting

The First 2 Hours

https://donnamcgeorge.com/books

From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

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Inspired by James Clear's book Atomic Habits, this session unpacks the impact and power of habits on our business and our client's business.

*What are Atomic Habits, and why have we heard so much about this book by James Clear?!

*How do Atomic Habits Work? How Can They Help You Achieve Your Goals?

*How do you develop good habits and break bad ones?

*Practical examples of habits that help achieve business success.

*Apps we use to help us build and track good habits

Speakers

Moderator: Heather Smith, Founder, ANISE Consulting

Dan Osbourne Podcountant at Two Drunk Accountants, Director CATS Accounting

Michele Grisdale Founder Rainforest Bookkeeping

Amar Latif Co-founder MAD Wealth

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

This panel discussion was recorded at the GoCardless Buzz Labs at Sydney Accountex 2023. It is also available on the Cloud Stories podcast.

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Join Heather Smith and Nick Sinclair Founder - Humanverse Group (TOA Global & AB² Institute) as they discuss the following trends and how they impact accountants and bookkeepers.

Chat GPT
Embracing innovation: Automation, AI & Technology
Oversupply of clients
Undersupply of staff
Diversified skill sets and micro learning
Inflation
Practice Transformation (and whatever that means to you)
Cyber Security and Data Protection
The year of No
Increased interest in data analysis and business advisory
Building valuable communities for clients

Connect with Nick Sinclair on LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicksinclair/

TOA Global https://toaglobal.com/

AB² Institute https://ab2institute.edu.au/

TOACon 2023 https://toaglobal.com/toacon/

Transform Yourself, Transform Your Business

Give yourself three days to recharge. Learn from world-class keynote speakers on building meaningful relationships and winning teams; managing adversity and change; the game-changing importance of mindset and mental health, and more.

You’ll leave a better leader, with strategies to move your firm and your team members’ careers forward.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

This recording was for the Cloud Stories podcast and was recorded at the GoCardless BuzzLabs at Sydney Accountex 2023. Many thanks to the GoCadless production team.

GoCardless: https://gocardless.com/en-au/

I strategically partner with TOA Global. You can read my https://endorsementdisclosure.com

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Xero have announced that they have decided to retire WorkflowMax (WFM) on 26 June 2024.

A little trip down history lane.

WorkFlowMax is a project management software that was founded in 2007 by Chris Spence and Gavin George, initially developed as a job management solution for Steelcraft Engineering business owned by Gavin’s brothers. Over the years, WorkFlowMax has become a reliable project management platform utilised by businesses worldwide.

In May 2012, Xero, a global accounting software provider, acquired WorkFlowMax, leading to further development and growth of the software. After almost 11 years of servicing clients, Xero recently announced that they will retire WorkFlowMax on June 26, 2024.

Three takes on the same story

WORKFLOWMAX BLOG https://www.workflowmax.com/blog/future-plans-for-workflowmax?
XERO DEVELOPER BLOG https://devblog.xero.com/xero-to-retire-workflowmax-mid-2024-6f12f45e4be
XERO BLOG https://www.xero.com/blog/2023/03/xero-announces-future-plans-workflowmax/

It’s essential to note that WorkFlowMax is a completely separate solution from Xero Practice Manager (XPM). Therefore, Xero Practice Manager and Xero Tax will not be affected by this decision. Data separation is also guaranteed to ensure the privacy and security of user information. Read more about that here.

If you or your clients are impacted by this announcement, here are some options I’m aware of, and please share others that you may know of with me.

BlueRock have acquired the “WorkflowMax brand”
WorkGuru.io
MinuteDock
G-Accon
Ascora
ProjectWorks.io
Accelo
Scoro
StreamTime

This episode includes an interview with Cassandra Scott Queen of WorkFlowMax, moderator of the Bookkeepers in Practice Facebook group, and Founder of Laurus Bookkeeping and Matthew Peng Founder of Business Continuum Cloud Integrators and Independant Solution Advisors, sharing their perspectives on the sunsetting of WFM, and recommendations for next steps.

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Today I am joined by Peter Lalor, the CEO and Managing Director of Blue Rock - Xero Platinum Partner, and Cloud Integrator.

Peter is an experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working with entrepreneurial business owners. With a passion for technology and thinking differently, he’s a Chartered Accountant and has started and scaled multiple businesses.

Blue Rock describes itself as ‘We're more than an entrepreneurial advisory firm helping businesses grow and succeed - we're a community.’

In this episode we cover

🔷The history of the Blue Rock business

🔷The Blue Rock website

🔷The recent news that BlueRock has Acquired the WorkflowMax Brand

🔷What led to the opportunity to acquire the WFM Brand.

🔷Plans for New Job Management Solution (New website The website is www.workflowmax2.com.)

🔷Future plans

Resources:

Xero to retire WorkflowMax product; BlueRock plans to offer new WorkflowMax solution

https://www.xero.com/au/media-releases/bluerock-to-acquire-workflowmax-brand/

Blue Rock https://www.bluerock.com.au/

BlueRock Acquires WorkflowMax Brand and Announces Plans for New Job Management Solution https://www.bluerock.com.au/resources/bluerock-acquires-workflowmax-brand-and-announces-plans-for-new-job-management-solution/

Workflow Max by Xero is being retired. What are your options?

https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/2023/03/25/workflow-max-by-xero-is-being-retired-what-are-your-options/

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter http://heathersmithau.com/

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It’s quite exciting that a conference brand running in multiple overseas countries, UK, Spain and Canada has brought a conference to Australia. I hope one day to attend Spain’s Accountex conference - we all know accounting is an International language, an accounting conference in a foreign language sounds like it would really push me out of my comfort zone!

I delivered three sessions at Accountex. Ethan Cooney of Ignition said the most popular session at the conference was the panel discussion on Explore Atomic Habits I led at the GoCardless Buzz Labs. Thank you very much Emily Shurey from the Marketing team at GoCardless who made that possible, and everyone who attended the session.

In this podcast I speak with:

Alex Cumberland Agency Partner Manager at Oncord Digital Marketing Software

Jeremy Rowe General Manager Innovation of the CACatalyst team at CAANZ

Rob Cameron CEO at FYI the Document management and process automation solution,

purpose-built for accountants.

Guy Pearson CEO at Ignition online proposals, automated billing and payment collection solution for professional services businesses.

Melissa Lewis Business Development Manager SwiftFox CRM a CRM for accountants and financial service firms

Dyean Moodley Digital Account Executive at a little firm called Microsoft.

And from the bookkeeping world

Nicole RED Lynch Co-founder Streamline Management

Myreeann Tchopourian Managing Director Chisholm Business Services Pty Limited

Tamara-Lee Beveridge BAS & ASIC Agent Bizcore 360

Julianna Nagy Founder of Horizon Accounts

Can I encourage you to stay informed by subscribing to the Cloud Stories podcast and the Accounting Apps newsletter.

Hi, I hope you found the interviews from Accountex informative and edutaining!

The two day Sydney Accountex conference was a great opportunity to catch up and spend time with members of the Accounting and Bookkeeping community and with familiar and a few new Accounting App vendors.

Initially I was asked to be a media partner, but I’m an accountant, and I felt a bit uncomfortable with that. The organisers established a content crew, which I instead asked to join and actively participated in. I was listed on the website as being part of the content crew, but am no longer listed there - I am not sure why. During the early stages, the content crew were extensively involved with encouraging new speakers to pitch their ideas, reviewing speaker submissions, and highlighting which sessions we thought would resonate with the accounting and bookkeeping community. I’m focused on improving and nurturing the Accounting and Bookkeeping profession and community, and it was good to be part of the initial content development.

I was gratefully allocated a podcasting slot for the last session on the last day, in a cute podcast caravan, but my bad, I got confused with the calendar timings, and missed it completely.

I’m normally quite busy at conferences, and I hustled up a few more opportunities, as well as the interviews you just listened to, I delivered three fun and engaging sessions.

With the Fathom team I coordinated a brilliant panel discussion “How being purpose-driven and customer centric can help attract clients and retain top talent” on the main stage.

I delivered a panel discussion on Explore Atomic Habits at the GoCardless Buzz Labs with Michele Grisdale, Amar Latif and Dan Osbourne.

Also at the GoCardless Buzz Labs Nick Sinclair Founder - Humanverse Group (TOA Global & AB² Institute) and I discussed “Current Industry Trends and How Accountants and Bookkeepers can Optimise them.”

I plan to release the sessions recorded at the GoCardless Buzz Labs on the Cloud Stories podcast soon.

I’d also like to mention that Emily Shurey from the GoCardless team has a sparkly side gig. She supplies me with my Biodegradable & Eco Friendly Glitter follow her on insta at glitterazzi.me. If you need extra glitter in your life, and let's face it, who doesn’t? You should source Biodegradable & Eco Friendly Glitter. Generally available glitter is a plastic core and polyester PET film and when it breaks down, releases chemicals that are harmful to humans and animals and it contributes to the growth of microplastic in the marine environment. Unexpected environmental message in an accounting technology podcast!!

I had a full access ticket, which conveniently gave me access to an ample variety of food & beverages, a really fun dance party overlooking the Sydney Harbour on the last evening.

The CACatalyst team from Chartered Accountants ran a pitch night, on the first night. One of the contestants was Empiraa, a gamified yet simplified business planning software, that helps you set business goals and an actionable plan on how to achieve them. I’ve met with the founder Ash Brown and he and the team at Empiraa have joined me as a strategic partner, supporting me to support the community.

I also had the opportunity to meet up and reconnect with a lot of brilliant people in the Accounting Industry, including Caroline Hobden, Portfolio Director at Accountex in the UK and Europe and she invited me to come and speak in the UK. Well maybe not this year, cause I shall be attending Amanda Aguillard’s Accounting Salon in Florida, but I've pencilled it in 2024. How exciting.

More could be said about Sydney Accountex, but for me I used my positive energy to make the most of the event.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Can I encourage you to stay informed by subscribing to the Cloud Stories podcast and the Accounting Apps newsletter which you can find at HeatherSmith AU dot com.

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Today I bring to you some huge news from the Xero ecosystem that I and many people have been waiting to hear for over 8 years.

So I'll bring you a short interview and afterwards I will read you an extract from the media release that comes out in literally 45 minutes after I'm recording this.

Last week I attended Accountex in Sydney. I have been trying to coordinate an interview with Sara Goepel, Chief Product Officer at Karbon for many years, and as serendipity would have it, our paths crossed, and she hinted at some huge news!

Read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7046210821177159680/

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Last week was busy in Australia with two overlapping conferences; the Accounting and Business Expo in Melbourne and Accountex in Sydney.

In the beginning, when we realised there would be overlapping conferences, I contacted both conference organisers, letting them know my focus was on providing the best outcomes for the accounting industry. I joined the Content or Advisory Crew of both conferences.

Close to 4000 people attended ABExpo. The first session of the day, a fireside chat with the longest-serving treasurer in Australia's history Peter Costello, attracted a large crowd. Interestingly, I only knew about 5% of the vendors, and there was a jam-packed startup alley with about 20 new vendors, so it was fascinating to come across so many new solutions in the ecosystem.

During the day, I delivered two popular and educational panel sessions, which we all had a lot of fun with. I also scurried around the conference hall, eating free popcorn and pistachio gelato and finding interesting people to interview.

Jon Arrigo Managing Director at Microkeeper. Microkeeper is an expert HR, Roster, timesheet, payroll and workforce management, all in one spot and I strategically partner with them.

Lucas Finch Global Head of Wellbeing at Xero

Daniel Rock Global Head of Sales at Suite Files

Nick Bhalla Managing Director at Accounts NextGen IQ

Daniel Spitty CEO at Everperform

Ray Wang CEO at Luca Plus

Laura Binns General Manager at the Conference Organisation at Terrapin

And yes I managed to interview more Daniels than I did females, I apologies for that oversight. I hope you enjoy the episode.

The Accounting & Business Expo is organised by Terrapin and I've enjoyed working with them for many years. The organisers have the philosophy "what Heather wants Heather gets", which is a philosophy I fully approve of! I'm given free rein to design the session and the content and select the panellists. I'm also a confirmed speaker at their Singapore conference, Accounting & Finance Show Asia 2023, 10-11 Oct and the Sydney Accounting and Business Expo, 22-23 Nov - if you fancy a trip to Singapore or Sydney, register on their website to find out more information! Also, let me know if you're attending, and maybe you can join one of my panel sessions.

Tropical Innovation Festival 5-9 Jun Cairns

Accounting & Finance Show Asia 2023, 10-11 Oct Singapore

Accounting and Business Expo, 22-23 Nov Sydney

Several Queenslanders flew in for the conference, and we all stayed at the same location, so we had a fun couple of days. On the last night in Melbourne, Chris Wheatley, the moderator of the Small Business Accountants Brains Trust facebook group, took us to his client's tiny bar, Yarra Falls in Flinders Lane. It was an absolute delight, so if you visit Melbourne, check it out.

If this is your first time listening to the Cloud Stories podcast, please subscribe, and let me know where you are listening in from on social media; you can find me at HeatherSMITHAU everywhere.

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On today's episode I’m bringing you the energy and excitement of interviews from the Xero Brisbane Roadshow.

Here’s the order of who I’m talking to. I do try to introduce them at the start of each segment, but sometimes things don't go as planned.

Kylie Wing CMO at Approval Max a tool for getting your bills and expenses approved and paid on time;
Evan Barker General Manager at Synnch a tool for assisting with your R&D Tax Incentive;
Tony Harcourt Co-Founder at WorkGuru.io a comprehensive job costing and optional stock control solution for SMB’s
Corey Cacic Founder and CTO of Annature a tool for affordable eSignatures and Identity verification;
Colleen Diver who is the Managing Director at Logic HQ Pty Ltd. Colleen Diver was also one of the early Xero Account Managers in QLD & NT. She was also the original founder of Diverse Business Consultants, the business featured in the Xero keynote address. As well as diverse being a play on her name Diver, she told me she named the business Diverse because at that time she was diverse and worked across MYOB, SaaSu and Xero, until, in her words Xero eventually won her heart.
And it's an Aussie podcast, so we can never have too many Kylies! Our second Kylie on the episode!! Is …
Kylie Drury Director of Sales and Operations at FishBowl. Fishbowl is manufacturing and warehouse management for repeat products. It’s suitable if you're doing the same thing all the time and managing a production line. If however you’re doing something custom or bespoke then you’d look at WorkGuru. It’s important to understand the difference between inventory solutions in the market.
And finally David Boyar Tedx speaker, CEO of Change GPS and Host of From the Trenches podcast and conference joins the show. At his request his segment was heavily trimmed, so hopefully I’m sharing the good bits, and that’s why that interview is a little bit choppy.

I’m grateful to strategically partner with a number of apps who support me, to support the community. In this episode, full disclosure I strategically partner with Approval Max, Annature and WorkGuru.io. You can find full details of how I strategically partner with businesses on my website.

From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast, and let me know what your highlight was from attending the roadshow.

I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.

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In this episode, Digital Nomad Alex Falcon Huerta flew in from Bali to attend the Australian Newcastle Xero Roadshow Feb 23 and together we chatted with some familiar and some new Apps. We learnt about their offering, and new features and functionalities that have come out in the last year. We also asked the representative their thoughts on the insights surfaced in Xero’s State of the Industry report. Enjoy the energy of the conference, plus as a special bonus Alex unpacks a few UK flavoured tidbits!

If you’ve not yet been to the roadshow, or didn’t get to speak to all the Apps, join Alex and I as we speak to :

Brendan Allan Klein Ignition
James Parker Dext
Steve Ayers XBert - AI Data Quality Audit & Workflow Automation
Vince Schembri WOWzer Tech
John Munden Business Fitness
Cam Anderson Figured Farm Management Software

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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In this episode, Tony Harcourt talks about his journey from the early days of the Xero ecosystem through to leading a Cloud Integration business where he recognised a gap in the market for a job-costing solution. Without undertaking proper job costing, businesses do not have a clear idea if they are making money on certain projects and are unable to make informed decisions. This led him to establish WorkGuru.io.

We also discuss:

The journey to selling The Rype Group.
The philosophy Product is king, but sales are the kingmaker.
Why this job costing solution comes with branded baby swag.
Tony’s perspective on the future of the tech industry.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Tony Harcourt. I strategically partner with the team at WorkGuru.io which you can read more about at EndorsementDisclosures.com. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. Subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. for a great overview of the ecosystem space. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast, make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss a future episode.

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Today I’m speaking with Bryan Williams, Founder of Hockey Stick Advisory. In this episode, we talk about all aspects of “Partnership” and how through his new business Bryan Williams is enabling tech companies to reach their ambitions faster: by unlocking the benefits of partnership ecosystems so they don’t have to grow alone, whilst delighting their customers every step of the way.

The concept of partnerships?
The benefits of partnering?
How have partnerships evolved over time?
The pitfalls of partnerships.
The difference between an ecosystem and a partnership?
Examples of how great partnerships work in the Accounting and Bookkeeping industry.
How do you measure partnership efforts?
Bryan also talked about the tech industry, and the trends coming through the ecosystem.

He talked about some of the progressive apps in the industry, including XBert (AI-driven data quality and workflow tools for progressive businesses using Xero) who he does ongoing work with. It’s like your accounting file is on steroids, improving the data quality, and the informed information. XBert has a lot to offer, and can give time back to staff.

Interesting fact: A man on the internet called Bryan Williams ‘the prince of partnerships’, so it must be true

From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.

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Today I’m speaking with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext

Sabby Gill was appointed as Chief Executive at Dext in October 2022. He has more than 35 years’ experience in the technology sector, spanning sales, operations, development, support and customer service. He has spent his career supporting businesses of all sizes with technology that looks to unlock their potential—both at home and in international markets, including working in the Netherlands and Dubai. Prior to joining Dext, Sabby was CEO of Thomas International, which is a leading talent assessment and psychometric provider. Prior to that Sabby was UK & Ireland Managing Director of Sage, prior to that I held senior executive leadership roles at Epicor, IGT, HP, CA Technologies, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

In this episode I ask Sabby Gill:

You joined Dext two months ago, what attracted you to joining the Dext empire?
What do you hope to achieve with Dext over the next two years?
Let’s talk about community. You’ve worked alongside the Accounting and Bookkeeping community for many years. In your introductory letter to the community you have said “I am obsessed with customer and employee engagement, and I’m excited to meet many of the partners and businesses Dext supports. If I jump into any forum and mention Dext, a lot of unhappy campers will respond ”What can the APAC region expect from DEXT over the next two years and beyond.
What is the strategic focus of Partnerships within APAC?
You serve on a number of boards, pushing for digital adoption: You’ve recently become the Chair of the Digital Leaders Advisory board, a community of over 180,000 professionals working to eliminate the issues that hold back UK Digital Transformation such as access to knowledge, networks and skills. What are you hoping to achieve in that role, how can UK people get involved with the Digital Leaders Advisory board, and have you got them all using Dext yet?
Talk to me about the future of E-invoicing in Australia.
Have you ever been involved in a company that has undergone a brand change / rename that Dext has gone through. Like before this session, I had to visit the website and find out what the official new name of Receipt Bank is - its Dext Prepare
Were facing a tough economic environment, with inflation, looming global recession, what advice do you have for small businesses out there.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners and how can they get in touch with you?

I hope you liked listening to that interview with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext. From here, I encourage you to subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast, join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem, and subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https:// HeatherSmithAU.COM. I also encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast..

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Today I’m speaking with Will Buckley, Country Manager at Xero Australia. Will was appointed Country Manager, Australia in 2022 following other leadership roles at Xero including three years as Country Manager for Canada. As Country Manager, he is responsible for supporting the small business economy in Australia and for Xero’s relationships with the Australian government, financial institutions, and advisor community. Will joined Xero in 2015 working in the Australian business, before being appointed Finance Director of the US business and driving the launch of Xero in Canada. Prior to joining Xero, he held commercial finance roles in eCommerce and FMCG. He has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney. In this episode, I ask

What’s a favourite song from the 80’s?
In 2013, you founded buckleybrown, a 100% cloud accounting practice for small business owners based in Sydney. I think what we all want to know is are they getting preferential Xero pricing ?!! And what have you taken from that experience into your role today?
Can you share an interesting or fun memory of your time with Rod Drury?
You’ve had quite an interesting career with Xero, in that you’ve moved from Australia, to the US, to Canada to New Zealand and now back to Australia again. Half of your Xero career you’ve worked for the underdog, and the other half you’ve worked for the dominant player in the market. What have you learnt from those two contrasting experiences?
Do North American accountants and bookkeepers have a different approach to managing their teams and creating an engaging work environment that Australians can emulate.
You're 33 years young, what do you hope to achieve in your role as Country Manager of Australia?
You’ve coined the phrase “Compliance plus Conversations equals Advisory”. What's your take on compliance and where it fits in the future of the profession?
I was listening to you talk, and you said something that literally stopped me in my tracks, “Your Client Relationship is your business IP”. Wow! I completely agree, for our listeners can you unpack what you mean by this statement.
Beautiful is embedded in the Xero brand. Why should beautiful questioning be baked into an organisational DNA?
You’ve said that you admire Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba – for his approach to compartmentalising his career journey to be more impactful. Is this something you’ve tried to emulate?
Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners and how can they get in touch with you?

I hope you liked listening to that interview with Will Buckley, Country Manager at Xero Australia. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. Its available at https:// HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I’m Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Kelly Gonsalves Founder of Totally Booked and many more companies joined me today and we had an in depth discussion about all things eCommerce

What first interested Kelly about specialising in eCommerce?
What changes have Kelly has seen in the eCommerce space in the last five years?
What are some tech solutions Kelly likes working with in the eCommerce space?
What are some myths out there about eCommerce that need to be debunked?
What has Kelly learnt from running her Etsy store called “Leading Lady Machine Works”

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Due to a series of unexpected, serendipitous events, I attended all three Xerocons. As soon as my adventure commenced, people were weirdly obsessed with which #Xerocon was the best. I was asked the same questions repeatedly, with many asking me to report back to them to let them know. It was never my intent to review and compare the three Xerocons, but there’s been so much interest in it I felt I should do something. So here it is. Who won global #TourDeXerocon?

Clearly, without a doubt, the winner is me. I feel extraordinarily grateful and privileged to be in a position to attend all three Xerocons (and survive intact!). It’s a bucket list item that any Accounting tech-loving person never expects to do. I’ve connected with many fabulous people, heard many inspiring stories, built networks and nurtured relationships. I’ve been energised by being present and enjoying every moment of attending the Xerocons and the events and activities around them. Of the three Xerocons, London, NOLA, and Sydney, I can’t just pick one and say it was the best. It’s more nuanced than that. There are lots of elements that make up a Xerocon, so what I’ll do is pick different parts and rank accordingly. I recognise that much time, thought, and effort goes into producing Xerocon and surrounding events. Thank you to everyone involved, those I know and those I don’t know yet. My comments are from a place of kindness, experience, and wanting the best outcome for the community. I have given this commentary a great deal of thought, and while I’m sharing my opinion, I checked in with the community’s sentiment to ensure I was on the right track.

The blog post: https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/2022/10/05/tour-de-xerocon/

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter : https://heathersmithau.com/

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Today I’m speaking with Cassandra Scott, the Director of Laurus Bookkeeping

Based in Brisbane Cassandra is a Registered BAS Agent, Xero Certified Advisor, Xero Platinum Partner, mentor and Director of the Australian Bookkeepers Association. She recently gave a heart warming speech about the importance of the accounting and bookkeeping community at the Brisbane Roadshow, so initially I am going to share that with you.

Then after her talk, I go straight into our interview, where we talk about technology, community and leadership in the Bookkeeping Industry. Key takeaways include:

The technology she uses in her practice - including the Xero Suite, Microsoft 365, the customer support software FreshDesk and XBert AI driven automated manual checks of your client files, surfacing errors, issues and risks.
Successful strategies she’s adopted to introduce clients to the new workflow methods and technology solutions.
Bookkeeping resources and support, including Bookkeepers in Practice (Australia) community on FaceBook and the Australian Bookkeeper Association.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Read about how I strategically partner with Apps at https://EndorsementDisclosure.com

I’ll organise to have this episode published on EarMark CPE, so if you register on the EarMark CPE App you can earn 1 hour verifiable CPE for listening to this episode.

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I'm Heather Smith and welcome to Cloud Stories, a podcast exploring the Accounting and Business Apps community.

Stay up-to-date with the curated content I'm sharing by signing up for the Accounting Apps newsletter, available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

As you will be aware, I strategically partner with a number of Accounting Apps in the community and one of them is Fathom. Geoff Baker, Global Head of Customer at Fathom joined me today.

Geoff has a unique and diverse background, with leadership roles in FMCG, Telco and, for the last 6 years, accounting software. He has managed multi-billion dollar budgets but is most at home in scale up companies, devising customer-centric strategies for growth and building high performing teams who love their work. Originally from the UK, Geoff lives in Brisbane, Australia with his wife, 3 daughters and two dogs.

Geoff Baker is currently Global Head of Customer at Fathom. Fathom exists to give clarity and confidence to the courageous people behind every business. We help businesses worldwide manage and track their financial performance through our best-in-class app of the same name: a powerfully simple, all-in-one financial analysis, forecasting, and reporting tool.

Bootstrapped in Brisbane in 2012, Fathom has grown to 80 people across our headquarters in Australia, and offices in the UK, the US, and the Philippines. We serve 70,000 customers worldwide, from small businesses to the world's biggest accounting firms.

In this episode we discuss:

Starting a side hustle of Australia’s first Tea Leaf Vodka out of a project while completing an MBA.
In his role as Partnership Leads at Intuit, he was focused on Building, Partnering or Buying functionality for the Australian Intuit’s solution.
He shared the story of Fathom and what his current role entails
The optimal scenario for accountants offering advisory services to their client base.
Recent and up and coming releases within Fathom, including Reinventing forecasting, GSheets integration and Divisional Budgets

I hope you enjoy this episode of Cloud Stories and I want to remind you again that I strategically partner with Fathom.

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Today I’m speaking with Kelly Gonsalves, Founder & Chief Visionary of Totally Booked New York, Totally SEO, Ideation: Think Forward, & Leading Lady Machine Works

In this episode, we talk about . . .

After successfully co-founding three companies, Kelly shares advice for future co-founders.
What is SEO?
When accountants and bookkeepers should engage professional SEO support
Transforming the accounting world through agreeing on the standardisation of what good books should look like
The tech stack for an etsy store
How working as a bartender and waiter lays a foundation for delivering excellent customer service (and always tip well when you are in a culture that relies on tipping!)

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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I’m very sorry if you’re hearing of his passing from me.

I still can’t believe he is no longer with us.

Today's episode is about remembering a special friend and colleague. It was not a complete conference event until you saw his smile that would light up a room and had one of his huge bear hugs. He always had time for a chat, a laugh, to share thoughtful insights or guidance. I recently attended the eco-system event at the Xero HQ in Melbourne. With a swarm of people in branded T-Shirts, I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye. I’d turn to smile at him, and tearfully remember that I’m not going to see him again.

I’ve realised that it’s unlikely we’re all going to be together in a room, to raise a glass to comfort each other, and share our stories and happy memories of a wonderful human.

So I reached out to his friends and colleagues and asked them to share with me some favourite memories of him, so we can smile and laugh and remember him together wherever we are in this digitally connected but remote world.

Please keep sharing stories about him and if you need it, I’m sending you a virtual hug.

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Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz | May 22 Special Guest: Trent McLaren Head of Strategic Channels at DiviPay.

In this episode we discuss:

Using DiviPay to pay (and easily cancel) subscriptions (notably those trial subs).
A discussion around Futrli acquisition by Sage, and what it means in the reporting space.
Data Dear will no longer be available to Xero users, here are your options.
WeCrashed and The DropOut
A discussion around the price increase from Ignition (formally Practice Ignition).
New feature from XBert Client Analytic Report which helps you quote for new clients.

Upcoming conferences

20-24 June 22 https://tropicalinnovationfestival.com.au/

From the Trenches June 20/21 https://summit.fromthetrenches.com.au

10th June CA ANZ Future Focused Accounting Conference (I’m the host for two days) https://events.charteredaccountantsanz.com/event/ea5db209-8042-4fb7-84dc-f92382dd27a6/summary

Xerocon 2022

London 20&21 July
New Orleans 24&25 August
Sydney 7&8 Sept 2022

15 Jun – Digital Practice Summit Asia 2022 Virtual https://www.terrapinn.com/virtual/digital-practice-summit/index.stm

Read how I strategically Partner with Apps 👉 http://EndorsementDisclosure.com

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here

http://HeatherSmithAU.com/

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Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz | Mar 22

In this episode, we:

Congratulate Trent on joining From The Trenches as their CEO.
Trent also wonders what he will do with his PI tattoo, now that they've rebranded to Ignition.
Ask the question is Oh My Fraud with Greg Kyte and Caleb Newquist the only accounting podcast you can play in the car with your family listening in?
Talk about the upcoming conferences, including Accounting & Business Expo 28 & 29 April Sydney, Sydney Xerocon, and Accountex 2023
News from DiviPay including a comprehensive new whitepaper for CFOs look to automation to improve team satisfaction.
Unpack Xero’s State of the Australian Accounting & Bookkeeping industry report
New releases from G-Accon and BGL
AND Touch on an article ‘Are Niche Apps The Way Of The Future? By Michael Astreiko, CEO of Synder

I’m currently working with the Team at DiviPay to help them connect with the Accounting and Bookkeeping community. If you want to read about the way I work with Accounting Apps, please visit http://endorsementdisclosure.com You can always see my strategic partners, as they are clearly labelled in pink on the headers of all of my social media platforms. I hope you like listening to The Buzz. Reach out to Trent or I and let us know what you thought, and it would really help us if you share the podcast with someone who would find it useful.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Matt Paff of Value Adders and Trent McLaren of DiviPay joined me today, and we reflected on 2021 and discussed predictions about the 2022 Business Technology landscape. Highlights from this episode are: * The workforce of the future and the technology needed to support them * How identifying gaps can help predict what the driving forces behind a business may do, and * The Gap in Intuit and Xero's offerings * Over the last two years, the pandemic massively increased digitalisation adoption in small businesses. So how will this impact technology uptake in 2022?

I also shall mention that I actively use and partner with DiviPay, where Trent works, and you can read about how I work with Apps at EndorsementDisclosure.com. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today on the Cloud Stories podcast, I bring you The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz: Current News, Trends and Analysis for the month of December 21.

Trent McLaren (Head of the Accounting & Bookkeeping Channel at DiviPay) and I talk about The Great Acquisition vs The Great Resignation. We also discuss news and trends that we saw in the industry during 2021.

Highlights of this episode include:

DiviPay Series A Capital Raise

ACCA ranked a webinar I hosted as their 10th most popular one of 2021. Watch it here.

Everperform produced a series called 'The Great Rejuvenation'. Content is available via their LinkedIn page.

I've had a Xero feature request ticked off my wish list (from circa 2015). I had actually discovered the functionality and did not realise I had this feature request still active. Here's where you can post and vote for feature requests: https://community.xero.com/business/

Square, Inc. Changes its name to Block then H&R Block sues Square to drop the name 'Block'

LastPass announces its intention to establish itself as an independent company from LogMeIn.

Inspired by Blake Oliver + David Cristello's discussion on the JetPackWorkflow podcast we discuss the trends of Subscription Model & Remote Work

Hologram-in-a-Box

New apps: https://www.tango.us/ Create step-by-step documentation with screenshots.

I hope you are enjoying these monthly tech updates and discussions, that complement both the Cloud Stories interviews, and the Accounting Apps newsletter.

I’d like to thank you the listeners for helping Cloud Stories rank in the top 10% of podcasts worldwide, according to Listen Note. That is quite an achievement for a tightly niched topic.

In 2021 we published 25 episodes. The most popular listening month was March 2021. The most downloaded episode that was released during the year was with my friend Martha Yasso interview entitled “Never talk directly to your clients about cash flow, and other secrets from the cash flow queen”

If you have recently discovered Cloud Stories podcast, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to previously published episodes as many of them are evergreen or timeless. That is the content is still relevant today.

You can read more about the way I partner with Accounting Apps, including DiviPay the company Trent McLaren works with, by visiting http://endorsementdisclosure.com. You can always see who I am currently partnered with at the top of my social media banners, clearly labelled in pink.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Tech Buz.

I hope you liked listening to the Tech Buzz. Reach out to either Trent McLaren or I and let us know what you think of the episode.

You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to share the podcast with an interested friend and subscribe leave a five-star review, so other people can find this podcast. Stay up-to-date with the curated content I'm sharing by signing up for the Accounting Apps newsletter, available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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In this episode, we:

Raise a cup to thank the bookkeeping industry
Congratulate the Xero App award winners Change GPS, Service M8, azupay, Moula
Talk about Hub24 acquisition of Class
How to win a Tesla with Expensify
The Canopy 2021 Client Expectation Studies
QuickBooks Desktop discontinuation in one the UK, while an connected App will be rolling out in the USA
Intuits Path to Advisory ebook
Xero acquisition of Locate and Matt Paffs comments on that
Xero announcing a deeper integration with Shopify
The announcement that the e-signature solution Annature is partnering with Qantas Business Rewards

I hope you like listening to The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz with Trent McLaren. Let either I or Trent know what you thought of it.

You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to subscribe and leave a five-star review, so other people can find this podcast.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Kendra Vant Executive GM of Data at Xero and Clayton Oates, Accounting Technologist, and Founder of QA Business.

In this episode, we talk about all aspects of data. Highlights include:

The Accountants' and bookkeepers' data superpowers
The opportunities, benefits and insights that we can explore through accessing data
The newly formed Xero Data Council.
Conversations accounting professionals should have with their clients about data
The transparency governing the movement of data between solutions
The concept of the right to be forgotten

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m sharing with you a panel discussion on the topic: Leveraging technology: Standing out from your competition and saving money produced by the Accounting & Finance Show Malaysia 2021.

Our expert panellists were Jovani Chinniah founder of Jovani & Co. Chartered Accountants, Jay Shong, a Management Accountant and founder of Red Beak, and YC Eng a Certified Financial Planner and Managing Director of Yes Boss. They were all based in Malaysia, and as we learnt through the discussion, Malaysia has different requirements when it comes to storing digital receipts. I love it when we uncover these nuances because while some locations are ahead in some areas, others excel in other areas, and we can all learn and benefit from them.

During the session some of the aspects we discuss are:

How Border restrictions pushed businesses to the cloud and a borderless environment. The restrictions had opened up opportunities for them.
How they attract multi-generational businesses that have traditional parents and innovative children
Has branding the business as technology-savvy helped in attract suitable talent?
Do you include Accounting Technology badges and certifications in your marketing material?
AND we also polled the audience about what factors are stopping them from leveraging technology?

The session initially starts with an introduction from Laura Pickard, Conference Manager at Terrapin. Terrapinn is a global events company promoting innovation and technology. I encourage you to google them and register for any upcoming events that may be of interest to you. As many are currently running virtually, you’ve the opportunity to attend their global events!

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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I'm Heather Smith and welcome to Cloud Stories, a podcast exploring the Accounting and Business Apps community. Today I’m trying out something new. I’ve given it the big hairy audacious title of The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz: Current News, Trends and Analysis. Joining me on the show is Trent McLaren. You might recall I’ve interviewed Trent on podcast shows. We’ve been friends for many years, and I always enjoy our conversations because he has well thought out insights about the industry. Currently, Trent is the Head of the Accounting & Bookkeeping Channel at DiviPay. In his past lives, Trent has probably worked at more Accounting Technology companies than many. Notably, Practice Ignition, Intuit and where I met him at eWay. He also worked for the outsourcing company TOA Global.

In this episode, we talk about the many acquisitions that are happening in the industry.

Intuit + MailChimp + DataDear acquisition
We talk about the DiviPay Feature release
Practice Protect report: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6851377168572928001/
Cin7 Inventory and Order Management Trends report: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6851377168572928001/

I hope you like listening to The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz with Trent McLaren. Let either I or Trent know what you thought of it.

You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to subscribe and leave a five-star review, so other people can find this podcast.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Kelly Goss Chief Problem Solver at Solvaa. In this episode, we talk about

No-code tools and why accountants and bookkeepers should embrace zapier
How to holistically approach problem-solving and process improvement.
The launch of her new book Automate it with Zapier The Robbie and Rowena robot love affair - a brilliant social media campaign Kelly is running.
We benefitted from a comprehensive overview of Zapier and the bridges it can create
The importance of taking responsibility for your own productivity, and ensuring your team are incentivized to be productive.
And I’m looking forward to reading the recommended books “The Chimp Paradox” and “The Dirty Word”

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m sharing with you a panel discussion on the topic: Using online advisory services to increase your revenue from the Accounting and Finance Show Asia 2021.

The panellists included:

Willy Tan, Managing Director, Forbis Accounting Pte. Ltd.
Henry Tan, Group CEO, Nexia TS
Will Farnell, Founder, Farnell Clarke / willfarnell.com

Some of the areas the panellists and I explore include Online Advisory services currently offered, including Sustainability Advisory. How to get existing compliance clients to see the value in new advisory services? The impact the pandemic had on advisory services, and the always popular question, how do you charge for advisory services.

The pandemic drove firms to engage with their clients. It gave accountants something to talk to their clients about regularly. When the government stops giving you something to regularly talk to your clients about, what are you going to do to make sure you continue to talk with them?
The three P’s: Prepare mentally. Prepare strategically. Prepare sustainably.
Freemium advisory content model: sharing basic advice and useful links on social media for free. For more in-depth advisory needs, the client is charged.
Volunteering services to charities has improved branding and increased referrals.

The session initially starts with an introduction from Laura Binns, Project Director at Terrapin, the conference organisers she hands over to me as host.

The conference is organised by Terrapinn a global events company promoting innovation and technology. I encourage you to google them and register for any upcoming events that may be of interest to you. As many are currently running virtually, you have the opportunity to attend their global events!

Access the Accounting and Finance Show here: https://app.swapcard.com/event/accounting-and-finance-show-asia-2021

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Daniel Kniaz, CEO and Founder of DiviPay In this episode, we talk about . . .

Building entrepreneurial and start-up skills and base knowledge of FinTech while working in the Westpac Innovation Team. Left due to slight frustration of what they built never made it to market, and they felt (‘they’ being the other future co-founder of DiviPay) could move faster and learn a lot, going out on their own.
Daniel shares the journey of DiviPay and how it works. It’s always been about virtual cards, though needed to pivot several times to solve the pain points of SMB and meet the demands of paying consumers.
We have an interesting conversation exploring the accounting and start-up relationship and how accountants need to communicate their value to start-ups (who don’t have a lot of money).
Daniels first taste at entrepreneurial life was an eCommerce modern man’s sock business.
The trick to accessing US education at an Australian price point
Explains the process methodology for building in feature requests.
And I shall also mention the two books he referenced were o Humankind, A Hopeful History By: Rutger Bregman o Never Split the Difference Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss.

I have a strategic partnership and work with the team at Divipay. Read more here http://EndorsementDisclosure.com.

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Today I’m sharing with you a panel discussion on the topic: Do Accounting Firms need an office anymore? produced by the Accounting and Finance Show Hong Kong 2021. Our expert panellists were from Australia and the UK. We were all cloud-first, though we had different size teams, and different set-ups, be it in-office, remote or hybrid model. Of course, Covid impacted these models. As always I think it’s useful for us to hear different insights and experiences to help us on our own journey.

The panellists included:

Moderator: Kyelie Baxter, Founder, Managing Partner, IQ Accountants
Sarah Lawrance, Founder, Hot Toast
Will Farnell, Founder, Farnell Clarke

During the session we discuss:

How to ensure clients have an amazing experience no matter how we are working.
Benefits of a remote workforce vs hybrid model vs in office model. Issues related to where staff work.
The impact on culture, recruitment, even office dress codes.
Communication and working across different time zones - and I actually forgot to mention something I’ve leaned into which is ‘Asynchronous communication’ where the conversation is intermittent, rather than a live steady stream.

The session initially starts with an introduction from Laura Pickard, Conference Manager at Terrapin, and she hands over to the Moderator: Kyelie Baxter, Founder, Managing Partner, IQ Accountants.

Terrapinn is a global events company promoting innovation and technology. I encourage you to google them, and register for any upcoming events that may be of interest to you. As many are currently running virtually, you’ve the opportunity to attend their global events! Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Nick Houldsworth Exec GM Ecosystem of Xero joined me from the Xero offices in Auckland and we discussed the launch of the Xero App Store.

Initially, Nick explains what the Xero App store is, and the thinking behind it. He shares how the App Store will help match the right app with the right customer, and how this will work.

As you can imagine, when this announcement was made, there was a lot of discussion about it in the Xero Mastermind group, and I brought their higher level concerns and questions to the interview.

I should highlight that The Xero App store is now available in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, notably, it’s currently not available in North America.

What are your thoughts on the new Xero App store? I’ve heard a spectrum of opinions from the App Tech community. From shock, to suggesting the revenue share is too high, to the revenue share is fair. Someone commented if the revenue improves the API connections, then the engineers will save time on development, in turn reducing their expenses. Another said if it brings me, customers, I’m happy. Since Covid impacted conferences many within the App community have been asking how can we get in front of accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses. There are only so many webinars we can run? The vision of the Xero App Store is to help match the right app with the right customer and maybe while we’re in this pandemic, it fills that conference void, and like many businesses that have pirouetted, it is a new opportunity that we can all leverage and benefits from. If you want to continue the conversation jump into the thread on the Xero Mastermind Facebook page.

The interview was at a high level. I’ll drop into the show notes, links to resources that may provide further information. If you have further questions about how it will work, or impact you the team at Xero are happy to answer any of the questions we weren't able to cover. Reach out to them at api@xero.com.

I’d like to take the opportunity to say thank you to Nick Houldsworth, Sarah Scott and the team at Xero who helped coordinate turning around an interview so fast.

You’ve been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. To help other people can find this podcast it’s really helpful if you subscribe leave a five-star review, AND you can subscribe to the AccounTech newsletter at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m sharing with you a panel discussion on the topic: HOW TO KICKSTART THE DIGITALISATION OF YOUR PRACTICE IN 2021. This session was produced by the Accounting and Finance Show, as part of the Digital Practice Summit Asia 2021.

Our expert panellists were all based in Singapore, and all at different stages of their modernisation journey. I think it’s useful for us to hear different insights and experiences to help us on our journey. The panellists included:

Charles Chen, Partner, Charles and Partners
Mirah Agus, Beaufort Corp., Founder & Managing Director, Beaufort Tax Consultants Pte Ltd
Elaine Lim, Director, Agere Accounting & Advisory Pte Ltd

The session explored:

Learn how to fix a car engine while it’s driving at 80 km/h on the ECP (in other words how to release capacity, and implement digital changes in an operating business)
How to approach developing a digitalisation implementation plan
How to engage your team to embrace change, and be involved in the digitalisation journey
Practical Tips and tricks for a smooth transition, and how to deal with the challenges
A few examples of technology modern practices are currently using

Access the Accounting and Finance Show here: https://app.swapcard.com/event/digital-practice-summit Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I bring to you a panel discussion entitled Shaping the Future of Your Firm - AccTech and the Digital Firm. This follows on from last week's episode, where I shared the keynote speech I gave as part of the ACCA Virtual Conference 2021 Reshaping Finance: Digitally Enabled, Sustainability-Focused.

This episode is the panel discussion that followed.

The conference was organised in Singapore. The moderator was Sarjit Singh, and there were five panellists, three from Singapore, of those two, were in practice, and Evan Law was the Chief Executive of the Singapore Accountancy Commission. Will Farnell joined us from England, and I of course was joining from Brisbane Australia.

For us to grow as an industry, I think it’s beneficial for us to have an awareness of what is happening beyond our own tea cup, and I am always grateful to be on these international panels.

You might find it beneficial to go back and listen to last week's episode as the panelists do mention it several times. I hope you enjoy listening.

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Today I’m sharing with you something a little bit different. I was asked to give a keynote speech as part of the ACCA Virtual Conference 2021 conference ACCA Virtual Conference 2021 Reshaping Finance: Digitally Enabled, Sustainability-Focused. The speech was entitled: 6 Steps to Transform to a Digitally-Enabled and Sustainability-Focused Accountancy Services Firm.

The topic was something they asked me to talk to, as it was in line with the theme of the conference. The keynote led into a panel discussion with five experts. Typically, I moderate sessions, so it was a bit daunting talking for twenty minutes, and then leading into the panel session. It was extremely gratifying, and relieving that during the 90 minutes panel session, each of the panelists referenced a part of my talk in their responses. I’d successfully delivered a keynote, that formed a foundation for, and warmed up everyone for the panel discussion to follow.

If you find yourself giving a speech after someone else, it helps with the continuity of the conference, and the connection to the audience, if you can weave an element of what they said into what you are sharing.

To get you in the mood I will read to you the synopsis of the conference: A renewed optimism about the future, post-COVID-19, is establishing itself – led by the growth of the Digital Economy. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has introduced several ground-breaking initiatives to promote Green Finance. There have also been significant developments in AI and intelligent automation; and the launch of 5G networks in Singapore, that will further transform the way finance functions operate in future. While these are primarily Singapore examples, they can serve to showcase trends and best practice in the Asia-Pacific region.

This Conference is guided by three themes: Shaping a Green & Sustainable Future, Shaping an Ecosystem for Innovation, and Shaping the Future of Your Firm. This keynote was a part of the third track. It will open with a strategic plenary session to set the common dynamic context, before being followed by three interactive tracks to provide you with targeted knowledge on specific areas of developments relevant to you, to enable you to respond to these evolving but dramatic changes to the economy.

And finally, I’ve chosen not to heavily edit it, so you will hear some references to the conference at the start and at the very end, but I do not think it detracts from what I’m sharing. I hope you enjoy it.

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Postcards are short current episodes, addressing a topic that currently interests me, host - Heather Smith.

In the App Advisory Mastermind group someone asked How to charge for your time in scoping App Advisory, when the client kept changing their mind about what they needed. In this postcard, I talk about how I approach scoping workflow improvements and App research with a client. I also address the client's mindset.

One thing I did not mention is that it's also necessary to recognise that the holy grail may not exist, and reviewing and refining workflows may provide a cost effective and viable solution.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Postcards are short current episodes, addressing a topic that currently interests me, host - Heather Smith.

In today's postcard, I share an article that resonated with me, from the Todoist blog post written by Fadeke Adegbuyi.

Makers vs Managers: The Battle Over Remote Work

Managers want to go back to the office. Employees aren’t so sure.

https://blog.doist.com/makers-schedule-remote-work/

Makers and managers are locked in a productivity power struggle where the battleground is the calendar and diminished focus and lost hours are what’s at stake.

Both makers and managers, or roughly equivalent to employees and executives, have important roles in the workplace and both schedules serve a different purpose.

While managers and makers across companies often agree there’s a problem, they’ve simply added band-aid fixes like “No Meeting Tuesdays” or “Work from Home Wednesdays”.

Offices have been built around the needs of managers at the expense of makers; the move to remote work offers a rare opportunity to shift the balance.

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Today I'm speaking with James Parker, General Manager of Asia-Pacific (APAC) of Dext

In this episode, we talk about . . . As you may be aware in Feb 2021, team orange rebranded from Receipt Bank to Dext. This led to a lot of discussions and perhaps confusion in the Accounting and Bookkeeping community. To try and address community raised issues, I invited James Parker, the new General Manager of Asia-Pacific (APAC) of Dext to join me for a community chat. I also invited bookkeeping advocate Cassandra Scott to join me as co-host for the session.

Let me give you some background of both guests:

James Parker joined Dext in November 2020 with over 20 years of experience in leading, transforming and growing technology firms within the accounting and legal sectors. His high-level interpersonal skills allow him to engage with stakeholders at all levels genuinely. A visionary leader, James enjoys engaging in thought leadership, challenging the status quo, and networking with industry and community peers. At Dext, James is responsible for the GTM strategy and rapid growth of DEXT in the APAC market. He is looking to grow ARR 30% YoY through a sustainable sales and marketing approach, delivering significant value to Accounting and Bookkeeping firms.

Cassandra Scott is the Director of Laurus Bookkeeping, a business services consultancy specialising in cloud-based accounting and business systems based out of Brisbane.

Cassandra is a Registered BAS Agent, Xero Certified Advisor, Xero Platinum Partner, and in November 2020, Cassandra was appointed to the Board of the Australian Bookkeepers Association.

Cassandra provides mentoring services to other bookkeepers and contributes to the ongoing discussion and development of programs to increase the professionalism and evolution of the bookkeeping industry.

In support of her goal to increase the profile and professionalism of bookkeepers and BAS Agents to both SMEs and other industry professionals, Cassandra founded and administers the largest group of Bookkeeping Practice Owners in Australia. The group intends to provide support, mentoring and collaboration for Australian Bookkeepers who have their practices, and by doing so, continue to raise the bar and professionalism of the industry.

This was recorded live with the accounting and bookkeeping community on June 7th and has been repurposed for the Cloud Stories podcast.

I'd like to remind you to stay up-to-date with the curated content I'm sharing by signing up for the Accounting Apps newsletter, available at http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I'm speaking with Celso Pinto Founder and CEO of Pixie. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Life as a serial entrepreneur who's founded or co-founded multiple companies, including 7Syntax, SimpleTax, Pomar and Pixie.

Exiting a company you've built.
The journey to starting Practice Management solution Pixie.
Why is it is important not to get stuck on perfect?
What firms do to adapt to new systems successfully?
The importance of believing in yourself and joining peer groups - like the GoProposal group.
What advice do you have for your younger self about using your time, relationships, and opportunities to prepare for the career you have?
Ideas on how governments and policymakers can support the digitalization of small businesses: influence don't impose.
Discussed two inspirational business books and why Celso liked them:
The score takes care of itself: a management book about Bill Walsh, perhaps the most successful coach of American football
Managing the professional services firm by David Maister

Stay up-to-date and subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Contact details for Pixie

www.usepixie.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/celsopinto/
https://twitter.com/usepixie

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A postcard style update from the host of the Cloud Stories podcast Heather Smith, sharing with you the ACCA initiative, The Practice Room that can be found here: https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/employer/employer-help-and-guidance/practice-connect/the-practice-room.html Peer to peer support for those in practice.

Plus updates about Chester the 10-month-old Border Collie pup.

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Today I’m speaking with Jon Arrigo co-founder and National Client Relationship Manager of Microkeeper. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Why Jon wanted to trek to Mt Everest BaseCamp.
Growing up on a farm, and how that helped him understand the complexity of payroll, with the shrinking and growing workforce.
The early lean days of Microkeeper
Where the name Microkeeper came from
Why Microkeepers focus on supporting Australian businesses
Jon’s thoughts on how the government and policymakers can support small business digitalisation

Contact Microkeeper - https://www.microkeeper.com.au

You can read about the way I work with Microkeeper and Accounting Apps here http://EndorsementDisclosure.com/

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Serial Entrepreneur Amreeta Abbott joined me & we discussed;

• How her father encouraged her to learn about investing from a young age.

• Why she started and exited NowInfinity, and the grief she felt selling a company.

• The challenges of being a female - leading a start-up technology company.

• Navigating Working with global offshore teams.

• How she generates ideas fast and turns them into reality even faster.

Connect with Amreeta on LinkedIn

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Kellie Parks Cloud Accounting Aficiando of Calm Waters Bookkeeping joined me and we:

Explored App Advisory
Here about the extensive collection of process and workflow templates Kellies built for practices and businesses and how she has adapted them to Asana, Pixie, Click-Up, 17 Hats, Karbon and Jet Pack.
Plus I convinced her to bring the elephant back to drink at the Workflow Wateringhole!
We touched on the elements needs for building a lifestyle practice
Explored the importance of creating an ideal client profile
and Kellie shared the tools she uses in her business.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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I explain how the data was interpolated, and Kellie Parks and I discuss what we learn from the surfaced information.

The Accounting Apps newsletters showcases the best recent blog posts from the Accounting Apps community – using insights of your past behaviour, and predictive algorithms it personalises the bite size chunks knowledge and insights delivered into your inbox. The bi-weekly informative, educational newsletter is a must-read for anyone who wants to enhance their knowledge on Accounting Apps.

Subscribe here: http://heathersmithau.com/

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Today I’m speaking with Michael Astreiko CEO of Synder. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Delve into Physics and Maxwell's equations which form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits.
How his own reconciliation pain, led them to develop a reconciliation solution for eCommerce businesses.
The impact has Covid 19 has had on Synder and the clients of your business?
How they unpack customer feedback, and focus on developing features that will have an overall big impact for the end user
Which Disney character inspired the naming of Synder

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Aynsley Damery Founder and CEO of Clarity

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Rolling out business advisory in a typical compliance-based practice.
Making the leap from accounting to founding a technology company
Why business advisory has been so tricky to introduce in the past, and why it is easier now
The Five Steps for offering Business Advisory.
Supporting the Clarity community with education, mindset and technical support
Their giving initiative, through B1G1

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Today I’m speaking with Martha Yasso, Principal of Yasso Books. In this episode, we talk about . . .

The four points of Cash Flow: Cash In, Cash Out, Cash Balance and Time
How to avoid the clients glazed over look when unpacking the small business financials
Conversations to have with clients during these times of a pandemic and uncertainty
Neural Network, their lack of human emotions and their impact on Accounting Technology used today
Pricing for Cash Flow Advisory services
Cash Flow Forecasting Apps Martha likes to use

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Today I’m speaking with Alexandra Bond Burnett Accounting Presenting and Presence Coach of Speaking Ambition

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The importance of communication training for the accounting industry
Recognising how to surface your mojo, to improve your presence
The concept of taking clients on a journey through data storytelling
The Professional Presence Equation = Reveal, Resonate, Retell Represent and Reach
Amplifying your authenticity and the difference between reciting and speaking
The technology stack used in her business – Xero, Zoom, Zapier, Calendly, Practice Ignition

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Kristen Nies Ciraldo, Cloud Advisor and Restaurant Solutionist of the Friday Guide. In this episode, we talk about . . .

In her own words ‘a strange stew of interests that led Kristen to a passion about translating between 'sciencey' or 'mathy' and 'creative' people.'
Her interest in intersections, and entering the world of numbers thru the lens of a restaurateur
Tech stack for independent businesses in the hospitality industry
Field Guides for Restaurateurs, and the myths people have about restaurant people.
How her niche in the hospitality industry developed
The concept of Working Clean, and decluttering mental real estate.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Meryl Johnston, Founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Meryl’s goal of wanting to start and run a business.
We explore why Chartered Accountants launch bookkeeping practices and the importance of clean data.
The impact of public facing accountability, working in public and sharing what you are doing, the highs and the lows in real time.
The Bean Ninja tech stack, which included a few new tools I’d not heard of!
How they nurture continuous learning in the work environment, through a structured Emerging Leaders program, and lunch and learn opportunities.
And Meryl mentioned the book Deep Work by Cal Newport.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Tim Garth and Dan Osborne co-hosts of Two Drunk Accountants podcast. In this episode, we talk about . . .

How Tim’s dad has led a continuous learning culture and is always looking for a ways to make something easier, less friction and more efficient, which has enabled this firm started in the 1970’s, to remain modern and future focused
The Apps Advisory conversation they have with their clients. One of the first things they think about when working with clients, is what do their systems look like. They don’t actively setup apps, but they often get involved in finding the solution.
Using a podcast, to empowering small businesses in a relaxed, open non-judgmental format, so they can share accurate information.
The tech stack of this Central Coast of New South Wales accounting practice.
Building a business around systems and efficiencies
Evolving their advisory journey, to meet their clients’ needs

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Today I’m speaking with Alexi Boyd Director of a Bookkeeping business and host of the Small Biz Matters podcast

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Insights into how she runs her small bookkeeping practice, supporting micro and start-up businesses.
Navigating a dislike for implementing and adopting new technology
How curiosity, a growth mindset and a chance encounter with a radio station manager, was a catalyst for starting her podcast.
How podcasting has helped her develop active listening and multi-tasking skills which she’s brought back into her bookkeeping business
Useful tips for curating and facilitating panels, and why the CEO should not be hosting panel facilitations.
Why it’s important to get involved in small business advocacy

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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I share a few facts and learnings from producing 100 episodes of the Cloud Stories podcast over the last 6 years.

I've interviewed people from Australia, Canada, England, India, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, and USA.

I've interviewed Accountants, Bookkeepers, Cloud Integrators, Country Managers, Evangelists, Founders, General Managers, IT Specialists, Marketing Specialists, Sales Specialists.

I've had around 35 females, and 75 males on the show - yikes! Yes I know I need to strive for improved gender diversity.

I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, and leave us a 5 star rating, as that helps people find us! Also you can subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here: https://www.heathersmithau.com/

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Today I’m speaking with Catherine Walker Community Manager at Xero

In this episode, we talk about . . .

How writing a thesis on the viability of organising information on the internet as part of her Master of Library and Information Studies was a solid foundation for her Community Managers role.
As one of Xero’s earliest employees, realising people were deciding whether to buy Xero over social media and jumping in to respond
What the day to day role of a community manager looks like
Advice for accountants and bookkeepers interacting on social media
Inspirational and funny stories of people Catherine’s met thru the community
Diffusing situations and dealing with negative energy on social media

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Today I’m speaking with Dylan Burgess, Partner Relationship Manager of Float Cash Flow Forecasting. Dylan joined our afternoon community chat, to lead a discussion on Supporting Your Clients and Yourself Through Uncertainty. With the community, we discussed how we could assist our own business, and assist our client’s business. We explored how some people planned for every scenario, while others don’t plan for anything, leaning on the philosophy one plus one equals window. I’ve worked with the team at Float Cash Flow Forecasting for several years, and you can read about the way I work, at http://EndorsementDisclosure.com. Connect with me on twitter at @HeatherSmithAU and sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter, at http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Kevin Fitzgerald Managing Director (Xero, Asia). We're going to talk about 20 trends changing the world of work and transforming the nature of careers in accountancy. These trends are taken from ACCA Professional insight report Future ready: accountancy careers in 2020’s ) For those of you who don’t know ACCA stands for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, it’s a global body for professional accountants, and it has a MOU with both Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand, and Xero, where Kevin works.

Kevin Fitzgerald and I are both Fellows of the ACCA, and we are also both candidates for the ACCA GLOBAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS. From 8th Oct until 12th Nov 2020 ACCA members can vote in the ACCA Global Council elections. If you are a ACCA member, details on how to VOTE 🗳️will be in an email📩 or postal pack📬 sent to you. Links to candidate profiles, including mine and 🧮Heather Smith FCA, FCCA, FICB are there. https://secure.cesvotes.com/V3-0-0/acca20/en/statements?bbp=30202&x=-1

If you are an ACCA member, I encourage you to read the candidate profiles and take time to vote. If you know a ACCA professional, perhaps you could connect or reconnect with them, and share this podcast with them, so they too can get involved and vote.

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'The Future of The Accounting Profession' panel discussion was held as part of the AcuityCon conference for the Acuity Financial Experts team.

The global expert panel included:

Kenji Kuramoto Founder & CEO of Acuity Financial Experts Greater Atlanta Area USA
Michael Ly Entrepreneur | Virtual CFO | Cloud Accounting Executive | Online Bookkeeping | Speaker | Coach | Advisor Burlington, Vermont USA
Nayo Carter-Gray, EA MBA Making Accounting a Little Less Taxing for small business owners | Advanced Certified QuickBooks Online Pro-Advisor | App & Technology Enthusiast Baltimore, Maryland Area USA
Rachel (Leaney) Fisch, CPB Product Evangelist, Accountant Channel at Sage Greater Toronto Area Metropolitan Area Canada!
Will Farnell Accountancy Firm founder (Farnell Clarke) , Keynote Speaker, Author of The Digital Firm and Mentor to Accounting Firms UK!

Some takeaways for me included:

🧮Microsoft Word & Excel are the most popular small business tools

🧮Compliance is not dead ☠️

🧮AI is overhyped

🧮Non-traditional firms will embrace diversity

🧮Modern firms are not old style firms using Accounting Technology

🧮We don't need to worry about QBLive

🧮Paper checks ⁉️

Thank-you Kenji Kuramoto for the opportunity. Thank you to the Acuity team who helped make this possible. Thank-you for listening to Cloud Stories. I hope you enjoyed the show. Can I encourage you to sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter, by visiting http:// HeatherSmithAU. COM

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Beau Gaudron Tech Ninja from Growthwise joins us for a conversations, brainstorm, & ideas exchange, around this topic as part of our afternoon community supporting community chat. This session is a beneficial listening activity for all people working in the SOFTWARE PRODUCT area. Some takeaways for me were:

🔊Make sure that it's not something that you're doing wrong, make sure you've done your research, to ensure there is not another way to tackle the issue ~ Beau Gaudron

🔊 Karla Hourigan Loom's everything! & 🧡 that you can tell if your video has been viewed 👀

🔊Brooke Holmes of Practice Ignition highlighted when they're presented with an issue – they tackle it by Lifting and Digging. The surface issue may not be the problem.

🔊Pitch the feature and make the case for it worthwhile. Recognise there is a cost for them in fixing an issue, so they need to be able to justify the expenditure. (from me )

Find me on Twitter at HeatherSmithAU and please subscribe to the podcast.

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Today I’m speaking with Alison Ball Director of Marketing and Influencer Strategy for Liscio, Inc. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Her new role at a category breaking app Liscio
Designing Customer Experience 2.0
Building and Growing a Community
Influencer Marketing and activities one can undertake to be an ‘influential thought leaders’
The concepts of Hive Mind and Adjacent Possibility
As well as exploring all things around community building and influencer marketing

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with David Leary Director of Accounting and Bookkeeping Evangelism of Melio Payments. In this episode, we talk about . . . • The impact Covid19 has had on Apps and how they can not only survive, but thrive. • My favourite Accounting podcast – The Cloud Accounting podcast with his co-host Blake Oliver and all things podcasting. • How the B2B payables and receivables solutions Melio Payments eliminates the need for checks. • Why Apps should be focused on adding tools and features that help accountants work with multiple clients using the solution. • Has a black swan event changed his thoughts on niching? • The origin story of naming his side business Sombrero Apps. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Martin Zych CEO & Co-founder of Jirav

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Building Jirav, as the solution Martin needed while working as a CFO throughout his career
Interpreting and commenting on the business data, sharing nuggets of knowledge and wisdom, and adding value to your client's engagement.
The recent Series A Funding raise and what that means to Jirav.
I learnt the term "Cannon Ball in the pool" – Jump in and sign up for a trial.
Why Martin thinks we should all read The Hard Thing about Hard Things
Giraffes are actually Martin's favourite animal!

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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This is a bonus episode. It is a How-To Session, How to use Microsoft SharePoint for Accountants and Bookkeepers. The session is aimed at an existing user, so sits at an Intermediate or Advanced level.

This was a visual presentation, but I feel there is learning to be had from the audio, so have trimmed the audio and am publishing it for you. If you need the visuals – jump across to my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/Uz63S2qLlGge channel to watch the session and remember to subscribe while you are there.

The session is led by Karla Hourigan who runs a practice called Infinesse in Victoria and has a particular interest in Technology in Accounting. The presenter was David Jackson from Ripped Orange https://www.rippedorange.co.nz/ a Microsoft Training and Technology company based out of New Zealand.

This was run as part of our afternoon community supporting community initiative – if you need to decompress and connect with your community – please join us at 4pm every day for a chat.

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Today I’m speaking with Brian Walsh, Country Manager ANZ of TOA Global formerly known as The Outsourced Accountants as part of our Community supporting Community afternoon chat.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Culture has become a bit of a buzz word these days: When you refer to the word culture, what do you mean?
Why is culture important within and organisation?
Do ping pong tables, branded T-Shirts, and doughnut Fridays equal culture?
How do you nurture a healthy, supportive and strong culture while working remotely?
How do we support our remote teams, even when maybe they are not asking for help?
Does a strong culture pressure people to conform and be compliant? Can you have disagreements, and still be part of the team?
We currently have a spectrum of a traditional office, coworking space, through to working remotely in isolation. How do you manage team culture, when they may all be more productive and effective, in different environments?
Which comes first: great people who establish a healthy culture, or a healthy culture that attracts great people?
For people working remotely within a company, how do they positively influence company culture? Perhaps, how do they influence upwards?
“Leadership is absolutely about inspiring action, but it is also about guarding against mis-action.” - Simon Sinek. What recourse do you need to do if someone starts messing with the culture
If a business owner is listening to this, and they recognise that they have to do work on their business culture, what is the first task you suggest they do?
If a business owner is listening to this, and they recognise that they have to do work on their business culture, but also feel their mental health is struggling during the pandemic, what would you suggest they do?
What can geese teach us about culture and teamwork?

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Today I’m speaking with Robert Hudman Managing Director of Knight Solutions

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The benefits of a Digital Construction Strategy
The Toolbox of technology tools for the Construction Industry
The distinction between the operational and accounting areas of a construction business
Why Procore is his chosen platform for the construction industry
Using the in-house developed Procore Health Check to identify opportunities for improvement
The future of the construction industry

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Today I’m speaking with John Knight, Founder and MD of businessDepot

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The importance of taking the human approach to business
A Collective referrals network
The growth in micro and sole practitioners and how businessDepot is positioning itself to support them
Correcting Entrepreneurs burnout and The Mongolian Glow
Caring for Clients through Collaboration, Co-operation, Conversations, a Collective initiative, and Community
The importance of Branding and the Marketing Washing machine

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Today I’m speaking with Will Lopez, Head of Accountant Community of Gusto

As you may recall, Will came on the podcast only a few months ago, but today he’s back to talk about a new initiative that Gusto are launching, called People Advisory™ powered by Gusto. Gusto is based in the USA describes itself as an all-in-one people platform. There are five different elements of this announcement

Gusto Pro.
People Advisory Certification.
People Advisory Tech Stack.
Advisory Hub.
People Advisory Playbook.

I found it interesting talking to him about how when he was working in his modern practice Advisorfi, he recognised he was not equipped to offer People Advisory. Through joining Gusto, he’s helping his younger self, and other advisors in the community to provide this service, and in turn help small business.

I think that it’s smart for Technology solutions to engage with modern advisors to design and deliver education for the community. Being nimble and upskilling with microcredentials, or nanodegrees, helps bridge learning gaps.

Plus I always encourage the Accounting and Business apps community to drip-feed educational content, and its great to see Will and the Gusto team recognise that too, and are empowering their community through education.

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Today I’m speaking with Yoseph West Founder and CEO of the Virtual Bank Relay. In this episode, we talk about . . .

The genesis of starting a virtual bank.
What accountants and bookkeepers should expect from a modern future-focused virtual bank.
The information the small business owner is interested in, that they understand, and where they are accessing it from
The power accountants and bookkeepers have to influence SMB technology.
Cybersecurity, both in terms of running a virtual bank, and the team working remotely during Covid19.
What’s your favourite bank heist movie? For Yoseph it’s Baby Driver, for me it’s probably Ocean’s 8, with special mention to the King of Bank Heist movies – Michael Caine.

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Today’s episode is not centred around Accounting Technology, let me explain what I have lined up, and you can assess whether you are going to listen in, or skip over it.

During Covid19 every afternoon I have facilitated a 4pm community chat to help support the community’s mental health and wellbeing. I recognised that many of us would have clients who are facing the reality of closing their business.

I invited Jarvis Archer a Liquidator at Revive Financial, to join our community chat and help us, help our clients navigate these challenging times. Jarvis is based in Australia, and I imagine some of what he shares, is Australian specific. However, saying that I think you’ll still benefit to listening to the episode. I think it will help you identify concerns, help your clients navigate their journey, and ask informed questions.

Please understand, the audio is stripped from a FaceBook Live stream, so it’s not the highest quality audio that I like to share with you.

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Today I’m speaking with Troy Brown Director and co-founder of XBert

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The impact the GFC had on his first business, and how that was a catalyst for creating XBert.
The importance of data integrity and visibility
The three-way collaboration and conversation between the accountant, bookkeeper and small business owner
How they are proactively listening to the audience and building in feature requests.
How a strong marketing background helps them design a beautiful, simple and intuitive solution.
Adapting the XBert checklists for their own customed uses.

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Today I’m speaking with Ian Christie, CEO & Founder of BOMA Marketing

In this episode, we talk about . . .

How the BOMA platform works, and how it intersects with Xero.
How businesses can differentiate themselves if they’re all accessing the same content
The impact on SEO if multiple businesses are using the same content.
How accountants and bookkeepers can support their clients through digital marketing
The origin story, and the lead up to and their huge launch at Xerocon.
How can they entwine digital marketing and their online presence, to help clients appreciate their value?

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This is a bonus episode recorded for the beginning of the Australian Financial Year.

Ollie Beale, Apprentice at Bookkeeping4U joined as a special guest of the Afternoon Community Supporting Community chat. You can register for future chats here or watch a live stream here.

This episode is date specific, so you may want to skip ahead to the 21 minutes mark if you just want to hear the inspirational interview with Ollie Beale.

Here are links to other resources I talked about in the episode

Find out about CAANZ Tax checklists here and about what ACCA are doing in the SME space here.

Here is the #NaturesWalkCAL blanket I am crocheting with the family.

Fabriq an app to help you intentionally keep in touch with people. You add people you want to be reminded to connect with, and you have three circles inner, through to outer circle. It gently reminds you to reconnect. I use the free version. Here's a referral link to get you free time on the pro version. I think. It costs $8.99 a month

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Today I’m speaking with Jamie Beresford Founder and CEO of Practice Protect and Fresh Method. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Accountants and IT Specialists interpret the word ‘Cloud’ differently … and this could be wasting your firm money
How technology has changed for accountants and where accounting professionals can identify cost savings and efficiencies in IT
Security considerations accountants and bookkeepers need to adopt when working virtually or working from home
What Jamie learnt the Accounting Profession during Covid 19
How he manages his team virtually while working abroad in Bali and the Philippines
How flexible work conditions may be adopted in the future
How the book ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins had a profound effect on my thinking and that’s why he takes a long term approach to commercial relationships.

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Today I’m speaking with Rosemary King, Head of Product at of Float

In this episode, we talk about . . .

How to find opportunities that stretch and challenge you in new directions
How you go get the lay of the land and establish a plan for moving forward when you take on a prominent role in an established company.
What factors influence product designers
Choosing to work with people, teams and businesses that embrace receptivity.
How you empower staff to solve their own problems
What does diversity in the workplace mean to Rosemary and why it is important

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Today I’m speaking with Shanu Mehta Co-Founder of MMC Convert

In this episode, we talk about . . .

The four types of Entrepreneurs: Builder, Opportunist, Specialist, Innovator
Surreptitiously meeting an accounting legend on her honeymoon, which changed the course of the business.
The importance of quality historical data, for advisory
How India is navigating the Covid19 pandemic
Improving the financial literacy of females and freeing them from oppressive situations
How they will connect with the community, now that there are no IRL events planned for 2020.

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Today I’m speaking with Liz Mason, CEO + Founder of multiple businesses including High Rock. In this episode, we talk about . . .

CPA World Domination
Kaizen the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement
With creative ideas and giant goals, Liz explains how she manages to juggle so many big projects
Measuring your value – how to price for Modern Practices.
How to build an amazing team
The complexities of accounting for the cannabis industry
How to creatively compensate your team.

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Today I’m speaking with Lee Duffield, General Manager of All in Advisory. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Choosing the best of breed in software for a 100% modern future-focused cloud-based firm
Helping their clients use innovative modern tools through App Advisory
How vendors can connect with accountants and bookkeepers through drip-feeding content across social media
How they scope, select implement and review accounting technology.
Being part of a 100% female-owned and led accounting practice.
Why female panellists at industry events are important

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Amy Holdsworth, CEO & Founder of Clarity Street

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Recommendations for someone wanting to start a modern future-focused cloud practice.
Fast and Furious implementations that could provide some quick capacity wins
Juggling change management, how to get the decision-makers across the line?
Advice for someone in an old school firm that wants to automate, modernise and move to the cloud.
How do you reposition the client lifecycle and get the most out of your software!
How her side hustle, Red Coat Cake, helps her keep current with some different technology tools.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I’m speaking with Luis Sanchez, General Manager of Receipt Bank Australia

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Luis childhood in Guatemala, Mexico and Argentina, through to Harvard Business School and now in Sydney, where he enjoys the community role of a Nippers Age Manager at the local surf club.
How Team Orange the Receipt Bank team are navigating the Covid 19 pandemic
Common traits of successful modern accountants and bookkeepers
The necessary pivots required when online accounting solutions roll out receipt scanning features
Universal functionality that could be built into Receipt Bank help all small businesses – what do you think that could be?
Technology tools Luis uses for business and pleasure – including Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, Netflix & Amazon and of course Receipt Bank.

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Today I’m speaking with Will Lopez Head of Accountant Community at Gusto

In this episode, we talk about

Why you should “Educate, Guide Now, and Earn Later” during the Global Crisis
What is involved in the role of a community Manager, and how Will is empowering the community
How Truly Lazy people can Make Multiple Pieces of Content?
How Accountants and Bookkeepers can step into an advisor role mid-and-post Covid 19.
The resources and support Gusto has provided to their community during these challenging times
and of course, we talk about kayaking with giant alligators in the Everglades because it's Will Lopez!

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We are going through quite challenging times, and I’ve asked Nick, as a leader in the EcoSystem space to join me to share his insights and perspectives on:

How businesses in the ecosystem can pivot, pirouette, or adapt to the Covid 19 crisis
We also discuss the challenges of keeping a remote workforce productive and engaged during such stressful times.
What he has learnt from working from home
How Apps could support their clients during Covid 19,
How Unleashed had built a market place to try and match and helps its client base find new customers
How Kounta had built-in online ordering into its Point of Sale system.
How Deputy had built a contactless check-in system, to minimise the transfer of the virus
and how Apps are effectively communicating with their overwhelmed client base.

If you’re listening to this podcast, and you’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed, like getting through the day, is like walking through mud, please remember you’re not alone. Please reach out for support. Be it Lifeline, your professional association, a friend, or one of the many online forums. It is highly stressful times, and your community is here to help you navigate through this pandemic.

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Today I’m speaking with Ryan Lazanis Founder of Future Firm. In this episode, we talk about . . .

How do you create the best customer experience possible.
How you create a scalable modern firm that can sell.
Helping firms implement a strategic plan, set up goals, and maintain focus.
Some of his favourite technology tools, including Team Works, Xero, Practice Ignition, Spark Hire, Zoom, and Slack.
Using blogging to market to and attract client of a particular personality type.
How firms can benefit from gig economy accounting.

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Paul Murray co-founder of Account – Kit joined me to talk about . . .

His surprisingly in-depth knowledge of Disneyland and his background as a computer game artist,
the ongoing challenges of modernising a server-based practice, and
Building tools needed for the Accounting Practice - Murray Business Solutions and commercialising them into a solution called Account Kit
Leveraging his background as a computer game artist, to build gamification into Account-Kit
The different tools found in Account Kit, including the inter-entity loan reconciliation, and client mapping tool.
The Adelaide Tech Users Club

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Lance Rubin of Model Citizn joined me to talk about . . .

The journey from being a Chartered Accountant to a Cash Flow Financial Modeller
How Lance tackles simple financial modelling problems to make an informed, relevant and purposeful decision with insight.
And yet - with all the data and technology – why making decisions is still difficult
Questions accountants can ask their clients and
How businesses can utilise modelling to prepare for uncertain times
Plus, the different technology Lance uses for data modelling, including DataDear, Power BI, Etani Business Platform, Tableau

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Natalie Lennon from Two Sides Accounting joined me to talk about . . .

How she started a 100% cloud-based practice
What Accounting Apps she uses to Automate her practice
How she offers Apps Advisory to her clients
How she is using Zapier to connect a number of solutions
Natalie's commitment to helping the Love Mercy Foundation and the Cents for Seeds program for each new client onboarded.

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Today I’m speaking with serial entrepreneur Michael Ly - CEO of a number of businesses including Reconciled

In this episode, we talk about . . .

How Michael stays focused on working on his businesses, rather than in his businesses.
The complexities of navigating different cultures in the work environment,
How starting a new business gets easier each time, as you learn from past experiences.
Michael sharing how his upbringing, in the hot desert of Arizona by Cambodian refugees, impacted his approach
The structure of his online bookkeeping and advisory firm The Accounting and Business tools he uses
Michael’s philosophy of 'Always be Learning'.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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Today I am speaking with David Cristello CEO and Founder from JetPack Workflow

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Why he created a company to build a Workflow and CRM solution for practices
What some of his favourite features and reports are within JetPack Workflow
The importance of asking better questions, to uncover real issues.
The longest milkshake analogy ever told on an accounting podcast!
Also, we heard about an atomic habit that David has adopted, and from that discussion I’ve followed James Clear on twitter
And David expressed his interest in understanding if practices really examined their own capacity. If you have thoughts on that – send him a message on Twitter at @DaveCristello not David, just Dave….

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Today I am speaking with Nick Sinclair from TOA Global. In this episode, we talk about

* What outsourcing and offshoring are, and what they involve

* The different size business models leveraging offshoring

* the importance of building offshoring into your people strategy, and incorporating ongoing training for all staff

Why TOA Global choose to base their operations in the Philippines, and how they prepare for natural disasters.
The ethical concerns people have about offshoring.
The typical life cycle of a practice utilising offshoring
How to maintain a healthy work-life balance when over a third of the year is spent travelling

Contact Details

W: www.theoutsourcedaccountant.com

T: https://twitter.com/nickqsinclair

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicksinclair/

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Brad Ewin from GoCardless shares his Top Ten Tips for Writing Better Content.

Have it all in the intro
Write long
Edit short
Tell the story with
headers
Provide key takeaways
Always have a CTA
Draft 15 headlines
Create a curiosity gap
Make it readable
Don't be a perfectionist

I also want to let you know that I’ve created the Accounting App Content Creator Facebook group – An educational environment for inspiring and facilitating content generation around the specialist theme of Accounting Apps. Your welcome to join.

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Jeri Wambeek in her own words:

Having owned 3 businesses, myself from a young age, coming from a very entrepreneurial family, I live for helping business owners succeed in finding the best way forward and solving complex problems with simple solutions. As a fully qualified accountant and former tax agent, I stumbled into the world of cloud solutions when I discovered Xero in 2009 and have never looked back. Immersing myself in cloud solutions and the Add On ecosystem surrounding Xero and QuickBooks Online, WhichAddon was inevitably born in 2015 when I knew business owners and cloud advisors around the world were going to need to help to find the right cloud solutions and implement them without all the headaches.

Over the years of accounting, cloud conversions and implementations, we have learned what it takes to move to the cloud. Our proven systems provide clean and clear data migration and optimisation, customised training, transition support and ongoing customer care. WhichAddOn We help proactive entrepreneurs grow their profitable business, one awesome cloud software system at a time!

WhichAddOn has one purpose: to educate businesses and their advisors on how to find, understand and implement the best cloud software solutions for their business.

Jeri and Marlon have 35+ years combined experience in business, accounting, system analysis and business consultancy. Separately they have run our own businesses and managed finance divisions for others. We have both worked in public practice and the commercial accounting arena. They both discovered Xero and the Xero ecosystem back in 2009. Together Jeri and Marlon joined forces in July 2015 to create WhichAddOn. They have both been lovers of learning since we were young, but more importantly love to share everything it is that we learn that is useful so that others can benefit from the process. WhichAddOn lives to educate and empower others to share from our experience and knowledge to find the right solution for any business.

Connect with her here: whichaddon.com https://twitter.com/whichaddon https://www.linkedin.com/company/whichaddon-com https://twitter.com/jeri_murph https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerimurphy/

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Today I am speaking with Ben Thompson from Employment Hero In this episode we talk about

How he combines his economic law background with a love of technology
How his solutions enable small businesses to offer employees benefits, which are typically only afforded to the larger firms.
What fascinates him about building employment related businesses – that combine technology with people management?
The concept psychology principal of Reward and Recognition – to create a positive workplace culture everybody should receive four times more positive feedback, than negative feedback,
Some of the technology tools he uses, including GSuite, and Evernote
some of his favourite business books, including Verne Harnish.

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Today I am speaking with Martin Peirce from Zahara Software. In this episode, we talk about:

The importance of controlling and managing spend in an organisation

*The benefits of a good supplier relationship.

Martin likens his business partnership to that of Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams of Take That!
The reduction in processing time recognised from adopting a digital workflow.
The type of clients suited to using digital purchasing controls, including NFP’s, multi-sites, construction for project control, and retail stores for departmental control.
Zahara is named after a Spanish town, where Martin’s business partner lived.

Martin Peirce

As CEO and founder of Zahara I am passionate about software development and creating systems that simplify business process. My teenage years spent programming my BBC Micro eventually found influence in my career after many years in property sales and business solutions sales.

I designed Zahara back in 2015 and we launched it a year or so later. It now has a global user base of organisations managing and controlling their spend. Each new feature and refinement is as a result of my team and I listening carefully to what prospective and current customers want, to improve their finance function. Our experience in AP automation, document management and software-development has helped make Zahara a great success story. Bootstrapping Zahara has been great fun, but challenging. The future looks to be exciting.

C2S continues to deliver support and professional services in the fields of AP automation and document management. Our affordable solutions work great with Sage 50, Xero & Quickbooks. We concentrate on the larger SME space dealing predominantly with multi-site, expanding organisations.

Zahara Software

Zahara is a cloud-based application to enable business to manage and control their spend. It provides the finance team with a complete visual of purchase requests that will soon follow into purchase orders and vendor invoices. Zahara is perfect for indirect costs. For the multi-site organisation or those running numerous projects at the same time. For us it’s not about stock and raw materials. It’s for those organisations like hospitality, leisure groups, care home groups, schools, restaurant chains, construction and electrical.

Thank you for listening to Cloud Stories. I hope you enjoyed the show. Can I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter, by visiting https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/

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Today I am speaking with Cameron Lynch founder of Etani Business Platform

Cameron is a Chartered Accountant and the founder of the Etani Business Platform. He believes he can help businesses survive and prosper in today’s disruptive environment.

Cameron is experienced with Business Intelligence (BI), Analytics, Big Data and implementing cloud-based solutions to streamline reporting systems.

Live data has a significant role to play in assisting businesses to make wiser decisions, both now and in the future. Cameron’s passion is driven by the concept of creating vehicles to help businesses and individuals prosper.

Cameron worked previously in Consolidated Financial Reporting. Every month, a team of accountants would send the subsidiary financial accounting data to existing, pre-filled tabs on numerous Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for consolidation.

While this may sound like smooth sailing, all it would take is for one person to hit the wrong key in the wrong cell, paste data into an incorrect tab, or add an additional column, without updating the SUM formula, and everything was corrupted. It was impossible to retain the integrity of all the accumulated data.

Imagine this scenario:
You walk into a meeting with your Board of Directors, armed only with your phone, tablet or laptop, containing live consolidated management reports. Your device can continually review all marketing, sales, finance and operational data in one place at any time. You can access updated information and answer all questions raised in the meeting, saving everybody a great deal of time and providing invaluable accurate insights.

Finally, Cameron has created a diverse new system, the culmination of years of experience, searching, testing, learning and an overwhelming passion to be the best.

How does the Etani Business Platform help accountants?

When you couple Etani and Microsoft Power BI, you have a powerful system to help accountants in many different ways:

Etani provides your SME and small corporate clients with the best analytics software in the world. They have full access to live business insights simply by using their phone, tablet or desktop.
Accounting firms are enabled effectively do Power BI analysis at scale
You can extract data from third party SaaS software. Xero, MYOB, Quickbooks Online, Workflow Max, SimPro, Dear inventory, and many more. Live data is then streaming straight into your client’s dashboards
The Etani Bootcamp gives you 5 x 2 hour training sessions on BI in-house. Unlimited staff can attend or do the training online at your own pace. There’s plenty of on-going training available.

Templates:
Etani has created a lengthy list of templates you can use inside Power BI. These cover sales analysis, budgeting, cashflow analysis, and various other scenarios. This template library continues to grow. Instead of your client struggling to make their own templates for each aspect of their work, these have been created for them, saving thousands of hours.

Client delivery vehicle:
Etani embeds your reports and dashboards into your own branded application. These are available on Desktops, iPhones, iPads, Androids and Tablets for your clients to use.

There are numerous benefits of doing this.
• Your clients don’t need a Power BI Pro account (at a cost of $12.70 per month per user) to use the business insights.
• You retain control of your IP.
• The client can’t take the Power BI work you have done to another accountant.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

How his training to be an accountant, and understanding of cash flow has equipped him to run a business
How Etani and Microsoft Power BI help practices deliver advisory services to SME’s.
The two main reasons, Cameron thinks users love Power BI
The different data sources clients want, beyond Financial data
The most successful rollouts of Etani Business Platform and Power BI are undertaken by firms charging a monthly fee, productising their offering, and benefitting from recurring revenue.
And I have included in the show notes a link to The International Federation of Accountants post stating that the reported balance sheet only reflects 20% of what is happening in the business and a link to those Trello templates.

Thank you for listening to Cloud Stories. I hope you enjoyed the show. Can I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter, by visiting

https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/

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In this episode, I talk to Tim Hoopmann from Spinn Business Solutions and Joseph Robins from GoCardless about the upcoming Accounting Business Expo, in Sydney March 20 & 21st at the International Convention Centre.

We discuss how to get the most out of attending the conference
What we shall be talking about in our panel session “How to Pick the Best Apps to Drive Your Business Advisory Service”

Spurred on by Joseph’s past life we also shared our favourite cult movies – what’s yours?

Sessions Tim Hoopmann shall be speaking at

How to Pick The Best Apps To Drive Your Business Advisory Service - Wednesday, 14.40 pm

With Joseph Robins, Tim Hoopmann, Bryan Williams, and Heather Smith

Automate To Survive And Handle More Customers, More Easily - Thursday, 10.05 am

How to Create a Mentally Healthy Business - Thursday, 11.15 am

Create The Perfect Daily Schedule For A Bookkeeping Firm - Thursday, 12.25 pm

###### Tim Hoopmann Biography

Experienced founder with a demonstrated history growing small business. Strong entrepreneurship and professionally skilled in Business Planning, Cloud Technology, Sales, Marketing, Retail, and Operations Management.
A passion for helping small business use technology as a key enabler to increase productivity and decrease costs.

###### Joseph Robins Biography

Joe has been with fintech rising star GoCardless since its early days and now leads their latest expansion into the Australian and New Zealand markets. Joe brings extensive knowledge of the payments landscape to his work with accountancy firms, helping them improve and grow the ways they collect recurring revenue.

Sessions Heather Smith shall be speaking at

Tips, Tools and Techniques for Management Accounting In a Digital World - Weds, 13.30 pm

Community, Social Media And Finding Your Tribe - Wednesday, 13.30 pm

I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter, by visiting HeatherSmithSmallBusiness.com/newsletter.

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I was interviewed about Accounting Technology on the Tax Wrap podcast.

Steve Burnham and I talked about:

What are cloud-based app solutions?
Can you compare traditional accounting software and cloud-based software?
What are some business intelligence tools that a practice can make use of?
With the cloud-based solutions, are there some SMSF or compliance tools that a practice can make use of?
How do you see the adoption of automation and cloud apps changing the role of the accountant in Australia?
Tell us about some new features or releases that have caught your eye recently.

The transcript is here:

Steve Burnham: Thanks for being with us, Heather. I'm very pleased to talk to you. First of all, I suppose, just to clarify for our membership, for our audience ... It's not just members who are listening in. Can you fill us in?

What are cloud-based app solutions? Heather Smith: Steve, thank you so much for having me on your show. Very excited to be here. And what are cloud-based app solutions? Great question. You have a number of different type of cloud-based app solutions. The essential one is one that is integrated, it's sitting on the internet, which is what we call the cloud, and you potentially can connect into that and the data can connect into that, flow through it and then potentially flow through to another solution. You also have in that same sort of area when we talk about cloud-based app solutions, you also have cloud-based triggers. So something can happen in one area and cause a trigger action to populate another area. So and what I would call that is a tool. So you have a tool like Zapier and something happens in one area and it triggers something to happen, such as-

Steve Burnham: Remotely.

Heather Smith: No, not necessarily remotely. So say someone comes and fills out a form on your website. That could trigger that information to be pushed into your newsletter form, and so it's not necessarily going to flow ... the information is not going to flow back and it's not going to do anything other than just push it across there. But a cloud-based app solution can ... Typically, it's going to automate tasks, and a small business under takes about 50 to 70 tasks as part of the business, and it may automate just 1 of those task or it may automate multiple tasks.

Steve Burnham: And more the better, I suppose.

Heather Smith: Absolutely. More the better that we can get automated. That's what we like.

Steve Burnham: Okay. Look, Heather, just to ... Our membership from surveys that we've done in the past are ... 45% of us are 60 or older, and 68% of us are male. We're a little bit behind the eight ball as far as knowing what the modern solutions are.

Can you compare traditional accounting software and cloud-based software? Heather Smith: Okay, so I spent a long time working with desktop software, and now I primarily sit with the cloud accounting software. With your desktop software, some of the functionalities are going to be the same through the two solutions because it is accounting software. What you have with your desktop software, you may have purchased it and you no longer need to pay any money to update it, or you may simply pay money to update it for your tax tables when the certain features come out that you need to update, say maybe on an annual basis. Typically, with your cloud-based software, you're actually paying on a subscription basis. Now, the desktop software, the data is typically sitting on your computer, which is fine. However, you need to be responsible for backing it up and you need to be aware if you have a fire or theft what's actually happening with that data.

Steve Burnham: Of course.

Heather Smith: With the cloud-based solution, the data is held in the cloud, and with various different accounting solutions and cloud app solutions out there, it will be held in various different places and that's probably something you need to be aware of. But typically, for the main ones, for the major players in the market, it's held in an area that has a jurisdiction that has very similar laws over safety and security of data that we have here in Australia.

Heather Smith: And also, the data is being backed up in the cloud-based solution and it's typically backed up to various different areas. So if an issue happens in one place, then there's normally recovery sites happening as well. So that's important to be aware of. But one of the provisos if you actually read the terms and conditions of cloud-based app solutions is to take responsibility for your own backup. Many people don't, but that is something to be aware of.

Heather Smith: One of the other things is, with your desktop solution, whenever there is an update, you have to manually install and process and implement the update. Whereas, with your cloud-based app solutions the update comes through automatically. You aren't even aware it's happening there.

Steve Burnham: That sounds like a real benefit to start with.

Heather Smith: Yes. Now, one of the major things that is different between your desktop solution and your cloud app online accounting solution is a thing known as bank feeds. What happens is your bank accounts ... And we're talking, there's thousands and thousands of bank accounts who have enabled this to happen. The actual transactions from the bank feed flow into the accounting system automatically overnight. So there's no longer the need to manually enter any of that data. It flows into your accounting system overnight. Whereas with your desktop solution, you had to manually enter that, and typically you were manually entering and reconciling it on a monthly basis, and the access to real time data was a lot slower in a desktop solution. Whereas with an online solution, very much the access to the data is very real time. If there's a long weekend, we may be talking a couple of days old, but in most cases it's very realistic that what you're looking at is what's actually happening in-

Steve Burnham: It's real time. I mean, are there other benefits from cloud-based app solutions?

Heather Smith: There are lots of benefits of using your cloud-based app solutions. One of them is the ability, the flexibility of not actually having to be tied to a desk. You can actually work from anywhere. So I actually have a friend who's just arrived in Amsterdam and he's running his 12 person accounting practice, but he'll be doing it from Amsterdam where he's holidaying with his family for a while.

Steve Burnham: Fantastic.

Heather Smith: Absolutely. One of the things is, when we do move to the cloud I see a lot of people taking what we call a worcation, which is a longer vacation, which they do a bit of work on, but because they do a bit of work they can actually stay overseas significantly longer.

Heather Smith: We also see the benefits ... And one of the benefits that you may not be aware of is because you're moving to a cloud, you no longer need a server. And also one of the things we encourage is to move to a paperless office so you no longer need printers, so you actually save a lot of space in terms of the server, in terms of the printer. And there's a lot of statistical data, I think if you look at the Australian Bureau of Statistics coming out, that says that people over the last decade are actually spending a lot less money. Businesses over the last decade are actually spending a lot less money on hardware, and they're actually spending it on cloud apps.

Heather Smith: But what that means is, you need less space in the office for all of this hardware, for this server. You need less insurance so you're actually reducing your expenses. Plus you've got people able to work from anywhere so you actually need less office space. So it reduces a lot of costs, but because you're able to access and process things a lot faster it also releases a lot of capacity in the firm so you can actually increase your revenue. I know it sounds almost magical, but the implementation benefits you both in terms of reducing expenses but also increasing revenue.

Steve Burnham: Yeah, it's amazing. I've just had a thought. I mean, it's a real mobile office, what you're talking about. No printers or desks or anything. And another plus would be no working out depreciation tables every year at tax time. Every business owner would like that.

Heather Smith: The depreciation tables. Yeah. So Xero, as an online accounting solution ... I just mention that one because it has ... Within the actual solution it actually has the depreciation tables, and you set up all of the rules and you click a button and it comes through every month. And what that means is the small business owner is recognising and seeing their actual depreciation on a monthly basis, rather than at the end of the financial year when it's overlaid and pushed back into the financial data. So yeah, it makes it really easy. And I know that for that particular one, the depreciation table, my tax accountant ... He does the depreciation in a very fancy a depreciation schedule machine that he had, and it came out to about one cent different to mine. So he's like, "I'll stop doing using my expensive depreciation tool and just start using what's within Xero."

Steve Burnham: Speaking of the end of ... Heather, use of tools within a practice.

What are some business intelligence tools that a practice can make use of? Heather Smith: Okay. So in terms of business intelligence tools, what these are doing is helping you strive to assist your clients and give them further insights into what they're actually doing. So I'm going to mention three tools here. The first one I'm going to mention is DataDear. And what this does is it connects to your online accounting solution, be it QuickBooks or be it Xero, and it extracts the data into spreadsheets. So you have it sitting in your spreadsheets and within the spreadsheet you can either manipulate it, maybe do some three-way forecasting, maybe do some graphs, maybe update the information, and you can use that as a report. Or you can push it back up into the online accounting solution so you can actually use it to update the solution. So that's what's known as a tool.

Heather Smith: Another great application of that is if you had three files, perhaps a few Xero files and a few QuickBooks online files, you could actually have all the data download into the one spreadsheet and then add it altogether. So you have multi entities adding together, which is especially useful when you've got complex business relationships or you have franchises and they want to see all the information in one place.

Steve Burnham: What was the name of that tool, sorry?

Heather Smith: DataDear. Yeah. So that's a cool tool that gets all the data into Excel, and accountants generally love playing in Excel and manipulating data. So it brings it out of that structured framework so you can just play with it and do what you actually need to create the reports, the pivot tables, the three-way forecasts that you need to do.

Heather Smith: But moving on from that, there's another sensational tool called Float, which is a detailed cash flow forecasting solution. But what it does is it focuses on producing a short to mid-term, operational cash flow forecasting. You plug it into the online accounting solution. You refine what you've got there, you reconcile your books, you refine what you've got there, and what that's doing is giving you the ability to talk to your client about the next 13 weeks, through to the next three years. Are there any things that they need to be aware of? Are there things that they can take advantage of? Do they need to be open to potentially preparing to have a loan in place if things are going to be stressful in the next few weeks? But what you're doing by giving them that information is you're giving them the ability to actually think about it rather than just put on blinkers and not think about it.

Steve Burnham: You mentioned a third one?

Heather Smith: And then another solution is Maus Business Solutions, which is a company based out of Sydney. And what they do is they assist the accountant, if they want to do this, in both providing the software solution and the education about becoming maybe an advisor. And so, what they do is they have lots of different avenues to point you along. So they can assist with doing a needs gap analysis of the accounting solution and identifying areas of improvement, or they can assist with taking the information and creating it into a business plan. And there's lots of checklists with that solution that assist you, that help you ask questions around it, and help the accountant understand their actual client by delving deeper into what's happening there.

Heather Smith: So that was a spectrum of different solutions and ways to tackle situations. What we're seeing in the accounting industry is there's a lot of cloud app solutions taking over the clerical roles, scanning bills and receipts, automating a lot of that side of it. But what it's doing is it's shifting the role of the accountant up towards offering the ability to offer more advisory work, if they want to, if that's where they want to.

Heather Smith: What I see is two things. One, they have the ability to take on a lot more clients and just do the same thing, but significantly more. Three to four times more, and as I watched the wave come through, it's quite surprising when people say, "I used to have 12 clients. I now have 80 clients and I couldn't imagine when I had 12 clients I would have 80 clients." So they're actually able to significantly either increase their client base, or what I always say is grow your clients and actually do more with your clients. So you either have lots of little fish or a few big fish-

Steve Burnham: And as the fish grow bigger they want to do more things and all that sort of thing. It all makes sense.

Heather Smith: And that can get really exciting, and if that's where you want to go, you've got the opportunity and there's a lot of tools that you can just lean on to assist you in doing this.

Steve Burnham: Heather, we also represent quite a few SMSF trustees. There's about 30% of our membership, but it's growing. There's more and more SMSFs around all the time.

With the cloud-based solutions, are there some SMSF or compliance tools that a practice can make use of? Heather Smith: Absolutely. In fact, I was just signing off on my own SMSF just before we got on the call. So one of the solutions I've used for many, many years is BGL Corporation Solutions, which is Simple Fund 360. Now, many people may be aware it used to be a desktop solution, but they now have it fully integrated in cloud-based solutions. So you can potentially be still using the desktop, but the cloud-based solution has all of the bank feeds that I was talking about before, plus it has feeds coming in from all different areas that you actually need for a self-managed Superfund.

Heather Smith: The benefits are that the client can jump in and see all of the reports, see all of the graphical representation, there's a lot of nice graphs in there, while the accountant and the auditor are reviewing what they need to on their side of it. Plus it's populating with all the necessary information from share movements, dividends, franking, etc. That just automates and populates because they've got these fantastic feeds in there. And the Simple Fund 360 has really embraced machine learning and automation within their tool. So it really makes it a lot simpler, easier to use, and actually spend your time with your tax accountant or your self-managed Superfund accountant talking to them rather than answering questions about the nitty gritty.

Steve Burnham: And all the compliance things. And I suppose it would make the annual audit a lot easier too, especially if the third party auditor is switched on and keyed in to the-

Heather Smith: Absolutely. So in terms of auditing and when it comes to the cloud solutions, both in the self-managed Superfund space and if we look at the online accounting space, with your ... What you're able to do is actually upload documentation or push documentation in. So with my self-managed Superfund, all of my documents are in there and my superannuation accountant loves me for that. With my online accounting, all of your clients can upload their documentation using a solution like Receipt Bank, which scans all of your receipts and your bills. It extracts the data and it pushes it up, and the document actually attaches to the transaction.

Heather Smith: So now the auditor swoops in. And typically when an auditor comes along they've got various things to check, but then they spot check various things. So perhaps they do 20 spot checks. They do 20 spot checks and they have found the supporting documentation attached to every single transaction. They're happy. They're not going to do any more spot checks because everything is lining up, and it's so easy and you don't think about ... When you go into setting up online accounting solutions and adopting them, you don't think of how much time it's going to save at the other end just in searching for documents and in the auditing of documents. Plus we already talked about, if there's fire or floods, I'm in Brisbane. We flood every few years. We need to be aware of that.

Heather Smith: But jumping back to talking about compliance. BGL also do an asset compliance solution called CAS 360, again. So if you're in the compliance space and you need to have trusts set up very quickly, that's another nifty, very niche solution that you can leverage. So when I'm talking to people and saying, "Look, have a look at cloud app solutions and look at them." You don't need to implement, and it's not expected that you implement everything all in one go. You can just identify one area, look at implementing it, implement it, refine it, train staff. Make sure you're really comfortable and embedded with the processes and then look at another one. What we say is, accounting practices will have a typical tech stack that they can implement, but we wouldn't say implement it all in one go. Just gradually work through it until you're comfortable.

Steve Burnham: And then the next step. So baby steps. You can do that.

Heather Smith: Yes. Yes.

Steve Burnham: It's a whole new world actually for accountants and tax practitioners, it seems.

How do you see the adoption of automation and cloud apps changing the role of the accountant in Australia? Heather Smith: Well, I think what it's going to do and what it is doing is it's reducing any need for manual data entry, and as I mentioned before they're able to take on a lot more clients. But they're also able to spend more time talking to their client, and there's a lot of talk around at the moment that you actually need to have these forward facing skills to have empathy with the client and that they need to talk to them. And they also have this ability to have these business intelligence tools in place that can trigger them having conversations about helping them actually manage and grow, and efficiently and effectively develop the business. So I think the accountant has an amazing opportunity to really develop some great relationships with small businesses and help small businesses, and adopt the efficiencies around processing the tax and the compliance side of things so that they can help them in other areas.

Steve Burnham: And as you know, when barbecue talk and pub talk ... I mean, if you can do something for someone else that saves them an hour or two or day or two, and do it cheaply or efficiently, that's all good and it's good for business.

Heather Smith: Absolutely. Absolutely. And some people actually refer to cloud apps as an extra employee. So when you have a few in place, they're replacing so much time in your business that it's like a subscription based employee that works 24/7, never has time off, and it actually ... In many cases I see it just giving people so much capacity, and giving them the flexibility to live ... It sounds really corny but, live a better life. And I know for myself, I take the longer worcations, as I mentioned. I run my entire practice. I'm a Premium Xero partner. I run my entire practice in my handbag, and I talk about going to coffices, which is a cafe office. And I go to a coffice and I just pull out all of my gizmos, set myself up, and just have an enjoyable morning wherever I may be.

Steve Burnham: That's amazing.

Heather Smith: But I am able to work and get work done. And obviously everyone's a bit different, but it does give you that flexibility.

Steve Burnham: That's amazing. Well, Heather, you're at the ... I was going to say, "Coalface," but it seems a bit old hat now, talking about cloud solutions. But anyway, you know what I mean. You're at the forefront of the industry, of what's happening.

Tell us about some new features or releases that have caught your eye recently. Heather Smith: Well, there's been a few new releases that are quite interesting. One of them comes from Expensify, which is an expense claims management solution. So you would typically, if you had a business that had multiple people using corporate credit cards that they need claims back, they needed to claim back money on, that would be a solution that you would typically recommend to them. And what they've recently done is integrated with Global VAT, and it means that when you process your expenses with Expensify, it can run through this other solution and it can identify if you can actually claim back GST or VAT from other countries that you've visited, depending on the requirements, etc. in those different countries. But it will do the assessment for you, which frees you up so you don't need to think about it. It's just nice to go ... My bills go through the system and are intelligently scanned and identify if I've got money I can claim back in terms of ... You know how the GST laws keep changing overseas? It's like, what can I do now? What should I be doing? Etc.

Heather Smith: So that's a cool solution and I did briefly mention Receipt Bank before. One of the solutions that has implemented just recently is I can go in and I can give it the details of the local toll roads, and it will go out and it will actually collect my invoices and my statements and just pull them into my system. I don't need to get them sent to me. So it's the system that calls itself Fetch. It just goes out, fetches the documentation, and pulls it in. One of the things that people say is, the documentation, it just goes out, fetches it and pulls it in for you. Look, it's really interesting and you think ... I always think, "We're here. We're here. We're here." And then someone brings out another one of these amazing solutions and I think ... Such as with Expensify, I think, "Well, for some people that will save them a huge amount of time and it will actually probably make them far more money than the solution costs in the long run."

Steve Burnham: That's exactly right. It's amazing.

Heather Smith: Yeah, so, I love it.

Steve Burnham: It's good to hear. I think our membership have really got to catch up a bit. There's so many things that could help their business. Hopefully they will after hearing this and reading a lot more about it. Heather, that's very enlightening. Thank you very much for your time today.

Heather Smith: Thank you so much, Steve, for having me on the show. Really appreciate it and I really appreciate talking to your members.

Steve Burnham: That's great. Hopefully we can do it again sometime in the future, Heather. Thank you.

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Clinton Cowin from TradiePad and Jeffrey Atizado is from SMB Consultants. Together they are in a partnership called Cloud Integration Partners, and in this episode, we talk about . . .

How Jeffrey presented at the 2014 Xero Roadshow and his talk about integration and connectivity opportunities within retail blew my mind.
I share my journey in the accounting world and how I stay across Ap developments.
We extensively discuss the October 2018 Xero Small Business Insights report and what it means for accountants and bookkeepers, and how they can leverage the insights.
Connected Apps can bring data in via dashboards, promptly, and AI and machine learning will uncover real-time business decisions.
Technology is pushing the power to the smaller agile businesses
Talk about the benefits of business niching, and networking with experts
Graduated tools accountants and bookkeepers can use to offer advisory

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Chris Hooper the CEO of Accodex

“I honestly believe that accountants have the ability to change the world, they just don't realise it yet.

I am in the business of predicting the future of the accounting profession, and it's my mission in life to change the accounting game forever.

Some of the ways I am working toward my mission are:
• Leading by example with my company Accodex, a support platform for freelance accountants.
• Teaching and mentoring accounting and business students that are going to change the world.
• Writing and speaking about accounting industry trends”

Chris Hooper

In this episode, we talk about . . .

Chris wanted to be able to write his own destiny and work as hard as he wanted too
How google research led him to embrace the title of an Accounting Futurist
And how the freelance accountant in this cloud era is simply a laptop and internet connection, with the ability to work from anywhere on the planet. They can take on as many or as few clients as they want too. They are in control of the scope in services they offer, and also the type of clients they work with.
Chris thought process behind choosing Apps, and the war he sees happening in the Reporting App market
Accountants need to to be client-facing earlier in their career
economic sort of trend called Mimetic Isomorphy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimetic_isomorphism, which refers to the tendency of an organization to imitate another organization's structure because of the belief that the structure of the latter organization is beneficial.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.com

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Laura Venables

Bio: Currently leading Accounting Business Expo & Accountech.Live - the world's premier business and digital transformation events for the world of accountancy & finance.

An accomplished professional with over 12 years sales, events & exhibition industry experience, across a diverse range of market sectors. I work closely with hundreds of international brands, facilitating meaningful connections by creating industry-defining events in the UK and Australia.

National Media:

National Media is a highly acknowledged leader in the Australian Exhibition and Events industry. We concept, produce and market award winning events across a range of industry verticals. For two decades, we have delivered industry-defining events that drive innovation and evolution within the markets they serve. We have been the architect behind dozens of highly successful event launches and have run hundreds of trade shows, conferences and consumer events. Every year, our events bring together thousands of fans and business professionals, thought leaders and entrepreneurs, buyers and sellers, global brands and hot start-ups to meet face-to-face and fuel the exchange of knowledge, ideas and commerce. They bring brands to life, create unique experiences and deliver real business opportunities for our customers. Brilliance is what we strive for. Uncompromising quality, entrepreneurial spirit, passion and above all, trust and integrity are the values we embrace.

Links

Laura Venables

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-venables-46801012/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLauraVee

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Helen Brand is Chief Executive of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the global body for professional accountants

The World Congress of Accountants 2018 (WCOA2018) is an International accounting Conference held every four years. The 20th WCOA shall be held in Sydney Australia, 5 - 8 November. The WCOA accounting conference brings together more than 6,000 delegates from over 130 countries to hear world-class speakers and leaders across the finance and business community. Visit: https://wcoa2018.sydney/ for more information.

Helen Brand is a panellist on the 'Digital Future - new ways of working' discussion (10:30 am 8 Nov (Day 4), joined by Bernard Salt, from The Demographics Group).

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Colin Hewittis founder and CEO of Float Cash Flow Forecasting, an app for Xero and QuickBooks Online that helps produce really visual and intuitive cash flow forecasts.

After running his own creative agency and struggling to produce cash flow forecasts in a spreadsheet, Colin founded Float in 2010. Now he and his team are on a mission to help small businesses understand their numbers and produce accurate forecasts in a fraction of the time compared to spreadsheets.

Colin lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their three children

Float Cash Flow Forecasting

Float cash flow forecasting provides businesses and their advisors with cash flow forecasts that are highly visual, accurate, and take a fraction of the time to prepare compared to spreadsheets. Business owners are able to easily understand and use Float to predict the cash future of their business, no accounting background necessary. Our daily sync with Xero and QBO means that all of your data is pulled through to populate your forecasts, helping you spot cash fluctuations in advance and have confidence in your future plans.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.com

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Bio: Helping Small Business, Accountants, Bookkeepers & Technology Companies to connect with each other (and the clients and customers they serve) to have a better life.

It’s been a fascinating journey so far & I've managed to collect some interesting stories along the way; some extremely inspiring ones, and others, well, not so uplifting. But every experience has provided an opportunity to grow & contribute back to a profession that has given me so much.

I chose Accounting Technology (more than 25 years ago) as the vehicle to build a better life for myself and my family – and it worked! At the time I was a frustrated and uninspired 24 year old Tax Accountant who dreamed of one day having my own business & the freedom that came with it (Ok so I discovered that the price of freedom certainly isn’t free - but it is worth it).

The by-product of adding value to others was that I started to achieve the very thing that inspired me to start my own business in the first place - Freedom!

Then just when I thought I had made it, something happened – I Burnt Out!

Fortunately, the business model I had built fully supported me & my family throughout the 3 year recovery period, and although I had often said it, I hadn’t appreciated it until that moment – “Be sure to dig your well before you are thirsty”. This experience has been a blessing (although tough to appreciate at the time) it has given me a renewed perspective on life. It has also made me acutely aware that I am not the only one who has had (or is currently going through or heading towards) the same experience.

Part of my quest has been to help others (where I can) to live a life of their dreams by being an enthusiastic encourager, instilling confidence, building belief & helping create businesses with a model that provides time for transformation via personal growth & contribution to others.

If there is one word that best reminds me of what I value & appreciate, that word would be – Authenticity!

What’s your Word?

Business: QA Business Pty Ltd

The QA Mission

To help our clients (Small Businesses / Bookkeepers & Accountants) become the most efficiently run businesses in the country, by taking advantage of technology and implementing simple and effective business systems, enabling you to buy back time from your business.

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.com

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As Head of Growth APAC at Expensify, Phong identifies opportunities to strengthen our relationships with strategic partners in the Australia Pacific region.

Phong is a boxing fan, cigar aficionado, and loves travelling to unique places in the world. He hates excuses and loves the company of both the big city and the vast wilderness. Based out of Melbourne, Phong loves helping customers find a solution to their expense reporting woes!

Overview * What is preaccounting? * How to identify and diagnose preaccounting inefficiencies * How can accountants optimise their clients’ preaccounting workflows and processes? * How can accountants increase ROI by automating expense management in their firm? * How do automation and Expensify address preacccounting issues?

Twitter

Facebook

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For more info. to get started, contact sales@expensify.com

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.com

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James works with firms of accountants from around the world, helping them to become more profitable and maximize the value of their clients

James is the founder of GoProposal, author of “Selling to Serve” and Director of My Accountancy Place.

He is a sales and marketing expert, helping firms to scale their practice by giving more value to existing clients and converting new prospects at a higher rate for higher fees. He does this through challenging outdated pricing methods and mindsets, implementing powerful pricing and proposal systems and leveraging entire firms to sell more through consultative sales techniques.

Overview * The mindsets the keep most accountancy firms stuck. * Why they see themselves as different to other businesses and the challenges that creates. * Why selling is their ethical obligation. * The real business accountancy firms are in (and it's got nothing to do with finance.) * How I had a business that failed because I didn't have the correct finance function in place, which is the real reason I help accountancy firms to make sure their clients never end up in the position I did. * How being a magician taught me how to sell.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesashford/
https://twitter.com/THEJamesAshford
https://goproposal.com/
james@jamesashford.com

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Today I am speaking with David Barrett, the founder and CEO of Expensify. He's an all around alpha geek who started programming when he was 6. He worked in a Virtual Reality Lab at the University of Michigan, wrote 3D graphics engines for the video games industry in Texas, and helped build a peer-to-peer file transfer technology called Red Swoosh in California, before founding Expensify.

Expensify has pioneered innovation in the receipt and expense management process by automating every step from receipt scanning through reimbursement. From solo-preneurs to global enterprises across all industries, Expensify serves over five million people and 50,000 customers around the world.

Overview * Starting Expensify off the back of a thwarted attempt to help homeless people * An overview of what Expensify does * The coding language Expensify is built on. * The biggest challenges faced when starting Expensify is David had no idea what he was doing. He asked lots of questions and listened. * Working with a remote team – you can’t get the best people to work for you if they’re not getting rich and having fun! * Communication tools used to stay connected with remote staff, hint SLACK is one of them! * Cloud apps, cryptocurrency and one straight answer. * Talking shiraz with David Barrett – wine aficionado * What does the future hold for Expensify? * Future plans for Expensify: We know we're going to be here forever, so we're making the investments in the product that's going to last forever.

Follow @Expensify on Twitter, like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Expensify/), or subscribe to our blog at https://blog.expensify.com/

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Interviewee Profile

Daniel joined BGL in 1997. During this time, Daniel has been part of the accountant's journey in transitioning from DOS to Windows and now cloud technology. Daniel is passionate about leadership and loves working with accountants and assisting them in growing their business through technology. Daniel loves family, the occasional selfie and life. Carpe Diem!

Company Profile

BGL Corporate Solutions has been partnering with accountants since 1983. Our focus is to empower SMSF and corporate compliance professionals with innovative cloud solutions and superior service. Driven by Integrity, Passion, Collaboration, Perseverance and Diversity we have established and continue to maintain the market-leading position in the Company Compliance and SMSF software space. Today BGL has a client base of 7000+ accounting firms around the world.

How can listeners contact you?

@DTramma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dantram/

https://www.bglcorp.comdanielt@bglcorp.com.au

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It's not what you know, it's who you know: the story of a 28-year-old high school drop-out travelling the world of accounting - How did this non-accountant make an impact on a highly educated industry

Interviewee Profile

Trent Mclaren is Australia's thought leader of the year in the Accounting Industry. He is the head of accounting and strategic partnerships at Practice Ignition. His role see's him partnering with accounting professionals all over the world as he strives to drive innovation and disruption with his partners. Igniting a culture to challenge the status quo and create true customer centricity.

Company Profile

Practice Ignition is the game-changing automation trigger your practice needs. Handling all aspects of your client relationships, proposals, billings, scope management and beyond. Practice Ignition is the catalyst for true cloud accounting firms wanting to move to fixed fee structures and eliminate their debtors completely. Practice Ignition is a cloud-based onboarding solution that helps you sign more clients, save time and truly transform your workflow automation.

How can listeners contact you?

Twitter: @trent_mclaren linkedin.com/in/trentmclaren www.practiceignition.com trent@practiceignition.com

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Interview

Tracey is the founder of CloudCounting, a boutique Chartered Accountancy firm that specializes in eCommerce, and there was never a more passionate advocate for working in the Cloud. Tracey is a Registered Tax Agent, Chartered Accountant, Xero Gold Partner and MYOB Certified Consultant.

She recently spent a month in France with her husband and two children during the busiest month of the year … and survived! This is proof you can run your business anywhere using cloud products.
Tracey has worked in Big 4 accounting firms and now specializes in putting time back in the day for small to medium business.

Tracey has over twenty years’ experience working with clients implementing and advising on accounting systems. She’s passionate about helping you find the right accounting system for you.

Discussion

Who’s a historical figure you’d like to have a coffee with?
Why did you move from Canada to Australia?
What inspired you to start your own accounting practice?
What services do you offer?
You’ve recently qualified as a tax agent – what was that process like for you?
You are very involved in the bookkeepers forum – now that you are a tax agent – will this change?
Who is your target market?
What was your most effective marketing strategy?
What has been your most effective marketing strategy?
Why are you niching in ecommerce?
What are some business tools you recommend to clients or use in your own business?
What’s one tip you can share with us about growing your team?
What’s your favourite part of your business day?
How can our listeners get in contact with you?

Connect with Tracey Newman at:

W: http://www.cloudcounting.com.au/

F: https://www.facebook.com/cloudcountingptyltd

T: https://twitter.com/CloudCountingAU

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracey-newman-90001419/

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Today I’m speaking with Helen Goodman, of Invisible Business Solutions. In this episode, we talk about . . .

Discussion:

The Cloud Integration Channel
Who are cloud Integrators?
The Cloud Integrator Channel narrowing to Authorised Cloud Integrators not cloud resellers which is what caused the original confusion around our services.
What do Cloud Integrators do?
How do Cloud Integrators add value?
Why should Accountants and Bookkeepers work with us?
Why the apps think we are fantastic!
How we operate in verticals and believe in collaboration and communication in the new virtual world.

Solutions mentioned include Receipt Bank Spotlight Reporting MINDBODY, Inc. ServiceM8 WorkflowMax (A Xero Product) TradeGecko Unleashed

Whos is Helen Goodman?

For over 20 years Helen Goodman worked in the corporate sector as a Management Accountant and Business Analyst, for companies such as the mobile communications giant ‘Vodafone’ and for the healthcare leaders ‘Abbott Laboratories’ until moving to Australia in 2001. Being a passionate management accountant at heart and perfectionist by nature, an early adopter of cloud technology, Helen’s warm vibes shine, not only from her enthusiasm and never say never attitude, but also from her genuine work ethic. As a Cloud Integrator Helen facilitates businesses to adopt the cloud and become more efficient, have access to information like never before and provide them with a competitive advantage.

Invisible Business Solutions was founded in 2012, with the core goal of providing financial management to Small Business. We were amongst the first to be recognised as a Xero Authorised Cloud Integrator when the new market channel was launched in August 2015.

Our reputation as an Authorised Cloud Integrator has grown, based on our experience, commitment and standard of excellent customer service. We are proud to be MINDBODY’s first partner in Australia to provide implementation, training and support for clients in the Health & Wellness Industry. We are also partners with ServiceM8, WorkflowMAX and Unleashed, but pride ourselves on our independence and Ecosystem knowledge.

Connect with Helen Goodman at:

www.authorisedcloudintegrator.com.au

Facebook.com/invizbizsolutions

Facebook.com/authorisedcloudintegrator

Twitter @invizbiz

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/helen-goodman-fcca/

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Following on from Xerocon South 2016 a powerhouse crew from Brisbane came together to discuss and dissect the lessons learnt from this conference. The panel discussion and the audience q and a was recorded and will be of interest to attendees and non-attendees alike. If you did attend Xerocon – it reminds you of some of the areas you need to revisit and explore. If you didn’t attend Xerocon – Tracey, Cassandra and Justin have done the hard work for you and bring their own twist to the lessons, highlights and outcomes that Xerocon had for them.

Please support the sponsors of Cloud Stories and visit them at www.spotlighreporting.com where you can access a free trial, training, and educational whitepapers, including Cash is King-Cloud Style and The Perfect Advisory Relationship.

Solutions mentioned during this panel discussion include, but are not limited to: • Hubdoc • ReceiptBank • KarbonHQ • ExpenseCheck • ApprovalMax • Vision6 • IODM • Moula • Waddle

Panel of speakers:

Chartered Accountant Tracey Newman is the Director of Cloud Counting a small accounting practice based in Brisbane. Her passion is to train clients to use Xero and make the most of cloud based technology to save time and have fun.

Cassandra Scott is the Director of Laurus Bookkeeping, a business services consultancy specialising in cloud based accounting and business systems. Cassandra provides mentoring services to other bookkeepers and contributes to ongoing discussion and development of programs to increase the professionalism and evolution of the bookkeeping industry.

Justin Campbell has worked for Xero since 2013 and has background in accounting and recruitment. He has also worked closely with small business as a disability employment consultant. He is passionate about the role of small and micro business in the role of the Australia economy.

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Sophie Hossack is the Australia Country Manager at Receipt Bank. Receipt Bank is the bookkeeping productivity tool used by 4,000+ accountants and bookkeepers around the world to increase their efficiency. Sophie was one of the first employees at Receipt Bank and has worked in three of the sales teams globally.

Receipt Bank
The leading accounting and bookkeeping firms around the world use Receipt Bank to automate their bookkeeping and deliver a world-class service to their clients. Receipt Bank is the award-winning, venture-backed software company with offices in Sydney, London & Washington DC.

Website: https://www.receipt-bank.com/
Twitter: @ReceiptBank / @Receipts_Sophie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReceiptBank/
LinkedIn: @ReceiptBank

Subscribe to Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

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Andrew Van De Beek is a constant source of excitement at the illumin8 office and leads the team with encouragement and a fistful of positivity. Being firmly entrenched in Gen-Y, he’s keenly interested in new businesses and original ideas, and loves discovering emerging software and technologies that help these start-ups succeed.

illumin8

We‘re more than just Accountants! We offer small business cloud accounting with a focus on automating and streamlining your systems to ensure you are spending more time growing your business.

Website - http://illumin8.com.au/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/illumin8partners/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/andrew_illumin8 and https://twitter.com/Illumin8prtnrs
LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/andrew-van-de-beek-21a30915
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/illumin8partners/

Subscribe to Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

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Today on episode 45 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Wayne Schmidt. Wayne has over 28 years’ experience in the accounting industry spearheading the Australian expansion for Xero, MYOB and Reckon. Wayne is passionate about helping accounting firms to grow, embrace change and drive profitability. Based in Australia, and having worked in the USA, UK and China, Wayne has a unique global understanding of accounting firms and the latest trends in the accounting industry.

Karbon is task management software designed for accountants.

Subscribe to Episode 45 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

In this episode I talk to Wayne about:

From a young age Wayne was a trailblazer – studying applied computer science at La Trobe University – in the early 80’s. So he had a background in computers before we realised how revolutionary they were going to be!
Wayne is a programmer and code cutter by trade.
After university he worked for old traditional company Norwich Life in Melbourne – writing financial planning software for about five years. They still had a tea trolley!
July 1988 he realised the only way he would get promoted is if someone dies. So he left and set up a programming company called Tailored Solutions. He started writing computer software.
He did that horrible calculation he timed out his hourly rate by how much he could actually work, plus leave, and realised he was down to not much salary. He’d left a company and just got a job with no one of the benefits of having a job. He realised he needed to do something.
He looked around and thought why don’t I sell stuff? If you sell something there is no limit to what you sell it’s not like hours. Wayne had a light bulb moment “When you are selling stiff you can sell as much as you like?
Let’s pick the hardest thing that no-one likes selling and that was accounting software!
So that’s how Wayne developed an interest in the accounting world!
Tailored Solutions sold accounting software when accounting software was really expensive, and before MYOB or other well-known brands were around.
Wayne recognised how important bookkeepers were in the industry and launched the MYOB bookkeeper programme. #Trailblazer He redeveloped all the partner programs including the developer and Certified Consultant (CC) program. He started partner programs from his own business Tailored Solutions.
Wayne discusses his time with MYOB in the UK. He highlights the lack of development funding and payroll in the solution. Why it was sold and how he sold it lightning fast!
You need to invest in your core.
Wayne shares his first memory of Xero. It was while working at MYOB – they had a war room – where Xero’s name came up.
If you ever hear your staff say let’s have coffee – it is code for I’m going for a job interview. Wayne shares insights into his first meeting with Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards. He thought “This clouds going to go places.” He started as the Country Manager of Xero in 2009.
He talks about the early days, limited funds, low customer numbers, big image!
He talks about making a video with early adopter Gillian Rossouw.
So with all of these achievements what has Wayne won?
We discuss how awesome the MYOB CC’s program was – gave you a business and let you run it the way you want it.
Wayne actually knows how to use accounting software!!
Wayne is self-taught when it comes to sales and marketing. He has done courses, and he observes and analyses and assesses what works for him.
Yes Clayton Oates gets a mention at the 19min mark!
Wayne and I are competitive when it comes to social media. He is beating me on LinkedIN (10250!), I am beating him on twitter! Both are a way to build up your personal brand.
Wayne talks about KarbonHQ a task management solution for accountants founded by Stuart Mcleod. KarbonHQ operates as a triage to allocate email and tasks to staff. It is developing AI, and will be vendor agnostics.
Stuart McLeod developed a payroll solution that was sold into Xero, and is the payroll solution users will know.
Know who you are marketing too. You have so much control if you know that.
Karbon has done a great job of releasing white papers “2016 Karbon accounting trends report” You can download the report here: https://karbonhq.com/downloads/?type=downloads&id=83e07d72-ca1d-11e5-afd8-0236605552d7&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=OK-twitter-profile&utm_campaign=OK-%23KarbonTrends

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Resources mentioned in this interview

MYOB http://myob.com.au
Reckon https://www.reckon.com/au/
Xero https://www.xero.com/au/
KarbonHQ https://karbonhq.com/

Connect with Wayne

Twitter @KarbonHQ and @Wayne_Schmidt

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/karbonhq

Website https://karbonhq.com/

LinkedIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneschmidt

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

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Today on episode 44 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Jacqui Jones the founder of Way We Do, a cloud based standard operating procedures platform. Although Jacqui’s career started in film and TV, she accidently fell into the Internet industry right at the beginning of the Web with Netscape Navigator 1.2. She moved from Brisbane to Auckland for a 6 month contract, which turned into 14 years.

Her career has spanned a range of Internet specific roles including digital product management at APN, Head of Digital Product at Yellow NZ, Marketing Manager and SEO Consultant at Netconcepts (NZ & US), Communications Manager at The Electronic Commerce Network (ECN), owner of web development agency Webenz, and Product Manager at MessageMedia, a subsidiary of NZ Post.

Way We Do is a cloud based standard operating procedures software, enabling businesses to create electronic work instructions, such as policies, procedures and checklists, so teams won’t forget simple or complex tasks when they do their day to day work.

Business owners implement Way We Do primarily for productivity and compliance purposes.

Subscribers currently come from 9 countries, ranging from small businesses with a handful number of team members to large enterprises with thousands of employees.

Way We Do is used by a variety of industries including accounting firms, bookkeepers, professional services, retail, trade, medical, manufacturing, technology and many more.

Subscribe to Episode 44 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

In this episode I talk to Jacqui about:

Dan and Jacqui started ‘Way We Do’ after starting a business called Key Word Intent – a software and internet marketing business. They participated in the Business Mastery –Turn Key program at the National College of Business in 2012. Discovered they and other businesses were struggling with the tools they were using to document their business. So they decided to create a solution to solve this problem.
Jacqui discusses how customers affected their brand evolution which currently includes old planes and emblems.
Jacqui likes inventors, curious people and problem solvers.
Jacqui uses Xero, ZenDesk and CapsuleCRM though may replace Capsule with Hubspot, in their own business.
Discussion about online note taking solutions – I use iAWriter. Jacqui trialled Evernote.
Why should businesses systemise and document their policies and procedures?
To scale up you need to document policies and procedures so your staff know what to do and you deliver quality and consistently.
Procedures can free up a business, so you can run the business without being in there. Plus they have a business they can sell, license or franchise.
Keep refining and improving processes
Coaches recommend running a business like a franchise.
You should start systemising business from day one, especially if you hope to employ people, and scale up.
Implementing procedures can cut out a layer of waste in the business.
Anyone in the organisation can document policies and procedures: subject matter expert, business owner, or pair people with writers to extract. Hire specialist technical writers.
Start on one part of the business first – Jacqui suggests tackling the biggest problem area first – so you get a few wins on the board. To create a positive feel about the process of implementing processes!
WayWeDo prompts the team back to the solution to keep using the operations manual. This minimises inconsistency with brand experience.
WayWeDo is built on an API so can connect with other solutions.
Pitching to Venture Capitalist and raising capital for the right reasons.
RiverPitch and lessons learnt.
The WayWeDo incorporates images, video and audio and different learning styles – important for people who struggle with reading or learning difficulties. Aids with outsourcing and with non-English speakers.
WayWeDo has a partner programme.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Resources mentioned in this interview

Xero https://www.xero.com/au/

Evernote https://evernote.com/

iaWriter https://ia.net/writer/ios/

Capsule CRM https://capsulecrm.com/

ZenDesk https://www.zendesk.com/

Hubspot http://www.hubspot.com/

Business Mastery –Turn Key program at the National College of Business

Connect with Jacqui

https://www.xero.com/au/

Website: www.waywedo.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/way-we-do/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/waywedo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/waywedo

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Waywedo/

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

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Ep.43 Danetha Doe - Financial Freedom is a journey of self-love

Today on episode 43 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Danetha Doe. She is a celebrity financial strategist and sought after speaker on the “Future of Accounting”. She was selected to be a millennial brand ambassador for Xero in 2014 and named one of the Top 40 under 40 accounting professionals by CPA Practice Advisor in 2015. She is the creator of Financial Foundations, a 6-week bookkeeping training program for small business owners.

Danetha Doe Consulting, LLC is a financial education company. They provide training programs for small business. And work with large FinTech companies to engage millennial and women entrepreneurs.

Subscribe to Episode 42 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

In the intro I mention the Timely 30 Day #SelfCare challenge. You can find out more about it here: - http://www.gettimely.com/self-care-challenge/signup/

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

In this episode I talk to Danetha about:

From her days as an NFL cheerleader Danetha learnt that you can do accomplish anything that you set your mind too.
Dancing involves a combination of physical, emotional and mental discipline. In business our mindset is so important to get things accomplished and become a great entrepreneur we have to believe that we can become an entrepreneur and that we deserve to have a successful business.
Danetha grew up running track and approaches business like a full bodied sport. Having mental discipline is important to get things done and push through when times can be challenging.
In track you can only get so far running track participating as an individual. You also need to be a good team player.
In business Danetha sees herself as both an individual and a team player: it’s important to be laser focused on own business goals and take care of herself first and foremost. In addition if I find a way to help other people both of us can rise to a level that’s mutually beneficial.
Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Can’t Lose – Danetha mantra is Financial Freedom is a journey of self-love: It’s about being in complete control of your life and your destiny.
Danetha Doe Consulting is a financial education company – empowering others to make financial decisions that make the most sense for them. Maybe this is splurging on the spa or travel. When we completely ignore the finances, or hand it over to someone and expect them to make all the decisions – that is when things in their business can go sour.
Danetha works with a lot of personal trainers – you cannot outsource your burpees!
Danetha started her first business at twenty, after finishing university, selling active wear. This resulted in her becoming completely broke and very depressed in 2008. She felt she had failed as an entrepreneur. How could I make such a big financial mess of myself with my knowledge and drive?
Danetha got some part time jobs. Initially at the Grand Canyon as a waitress…Then worked at a ski resort as an accountant. Ski Resort did really well with revenue – but still had cash flow issues. Danetha role was to figure out why they were doing so well at sales but were cash poor. She realised from this experience that cash flow challenges are across the board – they are a skill you have to learn.
I hope through my own experiences my own clients will not have to go through hard times with cash flow and can learn from my experiences. That is where the idea for Danetha Doe Consulting came from.
As a small business owner you are already crazy smart because you’ve launched a business – so you are smart enough to manage your finances as well.
Discovered the disconnect between university education and the real world – you can only get so far with formal education - as a small business owner you have to get out there and do the work, and make mistakes and figure out what works for you.
Danetha loves when her clients develop a sense of confidence and self-worth around what they do. Own the service and price you provide to the world.
Paul Miller at Cornish Accountants in the UK asked: “In your coaching and mentoring role how has Xero and other cloud apps helped her & her clients?”
Xero is one of the things that re-inspired Danetha to do accounting. Xero brings a sense of beauty to our work as accountants. It is the only platform that makes it approachable to do their books. Because of the beautiful design and layout they feel it is intuitive and it instils a sense of confidence that they can navigate around the system.
Danetha is a big fan of Tsheets a time tracking tool. One of the first things Danetha does with clients is to increase their prices. She combs through their prices and they are normally undervaluing themselves so they will increase it. A part of being able to ‘own’ the new rate is to be able to see how much time they take to do a task – so they understand how much they need to charge.
Paul Miller at Cornish Accountants in the UK asked “What cloud apps does she use to deliver her work?”
I use Xero and Tsheet and a platform called thinkific to house training modules for my clients.
Danetha has a blog at Money and Mimosas http://www.moneyandmimosas.com/ … It is a bookkeeping blog that includes a detail photo expose of someone enjoying a sugar Brazilian wax! She mixes up topics about skin care and mimosa’s with bookkeeping because she wanted one place where she could read about bookkeeping and skincare topics. The underlying why behind the blog is giving woman permission to feel OK about wanting to be pretty and getting paid.
Danetha believes the future of accounting looks a lot like accountants moving into the role of a consulting or trusted advisor or outsourced CFO – though she is not sure how well this is being embodied yet. It will be less data and manual entry, and as we get into AI it will be less tax filing. As we move into a global world the tax barriers between countries will begin to start to melt. It will not be about servicing clients in the states if you live in the states. It will really be about ‘How can you help your clients grow their business using the financials in their company?’
With technology completely commoditising our work - we are now competing globally and we have to convince a client that we understand their deepest desires and deepest needs when it comes to their business. It’s about how can they grow their business. Marketing and branding helps you spread awareness about your company to these global clients as well as demonstrate your expertise within your specific niche.
Danetha shares some examples of branding she has used in her own business to connect with clients on a human level and transition it to business.
Danetha talks about her various partnerships.
Danetha loves conversations and connecting with people who are passionate about their business.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Resources mentioned in this interview

moneyandmimosas.com/
thinkific
Tsheets
Xero

Connect with Danetha Doe

danethadoe.com
twitter.com/danethadoe
Instagram.com/danethadoe

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Today on episode 42 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Greg Tuckwell who’s been the Director of Poole Group since 1993 and CEO of Zerobooks since 2013. Greg joined Poole Group after 6 years with C&L (PWC) doing insolvency and came to Poole Group to set up a Business management division. Three years as an engineering draftsman before that. Greg had never done tax and always focussed on systems, processes, feedback/reporting and business improvement. His passion is to challenge and improve how a business operates and he has done a number of successful business turnarounds. That passion/focus has now moved to cloud based systems

Poole Group is an accounting practice with around 60 staff across a range of specialised fields from standard compliance to SMSF and have our own AFSL licence to offer wealth planning and insurances without being tied to one brand. Poole Group also have two coders on staff to automate as many processes as possible.

ZeroBooks is an offshoot of Poole Group and is designed to provide back office and white label bookkeeping to other accounting firms and was born with a global focus.

Subscribe to Episode 42 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

In this episode I talk to Greg about:

ItsAllAboutTheView Greg’s version of Stop and Smell the Roses. You’ve got to enjoy what you do and life.
If you’re coming to Brisbane Xerocon 2016 add a few days on and travel up to the Sunshine Coast where Greg Tuckwell is based.
Most of our business comes from referrals and word of mouth.
Greg’s background is in insolvency and has never done a tax return!
The top three reasons for business failure Greg saw while working in insolvency were:
Their processes weren’t good
Their information wasn’t good.
They made the wrong management decisions.
Focus was on processes, information, management reporting, and kpi’s.
When they saw Xero come through realised they could build a whole business platform using the eco-system.
Benefits of working in insolvency as a young accounting graduate.
Staff initially suggested Greg should look at Xero. Attended Xerocon Melbourne 2012 and it left a big impact. Xero gave their vision, they said this is where we are, these are our deficiencies, this is our future, and this is our vision. What really got me was when Stuart McLeod said Xero would have payroll by March 2013. Once payroll came out we moved forward with Xero.
5 steps to developing systems and processes:
Understand what is required and what the outcomes are.
Understand what the client needs. A process for one client may be different to another.
There may be several options – need to build that in and identify what is best for the client.
Processes are documented as detailed as possible. The practice gives a procedures manual to the clients so they have a process they are meant to follow. [For other business this could range from creating unique procedure manual, through to Xero for Dummies, through to printing off notes from official Xero Training notes]
The team may identify rework and refinement. They will help define it and improve the process.
When recruiting staff look at experience, gut feel, culture, outgoing, good references.
When recruiting need a mixture of Finder Minder Grinder in the team.
Finder: People who are good at going out and finding work, getting work, bringing it in.
Minder: Manage relationships. Talk to people. Good at communication. Can manage a team
Grinder: Good at what they do. Typically introverted. Focused on being process driven and getting the job down.
Need to identify the gaps and fill them. Work out what you want to do and collaborate with people who want to do the other work.
Offer a scholarship for local students to go to the local university and study accounting for the last 12 years.
Manage a team in the Philippines.
Two coders are on staff – they have developed all the automation in the business. The website, the on-boarding, the proposal.
Relationships are the most important part of any business. Always personal phone call at the start of the relationship.
Suggest small businesses move to the clouds through a staged implementation.
Once clients were used to Xero, we would suggest another solution. Don’t sell products, sell benefits and solutions. So the next conversation could be let’s move you to Receipt Bank.
Don’t try and take it all on at one. Initially were trying to understand as many add-on solutions as we could. We recognised that we did not have the resources or expertise to become experts in them all. We focused on understanding Xero and the horizontals. A horizontal solution is one that can be applied to many different industries. When it comes to the verticals we talk to the integrators who specialise. So the big learning was collaboration.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Resources mentioned in this interview

Receipt Bank
www.crunchboards.com/
www.chaser.com.au/
www.tradiepad.com.au/

Connect with Greg Tuckwell

zerobooks.com/
poolegroup.com.au/
@poole_group
@Zerobooks
@greg_tuckwell
zerobooks.com/blog
facebook.com/poolegroup
Poole Group
Zerobooks.com
Greg Tuckwell

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

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Today on episode 41 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Jessica Ellerm who is the Partner Development Manager for Tyro, Australia’s nextgen bank. She is responsible for the rollout of Tyro’s deposit account with Xero and Tyro’s first growth funding solution, launching mid-year. Jessica is also an active commentator in the Fintech space, writing regularly for her own blog jessicaellerm.com and international blog Daily Fintech. She also guest reports for global Fintech podcast Breaking Banks and is an online broadcast journalist for the Finance News Network, where she presents the Monday and Friday Market Outlook.

Tyro Payments, Australia’s first independent EFTPOS provider, has been granted a general banking authority by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority that allows the company to take money on deposit and to advance money to Australian businesses. This is the first time a challenger has been authorised to compete head-on with the banking establishment. Today Tyro has close to 16,000 EFTPOS customers and processes nearly $8 billion dollars annually.

Subscribe to Episode 41 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Scroll to the bottom to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship.

In this episode I talk to Jessica about:

Jessica maintain’s her own blog at jessicaellerm.com. It’s focused on growth hacking, fintech, banking and payments – topics that are of interest to her. It contains medium to long form articles. Jess shares the benefits of publishing her own blog. This included connecting with people all over the world, and recognising topics people engaged with.

Jessica has worked in FinTech before they even used the terminology FinTech!

A good way to explain what you do – when no-one really understand what you do - is turn it into a story and relate it back to a person’s life and how it affects them.

Breaking Banks is a global podcast run by Brett King a futurist who is focused on disruption in Financial Services and the emerging FinTech sector.

Jessica shared what’s happening across the world, in terms of peer to peer and peer to consumer, Challenger and Tandem banks. The next areas of disruption will be around regulation and insurance. #RegTech #InsurTech. UK and US leading the way in this area. UK is embracing Fintech.

Blythe Masters CEO of Digital Asset Holdings(ex JP Morgan) has just made a significant investment in partnership with the ASX around blockchain technology. She has pointed out that FinTech has been able to flourish because the banks are so focused on cleaning up the mess after 2008. Innovation is happening outside of the banks essentially.

Malcolm Turnball our Australian Prime Minister has a strong banking background and has established the FinTech Advisory panel – one of the goals is to make finance more accessible to small business. Malcolm Turnball and Scott Morrison have come out and openly stated that they want Australia to lead FinTech in Asia Pacific region. They will probably be pretty aggressive about making that agenda happen.

Jessica is also broadcast journalist with the Finance News Network an online TV show.

We talk about different publishing platforms and how people are monetising it. People hardly watch real TV shows.

Working in blogs, podcasting and visual mediums Jessica thinks blogging has the most impact – because you can read it on the train! Jessica thinks we need to re-look at old school marketing – such as direct mail outs and simply having a chat on the phone.

If someone wants to seed a story with Jessica email her directly or approach her by twitter.

Tyro built a new payments infrastructure they built a bank solution from ground up – on the cloud. It integrates with POS – which is a big differentiator. Tyro Payments, has been granted a general banking authority by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) that allows the company to take money on deposit and to advance money to Australian businesses. The bank account offers two-way integration with Xero. The money goes in and can be pushed out. This concept is focused on batch payments. The whole batch is sent through to Tyro bank account, and the Tyro user taps an app on their phone to approve the payment.

With Tyro bank there is a clear separation of responsibilities. The administrator person can do all of the admin and back end processing. The small business owner has full control over payments out of the business bank account. He or she is sitting on his yacht in the Bahamas and see the notification come through. He can think I know a payment is coming out today, and click to approve the payment.

For this model to suit your business - you have to have enough supplier invoices to benefit from batch payments.

Ideal Tyro client is a business who (1) needs a physical EFTPOS device: Retail, Hospitality, Medical, (2) using Xero (3) an iPhone.

It takes about 7 – 10 days to set up Tyro.

Xero Advisors can train and educate clients around batching, integrating with other add-ons in the eco-space like Receipt Bank.

Climb a few hills rather than climb Mt Everest slowly roll out solution improvements for clients.

Jessica thinks more Challenger banks like Tyro will emerge.

Overcoming trusting people and business online.

Initiatives around technology and transparency to help address the culture problem in banking. In Netherlands bankers take a Hippocratic oath.

Gender balance in FinTech. FemtechLeaders is a global meetup group for female in this space.

Jessica loves small business, technology and finance – it’s all about helping people at the end of the day.

Ideal Tyro client is a business who (1) needs a physical EFTPOS device: Retail, Hospitality, Medical, (2) using Xero (3) an iPhone.

With Tyro bank there is a clear separation of responsibilities.

From publishing her own #Fintech blog @JessicaEllerm has connected with people across the world.

Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Scroll to the bottom to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship.

Resources mentioned in this interview include

Tyro
Receipt Bank

Connect with Jessica Ellerm

@JessicaEllerm
http://jessicaellerm.com/
Tyro

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Don’t miss an episode! Please subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

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Today on episode 40 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Matt Wilkinson who is the founder and CEO of Bizink. Bizink helps accountants and bookkeepers grow their practices through their websites and online marketing.

Matt has worked with accountants since 2010. He has over 15 years’ experience of digital marketing for his own businesses and other companies as a consultant.

Bizink’s mission is to make accountants incredible online. With our websites, content and online marketing, we help accounting firms across the globe win more business, engage their clients and save time.

Subscribe to Episode 40 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Visit CloudStories.com to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship.

In this episode I talk to Matt about:

How exchange rate affects cloud based businesses selling globally [pricing and costing].
Developing ideas for products and bringing them to market.
Accountants and bookkeepers need to define and communicate their unique selling point (USP). If this is sorted – it makes developing an online presence much easier.
Content marketing is similar to inbound marketing. Smart marketers want to get involved with the conversations that people are having online and pull people towards the business. Engaging content pulls business owners towards accountants and bookkeepers. This could be in the form of an e-book or an real event.
Great example of content marketing ‘Ultimate Guide to Business Process Automation with Zapier‘ produced by Process.St the simple process and workflow management tool.
Matt states ‘We are all in business and need to pay bills. Content marketing needs to convert business owners to buyers. For example include a relevant offer, amongst useful content’.
It is great to create cool content – but don’t be shy of making appropriate commercial offers. If your content is targeted you are speaking to the right audience. Hopefully you offer the right services for that audience. They should be interested in that and they won’t be offended if you make a proposal to them.
Potential clients want to see actionable things that help them grow manage and run their business. Talk to their pain points. Typical evergreen themes for accountants and bookkeepers include cashflow, business planning.
It is good to focus on an industry or niche, better to appear strong to a small audience. The more specific you can make it — the more effective it’s going to be.
Using fiverr.com for content writing — nuances and technical commentary was completely inaccurate, but beautifully written.
Social Media channels for accountants and bookkeeper:LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
- Linkedin is a must for networking and publishing posts.
- Twitter is a research channel, to join in on conversations of what is happening in the industry. You can connect with CEO’s of listed companies via twitter. Also you can distribute content via twitter.
- Facebook: Matt thinks a lot of firms wasting time on FaceBook, and are not getting leads from it.
Content marketing is difficult to track, but it is certainly effective.
Google adwords and PayPerClick appears above search engine results such as blog posts.
Email marketing if you do it right is one of the most effective forms of marketing and you can track the click throughs.
Thanks to Receipt Bank for sharing these stats with me prior to the interview! Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020) forecasts 5.4 B people will have mobile phones by 2020. With that in mind we discussed whether potential accounting clients really go to a mobile device to search for an accountant or bookkeeper?
All accountants and bookkeepers need mobile friendly websites. 23% of traffic to BizInk accountant and bookkeepers sites is from mobile devices. Some firms had as high as 51% traffic from mobile device.
Test your website is mobile friendly here: https://www.google.com.au/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly
If your site is not mobile friendly – then you don’t exist on a mobile device.

5 Common mistakes accountants and bookkeepers make on their website

Websites need to be mobile friendly
Websites should not simply be a bland and vanilla online brochure – they need to display a USP a unique selling proposition.
Websites need to contain content, typically in the form of a blog.
The websites need a call to action.
The business needs to continue a relationship with site visitors. This can be done by giving away useful content in exchange for an email address.

Going forward BizInk is working on lead generation and lead nurturing, and developing content to achieve this. This helps accountants and bookkeepers convert prospects to clients.

Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Resources mentioned in this interview

Receipt Bank
fiverr.com
Process.St
Linkedin
Twitter
Facebook

Connect with Matt Wilkinson

Bizinkonline.com
twitter.com/mattwilkinsonNZ
nz.linkedin.com/in/mattbizink
Bizinkonline.com/blog/

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Don’t miss an episode! Please subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

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Today on episode 39 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with the Richard Francis who’s the founder of Spotlight Reporting. His company have recently released a whitepaper called The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In today’s show I talk with him about this paper and how advisors and business owners can benefit from monthly advisory meetings.

Spotlight Reporting provides award-winning reporting, forecasting, consolidation and dashboard reporting tools to progressive accountants, franchises, NFP's and business owners. Our cloud tools allow for integrated data-sets (Xero, QBO, Vend, Google Analytics etc) and exceptional, customisable reports for better decision-making and governance. For people listening overseas they have offices in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia. So you should definitely be able to find someone to help on board you with this solution.

In this episode I talk to Richard about:

What Spotlight Reporting does for advisors and business owners
Delivering services and attitudes to help transform accounting firms
The Perfect Advisory Relationship whitepaper
How to run an Advisory / Spotlight Reporting session with clients
Blake Oliver gives away Spotlight Reporting dashboard free to all clients – and this in turn generates work for him.
Overview of a monthly advisory meeting
Establishing understanding and centre yourself on client goals
Setting a monthly agenda
Ask lots of questions at the start of the meeting
Advice over a coffee
Richard works through a typical small business example
Use a whiteboard to deconstruct and visualise the business model
Review pricing and charging for value vs hourly rate
Systems and technology reviews
Trend and margin analysis, benchmarking
Agree on outcome and follow up with action points, including a system that follows up the action points
Keep timesheets to monitor budgets

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Resources mentioned in this interview

The Perfect Advisory Relationship whitepaper
Spotlight Reporting
Receipt Bank
Deputy
Xero
Trello
MinuteDock

Connect with Richard Francis

Richard@SpotlightReporting.com
http://www.spotlightreporting.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotlight-reporting-limited
http://www.facebook.com/SpotlightReporting
https://twitter.com/spotlightrep

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

Some of the listeners might know Jason Forbes who’s the Spotlight Reporting Director of Sales here in Australia. I know Jason from my days as a MYOB Trainer back in early 2000. Then Jason became my first Xero account manager. And now he is at Spotlight Reporting – helping advisors and business owners understand their numbers and use them to meet their business goals.

P.S. Loved this episode? You’re going to love hearing from David New who is now the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Spotlight Reporting. In episode 25 David talks about building teams and growing businesses in superfast time.

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Today on the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with the Lisa Martin owner and manager at GoFi8ure. The business offers one-on-one or one-to-many training at your doorstep or in-house. The tagline is ‘get training and become a Xero Hero’.

You'll recall I interviewed Lisa in episode 20 of Cloud Stories. In that episode we explored her Xero journey. I asked her to come back on the show - so we could discuss how a business could offer Xero training. Lisa and I both have a gazillion years of Xero training experience between us. We are passionate about delivering high quality training and helping people who want to DIY Bookkeeping. We have a candid discussion about all aspects of offering Xero training. You'll hear about what works and what doesn't work for us, and how we can bring real world experience into Xero training. I personally think what’s great about the interview – is we do things differently – so you get to hear different options – and perhaps decide what’s best for you in your business.

If you've ever thought of offering Xero training as an additional service in your business - then you must listen to this episode. Please note - we're independent of Xero - and all opinions (and we have a lot of them) are our own.

In this episode I talk to Lisa about:

Why we offer Xero training
Qualities of a good trainer – what to look for in a good trainer
Importance of communication, plain English and common sense skills
Difficulties of introductory training
Find out where students are at prior to training
Icebreakers to use before running a training session
Understanding what the student hopes to get out of training
Asking open ended questions
The importance of monitoring other people presenting – and understanding how people learn
How to improve your training skills
How to structure training classes
How to use Xero as a training platform
What contents covered in a Xero training class
Online vs In person vs Classroom Training
How to make a room conducive to training
Business tools used to help run training classes
How to promote Xero training classes
Always ask students for a testimonial and ask them to tell their own colleagues about the training they had with you
Thoughts around what Xero’s stipulations should be around Xero trainers. Please note - we're independent of Xero
Surveys and feedback following training courses
Education empowers

Don’t be afraid that you’ll train you out of a client for you – Lisa Martin

Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. One of the tools that you can use within Spotlight Reporting is Spotlight Forecasting. Spotlight Forecasting enables you to look ahead with clarity. You can find out more information by visiting http://www.spotlightreporting.com/future. It includes a budget creator, a three-way forecasting tool and a scenario builder. It seamlessly integrates with Xero so you can have it up and running very fast. Please visit the show sponsors.

At the end of the show I call-out to Phil Burnell who left a 5 star review for Spotlight Reporting at the Xero community. He says about Spotlight Reporting “Great reporting tool that provides a high quality range of additional reporting that really will make a difference to any business that uses it!”

Resources mentioned in this interview

Xero
Spotlight Reporting

Connect with Lisa Martin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamartingofi8ure
https://twitter.com/GoFi8ure
http://www.gofi8ure.co.nz/xero-training-centre
http://www.sayitlikeitis.co.nz/
xero@gofi8ure.co.nz

Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

P.S. Loved this episode? You’re going to love hearing about Lisa’s Xero journey on episode 20.

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Today on the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Bernadette Schwerdt. Bernadette is the author of Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses ... And How You Can Too. Bernadette and I are both authors with Wiley Publishing. We publish books with real pages! Every month Wiley sends authors a newsletter about what other authors are doing and I when I read Bernadette had written a book on the topic of successful entrepreneurs – I thought it would be of interest to listeners of this podcast.

So I approached her and she kindly agreed. We then played calendar games for a few months and finally I’m excited to share with you that she’s on the show!

What I learnt from my conversation with Bernadette is that you don’t need a team of expert in what your business does e.g. if you sell wine you don’t need a sommelier, what you need is a hacker and a hustler. I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot. In episode 11 of Cloud Stories I spoke with Tejaswi Raghurama at Pipemonk and his job title was Growth Hacker. I need to speak with someone and explore the growth hacker phenomena.

Bernadette also shared that she learnt through her interviews that businesses needed to operate quickly and on a bootstring. If they were to fail they needed to fail forward. Failing forward essentially means you turn your mistakes into stepping stones that move you forward.

I hope that hearing about how other successful entrepreneurs have succeeded may help you in your own business.

Bernadette is the director of The Australian School of Copywriting, an online training company specialising in the science and art of content marketing. She is the author of the best-selling manual “Writing for Profit” and of the new book “Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs” by Wiley Publishing.

She is a columnist with the magazine Inside Small Business, an Ambassador Blogger for Australia Post, a lecturer in marketing and communications at leading universities around Australia and is in demand as a speaker on leadership, entrepreneurship and marketing.

When she’s not working in marketing, she moonlights as an actor and appears regularly on TV in iconic shows such as Neighbours, Winners and Losers, Jack Irish and others.

In fact I was watching Jack Irish the other night and a lawyer appeared who sounded exactly like Bernadette and I checked the credits and it was her! Jack Irish is a great Australian drama on the ABC at the moment – if you have the chance to watch it.

Bernadette’s business The Australian School of Copywriting was formed in 2001, and has trained thousands of students in the art of copywriting. Specialising in providing real-world, practical techniques, students learn how copywriting can not only benefit their small business, but how it can become a main source of income.

Here’s an extract from Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs – that I read during the podcast:

Morris’s top 10 trends to watch: Lawyers/accountants/service industry

Statutory paperwork and routine regulatory forms will all be completed digitally by 2025, leaving service providers to earn their fees, by selling their wisdom, intuition and feelings.

As the sea of data rises and possibilities exponentially grow, we will be crying out for wise people to make sense and purpose out of all of it for us. We’ll be searching for experts who can let us know – in advance of use even knowing we need to know it – what to do about it or with it. That’s tomorrow’s service industry’s goldmine.

That’s all about understanding and accessing accurate timely big data interpret it, analyse it and communicate it. That’s one of the reasons I invited Geni Whitehouse to be a guest on the show – episode 36 of Cloud Stories – to speak about the importance of communicating in everyday language that small business people understand.

Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. I wanted to share with you a conversation I had during the week. I was speaking with a bookkeeper who had many freelance professionals from the same industry all on Xero. I explained to her that she could use the Spotlight Multi product and she could suck in all of the Xero organisations, and doing that she could rank them, visualise them, benchmark and consolidate them. Breaking that down, she could see the comparisons between revenue earned against cost of sales whether they were in line with the other business and potentially whether there were exceptions that needed further investigation.

Using a tool like Spotlight Multi can help you sell your wisdom, your intuition and your feelings. You can graphically look at something and quickly see exceptions that can lead you to understand and react to trends in the business. This in turns improves your ability to manage the business.

Laugh like a drain

In this episode I talk to Bernadette about:

Mad Men television series
What is copywriting
E-books vs books with real pages
Importance of all employees to have an online presence which incorporates what they want to be known for
How to develop high quality content and re-purpose it across platforms
When an online business needs a copywriter
How should a business engage a copywriter
7 steps to create a successful online business: purpose, people, planning, profit, positioning, profile, promotion
Critical to understand the actual business you are in
How Malcolm Turnbull made his millions – it may surprise you!
The two people every online business needs is a hacker and a hustler
Don’t be obsessed with perfection
Fast and quick, think fast and fail forward

Resources mentioned in this interview

https://www.shoesofprey.com/
http://au.whogivesacrap.org/

Connect with Bernadette Schwerdt

Info@copyschool.com
copyschool.com
bernadetteschwerdt.com.au

Connect with Heather Smith

Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter

Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/

Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book

Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting

Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU

Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts

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Geni divides her time between working as a winery consultant at Brotemarkle, Davis & Co in the Napa Valley and writing, speaking, and tweeting about what some might consider nerdy subjects. As a former partner in a CPA firm, two-time software company executive, and recent CMO of a tech startup, she has a passion for applying technology to solving business problems. She has been named a Top 100 Influencer by Accounting Today, one of 25 Thought Leaders in Accounting, and one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting by CPA Practice Advisor. She is a member of the TEDxNapaValley organizing committee and was the first speaker at their first TEDx event in 2011.

In this episode Geni Whitehouse and I discuss:

The importance of communicating in straightforward language that small business people understand
How bookkeepers and accountants can improve their communications skills and in turn increase their bottom line
The accounting and bookkeeping complexities found in the wine industry
Using LinkedIn as a platform to share knowledge with your community.

Contact Geni Whitehouse at:
https://www.facebook.com/evenanerd
https://twitter.com/evenanerd
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evenanerd
http://www.evenanerd.com/nerd-talk

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In this episode Blake Oliver and I discuss his
recommended apps for accountants and bookkeepers.

I loved this episode!

Connect with @BlakeTOliver & @HeatherSmithAU on twitter and let us know if you agree. Or visit http://www.blakeoliver.com/ and
http://cloud-stories.com/ sign up to our newsletters.

This episode was kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.

Spotlight Reporting has a suite of four solutions:

Spotlight Reporting creates useful, attractive performance reports quickly and efficiently. Ideal for organisations that need deeper insight and analysis

Spotlight Dashboard is the one page reporting dashboard that focuses on what really matters. With drag-and-drop functionality, Dashboard is super-fast and easy to use.

Spotlight Forecasting is an 'all-in-one' forecasting tool which brings together budget creation, full 3-way forecasting and scenario building capability. Forecast the future with confidence.

Spotlight Multi is an online tool designed specifically for multi-entity organisations. Better, faster and more useful reporting should also encourage improved decision making and governance.

Please support our sponsor and visit http://www.spotlightreporting.com/ to find out more about Spotlight Reporting

Or if you are a Xero advisor join the https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind/ group and continue the discussion.

Blake Oliver is the Director of Technology & Marketing at HPC Accounting & Tax

"I love technology, accounting, and productivity. I guess that's why nothing makes me happier than helping a client realize a big boost in efficiency after setting up a new cloud accounting integration." ~ Blake Oliver

Heather Smith can help your Xerocentric business deliver powerful, engaging and educational content, through guest blog posts, educational instructions, video creation, podcasts, and social media blasts. She hosts the #1 independent XeroCentric podcast Cloud Stories, authored Xero for Dummies, produces easy to follow videos on her YouTube channel and hosts the Xero Mastermind Meetup and Xero Mastermind Facebook group. As a chartered certified accountant, certified practising accountant and Xero certified advisor she has the knowledge, expertise and credibility to talk about your business solution to the Xero community.

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Dan is a CPA with a passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed by understanding the meaning behind the numbers in their business. With more than 12 years in public accounting and consulting, Dan specializes in creating cloud-based systems that make businesses more efficient – helping accounting, inventory and other systems seamlessly work together.

About EBCFO
You are busy running your business, but what you really want to do is create and grow, not focus on the day-to-day operational grind. That’s where we come in. EBCFO is a virtual CFO firm that helps start-ups, non-profit organizations and e-commerce companies at all stages by offering bookkeeping, accounting, cash flow management, payroll services and CFO services.

We help business owners like you move beyond putting numbers in buckets. We are not just another accounting, consulting or advisory firm - we make sense of those numbers so you can make smarter business decisions. Focus on what you love with EBCFO.

Contact Details
Website www.ebcfo.com
Social Networks
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ebcfo/
Twitter @EBCFO
LinkedIN http://www.linkedin.com/in/danschmidtcpa
Blog http://www.ebcfo.com/blog

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Focused, driven, committed and energetic. Jamie has a whole host of traits that have led him to where is he now; director of Perth’s multi-award-winning Carbon Business Group. Coming from property investment and accounting background, Jamie formed Carbon with a vision to provide businesses with a one-stop-shop for their core solutions- accounting, bookkeeping, business systems, insurance and finance.

As an innovative thinker, Jamie continues to adopt the latest technologies in an effort to maintain Carbon’s position as industry leaders. Jamie’s dedication to all divisions of the business will ensure its continued growth, with future plans to spread the magic of Carbon Australia wide.

Carbon Business Group is effectively a one-stop destination offering core business solutions tailored to each individual business. Our suite of services is comprised of Accounting, Bookkeeping, IT, Insurance and Finance. Each department is powered by highly qualified professionals who are specialists in their fields. We only employ “Carbonites” – individuals who strive to achieve the very best for their clients to ensure they see their business grow, in the same way that Carbon has since opening its doors in July 2014.

https://jamiedavison.com.au
https://carbongroup.com.au
https://www.facebook.com/carbonbusinessgroup/
https://twitter.com/CarbonGroupBK
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davisonjamie

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Mick Devine is the CEO and co-founder of Calxa, producers of the leading budgeting, reporting and cashflow forecasting software in Australia and New Zealand. He’s an accidental accountant with a strong desire to solve problems. One of his goals at Calxa has been to deliver software that makes life easier for customers, maximising the time they can save. Another, bigger one, has been to make the world a better place and Calxa’s donation program for grassroots Not-for-Profits is one of the key vehicles for delivering on this.

Calxa helps accountants, businesses and not-for-profits by delivering better management reports in less time, without the need for complex spreadsheets. Linking to common accounting systems eliminates duplicate data entry and provides the basis for accurate reports.

Calxa’s software makes reliable cashflow forecasts available to non-accountants so they can take charge of their businesses. Accountants love Calxa because it gives them the tools they need to provide a true advisory service – helping their clients with cashflow and budgets and using KPIs to monitor important statistics.

Calxa is based in Townsville, North Queensland and has customers as far afield as Japan and Scotland.

Contact details:

www.calxa.com

www.facebook.com/calxa

https://twitter.com/calxa

https://www.linkedin.com/company/calxa-australia

http://www.calxa.com/more/news-blog

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Peter Vessenes has served as a high-level corporate advisor since 1983. Projects that began with assisting presidents of Fortune 100 companies broadened to include mid-sized corporations, closely-held companies, start-ups and capital formation. Peter is a popular platform speaker and a co-author of two books. Now he actually said he authored these books he wasn't a co-author so maybe that's a typo there. Building Your Multi-Million-Dollar Practice and The Golden Rules of Economics: The Real Way Out Of America’s Financial Crisis. So Peter goes on to talk further about the points that he raises in Building Your Multi-Million Dollar Practice and if you think you can get your hot hands on a copy of the book I'd actually highly recommend you do as it sounds like there's lots of useful information in it. Peter's works have been published in Investment News, Wall Street On-Line, The Journal of Financial Planning, Producers Web, Horsesmouth, The Register, Financial Planning Magazine, Adviser Max, American Management Magazine, American Venture Magazine, Broker Dealer Magazine, and more. So lots of American financial magazines. Peter is the founder and CEO of ProfitSee, a financial software service for financial professionals, CPAs, and ProAdvisors. So let me explain ProfitSee. Business owners need access to high-level financial insights to strengthen their companies. CPAs, bookkeepers, accountants, and business advisors that understand how to do this become the game changers for their business clients. ProfitSee’s software, support, tools, and training strengthen the accountant-business owner relationship. Everyone benefits by being more profitable. With a commitment to rebuilding the global economy, ProfitSee’s cloud based software solution seamlessly integrates with accounting software data to provide powerful, instant insights. The forecasting, reporting, white labelling, and analytical tools improve efficiency, financial stability, profitability, and valuation in each business. ProfitSee is more than just a reporting tool.

I started by asking Peter what did you like to do as a 12-year-old?

Peter: As a 12-year-old? My goodness. I was an exceptionally good baseball player. I was the catcher in my city all-star team. I was also deeply hooked into {0:08:08.0} and algebra. I was one of those whiz kids that knew if Train A was moving at 40 miles an hour to the North East and Train B was leaving an hour and 40 minutes…anyway so I really, really liked applied math and logic and sat there even at 12. I started to take an interest in music and I began to be professionally trained as a vocalist-

Heather: -we need to get you up singing at Xerocon then it sounds like-

Peter: -oh my gosh that's for the young people. I don't know if they'd let us silver haired biddies go up there.

Heather: I'm sure there's a few silver haired people on stage.

Peter: I still have the pipes. So you know I really loved math, I loved reading, I was a good athlete, I started to play golf at 12 but no, it was kind of a combination of math, science and performance.

Heather: Sounds like you're a really positive all-rounder and had a few opportunities there. That's excellent.

Peter: Well, you know, everybody is who they are. I was flitting from one group to another as I went through my primary and secondary education.

Heather: Brilliant. I know that when I lived in Canada one of the things that my husband really liked was the batting cages because we kind of have baseball here in Australia, so I shouldn’t say that, but we don't really have those and the ball automatically shoots at you and you just kind of go in there. So that's quite fun to see you go in and you get all dressed up and then kind of have to hit the ball. So that was actually quite a fun thing. They should open something like that here in Australia.

So can you tell our listeners, Peter, about your company and what it does?

Peter: Well I can give it a try. I actually…we're an overnight sensation 40 years in the making.

Heather: Oh okay.

Peter: That's the best way to explain this. When I came out of graduate school I actually worked as a think tank facilitator for the US Government on healthcare reform in rural America and my college sweetheart, who was my bride by then and still is, she was an attorney who specialised in constitutional law and when we started to have a family we decided we didn’t really want to be like time bureaucrats. So we went back into the private sector and by 1979 I was really deeply involved in using micro-computer systems because I had a background in programming in both fortran and basic and by 1982 I found I was being engaged by a number of companies, both in Silicon Valley and among the Fortune 100 that were very high profile tech companies. And these are names that everyone would recognise. So eventually we wound up moving to Minneapolis in 1987 because I was asked to fix a failed acquisition merger for a major Fortune 70 company that was doing about half a billion dollars a year in revenue but was losing about $47 million-

Heather: -that's a huge amount of money back in 1987-

Peter: -that is yes and so in 26 months with what I was doing and some of the people that were contributing to what I was trying to help with, but pretty much it was my strategies that turned it around. In 26 months we turned it to +$57 million which is pretty astonishing and the parent was so happy, and I was on leverage compensation, but the parent was so happy they sold the division and guess who was not asked to go along. So no good deed goes unpunished. So I got fed up by the time I was 30 working for government and by the time I was 40 I got fed up helping multinationals. So in 1990-1991 somewhere in there I shifted over into helping SME's and I really, really liked it and I had developed a way of doing gap analysis in businesses which basically looks at…I believe there are eight key disciplines that inflict themselves on any company as soon as your significant other says I'm not helping you on weekends anymore. So essentially what the eight are is how do you define and how do you fulfil the client experience, and that's everything from sales processes to how do you approach your market, variety of things. The second is, how do you create tap-of-mind awareness into your target audiences. So those are the disciplines of strategic marketing, competitive analysis, competitive advantage, branding, taglines, advertising, public relations, event management, competitive advantage, elevator statements – all those things. The third discipline is workflows and efficiencies and I was actually trained in Deming's totally quality management from the 80s and I had adapted it to working in service space businesses as well. So I knew a lot about efficiencies and what were bottle necks and what was Chinese lanterns and I had to start with people in the trenches so that was an interesting element in how I match these things. The fourth discipline was compliance and regulatory law because that's becoming a bigger issue for most business. I didn't know a lot about it but my wife became the nationally known in the United States in compliance and regulatory law, because she wrote two definitive books about it, and Bloomberg Press called her the goshdess of compliance and regulatory-

Heather: -oh goodness that's something to be a goddess of-

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Paul Meissner is the next generation of Accountant. His firm, 5ways Group, operate 100% in the cloud. Paul has a passion for the small-medium business market and using technology to streamline how businesses operate. He and his firm are active on social media, networking and sharing ideas with Accountants around the world. Paul and 5ways do know technology and Xero. They were 2014 Xero Award winners ("100% Cloud), are a Xero XPAC member and were one of the first Accountants to embrace Xero here in Australia. "

5ways Group are a creative cloud accounting agency based in Melbourne. 5ways is the way accounting should be. We are all about the success of our clients through our club type culture that embodies ‘the modern accounting practice’. Our firm is at the forefront of technology and we strive to be a part of our client’s success and have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

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I had a cushy corporate job as a Project Manager at Cap Gemini. The people were great, the role was enjoyable & I had a secure career. As is the nature of the corporate structure (and my impatience), my career progression was not at the pace I wanted.

This frustration led to a conversation with an old friend over a BBQ and a beer, which resulted in us both quitting our jobs and starting a company.

The next day was quite the hangover…

We purchased BlueHub a Software Development and Integrations company. Up to this last year, our focus was on bespoke development until we made the move to Xero.
BlueHub focused on software development for over ten years. The cost of bespoke priced us out of smaller businesses.

We began using “off the shelf” cloud products to manage BlueHub. We started using Xero and WorkflowMax. Once we saw how good these cloud-based systems were, we asked ourselves;

“Why are we reinventing the wheel?”

We started testing a range of Xero Add-ons & cloud systems, re-marketing to lost clients and spread the word of affordable Cloud.

The uptake was incredible! We found a solution that cut the costs, sped up the delivery and increased the amount of people we could help.

Now we help clients across sectors find, set-up and integrate cloud systems. From our past, we are able to assist users with complex integrations.
www.bluehub.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlueHubSolutions
@blue_hub
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bluehub-solutions-ltd-
https://plus.google.com/+BlueHubSolutionsLtdPriorslee/posts
http://www.bluehub.co.uk/blog.cfm

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Highlights of my conversation with Guy Pearson

· Taking a holiday break gave him the perspective to launch his own accounting practice
· Niching to both differentiate and understand your clients' businesses
· Changing from compliance-focused to looking forward
· Accountants adverse to change will end up with a fire sale of their firm
· Practice Ignition – on-boarding and management solution for accounting practices
· Navigating relationships with other software solutions

Questions

· Who would you like to have coffee with and why?
· What inspired you in September 2009 to founded Interactive Accounting?
· Why do you think it’s important to differentiate your accounting practice by focusing on a niche?
· Within your own firm you were focused on systemising your firm to achieve a greater ROI. How did you go about doing that? What platform did you do it on? Is this where you recognised the need for Practice Ignition?
· Can you explain to our listeners what Practice Ignition does?
· Can you write code? What code is it built on?
· How does an old school practice move to the clouds, how do they adjust their business model, for such a major upheaval?
· Would it be easier to just start again?
· How long have you seen it take, and can you estimate how much they should budget for it?
· You have had the opportunity to spend time abroad residing in Silicon Valley and roadshows in England and Canada – what’s your perception of the state of the global market and adoption of cloud?
· Is there any future in a compliance only based accounting practice – that is one that only does tax work?
· Your accounting practice has won numerous awards from Xero, and your solution Practice Ignition has received investment from one of the main investors in Xero, so it’s fair to say you’ve had a long term relationship with Xero – how do you navigate building relationships with other accounting software solutions?
· The MD at Interactive Accounting Lisa Callaghan has recently written an article on linkedIN highlighting Capacity Planning and Staff Allocation are both unnecessary pain-points in today’s practices. And she estimates it is taking her $30K a year to achieve. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Resources

www.practiceigintion.com

https://www.facebook.com/PracticeIgnition

https://twitter.com/ignitionapp

https://www.linkedin.com/company/practice-ignition

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/100124838410297066883/+Practiceignition/about

http://www.practiceignition.com/blog

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Highlights of our conversation:

•Partnering with an IT specialist who understands the cloud and gets Xero

•The Windows 10 update

•How to unlock revenue by better utilising already available technologies

•Google Apps and Office 365

•Secrets to massively speed up your computer's performance

www.ctaspley.com.au

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Highlights of my conversation with Marcus Wilson http://surgicalpartners.com.au/

· From experiencing a real life problem, a solution is developed, which evolved into the product that Surgical Partners now sells and implements.

· Thinking outside the box: rather than create a cloud practice management system, Surgical Partners have created a conduit between Xero and numerous practice management systems enabling data to flow to a cloud business platform

· Enabling doctors to see a timely view of their revenue split on their mobile phone

· Receiving receivables in health care is not a problem, matching them is!

· Dealing with the soft limits of Xero.

Join the FaceBook Mastermind group https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

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David New bio:

A 20+ year (young) ‘veteran’ of the financial software industry. After enjoying a long and successful 16 years with leading mid-range accounting software vendor Attaché Software, has held Senior Executive positions with both Xero and Receipt Bank. With both organisations was responsible for building local AU / ANZ teams on the ground-based in Sydney effectively from scratch… and in super fast time! Passionate about cloud technology and helping businesses solve real everyday problems, to allow them to be more efficient and productive.

Questions I asked David New:

What historical figure would you like to have coffee with and why?

David, you’ve spent twenty years in the financial software industry, first hand witnessing the shift from DOS to Windows, and more recently from Desktop to Cloud. What concerns do you hear from people worried about moving to the cloud?

You’ve worked in senior executive positions at Xero, and New Zealand based company and Receipt Bank a UK based company, what have you learnt from introducing software solutions into Australia and New Zealand.

What advice do you have for business software solutions who want to grow a presence in Australia and New Zealand? [If not addressed with the previous question] Where should they spend their time.

At the time of speaking, August 2015, the Xero community is surrounded by four hundred add-on solutions, some one man bands, some massive entities. When in their life cycle do they need to direct money away from developing their solution towards promoting their solution.

Melbourne Xerocon is on at the moment-and outside the event competitor software have set up ambush marketing campaigns. Using Xero branded colour one was giving out coffee, one was giving out sausages and one offered to host bar tab for people in the industry not going to xerocon. What do you think of marketing tactics like that?

A number of the software solutions are looking to crack the enormous US market - do you think it’s achievable and what would your plan of attack be.

Reflecting upon your time at Xero and Receipt Bank, what were your successes and what would you have done differently?

We are surrounded by so many startups – do you feel the inclination to take the risk join a start-up and see where the journey can take you?

How does someone in a senior sales and marketing solution, manage a work life balance?

What do you look forward to doing most in your work life?

Looking outwards what are your work life aspirations?

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The questions I asked Andrew Sims;

Can you explain to our listeners what The Full Suite does?

How does your solution benefit the Xero user?

How should Xero advisors deal with an IT guy who says a business can’t be moved to the clouds?

What inspired you to found The Full Suite? Hint, it involves sitting next to Rod Drury on a plane trip!

What challenges have you faced growing the business?

Where do you find your customers?

How many staff do you have?

What do you look forward to doing most?

With your insights and experience, where do you think businesses can improve your productivity?

What does the future hold for The Full Suite?

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Highlights of my conversation with Steven Shelley

Zero time theft
From solving an internal problem in an aerospace company to launching Deputy
Solving staff rostering in over forty countries
Global growth and looking for staff
Lesson learnt: Build a product specific to a wider audience

Subscribe to Episode #22 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

I’d like to start by asking you Steve, what does a typical day look like for Steve Shelley?

Steve: So in the last few years Heather I’ve had quite a tumultuous time. I’ve actually been building a new house which has taken a lot of my time. Building a new team at Deputy, building Deputy and a whole series of other things that I’ve been working on in the background as well, so it’s been a very hectic last four or five years for me. But a typical day is a day which is literally jam packed. I don’t have much time to spare at all which is I guess how I’ve been for many years though, it seems to be working for me. I try and get to work as soon as I can and I’ll stay there as long as I can, I like to do longer days with less days if I can at work, I just find that if I can focus and get the things that I need to get done I’m happy within myself.

Heather: Okay that’s really interesting less days and longer days and that you’re not working virtually. So I’ve been in the industry and I’ll bring this up right now, I’ve been in the industry for a long time and a lot of people talk to me ‘cause of what I do and everyone loves Deputy, accountants and small businesses love Deputy, everyone loves Deputy, I never heard a bad thing about it. So you’re doing something really good and your team are doing something really good, so you should be really proud of it because it’s a great solution and everyone loves it.

Mentions

Deputy - http://www.deputy.com/

Deputy Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/deputyapp

Timely - https://www.gettimely.com/

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David is the Co-founder and CEO of Chaser. Prior to Chaser, David qualified as an Accountant with Deloitte and worked as a Finance Director. He is incredibly passionate about working with Xero users and partner firms to get their invoices paid on time.

Chaser (www.chaser.io) has the top-rated Xero add-on for chasing customers to pay their invoices on time. They link seamlessly with your Xero organisation. You can then automatically send the polite persistent chasers that get your invoices paid on time. All while preserving what you would do personally, so that those chasers have the maximum impact in getting your invoices paid.

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Highlights of my conversation with Lisa Martin

Working with a mentor to develop leadership skills
Quality Management in a bookkeeping business
Social media, referral and paid advertising
Building brand equity in a bookkeeping business
New Zealand Bookkeepers Association and its role in New Zealand

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Highlights of my conversation with Blake Oliver

One of the first US based bookkeeping firms and cloud integrators to be listed on Xero site
Acquisition of Cloudsourced Accounting by Harshman Phillips & Company and in turn offering the whole package: bookkeeping, cloud integration, tax compliance and virtual CFO services
An add-on needs to solve a pain point to justify he friction of setting up another application.
What do clients want from their CPA’s

Mentions

Cloudsourced Accounting = http://cloudsourcedaccounting.com/
Harshman Phillips & Company = http://hpccpa.com/
Abacus = https://www.abacus.com/
Expensify - https://www.expensify.com/
Bill = https://www.bill.com/
Vend = http://www.vendhq.com/
Square = https://squareup.com/

Heather Smith

Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter

Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/

Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book

Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting

Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

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Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU

Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts

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Highlights of my conversation with Nick Hazel

Benefits of focusing on a niche customer base
Unexpectedly becoming a business coach in the café industry
Xero plus other cloud solutions used in a growing bookkeeping practice
The ultimate cloud solutions for cafes
What an add-on solution needs to do to get in front of bookkeeper Nick Hazel

Mentions

· Xero - https://www.xero.com/

· Café Bookkeepers - http://www.cafebookkeepers.com.au/

· Monocle Bookkeeping - http://www.monoclebookkeeping.com.au/

· Deputy - http://www.deputy.com/

· Receipt Bank - http://www.receipt-bank.com/

· Asana - https://asana.com/

· WorkflowMax - http://www.workflowmax.com/

· Zendesk - https://www.zendesk.com/

· Everhour - https://everhour.com/

· CrunchBoards - http://crunchboards.com/

· Beat the Q - https://www.beattheq.com/

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Highlights of my conversation with Ryan Baker

Promoting Work Life balance with a 100% remote team
Scaling a business: insights from Fairfax, Trade Me group acquisition of previous business.
The Microsoft Bizspark programme for early start-ups
Increasing brand awareness via word of mouth
Developing an internationally accessible pricing strategy
Listening to clients, and planning and implementing improvements

Mentions

Timely – http://www.getTimely.com/
TimelyLife – https://twitter.com/timelylife
Timely Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/liketimely
Timely Blog – https://blog.gettimely.com
Trade Me - http://www.trademe.co.nz/
Microsoft BizSpark – https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/
Slack – https://slack.com/
Yammer – https://devices.yammer.com/
Trello – https://trello.com/
Skype – http://www.skype.com/en/
Vend – http://www.vendhq.com/
Salesforce – http://www.salesforce.com/eu/
MailChimp – http://mailchimp.com/
Xero – https://www.xero.com/
UserVoice – https://www.uservoice.com/
Buddle Findlay Lawyers – http://www.buddlefindlay.com/
Sacha Judd – https://nz.linkedin.com/in/sachajudd

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Highlights of my conversation with David Watson

· Benefits of cloud integration for franchise businesses

· What you need in place to offer advisory services

· How cloud technology is disrupting the traditional business intelligence

· Benchmarking for small business owners

· How to maximise your time at conferences

Mentions

· Fathom - http://www.fathomhq.com/

· Xero - https://www.xero.com/

· Vend - http://www.vendhq.com/

· eWAY - https://www.eway.com.au/

Connect with Heather Smith

Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter

Read my latest blog post: http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Visit my website: www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book

Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting

Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU

Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts

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Highlights of my conversation with Alex Falcon Huerta founder of Soaring Falcon Accountancy

Technology used in a 100% cloud accounting practice
Helping clients review future trends
Where small business owners can look to improve profits
How add-on solutions can promote themselves to accountants

Mentions included :

Soaring Falcon Accountancy - http://soaring-falcon.co.uk/
Digita Virtual Office - https://www.digita.com/pro/
MyPay - http://www.mypay.uk.com/
Xero - https://www.xero.com/
Dropbox - https://www.dropbox.com/
Microsoft Office 365 - https://login.microsoftonline.com/
CrunchBoards - http://crunchboards.com/
Fathom - http://www.fathomhq.com/
Spotlight - http://www.spotlightreporting.com/
Stripe - https://stripe.com/
eWay - https://www.eway.com.au/
Receipt Bank - http://www.receipt-bank.com/
Tripcatcher - https://www.tripcatcherapp.com/

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Highlights of my conversation with Saul Colt

Ruffling feathers by being interesting, original and fun: the story behind the cloud writing about a cloud company and the levitating man
Word of Mouth marketing insights
Marketing advice for accountants and bookkeepers wanting to attract the right type of client
How exhibitors can maximise their investment at the Denver Xerocon conference and beyond
Denver Xerocon 2015
Social media tools for professionals.

Subscribe to Episode14 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Transcript

Heather: Hello, this is Heather Smith here and you’re listening to Episode 14 of Cloud Stories. I’m very excited today because I interviewed Saul Colt who is the Chief Evangelist for Xero, so we have that interview coming up. I just wanted to quickly touch base with you about some of the things I’ve been doing since the last episode. I think I went down with a sore throat again which stops me recording the podcasts. I have just got back from Auckland Xerocon and it was in a stunning location on the wharf of Auckland.

Kind of interestingly, over Christmas I was on one of those massive cruise ships, The Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Sea, and we actually cruised right into Auckland and docked there which is kind of amazing to be able to dock right beside a main city. The conference was held at something called a Viaduct which was just to the left of the wharf, which was actually on the wharf just a bit left from where we were.

I actually stayed at an airbnb accommodation, so that was wonderful, sort of a lady letting out her studio apartment for a few days, and was able to walk to the viaduct for the event. It was massive, so much going on, the weather was wonderful and crisp and clear and beautiful skies, and there were so many things going on for the time I was there.

It was really interesting for me to see Xero in the Xero community as an Australian girl, the sort of New Zealand take on it, and not knowing New Zealand perhaps as well as people do, I did get confused by a few of the little things that happened. I think the Kiwibank had a dance video constantly playing, and on the first day of the conference was International Dance Day. I went up and asked them why they had the dance video playing and they couldn’t explain to me why they had the dance video playing. I said, “Well, maybe it’s for International Dance Day, and them and we agreed that it was for International Dance Day.

But it turned out that Kiwibank have something known as the Independence Dance which is a YouTube video sensation that is going viral. New Zealanders will know about that and maybe you want to go and check that out on YouTube. Anyway, if you’re interested in sort of my synopsis of what happened at Auckland Xerocon, you can go and read about it on Digital First. It’s called “An Aussie Girl’s Perspective of Auckland Xerocon 2015”. You can just Google that.

The other thing that has happened is I’m not guest blogging on the TradeGecko blog. TradeGecko are an inventory cloud software solution. I wrote an article for them on “Xero Inventory Management Versus TradeGecko Inventory Software”, which is very topical now that Xero has tracked inventory as a feature within their solution.

I talk about what does this mean for the inventory add-on solutions out there? Does it mean they’ve got tumbleweeds blowing through their office? Actually, my take on it, was this is actually a good thing, this is actually going to take people … step people up to the next level and they will use Xero tracked inventory but then they’ll sort of grow their business to actually need these inventory add-on solutions, and there’s a lot that they have to offer.

So please go and visit my blog there. It’s titled “Xero Inventory Management Versus TradeGecko Inventory Software”, and I shall be blogging with them on a monthly basis which I’m quite excited about. Of course, if any other person in the Xero ecosystem is interested in me blogging for them, please get in contact.

Finally, my other thing that I wanted to share with you is I’ve just uploaded two hours of free training on Australian Xero Payroll for Australia users. The level is basic. It’s all about setting up your payroll, and then I run through three pay runs. So please go to my YouTube channel which is called ANISE Consulting and you’ll see it labelled there, “Free Training in Xero Payroll”, which is subscribe to the channel and you can learn about Australian payroll if that’s something that you’ve not sort of dived into.

But anyway, let’s get back to my interview, my guest today, I’m very, very excited, today I’m speaking with Saul Colt. He is the chief evangelist for Xero, the co-host for the Xero Hour podcast, North America’s best word-of-mouth marketeer, and the smartest man in the world. I started by asking him …

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Highlights of my conversation with Steven Renwick

Offering cloud credit control and accounts receivable solutions to small business
turning Oxford MBA projects into a cloud success story
utilising the crowd equity funding platform seedrs to launch Satago
partnering with Experian to offer free access to credit data on UK businesses

Subscribe to Episode # of Cloud Stories on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Transcript

Heather: Hello and welcome back to Cloud stories. Today I’m interviewing Steven Renwick. Steven is the founder and CEO of Satago. Satago is a clever credit control and accounts receivable software that helps companies get paid faster. Satago connects to user’s accounting software and takes over the process of chasing customers for payments as debts age through automated statements and escalating email reminders. Included with Satago is free credit information and payment behaviour data about all of your customers, allowing you to determine which customers you can offer credit to and on which you should concentrate your collection efforts. I first met Steven at Sydney Xerocon, and that’s where he gave me blue sunglasses which you frequently see me wearing in pictures from Xerocons and Xero events, and there are a few of us around there sporting the Satago blue sunglasses.

I started by asking Steven, what did you like to do when you were a 12 year old?

Steven: Wow, as a 12 year old. I was very much into fantasy/war gaming. That’s like these lead models you get. You paint them up and then you play battles against each other or you go into dungeons and explore. So me and my brothers used to play that quite a bit.

Did you ever manage to sell those models for money?

Steven: A few of them I have but most of them I’ve still got in my parent’s attic. They’re now worth quite a bit of money because they’re all out of production.

Heather: My son keeps trying to convince me to buy them, which he does, he buys them and he’s like, “They’ll make money. They’ll make us money.” It sounds like you’re on the same street there.

Steven: Yes, could be.

Can you explain to our listeners essentially what your business, Satago, does?

Steven: Sure, Satago is an add-on for Xero. What it is; is clever control and accounts receivable software. We connect into your Xero account and then we basically take over the process of chasing your customers for payment through automated monthly statements and through customised escalating email reminders which get more serious in tone as the debt gets older. We also automate the sending of hard copy payment demand letters and we also get actual credit managers on the phone for you to call up your customers for payment. You can either be using it as an in-house tool to improve your own credit control, or to effectively outsource your credit control.

Something else we have is credit data on companies. Once you’re integrated with us, you can see the credit score, suggested credit limit and the payment behaviour data for your customers.

In terms of the credit data, is that England specific or UK specific, or everywhere global?

Steven: At the moment it’s only UK specific. We actually only launched that a couple of weeks ago. It’s through a partnership with Experian, which is the big credit data company. It’s quite expensive and took a wee while to negotiate the deal. So we really need to see what the uptake is for that in the UK first of all before we consider doing it around the rest of the world. What’s interesting with the credit data is that the quality of it varies greatly between countries depending on what sort of statutory rules there are for releasing information. One company might have good coverage in Australia but not in the UK and vice versa. So we have to look at it on the country-by-country basis.

Heather: Absolutely.

What has been the customer reaction to that new feature addition?

Steven: The phrase that kept on getting used is “this is a no brainer” because we’ve actually made it free to integrate … it’s free to integrate with Satago and it’s free to see the top level Experian data. So everybody gets to see the credit ratings and the credit limits and the days beyond terms data for all their customers. Even if you don’t use Satago for chasing customers because it’s not always necessary, you should at least know their credit data. It’s been really good so far. I think, on a daily basis, between about 30-50% of our users are looking at the credit data.

Heather: I’m sure for a lot of small business owners, this is actually the first time they’ve looked at credit data. Would you agree with that?

Steven: Yes, exactly. That’s why I wanted to do it because not enough small businesses look at this sort of data. When it comes to good credit control, although we started Satago and the whole ‘chasing you customer’ payment idea, the first real bedrock of credit control is knowing your customer. That means the very basics like knowing where they are actually based, knowing their real trading name, and knowing the very basic credit data. We’ve just made the very top level data for free because often small businesses don’t really know what they’re looking at when they look at that full credit report. So just the top level data but if you do want the full credit report, you can buy those through Satago as well.

Heather: Okay, sensational. It’s a really interesting add-on and I think from a small business owner’s perspective, they weren’t able to afford it in the past to even consider going down the route because for every new creditor that you took on board, that would be a costly exercise to do a full assessment of them, especially when you’re starting out and your small and you’re trying to grow. It’s like, “Anyone who wants to be my client can be my client.”

Steven: Exactly. I mean if you’re thinking about giving someone a £20,000 line of credit, it’s probably worth spending the £15 or £20 on a full credit report but if you’re doing large numbers of clients, that’s maybe not quite so feasible, so just having the top level data for free is very sensible. Having it integrated with your Xero account makes it even easier. You don’t have to go in there and start searching for all your customers because we’ve already matched it up for you.

Heather: Absolutely. I think it’s an excellent idea. I used to work for a company that standard payment terms were 18 months but the people selling to them didn’t realise that. They were like, “Yes, we’re a big company. That’s our standard.” So it makes things very difficult. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off.

Steven: I was going to say, 18 months is a bit crazy. That’s the way you put your own suppliers out of business.

Heather: Yes, that was the industry normal for that particular industry.

Steven: Okay.

Why did you start Satago?

Steven: I don’t know what industry you were talking about. Maybe it’s the construction industry because that was my family business background. In Scotland, my dad started a business which ended up installing and maintaining passenger lifts or elevators.

Heather: Like Schindler’s Lifts.

Steven: Exactly, they were the big competition.

Heather: Oh were they? Sorry.

Steven: Yes, slightly bigger than my family business, nevertheless they compete. That’s in the construction industry and they’re at the end of the supply chain more or less. I kind of grew up with this issue of late payment. My dad would come home and say, “This contractor has not paid us yet for this job we’ve done,” and there would some pretty big bills we were waiting on, like £20,000-£30,000 at a time, when they’d finish a job. The payments would drag on for weeks and weeks and weeks and months and months. Then occasionally these customers would just go into bankruptcy and leave you with this £30,000 invoice that you can’t pay.

I always thought it was really unfair how the big guys treated the little guys and I kind of wanted to do something about it for a long, long time. Then years later, I was just thinking about what industries are ripe for disruption. I looked at the credit data industry and I thought, “Well, you’ve got the big guys like Experian and Dun and Bradstreet but nothing new has really happened there for a long time.” I thought, “Well, why don’t we take advantage of the internet and all these new cloud accounting software companies that are coming up, and build a way of encouraging companies to anonymously share data about when their customers pay them versus agreed terms.” I thought, “It will be a bit like EBay where the buyer rates the seller and the seller rates the buyer.”

So basically I actually investigated this idea on my MBA at Oxford. I spent a year doing all the usual business school stuff but at every opportunity possible, I would investigate this idea I had.

So was it a project? Was it an assessable project?

Steven: Yes, I gamed the system a little bit and used it for every accessible project possible which meant I got to have my classmates working with me. I got what would otherwise be quite expensive consultants, these guys were used to charging thousands of pounds a day, but because it was a project for school they were doing it for free.

Heather: Sensational.

Steven: I used it for a few projects, used it for a few competitions, and did quite well from it but I didn’t manage … I’m talking by the end of the MBA I would have convinced someone to give me enough money to build a prototype of it just to test the idea out and get started. I didn’t manage in the end, so I had to go off and get a job.

Heather: You’ve mentioned Oxford, so I’ve got to stop and ask you for our listeners who perhaps are going to visit Oxford.

Steven, what’s your favourite pub in Oxford and what beer do you suggest they try? I just know that if you were at Oxford Uni, you’re bound to know a good pub there.

Steven: Yes, Oxford is overflowing with good pubs. I’ll give you two to try. On Broad Street, there’s one called the White Horse. It’s very small. It’s quite compact. It sells a lot of good beers. One I would recommend is White Horse – it’s from a relatively local brewery.

Heather: So White Horse selling White Horse. You just said the name of the pub was White Horse?

Steven: Yes, the pub is called White Horse, I think coincidentally, because the white horse is a famous prehistoric chalk drawing on one of the hills in the Cotswolds.

Heather: Yes, in Denver. Okay. Sorry.

Steven: Or in the Cotswolds.

Heather: Devon not Denver. But anyway, yes, I’ll take the Cotswolds then.

Steven: Yes, so the brewery and the pub is called that. Another one you should look for is called the Turf which is Oxford’s worst kept secret. It’s down some secret little alleyway but then there’s this beautiful big pub which gets very busy because actually everybody knows about it.

Heather: Fantastic. I’m sure some of the listeners will venture there.

Steven: They should.

@HeatherSmithAU @GoFi8ure just for you Heather: sunnies, ginger beard, Tower of London and the Shard in one pic: pic.twitter.com/gZZw2WtCD9

— Satago (@satagonet) March 4, 2015

So in your journey of developing Satago, what obstacles have you met along the way?

Steven: Well, the first one was raising money. In that respect we’re a normal tech start up, not unlike Xero a few years ago itself, except this is my first company so I didn’t have previous successes with which to finance this one. We were actually quite fortunate in a way, that one of my classmates from the MBA, a year or two before me, actually founded a company in the UK called Seedrs which was basically the world’s first genuine crowd equity funding platform. Everybody will have heard of things like Kickstarter from the US where people crowd fund books or projects and stuff like that.

Heather: Yes.

Steven: Now the difference with Kickstarter is you’re basically just paying in advance for a product. You’re paying for a product to be developed, then you get the product. What’s different with the crowd equity funding is that people are actually buying a bit of your company, so they actually hold shares. When this platform launched I thought “Okay, I’ll put my idea for Satago on there and I’ll see if I can just raise £30,000 to build a prototype,” and it worked. Within two weeks I had 60 people had invested anything from £10 to £5,000. I had my £5,000 to go off and try and build version 1 of Satago.

Heather: Wow.

So you’ve got multiple investors in the company?

Steven: Yes, I mean technically the way it works is that I actually only have one investor listed on my capital table because if I had 60, that would be a mess. So Seedrs actually manages it so that they’ve got like 60 investors in a special vehicle they have but technically Seedrs, the investment company, is the only investor in Satago. But really there are 60 different people who all have rights to the shares.

Heather: Okay, that’s really interesting. So Seedrs is still in existence?

Steven: Yes, it’s doing very well.

Heather: Okay.

Steven: They’re funding millions of pounds every month in companies throughout Europe. I think they’re just getting started in the US.

And it’s an experience reflecting on it, that you took that route?

Steven: Yes, I’m very happy with it because what I think is very important about this crowd equity funding side of things is that it makes start-ups accessible to people. If you read the conventional guidance on how to do a start-up, the first thing they always say is, “You should raise your first bit of money from friends and family.” Now, I don’t know about everyone else’s friends and family but there’s no way I was going to manage to get £30,000 from my friends and family because they’re just not that wealthy. I think the people that make that suggestion perhaps do have the wealthy friends and family, and forget that 95% of people don’t have friends and family with £30,000 lying around.

For me, it almost democratises doing start-ups a little bit, which I think makes it accessible to a broader range of people, which is very important. Yes, it was a great experience for me. There’s no other way I would have got that money so quickly.

Heather: Absolutely. That’s really exciting. I actually hadn’t heard of that company. I always watch the Kickstarters and the Indiegogo’s, etc. It’s always very interesting to watch.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being involved in Satago Steven?

Steven: I guess the most rewarding bit is when you get positive feedback from your users. You’ll have people just sign up, and out of the blue, without you even having spoken to them at all, they’ll get in touch with you and say, “This is amazing. I’ve just sent my first batch of statements or reminders,” or something “and all these people promised to pay me.” That’s great. It’s real internet business. It’s complete strangers somewhere on the internet, somewhere in the world, emailing me to say this thing that you’ve been spending the last two years building has actually made a difference to them. That’s fantastic.

Heather: Absolutely. I signed up recently to the product to have a look inside the product and one of the things I really liked about it was that you have the option to set the emails and the reminder notices so they go out during the week rather than on the weekend. That’s always really important to me because I know that in this cloud based, automated world, people kind of … and I watch them and they’re just working 24/7, which is fine, however you need to have a life as well. To me, I don’t think there’s much of a point for the reminders to go out on the weekend - obviously different industries, etc.

It is such a massive time saver for such a small amount of money, and it’s a massive relief to know that that’s actually working in the background. It sounds like you’ve actually got all of the different elements in place because a lot of small business owners just want to be passionately involved in their business and they want to passionately have this relationship with the client or the customer, and they don’t want to say, “Hey, by the way, you owe me money.” Because I think a lot of people would do it for free if they could do.

Steven: Yes, that’s the thing because we’ve always been saying people start businesses because they love what they’re doing and they’re very good at selling their product or their business. It’s what they love and what they’re excited about. But people often forget that about a third of your businesses function is probably doing credit control and just getting the money in at the end of the day. A lot of people don’t even realise that that’s ever going to be an issue and quite often they only do begin to realise when it’s almost too late. It’s really one of these things you need to get in place really early on.

Heather: Yes.

Steven: Using Satago just makes it easy, takes it out of their hands of having to think about it too much, and it’s all done professionally.

Heather: It is done professionally. As you said before, it is a bit of a no brainer because I always kind of equate the cost to how much is that in minutes of your own time. So over a month period, it’s like nothing at all. Plus it’s not nasty chasing. You can do it very politely and very professionally and still have that in place. I know that clients say to me after a while, “Oh, I actually wait for the reminder and then I pay you because I know it’s coming.” It’s almost like their payment cash flow system that they work on.

Steven: Yes.

So how do you go about acquiring additional customers for your business?

Steven: Well, to be honest, as an early stage start-up, we’re still experimenting and finding out what the best way of acquiring users is. We work with a number of accounting firms and bookkeeping firms, a kind of partner programme similar to that which Xero has itself. That seems to be quite popular. Then to be honest, a lot of our users come direct through the website. I think a lot of them come from the Xero add-on store and I think our organic search engine rankings are quite decent.

We have a lot of people signing up directly, direct end users, and what we have a lot of is people sign up wanting the full credit control service. They want somebody on the phone for them as well. When they do that, we refer them to one of the partners that we’ve got already, and they effectively become the outsourced credit management company for them. They will be doing full service, so they’ll manage their Satago account and they’ll be the one that decides who to phone, who needs to be chased through the courts, that sort of thing.

Heather: Fantastic, so they can just get on with running their business. Two questions come out of that for me.

What has been Satago’s secret for generating enviable press coverage in the Guardian, Forbes, Independent, etc? You’ve done very well that way.

Steven: We put a big effort on that in the beginning of the year. We came up with some interesting stories. We did some research amongst our users and even people who weren’t users of Satago, just asking them what were the excuses they’d heard of for late payment.

Heather: So you shared funny stories of why people …?

Steven: Yes, kind of interesting stories about late payment because in the UK, it’s a very hot topic just now. It’s probably one of the … at least the top three concerns of small business owners is late payment, and the government has been very good about trying to do something about it. Barely a week goes by without there being some sort of story about late payment in the small business press. I just tried to help out with our own bits of research, what we’d found so far, and the journalist seemed to quite like it. They were all very willing to write about us.

Heather: Sensational. It’s actually really difficult in this whole ecosystem, that a lot of the subjects are quite dry, to find an angle that’s actually of interest and to exploit it. People love those stories of the dog ate my invoice, etc. But those stories certainly are of interest and your coverage is amazing. So people, if you are looking for exposure, go and take a look and read at the Satago media coverage that they’ve actually had. Now, I’ll also ask you, you talked about the partner programme.

How does your partner programme work?

Steven: If you become a Satago partner, we will give you a free account for Satago … it’s for accountants and bookkeepers mostly.

Heather: Yes, and cloud integrators probably as well.

Steven: Yes, so we’ve got a few cloud integrators there as well. You get a free account to use yourself to chase your customers as much as you want. Then after you have a certain number of users … we have two different things we do. We will either give you revenue share which you can either take as revenue or pass on the savings onto your customers. But we’ve also partnered, or about to partner, with …

Heather: Is this exclusive news?

Steven: It is actually, yes.

Heather: Very good.

Steven: We haven’t actually started yet but there’s a charity called Buy One Give One (B1G1) . Have you heard of that?

Heather: Well, you explain what yours is in case I explain something different.

Steven: So Buy One Give One (B1G1) is I suppose a charity which encourages you to give away a little bit of your profits I guess, or a little bit of revenue for every time you sell something.

Heather: Oh okay.

Steven: It could be something as small as: every time you sell a cup of coffee, you give 10 pence to this charity. The idea is a large number of these relatively small donations add up to something quite significant.

Heather: Absolutely.

Steven: The chairman of Buy One Give One (B1G1) is a gentleman called Paul Dunn who is quite famous in the accounting profession, I think particularly in the UK. He now lives in Singapore but he is a quite famous speaker. I saw him speak at an accounting industry event called 20/20 in the UK, and he kind of inspired us to get in touch with this charity and do this kind of partnership. We haven’t started it yet but what we’re going to do is give accountants and bookkeepers the options of either taking this revenue share or giving that revenue share to Buy One Give One (B1G1) where it can have an impact on people around the world.

Heather: Absolutely, that’s a sensational idea. Excellent.

Steven: Thank you.

Heather: So this is my cave man question for not understanding how technology works, okay.

Steven: I’ll do my best.

Heather: Well, you should be the genius here and this is me not understanding it.

Satago offers three different pricing levels which reflect the number of invoices that the solution will chase at each of the different pricing levels. In this automated world, how much extra effort is there in a solution to chase more than one invoice?

Steven: You mean from Satago’s point of view?

Heather: Yes. I didn’t understand … and you’re not alone in this but I didn’t understand if you’re chasing one invoice, why is it more effort … because in this automated world, why is it more difficult to chase two invoices than to chase 5,000 invoices?

Steven: Really from our point of view, there’s no difference in effort. There’s a slight difference in that we have these automated … we also send letters. We give you different number of letters you can send but that’s really by-the-by. I mean to be quite honest with you, it doesn’t make any difference … it doesn’t make much difference if we’re chasing 1,000 invoices or 10 invoices in a month. This is what you would call in your MBA class ‘price discrimination’.

In an ideal world, we’ve got to make money. We would be charging each of our users £100 a month or something decent like that so we can make a lot of money from each of our users. But the reality is that the person that’s only sending 10 invoices a month is never going to pay £100 a month, whereas the person that is sending 1,000 invoices a month has a much greater need and is more willing to pay for it. It’s more of an economic discrimination rather than any kind of technical discrimination at all.

Heather: Very good, I feel like I’ve been professor'd by the Oxford scholar. Thank you for that.

Steven: Pleasure.

So is Satago based in London?

Steven: We are based in London. That’s right.

Heather: Okay. You’re in Berlin at the moment. Satago is based in London.

Steven: I am today, yes.

What’s the internet connection like in London then for you guys?

Steven: The internet connection?

Heather: Yes.

Steven: It’s okay. It seems pretty fast to me.

Heather: Is it? Okay. I don’t know whether it was going to be fast or not, so that’s sensational.

Steven: We often get told we’re lagging behind the rest of the world. I think our investment in infrastructure perhaps isn’t the best but we’re never going to be as fast as the Estonians or something like that, who seem to be all very wired up.

Heather: Yes.

You recently featured on the cover of XU Magazine. What was the modelling experience like for you?

Steven: That was a great day, yes. I was with Colin from Float and Michael from Receipt Bank.

Heather: Michael from Receipt Bank, yes.

Steven: Yes, it was really cool. I guess that was inspired by the Xerocon down in Sydney where I think the three of us were wearing our kilts. We did a shoot … that was actually at the Receipt Bank offices, had a really great photographer along, and just trying to dream up what would actually make good photos. The Receipt Bank office is quite neat in that they had these airline seats there for some reason.

Heather: As you do.

Steven: As you do. Yes, we drew on some windows onto the chalkboard behind. You may have noticed the windows that were drawn on were square, which any airplane engineer will tell you is a terrible idea. Nevertheless, it made a decent photo, and yes it was a lot of fun.

What effect did it have for you and your business at London Xerocon with your face all over the magazine being handed out to all the attendees and delegates?

Steven: I guess a lot of people did comment on it because I actually wore my kilt to Xerocon.

Heather: Yes, I saw. There were three of you in your kilts wasn’t there?

Steven: There was meant to be but we failed. I actually ordered some kilts to get delivered from Scotland down to London so my two colleagues, Adam and Florin, could also wear the kilts and we’d make a bit of a theme of it but the couriers completely stuffed up. I use the G-rated ‘stuffed up’ there.

Heather: Yes.

Steven: And completely failed to deliver them to us, so it was just me. But yes, it was great. It was really cool being on the cover. Funnily enough, I was standing next to the XU Magazine stand talking to someone and he says, “You look a bit like the guy on the front of the magazine but it’s not you is it?” I was standing right next to it wearing a kilt. It was like, “It really is me.”

Heather: In the exact same kilt?

Steven: In the exact same kilt, yes.

Heather: Goodness. Excellent. It’s always fun to be at those events when you’re such a star from the magazine.

Steven: It is indeed. It helps.

So Satago was reviewed by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. They did a big review of your product, produced a very nice and detailed review of the product. What did that mean for you?

Steven: Well, it was just great to have an independent validation, a proper audit. All too often, companies of course will get launched and you’ll get a lot of noise but you won’t have anyone actually take a proper deep dive from anyone that’s properly independent. What was really good was that also shortly after that, we exhibited at the ICBs Bookkeepers Summit in London. That was like 300-400 bookkeepers turned up for this conference and we were literally mobbed for every minute of the two days we were there. Every time they had a break between sessions, we would have bookkeepers three or four deep at our stand, so it was quite phenomenal.

Heather: Excellent. Well, we’re having the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers annual conference in Brisbane this month.

Steven: Oh, I wish I could be there.

Heather: What a shame you didn’t make it out for that.

Steven: That would have been great.

Heather: Brisbane is far nicer than Sydney too.

Steven: Really, I’ll take your word for that. I’ve got relatives there as well I need to visit. Maybe I can pop round.

Heather: Tax deductable holiday to Brisbane.

Steven: Sure.

So what does the future hold for Satago?

Steven: Well, we’ve got a lot more cool features coming out. Our main user interface is going to have a new dashboard on it fairly soon, a lot more on the reporting side of things. We’re going to make more use of the credit data. We’re going to start trying to be a bit more proactive on the sales and marketing side of things because we haven’t really … apart from going to the conferences, we haven’t actually spent on marketing yet. We’re going to start experimenting with that.

We’ll also have to have a look at being a bit more proactive in the international side of things. To date we’ve mostly concentrated on the UK market, largely because we knew that the Experian data was only going to be valid in the UK. But if the demand is there, then I would really like to source data for the New Zealand and Australian markets, because they’re obviously where Xero is most strong, and see how that goes.

Heather: Yes, absolutely. I found when I went in and explored and worked my way round the Satago Solution, it was very clean and an easy to understand interface.

Steven: Thank you.

Heather: I do encourage anyone who’s listening, who’s interested in the product, to jump in and take a look. I reckon you’ll be up and running within about 8 minutes.

Steven: Yes, should be.

Heather: Time to boil a cup of tea and get it going.

Steven, one final question for you, what advice would you have for your 18 year old self?

Steven: Ah, my 18 year old self. It’s a tricky one because I had this weird career path where I started off doing biochemistry. I did a PhD in genetics and now I’m working in internet businesses. Off the top, you might just say, “Skip the biochemistry and PhD bit and go straight into business because I’m not using the genetics anymore.” But the reality is that that path led me to where I am now, so I wouldn’t change anything about that. Maybe what I’d say is, “Start learning German in university because you’re going to end up living in Berlin and not have a clue what anyone is saying.” So there you go. “Learn a language.”

Heather: Didn’t I see you tweeting the other day that you wanted someone to subtitle a Finish programme or something like that?

Steven: Norwegian. My girlfriend is from Norway, so we quite often end up watching this chat show, this Norwegian chat show. When they have guests from English, it’s all in English but a lot of the time it’s in Norwegian or Swedish, and I just don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

Heather: Absolutely. No, learning a language is very hard. With your genetics background, is any of it applicable? Is it the discipline that’s applicable or the knowledge applicable to what you’re doing now?

Steven: I think what I probably don’t appreciate enough is how it trains you to be inquisitive in the correct way. I don’t literally use any of the genetics or anything like that but it does help me, I think, to understand some of the technical side of what we’re doing and to ask the right questions. A lot of what you’re doing with a start-up business is constant experiments which is what PhD is. You’re testing out this new feature. You’re testing out this marketing channel. You’re testing if I change the headline from A to B, do I get 5% more signup? So it’s a little bit like doing a PhD except almost the stake is about 10 times higher.

Heather: Yes, I guess so. Absolutely. I guess you are … rather than assuming you know the answer, you’re testing it because it is really easy to sit there and go, “Everyone thinks the exact same as me. We should just do it this way,” rather than what you’re saying. Doing a PhD isn’t something you accidentally fall over, wake up one day and have done. That was a huge commitment to do, to then move into something else. But there does seem to be a few people out there who have done that. I just got an email that the head of Dell was a zoologist to start off … Dell Australia started off as a zoologist. I’m like, Okay …”

Steven: I’m in good company then.

Heather: You are. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us and sharing your insights about building your business and what it can do for people. I really, really appreciate it.

Steven: My pleasure Heather.

Heather: Thank you.

End of Transcript

Mentions

Satago - https://www.Satago.co.uk/
Xero - https://www.Xero.com/
Experian - http://www.Experian.co.uk/
Dun and Bradstreet - http://www.dnb.com/
Seedrs - https://www.seedrs.com/
Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/
Indiegogo - https://www.indiegogo.com/
Buy One Give One - https://www.b1g1.com/buy1give1/
XU Magazine - http://xumagazine.com/
Float - http://floatapp.com/
Receipt Bank - http://www.receipt-bank.com/
Dell - http://www.dell.com/

View Details

Ep.12 Barry Dowling – TransferMate Global Payments – Minimising costs and complexities associated with foreign currency payments seamlessly from with Xero

Highlights of my conversation with Barry Dowling

· Spending time to understand your client

· Using client feedback to tweak the solution offered

· Achieving the milestone of $5US billion in transfers

· Using referral links as a marketing strategy

Subscribe to Episode 12 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Transcript

Heather: Heather Smith here. Welcome to Cloud Stories. Today I’m talking with Barry Dowling. Barry Dowling is the cofounder of TransferMate Global Payments. He is dedicated to making the process of booking foreign currency payments seamless, easier, faster and cheaper. TransferMate Global Payments is a global Fintech company that provides integrated solutions enabling companies to seamlessly process international payments. They provide a 24 hour phone service and online systems to enable clients to seamlessly process their foreign currency payments. They sync with Xero, enabling Xero users to cut down on wasteful double entry and transaction costs when processing payments.

Whether your business is based in Australia and looking to transfer funds to China or based in California and transferring to the U.K., TransferMate has the widest collection of payment licences worldwide, enabling their team to assist clients get a better deal than using their bank.

I started by asking Barry who is his favourite super hero and why?

Barry: Who is my favourite? I really didn’t expect that question to be honest. I can’t help get Wonder Woman out of my head which is not saying too much but I’d have to stick with Wonder Woman. It’s the first thing that came into my head.

Heather: Sensational. You’re not into super heroes then?

Barry: Listen, I like them all to be honest with you. Wolverine, I’d be a big fan of Wolverine too but listen, to be honest with you, as a kid growing up in the 80s, Wonder Woman would have held most of our fascination, so I’ll have to stick with her.

Heather: This is going to timestamp this interview but you must be excited by the news, the Spiderman/Wolverine news that came out yesterday, that they’re now allowed to be in the same shows together.

Barry: Oh, I didn’t realise they were prohibited from that before, were they?

Heather: They were owned by different companies. The comics were owned by different …

Barry: Marvel and …

Heather: Sony. Something Sony, I’m not exactly sure of all the details but I know that now they can appear on shows together.

Barry: Well, all I know is whoever is behind the marketing of Lego is destroying our bank balance with our kids. Every superhero Lego character is there.

Heather: Cool. You’ll have to turn it into little videos for your products and then you can have it as a tax deduction. Yes, they always go viral those videos do.

Barry: That’s a very good idea.

So Barry, you cofounded a business called TransferMate Global Payments. Is that the full name of it? Is that correct?

Barry: That’s right, yes. It’s generally referred to as TransferMate. As the name suggests, ultimately our core service is to help clients transferring money. At the moment, still about 90% of companies would use the bank. There’s a better way to do it. Quite often businesses get caught up with naturally running their own business and taking care of sales and dealing with inventory and everything that goes with that, and in terms of all the daily activities, making the payment is kind of the one that slots in as a once a fortnight, once a monthly activity.

It doesn’t get as much attention but when you look at it, it’s quite apparent that the banks charge too much generally, as a general rule of thumb.

Heather: Absolutely. So you would probably be in agreement that businesses don’t think about the actual cost of the payment involved, it’s kind of like an afterthought.

Barry: Well, I think that it doesn’t help that the banks are less than transparent. Quite often if you do a transfer to the bank … we’ve checked with all the banks in Australia, and as a general rule of thumb, without naming banks, the fees are typically anything between $22 and $35. You can even look at let’s say … we’ve talked to Xero clients in the States and one in particular is paying their US bank $80 for no apparent reason, and it’s sometimes just rolled up in a monthly fee but typically $22 to $35.

But that’s not really where the loss is. The loss can be seen in the exchange rate and the exchange rates can ultimately be beaten. Quite often what you’ll find is a company will say, “You know, I’m inclined to do …” if you’re a Xero partner and you have clients that do foreign currency payments and you speak with them, quite often the client will do what they’ve always done.

The whole idea of cloud accounting broke that myth and has revolutionised accounting. In the same way, this should really do it for the client. I suppose all the client really needs to see is a comparison cost to really get themselves interested.

Heather: Yes, absolutely. So what you’re saying is there are two expenses involved: both the actual charge and then the exchange rate, and it’s understanding there are better alternatives out there.

Go on, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off.

Barry: I was just going to say, technically there’s three: the exchange rate, the sender fee and the receiver fee.

Heather: Yes.

Barry: So if you’re an Australian business making a payment to the UK, the UK bank in addition charge a fee too because the beneficiary receives the payment and the bank says, “You know what, I’m going to charge you for receiving that.” Why? Because you can’t do anything better.

Heather: Yes.

Barry: So what we’ve created is a bank-to-bank network worldwide. We have bank accounts in 90 countries. When we make a payment to the UK from Australia, as one example, we pay out of our UK account. So we receive in Australia and pay out of the UK.

Heather: Okay.

Barry: That way it avoids all the international fees altogether. We’re effectively using our own clearing system.

Heather: Excellent, yes, and you are unaware of that. I know I’ve dealt with business and we’ve paid the business, and then they’ve said, “Yes but you owe us another $20 after you’ve paid them like $20,000,” and you’re like going, “Seriously? We paid everything we were supposed to pay there,” but we didn’t realise that was happening.

What inspired you to start TransferMate Global Payments then?

Barry: I suppose we’ve been involved with a number of online businesses in the past. It’s only really when we got a chance to look deep down at the rates and the fees the banks were charging that we realised that there was a better way to do it. I suppose back in 2010/2011, we had quite a number of corporate clients that we felt needed a service that would beat the banks. At the time there was one licence required to operate this service.

So we took about six months to get the licence and it was very much a … there wasn’t very much technically involved. We were basically dealing with the banks and we’d get a wholesale deal with the banks and we were able to … the same way a wholesaler gets better pricing for a product and can pass something on to the retailer, we had the same on our setup.

Then I suppose over the years we advanced. We now transfer $5 billion US dollars on behalf of clients worldwide.

Heather: Wow.

Barry: The system that we built automatically prices up wholesale banks. A lot of the banks we would have traditionally bought currency off can’t give us the currency at the rates we buy it off. So we’re now buying it, in many cases, at the same rates the banks are buying it at. With the volume you buy, you can really go in and get the best possible deal. The systems that we built are all in-house and they’re bulletproof. We set them up in 2010 and it’s just getting better and better and better. I suppose a natural progression was to integrate into the likes of Xero to make the whole process much easier.

Heather: That’s really interesting.

What have been the biggest challenges and obstacles that you’ve faced running this business and growing this business?

Barry: I guess a challenge is always getting the brand out there. I have to say, I guess it would be the case for a lot of services, it’s ultimately the idea of apathy. How do you convince a client what they’re doing today and have done for years … everyone knows a client – I wouldn’t say stubborn – but has run a successful business. They’re the boss. They’ve been doing something for 10 years and you walk in and you know where you stand with them in terms of accounts, “You do that but this is my business,” kind of way. It’s trying to convince him that there’s another way to do it without maybe telling the client, you know, any obligation.

We win over clients but it does take time. I suppose it’s that time that it takes because when we contact clients, they typically don’t have a payment today. So the analogy I use is it’s kind of like approaching a client after coming out of a restaurant and saying, “We’ve got a nicer hamburger.” They’d say, “Great, I’ve already eaten.” So the timing isn’t quite good. It’s a case of timing really.

Heather: Yes, I know in situations where I’m dealing with businesses and they’re doing this, when they need to do the transfer, they have no time to actually think about doing it a better way, so they never have anything in place. They also just keep going through the same old process. I know I’m quite detailed in that I split out all the expenses related to exchange rate both movements and charges, and they really, really add up, and they’re just straight off the bottom line if you’re not monitoring them.

Barry: That’s kind of interesting. From a Xero perspective, and Xero handles foreign currency far better than most accounting packages out there …

Heather: Yes, love the way it manager multi-currency in Xero. Love it.

Barry: It’s brilliant. But nevertheless, if you have say 10 payments to make today, when it comes back to actually making those payments you have to go into your online banking, make each one individually, then you have to go back to your account software, change the exchange rate, account for the bank fees.

Believe it or now, for each payment, it probably takes about five minutes. You can do it faster if you rush but it probably takes five minutes. With the add-on that we created, you can literally click a button, log in, it pulls 100 payments in for example, shows you the live rates, the fees are automatically 75% cheaper than the bank, you click one button and it does all the auto posting of the currency loss, gains, bank fees, and the payments directly into your account software.

Heather: Excellent.

Barry: It’s much, much more time efficient, and funnily enough, that’s the part the clients really like.

Heather: The time efficiency.

Barry: Yes, because the fee thing, they can kind of get over the $10 or the $15 or whatever they save in fees but what they see is the hassle gone. That’s what they really like.

Heather: Let’s jump ahead.

Can you describe to our listeners … I’ve got Xero running and I want to integrate it to TransferMate, what does that look like and how quickly does it take me to set it up?

Barry: Okay, so it takes two minutes to register. All I need to do … there’s a special website for Xero add-on and it’s called TransferMateonline.com.

Heather: I’ll put that in the show notes for listeners.

Barry: Perfect, yes. There’s a special link also on your website obviously. We’ll make sure we fast track those but basically once they register on that website then they’ll have a one page, we call it an AML form, it’s like a signup form and we just need those details there for regulatory purposes. It’s nothing serious. It just says who are the shareholders, who are the directors, sign here, that’s really all. Then we take that to our compliance team and it’s set up usually either same day or within 24 hours, and then the client’s pretty much good to go.

We provide all the help in terms of setting up the add-on but it’s really, really simple. They just simply add their bank account, add a few supplier background details, and they’re ready to go.

Heather: Excellent.

Do you think the payment fees on your solution are less than if you’re paying say subscriptions via PayPal?

Barry: I’m not too sure what the subscriptions are to be honest with you but I do know that PayPal, the exchange rate, is basically 3-odd percent. So it’s definitely not … if you’re doing any payments of any consequence, it’s definitely cheaper to use our solution.

Heather: Excellent.

Where about is your business based Barry?

Barry: We have an office in Sydney and we have offices in Chicago, London, Dublin, Madrid and Paris. They’re our main offices.

Heather: Excellent. So you’ve got quite a lot of offices then.

Barry: Yes, but mainly what we do is we wanted to provide a 24 hour solution for clients, so if you’re a client in Australia, for whatever reason you want to check a payment at 9 o’clock at night, you can pick up the phone and you’ll get through to our team in Europe. It’s the same as the CRM system. Everyone would be able to tell you what’s happening with your file. Equally if a client wants to call at 2 o’clock in the morning, they’re talking to our US office, and same again. We provide a 24 hour solution for clients worldwide. We have a big base of clients in the US and Europe and increasingly in Australia and New-Zealand.

Heather: Wow, so it’s 24/7 access to the solution and it’s operating globally, so all of Xero’s global customers can access your solution if they need to.

Barry: Absolutely.

Heather: Excellent. I was going to ask sort of what business industries does the solution suit but I’m guessing it’s anyone who is transferring money internationally.

Barry: Yes, you’d be amazed … well not amazed, you mentioned the Spiderman figures, I suppose as shocked as I was with the question and had no answers, if I told you exactly what sort of companies or the crazy stuff they’re doing, I’d probably bowl you over too but it’s really anything. I suppose, in my experience, it’s typically somebody who basically imports a product and then basically resells it. But you also have services, business that might … it’s really kind of anything. Like if you look at … I suppose 70-80% of the payments out of Australia, for example, are in US dollar. I’d hazard a guess that about 60-70% of those are to China and they are to buy products.

Heather: Yes, absolutely.

Barry: Right now it’s quite an interesting time because I saw in the Sydney Morning Herald today that the rate, the US dollar/Aussie rate is expected to go down to 0.68, so it’s quite an important time to be making sure you’re getting I suppose the best rate.

Heather: Absolutely, from an Australian perspective, yes.

Barry: I’m sorry. Equally I suppose there are pressures on all currencies against the US dollar at the moment but I suppose time has changed, while the US dollar is strong now it may not necessarily be but it’s forecast to have a lot of strength over the next year.

Heather: It just seems to be an ever growing roller coaster. I’d like to probably clarify for our listeners. Xero has various subscription levels, one which has multi-currency in it, however I believe your product will work even if you don’t have the multi-currency level in Xero. Is that correct?

Barry: Yes, in order to get the integration and the benefits, what the add-on does is it pulls in the invoices that are due and it pushes them back as paid. So it needs to know what currency they are to show you a rate but if you don’t have multi-currency enabled, you can use the standalone website which is just TransferMate.com/xero as opposed to TransferMateonline.com.

The other part we’ve seen is despite the fact that the multi-currency is so easy to setup in the packet, some clients just say, “I don’t need to pay X for it. I don’t do enough payments.” But if you look at the savings you can make on a couple of payments, it warrants … and we’ve seen it, clients upgrading to the premier package, they can see the benefits of time saving. Even if they’re making a couple of payments a month, that in itself warrants even looking at maybe upgrading.

Heather: So upgrading their Xero package.

Barry: Exactly, yes.

Heather: I do find that a lot of people have this mentality that if something is online they shouldn’t pay for it. You explain to them, “But look at the time it’s saving you,” and it’s a real mindset that they’ve got, “Well, I can just spend that hour doing that.”

Barry: Totally.

Heather: It’s like, “Wouldn’t that hour be better off enjoying yourself on the beach or working with your customers, like not doing an administrative process that doesn’t need to be done. It can be completely automated.”

Barry: You could be playing with Spiderman and Batman on the beach.

Heather: You could be. You could be making little videos of Spiderman, turning your videos viral.

Barry: You’re totally right. Some people are inclined not to put a value on their time. I suppose really good business, like the Xero advisers, this whole kind of revolution … the whole era of the adviser level doesn’t really appear at all in the UK/Ireland, but it’s very, very … you can feel it’s very strong in the Australia/New Zealand, and it’s great for businesses to have that kind of crutch to lean on. I don’t think it exists in the UK/Ireland.

Heather: Yes, it’s interesting watching the wave spread across the world on social media and how people are kind of reacting to it and how the early adopters are reacting to it and how other people are like going, “No, I don’t want to do it that way. I don’t want to let anyone loose on our accounts,” and stuff like that.

What have been some of the key milestones or successes in growing your business Barry?

Barry: Well, the way we look at it is every week we have clients coming onboard and asking, “You know what, this feature here, this is the way we want to do it.” There’s always a tweak that a client is going to put to the add-on because surprisingly enough it’s not simply just putting your payments and pushing them through. That’s a really good challenge for us because for me it’s important to make sure the Xero add-on is the best available. Our developers are great. They turn around change really quickly. So we want to make sure that it’s as good as it could ever be.

I just love, to be honest, talking to a client and seeing how quickly the changes go into play because quite often with the desktop software, people are used to not having to put up with whatever they get.

Heather: The annual update.

Barry: Yes. It’s just great when you have a client and you know you’re saving them time. Again, with the Xero software in particular, what I find really interesting is how open clients are to kind of looking at the add-ons in particular because they expect that kind of eco system which is great.

Heather: Yes, that is true because I’ve been on desktop software for a long time and I was just like complacent. I know the first time I heard Rod Drury speak about Xero, etc., I was astonished at how upset he was about desktop software and how frustrated he found it. I was like, “Wow, it’s not that bad,” but I kind of get it now. It took me a while to get onboard with that. I now find it frustrating. It’s like, “Why won’t it work,” but it’s the evolution of it.

Barry: Just on the back of that another milestone for us to hit I suppose it’s a really big number and one we’re proud of, $5 billion transfers …

Heather: Yes, that’s seriously big.

Barry: On the scale of things, it’s very, very small. In Australia alone there’s $200 billion in foreign currency payments taking place for small to medium business, and again, I think it’s $70 billion in New Zealand. US – you can imagine the size of the market. I suppose it’s great to know that when we see our numbers escalating like that, it just tells us that we’re doing something right. It’s great to see.

Heather: And someone is making a lot of money on the foreign exchange if that’s the number of foreign exchange transactions that are happening. The banks are – is what I’m saying, and they could be saving a lot of money using you.

Barry: Well, I think so. I suppose the great thing about the add-on is they don’t need to take our word for it. They can just quickly sign up and they can check themselves. Sometimes our clients will just pick up the phone and call us and get a rate quote. That’s I suppose the great thing about it: it’s an alternative but not an obligation.

So they can get a rate quote without pushing through the money?

Barry: Yes, absolutely.

Heather: They can get a rate quote before the transaction happens.

Barry: You can pick up the phone 24 hours a day and say to the guys, “I heard about you. Give me a rate.”

Heather: Excellent.

How many people do you have on your development team Barry?

Barry: About 12 including web developers and database developers. I suppose the system that we have in place is … we’re kind of unique in that we spent a long time getting regulated and we’re probably one of the more regulated businesses of our kind in the world. In the US along, you have to be regulated in each state. To give you an example, in California, it took 18 months to get regulation, and you have to have a million dollars in deposit.

It’s not something that you can take lightly. Then you have to do monthly filings with each state. I don’t know where I was going with that. But in terms of our developers, our system has to be up online 99.999% of the time. We’ve got a huge investment in datacentres. All this terminology, I wasn’t really aware of it for … synchronous replication, so if the system goes down it comes back up again in 2 seconds on another site. We’re quite heavy in that respect but we’ve got the best, I think anyway …

Heather: My transcriber is going to love that word – synchronous replication.

Where about are your datacentres based?

Barry: They’re based in the States and also in Europe.

Heather: Excellent. So you’ve just come home from London Xerocon.

Can you share with us what your experience was like at London Xerocon? That’s 2015 for people listening in.

Barry: I’ve been to Xerocon in Sydney and it definitely had the same theme. The whole place was buzzing with energy.

Heather: Yes.

Barry: I think it was packed to capacity. Everyone seemed to kind of be buzzing off each other, the kind of family feel, it was just … yes, you literally could have closed your eyes and you would have thought you were in the Sydney one.

Heather: Oh really? There you go. There didn’t seem to be very many kilts hanging around when I saw in the photos there. It just seemed the Satago guys had come down with the kilts.

Barry: Yes, I think they were dominating the dress wearing.

Did you have any revelations at the London Xerocon?

Barry: Not necessarily revelations. I just … having walked around talking to a number of accountants at the show, they all seemed … the common theme was ultimately they’ve got to catch up or they’ll be left behind. That’s a very powerful message to somebody who’s been doing the same thing or doing it the same way for years, to be told, “This is what we’ve seen,” because we’ve seen the evidence before. It’s a great way to have a room sit up alert.

Heather: Yes, we had a local Xero roadshow in Brisbane yesterday and I think it was like 50% of the attendees, if not more, it was the first time they’d been to a Xero roadshow. They were just walking around stunned at what was going on and what was being told at the actual sessions. It’s like, “My goodness, we need to get on this.”

Barry: I kind of look at it like … and again, I’m not probably representing it right but a lot of the advisers seem to be almost like MacGyver’s with all the add-ons and the functionality of the software. It was kind of like a big bullet belt or suitcase full of tricks that they can show clients that …

Heather: What do you mean by MacGyver sorry?

Barry: MacGyver, again, an 80s show. He used to have tricks and ways of getting out of situations …

Heather: Is he like Inspector Gadget?

Barry: Yes, kind of like that. So he could basically pick locks with a toothpick or a matchstick. I suppose ultimately the idea being that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do with his box of tricks. I know this is going to be a 20 year old saying, “Who the hell is MacGyver?”

Heather: I know I was kind of going … I kind of vaguely knew who he was but wasn’t exactly sure how the reference was working in. But yes, Inspector Gadget, I get what you’re saying and definitely the bookkeepers that I’ve seen who have kind of moved to the cloud integrator space, they’re saying to businesses, “Okay, you’re a business, you need to get in this product, this receipt scanning product, this debt tracking product, this cash flow solution. Integrate it with Xero, and that’s the roll out, and you’re getting that. If anything else is happening then we can talk about it.”

Barry: Yes.

Heather: We’re seeing the education of the add-on solutions, which you probably don’t perceive yourself as an add-on solution, but for the people within the Xero community it’s like, “Okay, then this solution TransferMate, we need to add it to all of our companies who have it sitting there as an option for all of our companies who are doing international exchanges.”

Barry: Yes, and I’d be happy if you did. I suppose an interesting kind of feedback, we saw recently because someone asked us and we hadn’t really kind of looked at it before, was what’s the retention rate? What’s the repeat use rate? It’s over 90% which is phenomenal I think, which ultimately tells us that it’s working and clients like it. The main reason why the 10% aren’t mainly is because they don’t have payments [for tolls? 00:27:24].

Heather: Yes, people evolve their business. Look, whenever I put in a new solution, I always evaluate the time cost and will drop it if it’s not beating that. But even if I’m using a solution, sometimes for 40 minutes a month, I know it’s saving me so much money in the actual use of it. I just keep adopting and plugging in more. Then people come and say to me, “How can you manage to do so much?” I’m like, “Well, all of my life is automated, so that’s how I manage to do it.”

Barry: Actually that was one of the take points from the show. I suppose one of the gold partners sat up on stage and he was asked, “What has it meant to him,” and he said, “Well, typically I have a big client, for example, that would normally take two staff, two days to do a return for him. Now it takes one staff, one day.” So he said it’s quite a simple way to break it down in terms of the cost saving.

Heather: Absolutely.

Barry: But even if you look at the add-ons, traditionally I would have seen old desktop software, and you have clients clambering around trying to find inventory, third party inventory, to slot in and their pieces don’t really fit in well. But it just seems to be the eco system here is quite unique in that the pieces have to work.

Heather: Yes, absolutely. I think the technology behind the open published API which I’m not pretending to understand exactly, everyone seems to say is like this phenomenal, “Click and it works, and the flow of data is what’s saving us all that time, that automation.”

Barry: Well, the great thing about it is the team in Xero, the developer team, can see that it works. You can’t build an add-on and say it works because they’ll say, “No, it doesn’t. We can see that.”

Heather: And everyone raves about the Xero developer team, so that’s good to know.

To ask you a bit more about your business, what activities have been successful for TransferMate in generating leads for your business?

Barry: I suppose typically it’s going through and contacting accountants, letting them know how the service works. We do a little bit of social but ultimately it’s picking up the phone and calling companies. I suppose it’s ultimately getting to talk to clients, getting directly to a client is something we can measure a lot easier than necessarily going through a channel because I suppose we’re talking directly to the client, so we can know if we make X amount of calls today … it might sound like a funny way of doing things but that’s what we find has traditionally worked.

But we’re more open to we now have a partner channel where we have the centres in place for the accounting partners to earn additional revenue stream by telling their clients about the service, and in doing so having the clients save money. That’s a more logical way to go for us and it’s something we really, really encourage.

Heather: Do you want to expand on your partner programme?

Barry: Yes, so in effect what we do is, if you’re a partner and you believe you’ve got clients or you may know of companies that make international payments, we provide a unique tracked web form and we simply give it to you to put on your website.

If someone stumbles across it, they may not even be your own client, they may be a company down the road or somebody who has come across your website because you perform well in the search engines, as long as they see that link there in the website and they register, automatically we sign up the client and every time the client books payments, there is a referral fee split for the partner, and the partner can track that online in our online system. So the more clients transfer, they simply log in every [one? 00:31:26] and they can see exactly what’s been earned and how active their clients are, referrals are.

So you’re effectively encouraging partners to assist in the selling process on your behalf?

Barry: I suppose what I’d liken it to is basically opening the door and letting our flyer in I guess to some degree. If you can imagine we’re in a neighbourhood, and there’s a roundabout in the middle, and there are eight houses around that roundabout, and all the doors are closed but there’s a party happening inside every house, we’re kind of just saying, “Open your door and let us in.”

Heather: Sensational. I’ve not heard it described that way but yes, it’s a warm introduction.

Barry: And to be honest with you, that’s why I guess the relationship that advisers have with clients is naturally a very strong one. It’s one of advice. It’s one of reliance to some degree, and because of that there is trust there that helps us move past, “Who are you,” to “Okay, I understand you’re a good company. What does your service do?”

Heather: Excellent. Yes, absolutely.

On the technical side of that, I think you used a different term – referral link, but in terms of the referral link or the affiliate link, is it built in-house or did you use a commissioning programme to provide that?

Barry: We built it all in-house.

Heather: With your smart team of developers, sensational.

Barry: I guess to be honest with you, we’ve been involved in online businesses for I suppose the best part of 10 years. The one thing we’ve seen from day one, our referral programmes were like many which is basically, “Tell us a client and we’ll record all the details and sales and we’ll share Excel sheets.” It just doesn’t work. Partners shouldn’t need to have to second guess or figure out how it works. It should be very, very transparent.

The way it works is quite simply if a client books a payment, signs up and books a payment today, within five minutes you’ll be able to login and see the details right through our system. That’s exactly the way it should be.

Heather: Excellent. It sounds like another solution you could sell to the cloud community …

Barry: Yes, we’ll have to get on it.

Heather: You could split of and sell.

What have you learnt from running your business?

Barry: I suppose I’ve learned that power of the brand. So early days we would go out and we would tell clients about what we do and it shouldn’t really be about, in my opinion … I guess it’s nice to build a big brand out there but it’s also, in terms of scaling up, it’s nice to be able to lean on an existing brand whether that be an adviser brand or a Xero brand. I suppose clients, when they understand the association between Xero, as an example, it opens the door a lot easier.

Heather: Yes.

Barry: I understood very quickly that the cold call is a cold call. The warmer it can be obviously the quicker you can get to where you need to get to. Other than that, I suppose it’s the same principle for any business: you’ve got to say what you do. If you win a client it doesn’t mean they’re going to stay, particularly in the Xero community. If you don’t do what you’ll say you’ll do, it won’t go unnoticed. You have to basically stand by your service and I suppose take care of business.

Heather: I guess that’s actually when we’ve moved from desktop to cloud computing, we’ve also evolved into social media. So whenever something goes wrong, it’s just all across there and these grumpy people have these grumpy complaints about stuff, so you’ve got to be on the ball all the time with it, just monitoring it what’s going on with stuff.

Barry: It’s interesting though, while the Australian banks aren’t necessarily the best, they’re not the worst.

Heather: No.

Barry: We have clients … the French banks are charging up to 12% on foreign exchange to clients.

Heather: Wow.

Barry: I asked one of our clients before to ask their client three questions for a partner and the three questions were: who are you using? Question two was basically how do you find our service now? Three: would you recommend it? When it came to the third question after saying he used a particular bank in France, the answer from the client was, “Not only would I recommend you but when I told my bank the rate you gave me, they told me to use you too.”

Heather: That’s a great case study.

Barry: Yes.

Heather: So I’ve got one final question for you Barry. No, I’ve got two actually.

First question is will we be seeing you at Auckland Xerocon?

Barry: I hope so. We have a team in Australia, so I hope to have one of our team in Auckland, absolutely.

Heather: Sensational. I’m planning to go so I’ll see someone there.

My final question for you Barry is what advice would you have for your 18 year old self?

Barry: Ah, you hit me with another one. Don’t throw out the Superman figuruines.

Heather: Because you can make a lot of money.

Barry: Put away the Wonder Woman outfit. No, what would my advice for my 18 year old self … my advice would be I suppose from day one I’ve always wanted to be involved and working for myself in one of my own businesses.

When I was 18 in school, I didn’t think … I was fully of ideas but I just didn’t think I was ready for it yet. I ducked into a master’s for a year and it gave me a lot of time to sit back and work on concepts and I suppose just ready myself, but like anything else, get out there and if you’re … I suppose it depends what you want to do. I’m from a family who like to sell things and ultimately that’s what we do. We’ve got that in us whether we do it well or not. I suppose it’s in our blood. It’s what we love to do. So do what you love to do and ideally keep on doing it.

Heather: Do you think that the master’s helped you or do you think it was just the time that helped you while you were doing the master’s?

Barry: I think … looking back on it now to be honest with you, I think … it seems to be more logical for someone to take a masters on after you’ve … so they may have gone through college, they may not have but they find themselves in the workforce and they may not be doing things particular right or there are processes they could be doing better. Then when they go to do a masters, they can understand, “Well, that’s what I should be doing.”

It kind of puts a framework on top of it. I’m kind of glad. It sounds a bit square to do it so I’m kind of just glad I got it. I knew I had to do it straight away after I finished college because I knew as soon as I got out and started selling, I wasn’t going to want to go back to college.

Heather: Yes, absolutely.

Barry: Our best sales guys did not spend any time in college. I suppose if it’s … I know quite often in terms of candidates looking for work, they’re preoccupied with finding candidates that have college degrees but I suppose there is nothing better than finding somebody with a passion and being likeable. So I don’t really necessarily think that everybody should have one.

Heather: No, the education question I think is evolving very quickly as we speed up. I think concise learning is really important but this extended long learning is interesting, whether it’s still going to be relevant in many years to come.

Barry: I suppose cloud accounting wasn’t taught in college. It was probably learnt in the minds of creative thinkers.

Heather: Absolutely. I’m a professional accountant so I used to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and study through till 11 o’clock in the evening for like four years while I completed my qualifications while working full time. I’m looking back on it, “Hmm, I’m not sure it was worth it.” But anyway, it’s done, box ticked.

Barry: I guess the accountant is different. Like it’s lovely to be able to have an actual skill, a passport that can say, “You know what, as a matter of fact, this is a tangible skill to have.” It’s a great thing to have. I suppose in the marketing/sales side of it, you have to rely on a little bit of luck, a little bit of ideas and timing, and [crosstalk 00:40:29] I guess.

Heather: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for speaking to me today Barry. I really appreciate it and I’m sure the listeners will get a lot of information from this session as well as learning more about TransferMate Global Payments and also about how you grew your cloud business globally. Thank you very much.

Barry: Thank you very much for your time.

Heather: Cheers.

Barry: Take care. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

Heather: Thanks a lot Barry. Bye.

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Highlights of my conversation with Tejasawi Raghurama

Growth Save 300 administrative hours per month
Automates accounting for ecommerce stores
Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India
Increasing monthly recurring revenue and reducing churn

Transcript

Heather: Hello. It’s Heather Smith here. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you are doing well. Today I speak with Tejasawi Raghurama which I’ve probably pronounce incorrectly but I refer to him as Tej.

Tej is a growth hacker at ZapStitch. ZapStitch is a data integration platform for small business to automate data flow across cloud business solutions. They are automating accounting for a thousand plus e-commerce business from North America, Australasia, Europe by integrating Shopify, Bigcommerce with Xero. ZapStitch automatically imports sales orders into your accounting application’s invoices. Discounts, taxes and shipping rates are sync’d seamlessly which is something he emphasises in the show.

An average business using ZapStitch saves 300 plus hours every month spent in manual accounting, freeing up their time so they can spend it with the customer and family. ZapStitch is the number one ranked and rated accounting add-on in the Shopify app store. Tej believes no human should do a machine’s job and small businesses can grow huge with automation. He places part by educating and working with customers.

When not learning from business, you’ll find him watching South Park. He joined ZapStitch in February 2014 as one of the first employees there. He was inspired by the vision of the founders, the fundamental impact the way businesses manage tedious processes. I started by asking Tej who was his favourite South Park character and why.

Tejasawi: Awesome. That’s a great question to start with. I think Cartman because I’m fascinated by climatic and realistic people. I always look at the world around me, “That is good.” “That is bad.” But there are people who actually recognise it and live through it. I would see Cartman in South Park as being the most pragmatic and he is who he is. He doesn’t mould himself according to the people around him and he has his originality intact. Yes, he is cruel, I don’t recognise that spirit but I think he’s on his own.

Heather: Sensational. I don’t watch South Park so I don’t know the character but I thought that our listeners might find that interesting. I know that my son watches South Park but I don’t.

Tejasawi: Okay.

So Tej, can you tell me a little about ZapStitch.

Tejasawi: Sure. ZapStitch automates accounting in commerce stores. In simple English, what we do is we create platforms like Shopify and Bigcommerce with accounting apps like Xero, right?

Heather: Yes.

Tejasawi: ZapStitch enables seamless data syncing between those apps. We sync data for all the customers and anything related to the invoice and sales tax automation. What we enable at the end of the day is exponentially faster reporting in accounting and accurate data and peace of mind. I mean the most common feedback we get from our accountants and from business owners who use ZapStitch is peace of mind. At the end of the day, accounting shouldn’t be an intimidating step in the process, right?

Heather: Yes.

Tejasawi: That is one feedback we often get. At the company level, our vision is to automate business apps across verticals. When we were founded … we are a cloud integration platform, so our long term two year or three year future is to integrate at least 300-500 business apps on the cloud.

Heather: Oh okay.

Tejasawi: We are starting with e-commerce and accounting because we believe there are immediate gaps in between them, and we want to solve as many problems in accounting as possible, and go in depth in accounting automation.

Who are your typical customers?

Tejasawi: Typical customers are twofold. One is an e-commerce business owner or the business team of a 10-man or 15-man e-commerce team. The second end user is the accountant who has multiple e-commerce tools as clients or is working part time as the bookkeeper. Those are two end users but our business is somebody that’s doing let’s say a $2 million dollar revenue per year and who actually feels the pain of data entry, right? A typical business of where we work with spends at least 500 hours in accounting per month. If we can solve that pain point, I think that’s where our end customer is.

Heather: That certainly makes … if you can resolve 500 hours at your price point, then that certainly is of benefit to the client.

Tejasawi: Exactly.

Where about are you actually based?

Tejasawi: We are based out of Bangalore in India. It’s called the Silicon Valley of India, so it’s the Bangalore start-up hub in India, yes.

Where about are your servers based? Where are the data for your company based … for the client data based?

Tejasawi: We are based … we built it on EWS, the server side across EWS in Singapore if I’m not wrong but I need to get some technical knowledge there. The servers are on EWS and we don’t locally store data.

Heather: Okay, so it’s not locally stored. It’s always a question that people ask us.

Tejasawi: Yes indeed.

Heather: It’s an unpleasant question I guess but the customer is always going, “Well, where is my data?” “Is it in the clouds?” “Where is it?” So it’s important to know.

Tejasawi: Yes, just to add to that point, ZapStitch believes in transparency, so we don’t store any local data on any server for that matter. We only move data from A to B. there will be apps and I’m sure you’ve interviewed and talked to some where they’re stored locally and in the app they show the data, right? We enable seamless syncing of data and not storing of data. Yes, that’s a belief we are in right now. Maybe going forward when we add features like reporting inside the app we will look at storing data but right now we are only moving data and storing metadata like number of orders …

Heather: I thought it might be like that.

What’s your internet connection like in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India?

Tejasawi: Internet connection is a problem maybe sporadically but we have good broadband speeds in Bangalore. We have a speed of let’s say 22/30mps. That serves our purpose and we haven’t felt the pain of internet speed at all. But sometimes the sporadic connection is due to the team load rather than the internet speed. When we grew as a start-up, there were logistical issues which were solved of course but yes, there is no problem with the internet. We are not consciously aware of the speed, yes.

Heather: Tej, you describe yourself as a Growth Hacker. What does that mean?

Tejasawi: I mean that’s something I’m figuring out.

Heather: It sounds very impressive. I actually like that title, ‘The Growth Hacker’.

Tejasawi: Right, so how growth hacking works, it’s a term by an accounting marketer called Sean Ellis who is inbound marketeer and he has a start-up. What he says is like when you build a start-up, that is a predictable good … you can achieve. You can draw a straight line which is not a hockey stick but is like a 45 degree angle, right? What a growth hacker does or growth marketing is like it recognises certain bursts in the marketing cycle and exponentially recreates it. If the growth hacking is successful, you find an unconventional way of growing and you make it repeatable success. So that’s how you differentiate your start-up from the rest of the competition. You actually blow the competition off because you have tested and repeated success with an unconventional method. That’s what growth hacking, the term is coming from.

Heather: That’s interesting. I should mention in there … I’m guessing I’m right, you’re referring to grass hockey rather than ice hockey for our North American listeners which is … actually would he be referring to ice hockey rather than grass hockey?

Tejasawi: He’s an Australian guy so I don’t know.

Heather: Because they’re two very differently shaped sticks, I know that.

Tejasawi: Indeed. I think I get your point now because …

Heather: So I think it’s actually the ice hockey stick he’s referring to isn’t it because that’s the one with the 45 degree angle, whereas the grass hockey stick is actually quite … very, very short.

Tejasawi: I know it looked like that.

Heather: I’ll go and Google it and see if I can work it out afterward.

You have, in the first year of launch, you managed to attain 250 paying customers with inbound marketing. How did you go about doing this?

Tejasawi: We have an install base of 1,000 stores but when the free trial ends, that’s how the paying customer starts. We are a SASS based B2B company, product company. At the beginning we were very clear that we were targeting certain markets where these platforms have good penetration. For example, US, Canada, Australia and UK, right, where the amalgamation or the integration can serve a purpose immediately. We targeted those and we founded the channels which were the app stores. As a company, we didn’t invest in a sales asset team. We didn’t hire any sales persons. We only invested in customer success.

When I joined as a third team member in February of last year, I was straight away sent to customer support as a role. I didn’t go to marketing for the first four months. So what we learned from that is if you actually delight your customers from day one, they sell the app themselves. They write reviews. They talk about you. They recommend you to users and the Shopify system is pretty vital in that sense. People talk about their issues.

So we actually focused on two things. One was the forums, community forums, across the business apps and the second is to actually get good reviews on the platform. People read reviews before they read features actually, often.

Heather: I completely agree with that, yes. Okay, let’s examine that a bit further.

In terms of the forums you were looking at, what forums were you looking at? Was there a specific Spotify forum?

Tejasawi: Shopify and Bigcommerce …

Heather: Shopify sorry. I said Spotify. Shopify, yes.

Tejasawi: No, they’re very similar. Shopify has a very active business forum which is Shopify.com\forums. Even we actually got the business idea thanks to those forums because customers were talking about specific data, manual data problems, manual accounting problems. When you go to the forums, there will be these customers who talk about, “How do I move my data from Shopify to Xero?” “How do I manage accounting?” “What are the best practises of accounting?”

We position ZapStitch as a thought leader in those forums saying, “We know your pain point and we know how accounting can be a pain sometimes and how our solution solves it.” So rather than out-selling, we out-educated our competition in the forum. That’s a philosophy we believe in is that if you related the pain point, we talked about how you can move data seamlessly between Shopify and Xero, and automate the reporting and just focus on business reports rather than actually entering data. The forums were a great place where people were actually talking about the problems and we just plugged in ourselves as somebody who knows what they’re talking about and we can solve it.

Heather: I think going on the forums is very smart. Also as well as it being authentic, I think it also probably gives you really good SEO because people go … I know I personally, I go in and search there, and I know people who have a high level of credibility and if they’re supporting a particular product I’ll go, “Okay, I don’t need to do extensive research on it because this person has said it’s okay, so I’m sure it will be okay.”

Tejasawi: Right.

How did you encourage your clients to give you reviews?

Tejasawi: Yes, that’s a good question. Many companies, product companies especially, have a way of irritating the customer in terms of reviews. They keep bugging the customer saying, “Why don’t you write a review?” “Give a link,” all those things. What we did innately or subtly was have a live chat support in our app. When the on-boarding happens, and TradeGecko is a great example where the onboarding is seamless, but when we started as a company we didn’t have that leverage of a beautiful design, an amazing out of the box design. We focused on simple and subtle design, and when the onboarding happened, the user got delighted and our automatic chat would plugin, “How did you find the experience?” “Do you need any help?” “What is the next setting you want?” All those things.

As the engagement happened in the live chat, we started to see the customers delighted and we can actually ask for review. It’s about instant gratification rather than sending them mail or calling them and saying, “How did you like the app?” The live chat client helped us a lot. I would recommend it to any product company starting out because that’s a great way to learn from customers on the spot and also solve the problems instantly and also, of course, write a review if the user is delighted.

Heather: Yes, it sometimes amazes me that some of the companies are not as receptive to talk to an individual person. They’re like, “If you’re not a partner, I’m not going to talk to you,” and you’re like going, “Well, I need to talk to you before I consider becoming a partner.” Now, in terms of reviews, it sounds like you’re not focused on getting reviews on other sites. I know that Xero has an add-on marketplace and actually encourages people to review there.

Are you directing people to go and review there?

Tejasawi: Yes, so with Xero, we just launched that Heather. We want to get as many reviews there but it’s just two to three weeks old and we actually started getting paying customers as well from Xero. I mean review becomes a natural …

Heather: Progression in the cycle.

Tejasawi: Yes, by-product of success. We want to ensure product success with Xero first and then the review I’m sure will be there but we are not biased in any platform as such.

Heather: So for our listeners, we’ll just share with them that ZapStitch is now on the US Xero marketplace but you’re also looking for approval on the other country marketplaces. Is that correct?

Tejasawi: Yes. I should give credit to Xero because they are one of the most active developer support forums out there. They’re very transparent in how they deal with partners like us.

Heather: That’s sensational.

Tejasawi: So unless customers actually say that sales type automation works with ZapStitch, they will not approve it. We have seen other apps which you are aware of, where community is like … you like your app, the customers like your app, okay you’re globally approved. Here it’s more like every country has a specific use case and unless you actually meet them practically and the customer talks about it, you are not approved. We had beta customers from the US and UK, so we got approved and UK should be very soon right now, and we want beta customers from Australia and New Zealand which is the biggest Xero user base, to approve it as soon as possible. That’s our main focus in February.

Heather: Yes, sensational.

How many customers does ZapStitch need to be successful?

Tejasawi: As a B2B company we are focused on two metrics, right? One is MRR monthly recurring revenue, and second is to reduce churn. Rather than talking about the number of customers, we’re talking MMR in at least our philosophy, so we want to get to at least 100,000 MMR by end of year or by next year, early next year. That’s how we are growing and our month on month, at least to reach that, would be 35, we are at 38 this moment. We are going at a good speed but that’s how we look at our growth.

Heather: Excellent.

You’ve targeted multiple markets to penetrate the cloud based software specifically in e-commerce and accounting, what have you observed through that and what have you learnt through that targeting of the different markets?

Tejasawi: Right, so when we actually launched the beta product in 2013 end which is like December or November if I’m not wrong, I was not onboard. The founding team had tested it with Indian customers. The problem with Indian cloud or cloud eco system is they’re not very progressive or they haven’t understood the impact a cloud app can bring to their business. We still are believing in manual bookkeeping or CD based software of accounting, Excel sheets.

The penetration was getting harder and harder so we naturally went to the most progressive marketplace which is the US. They already know the pain points they have and they do actually look to build a multi-million dollar business within one or two years. The e-commerce stores there are built on Shopify or Bigcommerce were looking at, “How do I grow faster?” Accounting needs to be fast, needs to be painless. “How do I find the solution?” “Okay, ZapStitch is there.”

We got our first paying customers from the US, then Canada, so we started progressing in those geographies first and then UK and then Australia. So in terms of progressive eco systems for cloud software, we thought and we have analysed that US is by far the leader.

Heather: Oh really?

Tejasawi: Yes. In terms of multiple processes … they don’t look at one process to automate, they actually want to automate the whole business and focus on customer success, focus on sales, marketing, and the data is a burden to them. Right? They look at multiple apps to automate multiple sites of their business. Australia was a close second to that and Canada is very close to Australia.

Heather: I would have thought from speaking to people, and I don’t have any stats behind me, it would have been New Zealand.

Tejasawi: Yes, in terms of user base I’m talking.

Heather: Okay, so in terms of user base, I completely agree because they’ve got such a bigger number.

Tejasawi: Indeed, yes. I appreciate that because I was talking not in philosophy of approach to the business but in terms … I meant that, yes.

Heather: The user base number, yes. As soon as you get the US buying into anything, you expand exponentially don’t you.

Tejasawi: Yes, and I’m sure with Xero, we would test the New Zealand market much better because with Shopify and the other accounting app, we didn’t have much user base in New Zealand so we couldn’t get real data measured with that. But I’m sure Xero … I have seen the data that Xero is more in Australia and New Zealand already so that should be good data to work with.

Heather: Yes.

How can customer service be a differentiator for start-ups in a competitive market?

Tejasawi: When you look at cloud based business, there’s no geographical limitation. For example: we are an Indian company but working seamlessly for a US audience, right? We work in their time zones. Our support team works at US and UK time zones. When you come to a company … company to a marketplace, you have to find a differentiator. It cannot be price always. You can’t be the cheapest solution out there. That’s not a good business model to work with.

Heather: Absolutely.

Tejasawi: What you want to do is you want to delight your customers and if your app is not at the self-serving mode in the initial days, customer success or customer support is the easiest way to get that because as I said, businesses want to talk to a human at the end of the day. They don’t want to just write them email and get a response. They want to talk to a human. They want to relate to their problems. They want to talk about their problems. Our initial days or initial growth has to be credited to seamless customer support and of course a great product which enables delight.

I think from our learnings we can safely say that if you actually put in place tools to automate customer support, to have things like live chat, email automation, and then actually have a product which is centric to the user and not to a developer. You don’t need to be a scientist to use an app. If you look at those three verticals as customer success, you are already in a good path to grow outwardly so that would be our learning in that space.

What tool do you use for your live chat?

Tejasawi: We use Olark. We have been a huge fan of Olark.

Heather: Olark, okay. What email automation do you use?

Tejasawi: For customer support we have two things. One is the support which is on Freshdesk and for customer interactions we use Intercom. What Intercom does is it gives you the app usage of every user, you know, “Has he done a sync? What type of data did he sync? Is he actually happy with the product?” All those customer analytics. We use Intercom and we send trigger emails based on the actions inside the app. That’s how our customer support cycle works, onboarding works.

If you’re dealing with people during business hours in the US, it sounds like you’re not getting much sleep over there.

Tejasawi: No, we don’t work 18 hours a day. How we divide this is like the marketing and product team works in Indian hours and the support and the customer success team works in US hours.

Heather: Okay.

Tejasawi: As we expand into markets, I’m sure the whole team will find a challenge in the one or two weeks but we are a global company so we should act like one.

Heather: Yes.

Do you have staff outside of India?

Tejasawi: No, we are a 15 member team in Bangalore in India.

Heather: That’s really large. That’s a really large team.

Do you attend any of the Xero roadshows or Xerocon events, the big Xero conferences?

Tejasawi: Yes, we would love to because there are these industry specific events. I know as you mentioned people like you hang out there but right now we are not focused on that. That’s one differentiator we have …

Heather: Your support is online rather than showing up at those events.

Tejasawi: Exactly, we don’t have a sales team. Yes.

Heather: Sensational.

Can you share with us some of the businesses using your solution?

Tejasawi: Sure. One of the most successful businesses who was an early adopter of Zapstitch is Bolder Band. They won the Shopify build a business competition last year. Do you know about the build a business competition?

Heather: No I don’t.

Tejasawi: Okay, sorry. I’ll give a brief … what they do is Shopify promotes businesses who grow to a million dollar business every year.

Heather: Oh, and of course they’d know wouldn’t they.

Tejasawi: Exactly. It’s like a cross promotional activity.

Heather: Yes.

Tejasawi: What the build a business does is like you need to sell as much as you can in year one of your business, after launching your business. So whoever sells the most in that calendar year becomes the winner. Bolder Band is a Shopify store who launched in late 2013. When they adopted us, we were just one month old.

Heather: Wow.

Tejasawi: They had at least 200 orders per day, right? We were like blown away. Okay, this is a great store. This is a large store. They also became our product evangelist and they gave active feedback how to make our product better. How they function is like they have a very niche segment of customers. They sell head bands for people, you know, gyming and sports personalities?

Heather: Okay, yes.

Tejasawi: Who like anything – jogging, hiking and everything. They sell headbands and they grew to a million … I think they are now $3-$5 million dollar business within one and a half years.

Heather: Wow, I didn’t know headbands had come back in … had made a comeback.

Tejasawi: Yes, so they were one of the most successful lead customers and then Pop Chart Lab is one of the most creative businesses we have. They create charts on any topic. For example: how did Nike involve their shoes? How did [Wine? 00:27:15] evolve from 1800 to 2000.

Heather: So people then buy the chart from them?

Tejasawi: Exactly.

Heather: Oh okay, that’s interesting.

Tejasawi: So these two were the most [ugliest? 00:27:29] and biggest customers. There are many but as customer successes, these are the first two that come up to my mind.

Heather: Did you find yourself in the developer stage reacting to their needs?

Tejasawi: No.

Heather: They said, “Okay, we need this,” and you were able to implement something like that?

Tejasawi: Yes, that’s a good question. As a product company building a cloud app, we necessarily don’t go by feedback from just customers. What we go by is data and market need. When we talk to let’s say five or six customers and they want sales tech automation, we build sales tech automation. But it’s not like building a customer solution for big clients or working with them over time to see what do they want and going in depth to their needs. We want to serve collectively as an ecosystem for Shopify users, Xero users rather than just a multi-million dollar business.

Heather: Yes.

So if someone has your product in place, they’ve got Shopify, they’ve got Xero and they’ve got ZapStitch in place, what additional financial information can they attain through having that integration?

Tejasawi: Good question. How ZapStitch works is we don’t store any local data. We don’t generate reports in the app but what we do for example is let’s say … I think this is one of our differentiators is that the sales tax, the other apps, don’t go to specific sales tax and invoices. What these apps do is they have one sales tax rate and they apply it to all the invoices they sync.

What ZapStitch does is it actually breaks down the taxes as is from the invoice and maps it to the Xero accounts for those sales taxes. That is automated and an accountant or a business owner just needs to go to the sales tax or account in Xero and just generate a report within a second. If you go to the manual side of things or non-automation, it would take at least five minutes to do for every invoice: entering the sales tax, mapping it to the right account and everything. So maybe one or two minutes is saved on every order.

If you look at a growing business like let’s say Bolder Bands, they get 300 orders per day that would be 6,000 minutes, right? If you click a button, we can automate the data sync in ZapStitch, so they don’t even have to login sometimes. That happens seamlessly and the accountant just focuses on generating reports and accurate data and non-duplicated data.

Heather: Excellent. Tell me what the start-up scene is like in Bangalore.

Tejasawi: Bangalore is a hub of start-ups in India. It’s maybe the most popular city in India in terms of start-ups and of our national capital New Delhi is a close second if I’m not wrong.

Heather: Yes.

Tejasawi: How Bangalore works is a lot of product companies exist here. Product companies need investment early on, right? There’s a huge oversea and [internal? 00:30:58] investors community here that is eco systems like incubators and accelerators. We are still learning in the entrepreneurial eco system globally but in India at least, Bangalore is very progressive for start-ups and there are lesser challenges I would say. I’ll put it like that.

Are venture capitalists coming from India or are they coming from overseas?

Tejasawi: Venture capital firm is mostly Indian who invest in Indian start-ups. They have global investors who are in contact with them and they actually scout talent but they don’t actually actively invest in Indian start-ups directly. As in an early investor but if a huge Indian venture capitalist has invested, then they see the talent, they scout it and the foreign investors come in.

Heather: Yes. I think you’ve told me this but I’ve forgotten.

How old is your company?

Tejasawi: We launched our product of February 2014 and we launched our company in December or November if I’m not wrong.

Heather: So you’re coming up to your one year anniversary.

Tejasawi: Yes, my own and companies as well.

Heather: That’s amazing growth for a company that’s been around for a year.

What have you learnt in that time of growing the start-up in India?

Tejasawi: One of the central things is if you want to build a fast growing or any growing start-up which doesn’t die in the first year, you need to focus on customers. One skewed emotion any start-ups have is they want to build a perfect product, right?

What we had learned very early on thankfully is that if you actually build a minimum viable product for, let’s say, our market, actually the customer will do the rest of the thing. They will give it the requirements. The market will drive your product rather than you building the perfect solution. If you focus on customer success and actually giving a damn about them basically, they actually give you back and more than you actually ask for: so in terms of advocacy of the product, advocacy of your customer success, giving active feedback in terms of their product needs.

I think that is one major learning and second challenge and learning is the marketing side of things. You want to build a repeatable engine of bringing customers, bringing progressive e-commerce businesses who want to try automation, who want to solve this problem. That has been one major challenge, you know, where do these guys hang out? Where do these guys talk about their problems? So building an inbound channel of customers is a challenge and we are still figuring it out but I think if we do our thing right, it’s just another start-up challenge.

Heather: That’s certainly interesting. I totally agree with you in what you’re saying in the focus on the customer. It does seem to be what a lot of people are saying these days is, “Focus on the customer.” I know sometimes I’m speaking with people, like I’m going into the start-up places and I’m like, “Have you sold this? Is anyone using this?” “No, no, I can’t show it to them until it’s perfect.” It’s like, “Aww, that looks like you’re putting a lot of money in that.”

Tejasawi: Also one thing is like no assumptions. We don’t assume that your customer is happy. You need data. You need customer interviews. You need everything to consolidate and, you know, actually generate actionable data rather than assuming you know customers are happy or you know they like this feature. Tools are important to measure everything actually inside the app.

Heather: Can you explain what some of those tools are that you’re using?

Tejasawi: Sure. For example, a classic case is Intercom. Intercom helps us analyse the product functionality: What is the customer actually doing inside the app? For example, let’s say our early customers came into the app, they set up the sync settings but they never ran the sync. If we see that the data shows that there is a time of login, there is a time of sync, and if their time between those two events is let’s say 15 minutes, we are on the wrong side of things. We want it to be less than 3 minutes or 4 minutes. He sets up that account and runs the sync.

So the product team looks at the data and wants to change the design, and then the design team comes along and says, “Okay, this is the button that’s not very inherently …”

Heather: Intuitive.

Tejasawi: Yes. “So let’s make it intuitive. Let’s iterate on the design and make the onboarding time less than 3 minutes.”

Heather: That’s really smart.

Tejasawi: Also one thing it allows you to do … any such tool like Intercom, it triggers emails or contact touch points with events inside the app. For example, let’s say you have an error in the app, a chat will automatically come and say, “Okay, I saw you had an error in the app, how can I solve it? I am your customer success manager.” So rather than relying on the customer to get back to you, you have to be proactive in customer support. These apps let you do that because they can trigger events based on customer actions.

Do the customers freak out that they think big brother is now watching them? You know, “Oh, I’ve made a mistake and then you’ve sent me an email telling me I’ve made a mistake.” Do they freak out about that?

Tejasawi: No. I mean it’s complete contrary. The most successful of our customers actually understand that we are thinking for them, right?

Heather: Yes.

Tejasawi: Because when you deal with data integration, it’s sensitive data. If something goes wrong, you have to fix it immediately. So they are happy to let us fix it immediately rather than worrying about transparency or how did they know about it? Our customers are actually surprised in a pleasant way that as soon as they get an error, they are figuring things out and we are right there the solution.

Are you able to actually jump in to actual individual accounts and sort things out if necessary?

Tejasawi: No. we don’t log into any accounts. What we do is we look at the metadata. For example, let’s say in an order case, the order didn’t sync. The development team looks at the metadata and sees okay, this is the date the order came from, this is the shop the order came from, so let’s read on that sync. That’s all we do from the backend.

Heather: Sensational. That’s really interesting. I think people will find that really interesting to listen to. I completely agree that it’s good to have the automated identifying of errors. I just know that some people are like, “Oh my goodness, they’re in my data, they’re in my data,” and their freaking out. So it’s good to have that conversation and be open with them but like I say to a lot of my clients, I just say as part of the sign up, “I’m letting the company automatically access your data.” But it’s not accessing your data, it’s accessing … if there’s a problem it will get sorted out a lot quicker than if we actually have to go through that manual process of getting it out there.

Tejasawi: Yes, but the more ideal case would be like … and that is a very common case. An ideal case is, for example, let’s say you are selling in multi-channels. You have multiple sales taxes across different regions, so you don’t know which setting to have in the app. What you want to do is like you are figuring out settings and you can ask the live chat support saying, “Okay, how do I solve this business problem with integration?”

That’s the automation we have built in rather than just error resolution because that’s a very common case. The support is more proactive in business cases, how to integrate for your business rather than just broadly integrate to apps.

Heather: Yes, sensational.

What does the future hold for ZapStitch?

Tejasawi: We were born as an integration platform. Our vision is to build a cloud integration platform across business verticals. For example, the next logical would be CRM or marketplace automation, for example: Amazon and EBAY. We want to logically progress through the verticals and integrate the most progressive apps and the most popular apps in those verticals. In a two year, three year time line, we see integrating 200-300 business apps across email marketing, CRM accounting, e-commerce.

Heather: It would be interesting to see because I know some of them … like I know I’ve worked with Amazon and it kind of works in an interesting way in that 10 of the transactions are normal and then one kind of like is a summary transaction and it never comes across properly and you’re going … and the client sets it up themselves perhaps and they come to you and they’re like, “Wow, 90% of it looks fine but then 10% of it looks like it’s going to take me hours to fix up.”

Tejasawi: Exactly. You know, you’re coming to the exact problem which ZapStitch is solving, is the reconciling of data. When you have different types of invoices, reconciling becomes a pain. What ZapStitch wants to do with Xero is become one of the very few solution providers which actually enable faster reconciliation and not just data automation. When we talk to one of our biggest customers, he had an Amazon store as well. This was the first point that he brought out that, “Bring support for summary invoice when you build integration because that is one of the major use cases in Amazon.”

Heather: Yes, absolutely. As soon as you have something in place that makes it easy to sell, it means you can sell so much more.

Tejasawi: Exactly.

Heather: Like when I was dealing with this client, I was just like, “Stop selling stuff because this is a nightmare.” It was just like creating this bigger and bigger and bigger mess. Definitely installing a solution that simplifies the accounting process means you have the capacity to sell more which is exciting for the business.

Tejasawi: Yes, and we know one of the … I followed the name of the customer once, this guy sells iPhone batteries. Most of the successful businesses we have are niche businesses: iPhone batteries, headbands, wine collections.

Heather: That’s the joy of the internet, isn’t it, that someone can go out and go, “I think headbands should be brought back into fashion and I’m going to sell them.”

Tejasawi: Yes, so this guy told us that his accounting team is spending money on watching Netflix movies more than accounting. He was very happy that we solved this problem but he was pleasantly not happy that his accounting team is now having a lot of fun which is good but …

Heather: Oh okay, so they’re under capacity now.

Tejasawi: Yes, he was saying, “I don’t want to fire people but this is how our team is, they’re having fun, I’m spending more time with my family.” I think the data is just a part of the business end. It shouldn’t become the business. When you actually integrate well, your customer should do what he likes doing, selling, customer success, or spending time with the family.

Heather: I think this is part of the integration process when it goes in. I’m not sure whether … do you have cloud integrators come in and assist with the integration process or are you doing that yourself?

Tejasawi: We have partnered with Shopify and Xero, so their APIs allow us to pull in and integrate any data we want for our customers. There are limitations of course. There are API limitations in terms of business use cases.

Heather: But would a consultant like me come in and do the integration or would a consultant like me come in and watch you do the integration and just sort of sit in the background?

Tejasawi: Yes, that’s a good point actually. As a strategy of building the right product, we want to onboard experts and consultants but when you actually run the thing, use the app, it’s like the click of a button. But in the backend when we build features, for example summary invoice, we can’t know about the requirement unless I talk to somebody like you. We bring experts when building the product but not when using the product. The using is like click a button .

Heather: And they should be able to do it on their own. Yes, fair enough.

Tejasawi: Yes.

Heather: Thank you very much for speaking with me today Tej. I really appreciate it.

Tejasawi: My pleasure.

Heather: I’m sure our listeners have gained a lot from hearing you talk, especially if they have a Shopify client or are considering a Shopify client as something they’ll definitely look at. Now, I need to ask you before you go to see whether you know, what are the birds making all the noise in the background? Do you know what bird types they are?

Tejasawi: No, actually not. My mum is a bird enthusiast but I’m not.

Heather: They sound like seagulls but I didn’t want to be that bland and suggest that they would be seagulls. Are you near the water?

Tejasawi: No, so how Bangalore works, it’s a bustling city.

Heather: Okay, so it’s not going to be seagulls. You can send me an email sometime and let me know what the birds are.

Tejasawi: Sure.

Heather: It’s normally when I have these sessions my birds are noisier than anyone else’s birds.

Tejasawi: Yes, I think I heard in one part, yes.

Heather: My birds stayed quiet today and your birds went off on a racket. Thank you so very much for speaking with me today and I’ll leave links for how to get in contact with you in the show notes. I really appreciate it.

Tejasawi: My pleasure Heather. If I’m not pronouncing correct – Heather?

Heather: Heather.

Tejasawi: Great. I mean you are an inspiration. I want you to know that because when you maybe record and publish the podcast, very few people actually talk to you about it, right, I mean physically. So I wanted to thank you that you’re an inspiration to all of us and our team actually looks up to experts like you, your stories and the podcast is an inspiration. I wanted to make that very clear. Thanks a lot of taking the time out.

Heather: Thank you very much and hopefully it gives you an opportunity to hear the other add-ons and perhaps connect with them and learn from them and to move you from sort of cold to warm with these guys.

Tejasawi: Indeed.

Heather: Because we’re all in it together.

Tejasawi: Thanks a lot Heather.

Heather: Thank you. Cheers.

Tejasawi: I hope the seagulls were not too noisy.

Heather: No they weren’t. I like birds. They weren’t too noisy, I just wondered if you knew what they were.

Tejasawi: No, I’m sorry. I’ll get that. Thanks a lot Heather. Bye.

Heather: Thank you.

Tejasawi: Have a good day.

Heather: Same to you. Cheers Tej.

End of Transcript

Mentions

· ZapStitch - http://www.ZapStitch.com

· Bigcommerce - https://www.Bigcommerce.com

· Xero - https://www.Xero.com

· Shopify - https://www.Shopify.com

· TradeGecko - http://www.TradeGecko.com

· Sean Ellis http://www.startup-marketing.com/

· Emera

· Olark - https://www.Olark.com

· Freshdesk - http://Freshdesk.com

· Intercom - https://www.Intercom.io

· Bolder Band - http://www.bbolder.com

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View Details

Highlights of my conversation with Hannah McIntyre

· Inspiration for launching Futrli formerly Crunchboards

· The early design of Futrli

· Working in a global community

·· Business support in Britain

· Moving from compliance to value add

Transcript

Hannah, what did you like to do when you were 12 years old?

Hannah: Oh my goodness. Probably take my sister into a room and beat her up. No, that’s a ridiculous thing to say. What do I like to do? I lived in the middle of nowhere in the countryside in the north east of Scotland, so in the summer holidays which would be your winter, your version of your winter, our summer holidays … we did get some sun in the north east of Scotland, it would be a case of, “Right kids, we’ll see you at tea time and we’d be out on our bikes fishing and doing all this sort of Huckleberry Finn sorts of things. Yes, I was a bit of an outdoorsy girl.

Heather: Cool, you were out on the heather moors of Scotland?

Hannah: Well yes, something like that, or being thrown into the north sea with the beautiful beaches that we had. My mum going, “Get in there ya big Jessy.” “It’s ice cold mum and from the Baltic.” But it held no sway with her. We just had to man up and get in there.

Heather: Sensational.

So Hannah, what inspired you to launch CrunchBoards?

Hannah Need actually. We had a … Amy and I had ourselves a company before CrunchBoard with a hospitality vertical, it was a back office system. We had that for a couple of years and had been using Xero, probably one of the first adopters of Xero in the UK, coming up for four years ago now. It changed my life completely as the one who does all the books for the business.

I’d been using Sage desktop for a long, long time in a previous business that I had, manually exporting all the data, putting it into a spreadsheet for management accountancy information, future projections, all these things that the repetition and the inefficiencies that … and the headache quite frankly that that caused, was the inspiration for the original business, for the hospitality software.

But whilst we were building that out, we were looking, or I was in particular, we were looking for a solution for ourselves. We were giving all these instant management accounts to the hospitality sector. I said, “Hold on a second. It would be great if I could have this functionality too.”

So we went out, did a load of assessment and looked into the markets for the add-ons as they were, probably come out for a year and a half ago now. Obviously they’re vastly more in the market space now than they were then, and trialled all the solutions that were out there and none of them were a solution for us. I think primarily because they hadn’t been designed from the business owner up, they had been designed for the accountant down. That affords different problems.

So guess what? I’d be pulling all the information out because they were putting it into a spreadsheet and back to square one again for the management information and future projections. So we did a load of interviews because if I was suffering in this way, then I’m sure a lot of other people were, and then that kind of led to the fact well then hold on a second, people started to mention, “Well my accountant this …” “My accountant that …”

We started speaking to accountants too. This was a pretty big issue getting real time flexible, and that’s what spreadsheets do for you, they’re a blank canvas aren’t they? What do you want to build? Well, you build whatever you want. It’s your business. You know your metrics, your KPIs, you build what you need. That’s what we wanted to build with CrunchBoard.

I spent a long time kind of designing it. Didn’t even tell Amy what I was doing in the background. Then we started to plan the design and started our first line of code actually was written 1st December last year. It’s been pretty fast. We’re coming up for our first code writing anniversary next week.

Heather: Definitely was very fast. You said you designed from the business owner up, which is a really interesting concept. I guess a lot of things are … it’s interesting where they’re being designed from.

Who are you selling to, the accountant or the business owner?

Hannah: Absolutely both. From a commercial point of view, certainly the accountant because Xero realised that early doors that, “Yes, it’s for the business owner but actually there’s a complete avenue there to go down.” However, that for me has become really exciting because absolutely the core is to make … to demystify the numbers, to make analysis really, really super simple, easy, beautiful actually, you know, we take our inspiration from Xero strapline, “Well yes, actually I want to make my management information beautiful. I don’t ever want to have to create a pivot table again in my life. I don’t ever want to export data again.”

So that’s kind of the core, however the journey that we’ve then gone on because of the accountant, for me particularly from the design side of things, has been really exciting because that then gives other solutions that you have to solve. On our board, on our CrunchBoards, you can view multiple clients side by side. It’s practise management and it’s a client experience too, and a lot of the reporting add-ons in particular are one or the other, they’re not often both, and that’s actually one thing that we’ve spoken about on Developer’s Day at Xerocon.

It was nice to be able to say, “Well, actually, no, our product is definitely for both users.” The great thing is when the accountant actually shares a board with a client for the first time that they get this, “Oh my God, is that my business? Oh, and I can change that and I can change the date and I can view that the way I want to view it, not the way you think I want to view it.”

So while we’re giving the accountant the tools, they are also then able to … and it’s a bit scary for them. I’m not going to lie. There’s some education happening around this but those who are adopting our product for their business are probably the early adopters in the bell curve that people talk about, and accountancy is changing. It’s not about compliance anymore and it certainly won’t be in five years’ time.

Advisory is going to be huge, and those who are adopting tools like ours now are certainly ahead of the game in delivering an excellent client experience, and really empowering business owners with real time operational tools. It’s not a history lesson. It’s a live business plan to actually make your business better.

Heather: Absolutely.

So you designed it in the early stages. What did that look like? What is you designing it in the early stages looking like?

Hannah: Okay, well as much as I bemoan excel, it does have its uses, doesn’t it? We’re still quite dev heavy actually, is our team, we’ve got seven developers. We’ve got a really big team which is amazing, which means that not only do we get to turn things around fairly quickly in development terms but also we’ve got a massive breadth of knowledge. Our design process is probably one of the most joyful parts of my life actually. I know it’s completely geeky isn’t it. It’s ridiculous.

Honestly, if you had told Hannah McIntyre 10 years ago that I’d just say that, she’d probably just shake her head and go, “Who on earth are you?” But it’s a collaborative … it always starts with me and it’s a collaborative approach in as much as I’ll do the wire frames, the design, the rationale, the logic behind it, and then we’ll bring the team in to go, “Right, how can we make the user experience excellent? What can we do to make sure that from the beginning to the end of this process, it’s as few clicks as possible, it’s as effortless as possible?” So that’s the fun bit.

Heather: Cool. Are your team based there in …?

Hannah: They certainly are in Brighton. We have one in EastBourne but all the rest of them are in Brighton but we’re all got a pier that we can see, not from our windows, but fairly close.

Heather: Sensational. That’s actually quite unusual, especially for developers, they seem to be all over the place.

Hannah: Yes, so that’s important to me. I have to say that’s one thing that I’m really, really proud of is we are completely made in Britain. But it’s not just we’re local, we’re altogether we see each other regularly. They’re not all office based. Some of them work from home but we use software ourselves so that we’re all video streaming all the time and just click each other’s faces to start having a conversation. It just works. It works really, really well.

Heather: Absolutely.

What’s been one of your biggest challenges along the way since launching CrunchBoards?

Hannah: I would probably say being taken … being so well received in Australia and New-Zealand, the antipodean region. It sounds a ridiculous thing to say that that’s a problem. It’s not been a problem. It’s a wonderful problem to solve but of course it’s meant … you met Amy my co-founder out there. She’s over doing a six week tour.

Heather: Absolutely.

Hannah: The time difference, it’s something that we’ve got to get around but luckily we don’t sleep. We are complete vampires, and that’s fine. We get the poly filler out in the morning and trowel it on and everything is good to go again. No, I mean it’s brilliant. It’s very exciting. We’re building an Australian team now which is super exciting, and in a million years, that was not part of the plan within the first year but it is now and that’s really exciting, but originally, a hurdle that we had to overcome with sound mind and some decent planning.

Heather: Yes, the time differences, which we can summarise that as, is a common thread I hear amongst the ad-on solutions.

Hannah, you appeared on the cover of the inaugural addition of the XU Magazine, so I’ve got two questions for you. Tell us about the cover shoot and tell us about the impact the coverage had for your business.

Hannah: Oh that cover shoot where we are in mid-aid. I have to say we had the bonkers photographer. He said, “Just imagine that you’re jumping over a barrel.” I was like … well I don’t know why, maybe because I’m from the north east of Scotland but I said, “Can I imagine I’m jumping over a sheep?” which seems to work for me. Our New Zealand counterparts will probably like that. Yes, it was really good fun. We were there with the XU Magazine boys, and we just had a bit of a giggle with it all. That was good fun. What was the second question Heather, sorry?

Heather: What’s the impact the coverage has had for your business?

Hannah: Well, let’s use Xerocon Sydney as an example. People walked in, it was XU Magazine’s launch as well, great, we were on the cover. It absolutely helped with the fact that, you know, with who are these two in the double denim, what’s this? It was … of course it helped. Of course it helps and they’ve been incredibly supportive and continue to be so. Maybe it’s the British thing.

Heather: What I was interested in … I wasn’t trying to get a claim for XU Magazine. I was just interested in media coverage and stuff, and that’s great.

Hannah: Absolutely, it’s been … and actually, that wasn’t my response either. Seriously, it was really, really fantastic dovetailing. Before we went over there, when we got the phone call from Wes, it was just phenomenal, “Wow, we’re going over and we’re going to launch with a splash.” That was just brilliant.

Heather: Yes, it was massive. It made Xerocon Sydney fantastic. I’ve got quite a long question for you here. Doctor Gordon Patzer, who spent three decades researching physical attractiveness and says, “Human beings are hard wired to respond more favourably to attractive people,” to quote him, “Good looking men and women are generally regarded to be more talented, kind, honest and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts.”

He contends that controlled studies show people go out of their way to help attractive people of the same sex and opposite sex because they want to be liked and accepted by good looking people.

Do you see physical attractiveness more as something to be leveraged or your unfair advantage?

Hannah: Well, is that you giving me a sideways compliment Heather?

Heather: Yes, it was.

Hannah: That was a rather long way to do it. Thanks very much. Wow, okay, so this is one of those questions I have to think very carefully of how I answer I guess. No, I have two daughters and a stepson, and they are beautiful. Of course you always think your own children are beautiful. But I would say that it, wrongly probably, opens doors.

However, if there’s no substance there behind it, then you’re dead in the water. Sometimes I actually think that perceived looks can hinder you because people make assessments about you before you’ve opened your mouth. I hope that Amy and I, as two females in the marketplace, are assessed on our product, what we’re bringing to the add-on eco system, and the way that we do business with integrity.

Heather: Absolutely.

Hannah: That’s all I guess I can say. I just hope that my kids embrace every opportunity they’ve got, and if they get given some more opportunities, then great but I’ll tell you what, they’ll have to work bloody hard to make a success of their life like their mum has to.

Heather: Absolutely. I know when you appeared on stage, the table I was with went silent, stunned, because you were a stunning, shining light there. Then you started speaking and one of them just went, “Bloody hell, she speaks English with an English accent as well!” They were, in a very loving way, amazed by you.

How many customers does CrunchBoard need to be successful?

Hannah: Oh my goodness. We are meeting and exceeding our forecasts. I guess that’s a good thing.

Heather: Absolutely.

Hannah: We don’t need a set amount of customers I guess. It’s a case of building, you know, monthly recurring revenues as a business models is an interesting one, and maximising our potential in the antipodean region is absolutely what we’re focusing on at the moment. It’s lovely to see that we’ve got UKs signing up but actually we’re not pushing in the UK at the moment because we’ve got a focus there, and we’ve still got a small team. On the sales side of things we’re building that out now which is, again, another exciting step for us. We are thrilled with our progress.

Heather: That’s sensational.

Hannah: If we continue the way that we’re going then we’re in a really good place.

Heather: So it sounds like you’re a strong UK business with a heavy export focus.

Are you getting assistance from the British export authorities – I don’t know what their name is – but the British export type authorities?

Hannah: It’s interesting actually because this week, the Daily Mail in the UK, there’s a focus that they’re doing all of that and actually we’ve been video interviewed for them, so that should be going out this week at some point. But on the export side of things, we are not getting any particular assistance, no. We’re working things out as we go along.

I think the biggest challenge that we’ve got is getting the information about employing staff in Australia, New-Zealand, all of those things, because there’s pitfalls there and that, I guess, is our biggest challenge.

Amy is going back over there in the New Year again, like I said, for the Australian roadshows. She’ll be doing a little bit more recywork but that’s progressing nicely. I guess it’s the legalities that you’re always a bit wary of. But we’ve got good accountants too. They’re helping us out which is great.

Heather: Sensational.

What software do you use in your own business?

Hannah: Yes, I mean we run a SAAS business. We’ve got to use smart software ourselves don’t we otherwise we’re not really practising what we preach. So you’ll be happy to know that we run our business on CrunchBoards – Hurray! So building it from a selfish perspective worked.

Heather: Yes, sensational.

Hannah: I don’t know. So that’s brilliant. So from the development side of things, we’re massive fans of Trello. We use scrum methodology technology in our development plan. We use Trello for that which is fabulous. Absolutely love Trello. We are using things like Salesforce for our CRM. We’ve got some other cool tools like Squiggle that we use to collaborate with our development team, you know, those who are Eastbourne or who are working from home.

I guess for me, the biggest one that we’re using is HipChat. We’ve got a room in HipChat which has got our conversation CrunchBoards room from the beginning of time. It’s brilliant because it feeds in with a different software, alerts and stuff that we’re using feeds into it to. That’s an essential tool for the dev side of things.

Heather: So HipChat is what you talked about when you said, “I just hit a button and talk to someone face to face?”

Hannah: No, that’s actually Squiggle. It’s constant video streaming. It’s brilliant. It’s really good. We’ve been using that since they launched it with their beta. They’ve been a few bugs which is fine.

Heather: You’re an early adopter, aren’t you, of everything?

Hannah: Yes, but you’ve got to remember as well, I’m working with geeky boys. It’s like, “Hannah, have you seen such and such?” “No I haven’t, I’ll check it out.” Things like Screen here, that’s quite good as well. I don’t know whether you’ve used that before. It’s kind of instant screen collaboration, and it’s absolutely brilliant. You’ve got both mouses there, you start typing, you’re on the other person’s screen. It’s phenomenal. From peer to peer dev side of things, that’s really cool too.

Heather: There seems to be a lot of screen adoption technologies come out recently because I know I’m still paying my $60 Go to Assist Citrix subscription which I think I need to drop and do one of those.

Hannah: We do use it. We’ve used others. I think that all of them, including Skype which we’re using at the moment, if that’s all you do really, it should be bloody good. Building an application that does a lot of things and making sure that they’re all good is hard work. If this is all you do, let’s get it going well. So I think screen technology is brilliant if it works, and we’ve all had issues where it doesn’t I guess.

Heather: Yes.

How do you see the Xero ecosystem evolving?

Hannah: Well, it’s growing at a rate of knots isn’t it?

Heather: Absolutely, yes.

Hannah: Interesting, I’m not using many add-ons now myself.

Heather: No, it didn’t sound like it.

Hannah: We’re using our own because that’s what we needed to use. We are using things like Zapier Integrations which we use for our billing. We use Stripe for our billing, which is brilliant; it creates an invoice in Xero straight away, so that’s brilliant. I see us doing some interesting things next year with the ecosystem but I don’t want to speak too much about that because it’s ‘in the can’.

Heather: That’s okay.

Hannah: 2015 is really excited with that. I think that Xero is really pushing the vertical add-ons, sometimes to the detriment of the horizontal add-ons that are out there. As much as Xero has given us all this opportunity in many cases, it is an accounting package. I think that if it loses focus on what actually is its core product, that it will actually create issues down the line with, “Well, what are you? Why build an ecosystem if you don’t want to actually help it flourish.”

So I think the next year, in particular, will be very interesting. In particular when you look at Xero’s competitors and what they’re doing. We are purely Xero, certainly at the moment we are. We’ve made a decision despite the fact that we have got other integrations. I’m not going to name any names but we’ve got other integrations that we could turn on and we decided not to because they’ve been amazing. They’ve been very supportive of us.

Heather: Absolutely.

You mentioned that you use Stripe billing with Zapier, does strike billing do your automatic subscriptions?

Hannah: Actually no, it doesn’t.

Heather: Okay.

Hannah: We built our … we could have and we did look at their … they’ve got great docs, they’ve got a great system but we’ve got kind of a variable billing system, so we actually built our own … one of our lovely boys went and built a custom one for us.

Heather: Oh, that’s good. That sounds like another little solution you could go and sell out there. Another one, “We built it because we needed it.”

Hannah: Yes, right.

I think you’ve touched on this a bit but if you have anything to say, what changes are you seeing in the market moving from compliance to value add? I think you’ve said that you see it becoming …

Hannah: Look, you’re a CPA.

Heather: I’m FCCA. You actually know that.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Heather: People in Australia don’t know that.

Hannah: So previous life for me, I’ve had accountants beforehand who I’ve not seen for a whole year, and at the end of the year had gone, “Oh hi, it’s year end, we’ll get your accounts prepared and here’s a P&L and a balance sheet and here’s a bill for £2,000.” That was years ago. Years ago!

Heather: And that sounds really cheap.

Hannah: Yes, right, exactly. Well, it didn’t feel it but you’re just like, “What value am I getting here as a business owner?” So there’s that. We kind of parked that on one side but I think that business owners are kind of having … there’s some really entrepreneurial businesses out there. There’s still some huge business, fine, but yes I mean markets are traditionally time poor, on the ground, firefighting, all of those things, really hands on, and until you get to a point in your business where you can employ these things for you, you need input now and again.

There was a great study, I can’t remember who commissioned it, that I read probably about a year and a half ago, that said that 84% of SME actually want their advisor to take on more of a CFO role, a remote FD role.

Heather: Yes.

Hannah: It’s hard doing it on your own. I may be wrong and I may be off here but I do think there will be a move that actually compliance will not be the thing that’s the billable. It’s actually … actually I met a very interesting accountant in Brighton actually awhile back, actually last month, who she hasn’t got many clients but she does definitely perform that FD role for them and does not do compliance. They have another accountant for that. She’s not interested in it. It’s like, “I’m here to help you run your business and make you as successful as possible.” That’s exciting.

Heather: Yes.

Hannah: Compliance is a necessary evil. Tools are actually making that process a lot quicker, a lot easier than it was before, even for the single ledger it’s revolutionised a lot of these things. It’s a lot more streamlined, so where’s the value? What do we need an accountant for? Well, actually, you should have a hell of a lot of knowledge to help me run my business, so give me some. That’s where I see it going.

Heather: Absolutely.

If you were talking to … and I’m asking you this because it’s specifically around your product, if you’re talking to a bookkeeper or accountant who’s never ventured into value add work, and there are a lot of people like that, what would you suggest is the easiest thing they can do, using your product, to help their client and value add?

Hannah: The first thing I’d say is how do you present data to your client? How do you give your client visualisation over their own business? First question. Often, there’s an um and an uh there, and a pause. Then the second point will be what we’ve just discussed, you know, the value add side of things, and what do business owners … we know this because we did the bloody interviews. We know it. We’re not making it up.

Actually we’re one of those business owners, “Hi there, we’re one.” What we would then do is create … and we have, we have them already built out, but we’ve got sample boards that can get turned on and they work for every organisation because they’re a little bit more generic. That’s fine. It’s a great introduction to the visualisation side of things, the power of actually just being able to pull out one account, for instance, or income and see all of your sales streams side by side on a chart in seconds, and being able to change that data. Do you want to see it this week, this month?

We’ve got a great client of ours that looks after cafés and restaurants and things. Great, so they’ve got one board. That’s a starting point, and then each business they’ll tailor it, of course, but for each vertical, we can get those things set up. The kind of point about it is we’ve created an engine, and it is an engine, it’s a platform that allows you to absolutely tailor and make bespoke in seconds, analysis: future, present and past. All of those things in one card, one of the cards that we’ve got on our board, can be flipped out into forecast data, again in seconds.

It’s just that instant, effortless, and now you start doing this the conversation starts. That’s the point because the boards that we’ve built, you can then share with the client. They receive it. It gives them a mirror copy in their instance on their tablet, their phone, we designed it responsibly so it works on any device. It’s a case of right, we’re syncing with Xero automatically as well, about three times a day, three times every 24 hours, so that data just comes through. It’s being updated all the time. You build out your forecasting CrunchBoards as well. You’ve got that versus actual forecast. It’s how we compare it.

Tracking is being released within the next week or so. They are looking amazing those cards at, and great plans for the future for consolidation of things at the beginning of next year. It just literally is, I know we say on our website, “Where Xero stops, CrunchBoard starts,” that really is the case. That’s what we’ve done.

Heather: Absolutely, and you seem to be evolving and bringing out new updates so quickly because I know that Amy said it almost looks completely different to the original version.

Hannah: It does. Again, I sneakily did version two while she was in Australia. I did it while she was away. It’s terrible. It’s like cheating on your wife. But the beauty of cloud, the beauty of … and that’s why we’re here isn’t it Heather, it’s all about cloud. The beauty of that and the whole point of it from an end user’s perspective is you don’t pay for a disk of some desktop software that you punch in to … plug into your machine, and then that’s it you’re done, and you hope that it doesn’t corrupt and you need to phone the support line. You get really an update for the same license fee. It just keeps giving. We’re just a gift that keeps giving. That’s the point of it all.

Heather: Absolutely, well you’re the frosting on the cake.

Hannah: The frosting on Xero’s cake, for sure.

Heather: So Hannah, I’ll leave you with one final question.

What do you look forward to doing most?

Hannah: Oh my goodness. Seeing my kids more probably. I have mummy guilt quite a lot, so they’re seven, eight and twelve, and I think I’m really, really looking forward to Christmas this year. It’s been an insane 12 months, insane, and spending some family time with my kids and my amazing partner. He’s the rock. I couldn’t do it without him. I’m being a bit soppy now but that’s the truth. That’s the truth. Why do you do this? Why do you slog your guts out? For family.

Are they looking like they’re going to go into computer sciences?

Hannah: It’s funny actually. My youngest, she’s a big crazy, that’s just an aside, that’s just a statement of fact, but she wanted to be a vet. She said to me the other day, “Mummy, if I don’t get to be a vet, I think I want to be a business woman like you.” I just thought, “Bless you darling,” because she sees the hours that Amy and I put in, and especially with Australia and New-Zealand of late.

We start and 5 and tonight I’ll finish at 10:30. My day started at 5 today. Usually I’m drinking wine, today I’ve actually got water which is a big … I’m quite impressed with myself. So I hope that we’re an inspiration to the kids. I hope so. It would be nice.

Heather: Yes, I do think sometimes, and it may not work for you, but the cloud, it means you can actually be flexible around your children.

Hannah: At the end of the day, if I want to take a day off, I can do. If I need to work away, I can do. This year not so much because we’ve had so much to do but next year it will be different. We’re not going to take our foot off the pedal but we will be structuring things a little bit differently by taking on more staff, etc.

Heather: Absolutely. Thank you so much Hannah for speaking with us today. I’m sure our listeners will really appreciate everything that you’ve shared with us. Hope you have a wonderful evening.

Hannah: Thanks Heather.

Heather: Thank you. Cheers.

Hannah: Bye.

End of Transcript

Mentions

· CrunchBoard http://crunchboards.com

· Xero https://www.xero.com

· Sage http://www.sage.com

· XU Magazine http://xumagazine.com

· Salesforce http://www.salesforce.com

· Squiggle https://squiggle.codeplex.com

· HipChat https://hipchat.com

· Zapier Integrations https://zapier.com

· Stripe https://stripe.com

· Trello http://www.Trello.com

View Details

Highlights of my conversation with Cameron Priest

· Singaporean Government fostering a technology hub

· Global adoption of add-ons

· Setting up a start-up in Singapore

· Growing a business with a multi-lingual support

· Giving clients the “wow factor” during the on-boarding process

· The Smart Enterprise Software Wave

· Choosing a currency to price in

· Blk 71 Ayer Rajah Cr– the hub for start-ups in Singapore

Subscribe to Episode 9 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Read about it here: http://cloud-stories.com/ep-9-cameron-priest-tradegecko-kiwi-cloud-inventory-solution-calling-singapore-home/

TradeGecko is a world-class Inventory, Order and Supply Chain Management platform with a comprehensive suite of functionalities – packaged together in an intuitive, cloud-based interface, designed and structured ‘user-first’ from the ground-up. Expertly manage your inventory as you save time, eliminate errors and streamline your sales channels, synchronized across all your stakeholders in real-time.

Transcript

Heather: Welcome, Cameron, to the show. Thank you very much for being here.

Cameron, the first question I’d like to ask you is what did you like to do when you were twelve years old?

Cameron: Well, I grew up on a kiwifruit orchard in New Zealand, so a big part of my life was exploring and building go-carts with my brothers, building things with my father, so kind of creating things was a big part of being twelve and kind of exploring the property.

Heather: Wow. That’s amazing, growing up in a kiwifruit orchard. That sounds like the quintessential New Zealand dream doesn’t it?

Cameron: I feel like it’s the butt of every New Zealand joke because we had kiwifruit and we had sheep.

Heather: Did you? Oh, you mentioned the sheep. But that’s sensational. Was it like a big orchard?

Cameron: It was a large kiwifruit producing orchard. It’s not massive but my father’s full time job was managing the orchard, so it wasn’t insubstantial but he is still doing that today.

Heather: Wow. That’s amazing. You have come so far from kiwifruits to this. I’m surprised your businesses name is not Kiwi Gecko or something like that or Kiwifruit Gecko.

How did a guy from Auckland end up in Singapore as a CEO of TradeGecko?

Cameron: Yeah, well previously I’d had a business doing development of iPhone and web applications for third parties, so client based kind of web design agency, and we had some customers who were kind of having the issue that we now are trying to solve with TradeGecko which is managing the entire backend of their businesses, be they wholesale or retail businesses. I’d been searching and looking and kind of struggling to start a business that kind of ... I guess the theory was always a business that made money while you sleep. That’s always the end goal for everyone isn’t it?

Heather: Yes.

Cameron: So this to me was a great opportunity and the more I looked, the bigger the opportunity seemed. Yeah, I mean for us the move from Auckland to Singapore was just access to capital, access to international markets, and I guess just a shake-up. I mean it’s very easy to be very complacent in New Zealand. It’s beautiful and it’s slow and it’s easy to have a really good lifestyle but it kind of … a way to kick my own butt was getting out of my comfort zone.

Heather: That’s interesting.

Are you the founder of TradeGecko?

Cameron: Yes, so there are three co-founders. There’s myself and Carl Thompson who moved over to Singapore, and then I actually poached my older brother who is a great engineer a couple of months later to head up our product team.

Heather: I did notice some other Priests on the ...

Cameron: We’ve actually recently hired the youngest Priest as well. He’s a great engineer.

Heather: Sensational, another ... it does seems a lot of the add-on solutions are a family entity or exercise, so that’s interesting.

Cameron: Yeah.

How many staff do you have based in your Singaporean office?

Cameron: In Singapore, we’ve got 29.

Heather: Wow. That’s a lot.

Do you have staff based elsewhere?

Cameron: Yes, we have a team in Manilla in the Philippines and we’ve just opened an office in San Francisco as well.

Heather: Wow, so you’re growing rapidly because the ...

How old is the business? It’s only about two years old isn’t it?

Cameron: Yeah, just over two years. We’ve quadrupled since last November which is scary to be perfectly honest.

Heather: Yeah, it’s amazing. That’s amazing growth you’ve got there. So based on what you’re saying there, let me ask you ... let me just jump ahead and ask you another question.

On your LinkedIn profile, you used the phrase, “We give the power of Walmart supply chain management to SME’s.” Where are your customers coming from and are you targeting the US market because obviously Australians don’t know Walmart. I’m presuming New Zealand doesn’t have Walmart, so it was a very American phrase for me sitting there in LinkedIn.

Cameron: You make a very good point. I hadn’t thought about that point of view. Yeah, we do target the US. To be honest, the US and Australia are our two largest markets. In terms of the Walmart phrase, there’s actually kind of a positioning statement we’ve used when raising fund raising. I guess I kind of internalise it and have been using it in market materials, and perhaps isn’t the most targeted for the Australian or New Zealand markets, but that was kind of theory. Yeah, Australia is a big market but US is now overtaking them as our largest market nowadays.

Heather: That’s sensational.

How are you approaching the American markets because it’s such a huge market to crack? How you approaching that?

Cameron: With trepidation. I mean effectively … I mean with us and obviously part of this conversation is the partnership with Xero and Shopify were the first real partnerships that started getting us customers. So in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve really been able to grow to kind of ride the coat tails of Xero, and Xero obviously isn’t dominant in the US, although I’m sure we all hope and I’m sure Rod really hopes that it does become so in the future.

Heather: Yes.

Cameron: But it does mean that we’re kind of facing an uphill battle in terms of the way we kind of inch that market. Completely honestly, we don’t know everything about what our strategy is going to be to enter that market because it is such a different kettle of fish. It’s a work in progress.

Heather: Yes, it is.

So are you seeing movement into the UK market?

Cameron: UK is our seventh biggest country. US is big, Australia, Canada, New Zealand of course, Singapore is surprisingly large for us being based here but it’s still it’s a surprisingly small country and surprisingly large number of customers. I guess your classic western English speaking markets are large markets but then we’re everywhere to the Republic of Congo, Mexico, South Africa, some very, very … you know, 86 countries. It’s crazy the places that are using our software.

Heather: It’s sensational. I imagine that … you have an inventory based software, I imagine, and correct me if I’m wrong, that compliance and legislation doesn’t necessarily affect you in that it would be same for inventory based software no matter where you are.

Cameron: Exactly. I mean there are always going to be little things. I mean the Alcohol Tax in Australia, the Wet Tax, is actually another difficult issue we’ve had to tackle and we’ve had other issues in other countries. To your point, the US still has very complicated sales tax regime that we need to kind of work with.

Heather: Okay, so that comes from within your solution rather than within the point of sales solution?

Cameron: Exactly.

Heather: Okay, that’s interesting.

How would you describe the Asia Pacific, Singapore, South East Asia start-up seem?

Cameron: It’s burgeoning. I mean Singapore has had a lot of money inject into from the Singaporean government. In fact our first round of financing, our investors put in $89,000 and the government put half a million in.

Heather: Wow.

Cameron: You just don’t get that sort of thing in New Zealand and you have some similar schemes in Australia but they’re actually getting phased out not in. So we had this opportunity here which the Singaporean government has grasped to really invest, not ... I mean not substantial money but we’re still talking kind of $30-50 million dollars which to a government is very little but that’s a hundred different start-ups that can come to Singapore and start in Singapore. They’re really, really trying to foster a technology economy in Singapore. South-East Asia is growing as well but Singapore is definitely the hub.

Are any of your founders, and excuse me you may have mentioned this, are any of your founders Singaporean nationals?

Cameron: We are all Kiwis.

Heather: Yes, you’re all Kiwis. Okay, that’s really interesting. Isn’t it? “I’m actually prepared to fund you so much coming over there.” That’s amazing. But I guess you have employed a lot of people there in Singapore.

Cameron: Definitely a lot of Singaporeans here as well.

Heather: Yeah. I know when I lived in Singapore, I was on a very nice salary there, and I never used to get taxed. I remember going down to the Singaporean Tax office and putting all my stuff out and I just said, “You’ve just got to tax me, there’s something wrong. You’ve got to tax me.” They looked at it and they said, “No, you don’t earn enough money.”

Cameron: It’s great. Isn’t it?

Heather: Yeah. I was just like going, “What’s going on here? This is crazy.” Yeah, but it’s an amazing place, amazing eco-system to live, so that’s really interesting.

Do you think Asia is a market that other add-on solutions should be looking to move to and to base themselves there?

Cameron: I think it’s a premature step to take it too early. I mean effectively, the western markets: Australia, US, Canada, they adopt a lot faster. We see that. I mean we are here and we obviously have a big story about Asia, even saying that we’re still seeing the fastest adoption from the western markets.

We are probably getting customers in the Philippines and Malaysia that we wouldn’t have otherwise and we have some very large customers, multi-thousand dollar a month clients that we wouldn’t have been able to capture if we weren’t here but I do not think that you need to be here for your first 10,000 customers.

Heather: Yeah but it’s something perhaps they can look at down the line because it wouldn’t be the first place I would have thought of setting up a head office there, unless I wanted some great food and great travel access points, which is what Singapore is very well known for.

Cameron: For us ... sorry, the one thing I would say is that Singapore and Hong Kong especially are just logistic hubs. For us, we’re very focused on the industries we work with. It’s got its own … we’ve got our own reasons for being here and those wouldn’t be true for a lot of other add-ons but they are true for us.

Heather: Fair enough.

So Singapore has four official languages, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, how do you deal with so many different languages in Asia both from a business perspective and from a software solution perspective?

Cameron: Well, firstly, we’re very luck that everyone in Singapore’s first language is English, so that’s never been an issue for us in that regard but obviously as you exist Singapore, there’s a lot less of that, there’s a lot of local languages. So to kind of work with that, we do have a very multi-cultural and a very ... what you’d think of as a melting pot in terms of our teams and in terms of the different languages.

We Aussies and Kiwis are the odd ones out with our one language of English. Most countries in the world, they have 3, 4, 5 languages if they’re lucky. A lot of our team do speak multiple languages and as we’re growing our support our sales team around the region and around the globe, we are looking for multi-lingual support and sales people. I think that’s kind of the only way you can tackle it because while some of the people can speak English, they still like to spend their time, their days with what they’re comfortable with which is the language they grew up in.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely.

How difficult is it for a software solution to overlay a different language across the solution?

Cameron: Technically not that difficult. The difficult part is the supporting and the documentation, it’s converting everything. But actually if you look at a piece of software like TradeGecko or Xero or any other add-on, we’re probably talking of a dictionary of less than a couple thousand words that need to be translated into a dozen different languages, and there are third party providers that will do that and maintain and keep that up to date for you for quite a low cost.

But for us, that’s not the issue, it’s the selling, it’s the marketing, it’s the positioning, it’s the different brand images, it’s the different cultural disconnects that become quite difficult.

Heather: Okay, that’s interesting. TradeGecko has one of the best on-boarding platforms that I’ve ever used or seen. For the people listening, I’ve tried a lot of them out there.

So what is it? How did you develop it? What are you using? Maybe just share with our audience what you’re happy to share about your on-boarding training.

Cameron: I think the one thing we really think about and we probably don’t think about enough is trying to really understand what is the “wow moment” for a new user. What we want to do is we want to get our customers to wow as soon as possible. I’m sure we don’t get that for everyone but we’re trying to get as many people to understand and see how good their business could be with our solution as fast as possible. That’s kind of driven our focus on really developing a really smooth on boarding, hopefully showing them the different pieces of what we do and how we can help them.

I guess that’s just a really big focus of mine, and because it’s so important to me that obviously affects everyone in the organisation and we have some great designers who spend a lot of time thinking, interviewing customers, going out to visit customers, seeing what their day-to-day looks like, and really understanding and making sure that we are building the right thing effectively.

Heather: Yeah, so what I really liked was when I went into TradeGecko and started up, it seemed like sort of a slither or a pane came across and it told me to go in and setup a customer and suggested I went here and clicked on this and did that. Then another pane came across and they were all quite colourful, beautiful panes, and they came across and they just kept telling me how to do it.

Was that something you inbuilt into the solution?

Cameron: Yeah, we developed that in-house. I mean effectively we believe the wow is important. The other thing is you want people to understand what we do and don’t do as fast possible just to … otherwise … so they can identify, “Is this for me or is this not for me?” That’s kind of why we built the beautiful kind of show them as much the product but not too much as fast as possible.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely. I always say to people, “Look, if you’ve got 90 minutes spare, go and sit down and go through that introduction process on TradeGecko because you just get a real good understanding on A) how an inventory solution should work and B) how your particular inventory solution works because for us as advisors, it’s so difficult to learn all these new solutions out there, especially I think we’re sort of hitting 300 out there and we don’t have the time to sit down.

But when there’s something fast, easy, beautiful, and you could almost probably watch House of Cards while you’re doing it, like at the same time, it’s so simple to go through. It’s like a game I guess. I know that seems to be one of the things that some of the software developers are doing is building that sort of gaming type of thing into the solution.

Cameron: Yeah.

What were the biggest challenges a Kiwi guys faces doing business in Singapore?

Cameron: The biggest issue that we’ve had is probably not being a Kiwi guy in Singapore. It’s being anyone that’s running a company that’s growing so fast. It’s kind of being introspective and being able to learn to work with a huge array of cultures, huge array of personalities and learning how to work with ... I mean it’s just something that you don’t get taught. I think unless you’ve had experience, you kind of have to make it up as you go.

I think I’m very honest in saying that I don’t really know what I’m doing. I hope I know a little bit more than I did in a month ago and I definitely know a lot more than I did 12 months ago but I’m sure I’ll know a lot more in 12 months than I do right now. I think that’s probably the most important thing and the hardest thing for me has been understanding different temperaments, different cultures, different people.

Heather: That probably is more because you’re situated in Singapore perhaps then being in other places.

Cameron: Definitely.

Heather: When I was there, I found them, the Singaporeans, very welcoming of the expats.

Do you find yourself very welcomed there?

Cameron: Very much so. I mean some of our best employees are obviously local guys and girls, and they’re just fantastic. They have a really good work ethic and they have a great education system here, so that really helps us obviously with our hires.

Heather: Yeah absolutely, completely agree.

Five major trends have dominated the Silicon Valley recently in the last hundred years: electronic tools, semiconductors, enterprise, telecom and consumer. A sixth trend is emerging which venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale of Formation 8 has coined The Smart Enterprise. How would you describe the Smart Enterprise Software Wave that Lonsdale is referring to?

Cameron: Yeah. I guess this is exactly what we are trying to tackle and a lot of other cloud based solution providers are trying to tackle, and that’s the … today you can build online management software and that’s fine and that’s good and that’s pretty and that’s easy to use but what we really want to do is we want not to just give you tool to run your business, we want to give you the ability to make decisions and have insights. The Smart Enterprise Software Wave is kind of this discussion that as we kind of move everything online, there’s this huge amount of data.

We don’t just process sales and manage inventory, we can also see things in our business and within our industries that can make us ... we can make decisions that can affect things like not just forecasting but global trends.

That’s what the Smart Enterprise Software Wave gives us, it’s that big data access, the ability to make decisions to kind of couple, really easy to use, analytical software with smart people, to do things that previously could only have been done by team of scientists probably working in Excel for quite a few months, being able to bring that data and those insights to fray very easily at a click of a button. We’re not there yet globally but I think that in the next five to ten years, just the decision making power that a small business owner will have which previously you’d have to pay SAP a hundred million dollars to get, is just going to be fascinating. That’s really what we’re trying to help do.

I think you’ve answered this but how can the other software development companies, listening in, leverage off this Smart Enterprise Software Wave. Should they be looking towards this analytical dashboard that you suggest?

Cameron: It’s very easy to think about as a dashboard but the way I try and think about is if you can imagine the life of your user, and in our case you probably have some guys in a warehouse, some guys in an office, maybe some sales rep on the road, the guy and the CEO and maybe the financial controller, there are all these different people and they have all these really important decisions to make every day.

Instead of them having to think, “What do I need to do to do my job?” As a software provider, we can actually bring to the surface the right information that they need to make a decision and to actually tell them … maybe not make the decision for them but to at least kind of really point them in the right direction.

I think you can only work that out by really understanding the day-to-day life of each of your products users and really thinking about what really impacts their day-to-day, their weeks, their months, their planning for the year. I guess that’s kind of what we really try and do. I’m not saying we’re perfect at that but really thinking holistically about your customers. I mean best case scenario you go and work in a customer’s work for a couple of days, immerse yourself in their life, truly understand where you can help them with data.

Heather: Yeah, it’s very difficult I imagine because your solution, while is inventory, is probably being used by so many vastly different bespoke companies, trying to adapt to everything that’s out there that’s using you.

Cameron: Exactly but you can probably think no company wants to sell this product. No company wants to have worse relationships with their suppliers. You can kind of go, “Okay, every company in the world would like more customers, would like better relationships, they’d like more advanced forecasting, they’d like to know more clearly what their profit margins are.”

So I think there are some kind of general rules you can probably make which you can really help these guys answer in a way that the CEO that used to have to sit down for two weeks to do kind of Excel spreadsheets to understand the last 12 months of his business, he doesn’t have to do that anymore. He can press a button. As long as we understand what the right questions those people should be asking, I think we can really help these guys grow their businesses and of course grow our own businesses by doing that for them.

Heather: That’s really interesting. Thank you for that Cameron.

So TradeGecko’s pricing is in US dollars, why did you make this decision?

Cameron: Again, it’s the Singapore thing. Being in Singapore, we had to choose a currency, it didn’t make sense to do it in Singapore dollars. Ultimately there was also a bit of technical decision there because we couldn’t do it in too many currencies, and so US dollars was just kind of the same default and the global software as a service space, in the future we may do regional pricing. To be honest, to do that, we will need to change the way that we bill but at this stage, again, I was just thinking globally, US dollar is identifiable by everyone, yeah, that was the thought.

Heather: Fair enough.

So how many customers do you need to look at or do you need to on-board to generate one million dollars US a year? What sort of you looking at for that?

Cameron: Each additional million dollars … so we would be looking at ... if we look at our current revenue, every kind of 600 customers would give us US dollars a million in revenue at this stage. We’re actually in very nice position at stage. We’re actually reducing the number of customers we need as we start to bring on larger and larger clients.

Heather: That’s interesting. That’s exciting for you.

Cameron: Yes, very much so.

If you’re bringing on these larger clients, how many transactions, maximum transactions, can you deal with a month?

Cameron: In terms of these, so we work with some very interesting clients, so the biggest automotive parts supplier in Europe, Oscar, and they’re doing somewhere upwards of 1800 sales a day through our systems.

Heather: Oh okay, that’s amazing.

Cameron: Admittedly they have done some customer integration into their customer e-commerce store, so they’re not taking advantage of every piece of what we do but nothing really limits us there. I think in our opinion, the limitations then becomes the workflow, it becomes very difficult to pack 1800 items. You’re talking about having a proper warehouse management system. That’s something we’re really trying to improve at all times is to cater to these bigger guys doing these larger numbers.

Heather: Excellent. That’s really interesting. Thank you for sharing that.

So what are of being some of the key successes of TradeGecko?

Cameron: So really important, that first customer that wasn’t a friend or family member, so that was really, really good for us. I don’t know why, there’s just something about that first order.

How many friends and family members did you have that needed an inventory solution?

Cameron: Well, because one of our co-founders was in the fashion industry, it wasn’t insignificant. I think we had our first kind of 11 customers, seven of which were friends and family, but that’s kind of changed now obviously. So what other significant milestones? I mean getting to where we are today, I don’t know why but each ... how we make it, it’s significant to us because this is another person who is depending on you for their livelihood.

Heather: Absolutely.

Cameron: So that’s a big one. Opening up the team in Philippines was big because we hired some really high quality people there to help us with products and sales. When you’re hiring people that have kids and you have got stable jobs and they’re joining you, you realise the responsibility, so that was a big one personally for myself.

Heather: Yeah, amazing.

So one of the things that you released, probably maybe it was about six or eight weeks ago, was a beautiful infographic of inventory workflow, how was that received?

Cameron: Surprisingly well. To be completely honest, I wasn’t that involved with it. We have a great ... one of our marketing team members, Clara, was kind of running the show on that one.

Heather: Clara Lu, was that right? Clara Lu.

Cameron: Yes, surprisingly well. So it’s been picked up by a lot of different people and it’s kind of formented some really interesting discussions especially with some of our customers. It’s great when you have a customer come on board who says they saw that inventory thing, they finally understood something, and then they started to think, “Well, if this is what you can do to help us, then I want him,” which I’ll be honest, I was little bit sceptical about but they proved me wrong which I’m always happy to be proven wrong.

Heather: Yeah, some people only think visually. It’s interesting because some people are like, “I didn’t get that until you drew a picture of it.” I’ll include the infographic in the show notes for people to have a look at and the concept is you actually share it, isn’t it? That’s the concept?

Cameron: Of course, that’s the concept, yeah.

Heather: I noticed that when you shared it … so other people whom I have seen having infographics, they actually have it all linking back to your site and I noticed you didn’t have a direct link back to your site with the sharing of it but maybe that was just because it was for the first time.

Cameron: We’ve had some people linking back to it. I know some people can be very aggressive about that. I mean end of the day, if someone doesn’t want to link back to us and they want to share, I don’t have any problem with that. If we were doing everything just to get link backs, we’d be kind of probably creating quite sad material and output.

Heather: No, I certainly think an infographic as a marketing tool is very … can be very useful, and for business advisors being able to say, “Hey, have a look at this. This is what TradeGecko does.” Again, it makes our life a little bit easier and it is an infographic out there for anyone to use. I actually ... because you know I’m involved with XU Magazine, I told Wes we need to put in the next edition.

So if you were 17 years old again, I don’t think you’re actually very old because from looking at your LinkedIn profile, but if you were 17 years old again and wanted to become the next Cameron Priest, what’s the quickest route to get there?

Cameron: Well firstly, I’m 27, so ten years ago. I think the biggest thing for me was just starting. I know it sounds very trite but it’s very ... I mean I can remember when I first learnt how to build software. The way I learned was finally ... I oversold my abilities and I got a project from a client, and then I had to quickly learn, I actually roped my older brother because he’s lot smarter than I am, to help me build something.

I guess it’s very easy to talk about wanting to do something and very easy to kind of read everything and watch all the videos, but actually kind of committing yourself. There’s a very famous quote about this but I won’t quote it now because it’s quite long but it’s about just starting and when you start, providence moves, everything just kind of falls into pieces, everyone starts to help you, things just align. Things don’t always align in the right way but nothing helps you learn how to start except starting.

Heather: Absolutely.

Do you think that your university qualification helped you to get to that position?

Cameron: Not at all.

If you were 17 years old again, would you do that again?

Cameron: At 17, I still needed to grow up a bit, so probably yes. But I mean I tried to start businesses when I was 17, they weren’t in the technology space. I tried all sorts of different things, so I don’t begrudge that but I feel like starting is one thing and then also being exposed to people who have done it because some people are very lucky in which their parents are quite successful.

Hence, they understand that the ability to create a business is not that hard. You don’t need to be super smart. You don’t need a 160 IQ. You just need to do it but I think for a lot of us, being exposed to people just like us who are successful makes you realise that it’s just about hard work. Again, that sounds very trite but being exposed to those sorts of people as young as possible, I think is very valuable.

Where were you exposed to these sorts of people?

Cameron: So definitely after I moved to Singapore but before this my father is an entrepreneur. I can’t say he was a super successful one. He was a great Kiwi inventor, not a great businessman. I think that definitely exposed me to the ups and the downs of business but I do see friends who were kind of exposed to very successful business people, very young, and to them the idea of starting business has always been an obvious and relatively easy endeavour, whereas I think that majority of the population, it’s kind of something that’s always been a bit out of reach but it doesn’t need to be.

Heather: Okay, thank you. I’m just throwing one more question out there because you might have the answer, if you don’t know, no worries.

If a business person was to go over to Singapore, are there any start-up hubs that they should visit that you know of?

Cameron: Yes, there’s one big one. Again, another government organisation has put it together which is a place called Blk 71 and there are probably 400-500 different start-ups there now and a bunch of investor capitalists. So it’s just Blk 71, and that’s just the name of the area and that’s the name of the building, it’s blk 71. That’s where all the technology companies, especially the younger ones, that’s where you start in Singapore.

Heather: Oh okay, that’s good. I’ll search that up and put that up in show notes. What suburb is that based in?

Cameron: That’s in Ayer Rajah, I can bring you the actual address for it afterwards.

Heather: Sensational. So, thank you so much for speaking with us today Cameron. I really enjoyed listening to you and hearing all of your insights about Asia and about TradeGecko, and I’m sure the listeners gained a lot of information from hearing from you as well.

Cameron: It was my pleasure Heather. Thank you very much.

Mentions

· TradeGeckohttp://www.TradeGecko.com

· https://www.facebook.com/cameronpriest

· https://twitter.com/cameronpriest

· http://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpriest

· http://cameronpriest.com/

· Xerohttps://www.Xero.com

· Shopifyhttp://www.Shopify.com

· Joe Lonsdale http://formation8.com/team/joe-lonsdale

· Formation 8 http://www.formation8.com

· Smart Enterprise Software Wave http://formation8.com/resources/the-smart-enterprise-wave

· SAP http://www.sap.com/index.html

· XU Magazine http://xumagazine.com

· Block 71 http://www2.blk71.com

Contact Details for Heather Smith

· Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter

· Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/

· Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

· Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

· Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book

· Subscribe to XU Magazine : http://www.xumagazine.com/

· Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting

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· Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU

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Highlights of my conversation with Peta Ellis * Benefits of working in a co-working space * Brisbane tech Start-ups successes * Various events held at River City Labs

Mentions * River City Labs http://www.rivercitylabs.net/ * River City Labs Events / Start-up weekend http://www.rivercitylabs.net/events/ * Rails Girls http://railsgirls.com/ * Uber https://www.Uber.com/cities/brisbane * Ollo Mobile http://ollowearables.com/ * Mothers Groupie https://mothersgroupie.com/ * Right Pedal Studios http://rightpedalstudios.com/ * SydStart http://sydstart.com/

Today I am speaking with Peta Ellis the General Manager at River City Labs: Brisbane's premiere Startup Community and Co-working space. Peta has been described as the “hub of the Brisbane start-up community" and was ranked 6 in the Top 50 Global Lean Evangelists, and StartUp Daily listed Peta as a Brisbane mentor all start-ups should get to know.

Questions asked:

Who is your favourite super hero and why?

What is the purpose of River City Labs?

What is the catalyst that started River City Labs ?

What sort of business does it suit?

How will a business benefit from being in a co-working space?

When does a business know it is ready to join a co-working space? And where are they coming from?

How does the rent a desk concept work, and if we have people listening in from overseas is the rent a desk option open to them too?

You run a lot of events at River City Labs: what events have worked really well? And what events unexpectedly bombed?

How can someone get in touch with you if they are interested in running an event at River City Labs?

What have been some key successes for River City Labs?

What have been some obstacles’ the co-working space has faced along the road?

How strong is the start-up community in Brisbane?

What have you learnt from managing River City Labs?

To get in touch with Peta Ellis

http://www.rivercitylabs.net/

Events http://www.rivercitylabs.net/events/

To get in touch with the host of Cloud Stories Heather Smith

http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

http://www.twitter.com/heathersmithau

http://www.FaceBook.com/heathersmithau

http://www.LinkedIN.com/in/heathersmithau

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Dan Fairbairn

Secret confessions of a Cloud Integrator

Highlights of our conversation

· Pricing bespoke projects

· Overview of Vend and SimPro

· Mapping out client workflows and requirements

Mentions

Waypoint formerly Ocius Digital http://www.wearewaypoint.com/
simPRO Software http://simpro.com.au/
WorkFlowMax http://www.workflowmax.com/
Xero http://www.xero.com/
Vend http://www.vendhq.com/
Deputy http://www.deputy.com

Ocius Digital

Technical, yet approachable. Professional, yet personable. Casual, yet dependable.

Our clients choose Ocius Digital because our depth of experience and our unrelenting commitment to solving the most challenging business problems.

We understand the obstacles and opportunities that small businesses balance each day including the seemingly never-ending demands on the directors, finding the time to work ‘on’ the business and not just ‘in’ the business, and constantly seeking ways to minimise the administrative overheads.

www.ociusdigital.com.au

www.facebook.com/ociusdigital

@ociusdigital

au.linkedin.com/in/danieljfairbairn/

To connect with Heather Smith

Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter

Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/

Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book

Subscribe to XU Magazine : http://www.xumagazine.com/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting

Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU

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Today I am speaking with Chris Wheatley founder of Scope Accounting.

Chris Wheatley is the founder and CEO of Scope Accounting a full service accounting business launched 8 weeks ago!

Highlights of our conversation

· Challenges of starting a new business

· The thought process of choosing a business name

· How Chris is using Sharesight and WorkFlowMax in his business

Other solutions mentioned in this episode include:

http://www.sharesight.com.au/

http://www.workflowmax.com/

Contact Chris Wheatley at

https://www.facebook.com/scopeaccounting

Contact Heather Smith at

http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/

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Today I am speaking with Tom Wallace founder of Re-Leased.

Tom Wallace is the founder and CEO of Re-Leased a cloud-based, property management software designed to automate and simplify the management of your property management portfolio.

Highlights of our talk:

Coffee with Rod Drury -> Founding Re-Leased -> #Xerocon Start-Up Alley -> Winner of Xero NZ 2014 Emerging add-on of the year-> what next?

Why New Zealand is leading the way in technology development.

New developments of Re-Leased: residential property management and trust accounting

Other solutions mentioned in this episode include:

https://trello.com/

http://www.timely.com/

http://2012.redjungle.com/xero

Contact Tom Wallace at

http://www.re-leased.com/

Contact Heather Smith at

http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/

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Highlights of my conversation with Jared Armstrong * Internal collaboration tools * Inbox Zero * Providing a product that presents exactly the features, exactly the complexity that is needed for the specific business that is using it

Mentions * MinuteDock https://minutedock.com/ * Xero https://www.xero.com * Google Docs https://docs.google.com * Gmail https://mail.google.com/ * Google Drive https://drive.google.com/ * Raygun https://raygun.io/features * Letterboxd http://letterboxd.com * Timely http://www.GetTimely.com * Stripe https://stripe.com/ * Braintree https://www.braintreepayments.com * Coursera https://www.coursera.org/ * Dropbox https://www.DropBox.com

MinuteDock is online timesheeting software designed to be super easy and efficient for freelancers and small to medium businesses. We integrate directly with Xero to sync across your customers, and make billing your time a breeze. Tracking time is natural and fast, you can drill down into time spent by staff on clients, projects and tasks with our in-depth reporting, and you can keep track of your budgets and targets with MinuteDock’s ‘Goals’. When you’re ready to bill, send across an invoice to Xero in a matter of seconds.

MinuteDock was founded in 2009 when we were sick of copying and pasting our tracked time into our accounting software! We’re a small company based in Wellington, New Zealand. We’ve had steady growth over the last five years, and have thousands of customers in countries all over the world.

https://minutedock.com

http://cloud-stories.com

Connect with Heather Smith

http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter

Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/

Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/

Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com

Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book

Subscribe to XU Magazine : http://www.xumagazine.com/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting

Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU

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Highlights of my conversation with Gayle Buchanan

Running a virtual Xero bookkeeping, support and training business
Managing learning new solutions from the Xero eco-system
Licensing a bookkeeping business
Cloud solutions for Eel fishermen
Essential advice for bookkeepers; networking, resources, support and conferences
Using referrals and conferences to grow your business

Subscribe to Episode 2 of Cloud Stories on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Transcript

Heather: Hello Gayle.

Gayle: Hello Heather.

Heather: Thank you so much Gayle for being on our show this morning. I’m really looking forward to talking to you about your business and what you generally do within the cloud.

From what I understand Gayle, you founded a business called Number Nurses, can you describe what your business does?

Gayle: Sure Heather, pleasure to be here by the way. The business was started very … I didn’t really know what to do so it was kind of neat to go back to what I loved which is numbers, and I’ve always helped my husband in his business. What we do is we actually go and do call outs to people which are virtual so it’s done via Skype and TeamViewer.

It’s very similar to a Plunket nurse who turns up at your door when you had a new baby and you don’t know quite what to expect and you just need some help with your Xero setup and any add-ons for Xero. It’s kind of neat, we’re the Number Nurses basically, and the bridge between the business owner and the accountant which a lot of people … the service seems to be … a lot of people want that type of thing.

It kind of started as a help and now it’s starting to grow into, hopefully in the next 12 months, be licensing it.

Heather: Excellent, so you’re looking at about 12 months’ time to be licensing that.

Will you be licensing Number Nurses in New Zealand or beyond New Zealand?

Gayle: It will be in New Zealand initially. All the great books I’ve read have said, “Hey, make sure you get it done at home first and it works as a model in your own country first before you go overseas.” But there are a few people overseas that want to have a look at the model as well so that’s quite exciting.

Heather: That is very exciting and what I’m seeing with people working in this Xero space is that they seem to expand very quickly, once I think they’ve got all the automation in place, which is something that sort of you’ll be on top of.

Gayle: Yes.

You describe yourself as a chief Number Nurse. As a Chief Number Nurse, what does your day involve?

Gayle: I have a virtual assistant which is really great and they help me with the appointments and the training. So, half of the week is spent training which are 45 minute sessions, with a wee break in between, which is kind of neat.

Heather: Within the 45 minutes?

Gayle: Within the 45 minutes … each training is 45 minutes so have a 15 minute break in between each of them just to prep you. So I guess the day kind of starts the day before. That’s all set up a week in advance so I know what I’m doing in advance. It’s really very much training and down time bookkeeping which is my other love because you kind of need to keep that skill up in order to train better.

Heather: Yes, absolutely. I completely agree with that, in that you need to actually be doing it to train it. It always worries me when people train something that they’re actually not doing. As you know I am a writer, when people write about stuff they’re actually not doing, it’s like how can you be writing about it if you don’t do it but anyway.

So yes, I think that’s really important and your clients must really benefit from your knowledge there in that you know it and then you’re training on it.

Gayle: I mean constantly the space is changing. Xero and all the add-ons are updating, so you have to keep on top of absolutely everything. But be human about it because we all can’t be 100% perfect and there are areas and markets that will use different parts of Xero. So don’t be afraid to kind of find your niche and do it well in that part of Xero, and knowing the whole lot all of the time, it is a full time job.

Heather: Absolutely. That jumps ahead to another question that I was going to ask you. I’ll jump ahead and ask you while you’ve raised that. It does take a lot of time to learn a new solution, so if someone was coming to Xero and trying to learn that or they were going into the Xero eco system where we’ve now got about currently 300 add-on solutions, trying to pick up and learn one of those solutions.

What advice would you have for a business consultant going, “Okay, I want to learn something in the Xero eco system,” where should they start?

Gayle: The quickest way I learned I think was I spent nine months bashing about and trying to grab anybody and everybody in any market before stepping back. So it was sort of like I didn’t get my toes wet I just jumped straight in. After that nine months of just working, it’s a bit of a slog, just stop and take a minute and think, “Which industry or which sector do I love the most?” And go there.

I went to the New Zealand Stat’s Department and went through all of the industries that were there, picked out the top five that I liked and then came back and saw what add-ons in Xero were attached to those industries. That knocked another three off, so I actually brought it down to two industries in the end. It did take about six weeks to work out which one that was.

Then having had previous experience with my parent’s businesses, I knew what industries not to go into. It was kind of neat. So pick what you love first, then find the add-on, and then go learn that add-on, be a partner with that add-on as you’re learning Xero as well because it is a learning curve and thinking you know everything about it within sort of a couple of weeks, you’re deadly wrong.

I speak to a lot of accounting firms they train their staff with and said, “Look, until you’ve got that 20,000 transactions under your belt and you’re feeling really confident about the industry you’re in with Xero, then you can start talking about being an expert and until then just do your time.”

Heather: Absolutely, goodness I can completely agree with that as well. A lot of people seem to call themselves an expert in something and you’re like going, “Really, when did you do that? That was extremely quickly.” That’s kind of like I rarely call myself an expert in something even though I spend 100 hours learning it.

I love the fact that you spent six weeks researching that to identifying your niche area and what to actually focus in on. That’s excellent advice for people. You do, there are so many out there. You think this person’s really nice and they keep ringing me up and sending me letters, I should learn that product but standing back and working on what you’re actually going to be the best fit for is going to put you in a better position to give your client’s better advice.

Gayle: That’s half the equation, the other half is applying it, and that’s a whole different story.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely. I’ll jump back so we’ve covered sort of what your business is doing.

When did you start your business, Number Nurses?

Gayle: Back in 2011 actually, it was the 4th of July interestingly enough.

Heather: Lovely, 4th of July 2011.

So Number Nurses is based in Drury, is that correct?

Gayle: Yup.

Heather: I had a look on the map to find it and that’s New Zealand’s north island just south of Auckland. So what’s the internet connection like for you in Drury?

Gayle: Okay, Drury, the whole area is kind of cool. I’m more at the Bombay end so we are right on the top of a hill, 330 meters above sea level. The internet line, we’re the last house on the line, so for about 45 minutes in each day it just stops because all the school kids get home. That’s cool, it’s fine after that but you can run it off a mobile and I’ve bought some broadband machinery that helps you get …

Heather: Like a booster.

Gayle: Yeah, a little wee booster and you can run off that. But to tell you the truth, the only time I’ve gone down is when the power’s gone down and there’s been a storm, so it’s pretty cool.

Heather: It’s something that when we become more reliant on the cloud we need to be aware of, and understanding that time slot that the kids all come home from school and how it affects you, definitely. I know for me, if we get heavy, heavy, heavy rains, about three days later that’s when my internet goes down. So obviously it soaks through.

Gayle: Yes, the water in the lines.

Heather: Yeah, exactly, and sort of being aware of that. For me, I kind of have alternative arrangements which I can sort out.

Gayle: Actually my family is quite happy when that happens because I actually move.

Heather: Oh, you go and visit them do you?

Gayle: Yes, I have time to go visit people.

Heather: Sensational.

Gayle: Yes.

Heather: And I guess that’s the flexibility of actually working in the cloud. I know that I do a lot of travel and being able to just travel, be somewhere else and actually working in the cloud is sensational. So the fact that your client actually has no idea that you’re not on top of that hill when you’re giving him that training, and they don’t know about that.

Gayle: It’s great. When I’m training I just go right through that and get them all hooked up and then talk about it later. They’re like, “Oh, where are you by the way?” It usually happens when there’s a chicken that walks straight past my dog in the background and they go, “There’s a chicken standing behind you. Where do you live?” It’s kind of cool. I quite like that.

Heather: It is sensational that you can live wherever you want and develop a niche/expertise and then provide that knowledge kind of worldwide. It’s sensational. You do work with a number of solutions in the Xero add-on ecosystem and I see from your profile you are partner with a few of them.

What I’d appreciate is if you could share with your listeners what these solutions do. If we can start with WorkflowMax, if that’s okay? If you can let listeners know what that product does.

Gayle: Cool, WorkflowMax in my niche for builders or some creatives is that it does force them to process, and it’s the part I love about it. If you go into a business right now who are working on pen and paper or they’re working on Excel spreadsheets or tiny bits of software, WorkflowMax can pull together the operational part of your business which is really the meat in the middle, and brings all the staff in, all your tasks and chores and all your milestones, and sets it all there really simply for people to track and work through.

That particular add-on is great because you can have the job and the tasks listed and it doesn’t matter if anyone’s sick. If your employees are sick or if you’re sick, you can actually hand the job over and everything is there as a checklist. So operationally very, very good and easy, forces you to processes which a lot of businesses I come across don’t do that at all, so it’s great.

Heather: And putting in the automation of the forced process actually, again, allows them to grow their business because they’ve got a basis to grow it from.

Gayle: Absolutely. Yeah, it then becomes a nice wee asset for them too, so that’s great.

Heather: Sensational, that’s very interesting.

WorkflowMax, you’re using it for builders and creatives, a lot of accountant’s use it is that correct?

Gayle: Yes, they do. Same thing, it’s fabulous. In New Zealand, it attaches to the tax department which is great. You can do your GST returns through there as well and it automates straight into Xero too which is brilliant and work papers of course which the accountants need.

Heather: Sensational, okay. Thank you very much for that.

Another program that you’re a partner with is Job Sheet? Can you share with our listeners what Job Sheet does?

Gayle: Job Sheet is actually moving into a mobile app which is great. It’s putting a job card for tradies onto a piece of software that they can carry around on their phone or on their iPad which is great. Again, it also helps with process, so if you’ve got a job card that you’d give to an employee or to yourself with addresses, delivery addressers, who you bill to, all the parts; it connects to local suppliers like the likes of electrical suppliers or plumbing suppliers.

It can actually do a quote on the run which is excellent for the smaller tradies or going up to about five employees. They can do their invoicing in the driveway as they leave which means they can actually go home and they don’t take their paperwork home which I find a lot of them to keep them balanced is, “Hey, stop in the driveway, finish the job off and then don’t take anything home.” I said, “Your wife will love you for it.” I guess marriage counselling comes a little bit into our software as well which is cool.

Heather: People have told me that after having something installed that they were actually on the verge of divorce and the installation has removed that layer of frustration for them. I completely hear you there as well. That’s an interesting thing.

And building that, here it is, quote; don’t leave the property before you leave the property really brings in. You raised a really good point there in terms of when we go into a business and say, “Have a look at these cloud solutions,” in reality most people are bringing their own device to work. Most people have some sort of mobile phone whether it be an iPhone or a Galaxy or something like that. So it’s very easy to overlay and just say, “Here’s a solution, upload it into your phone and use it.”

And for the business owner, the infrastructure is not particularly expensive because most of them already have that.

Gayle: Yes, it’s something that doesn’t sort of go far from their pocket which is kind of handy.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely.

So another solution that you deal with is Receipt Bank. Can you share with our listeners what Receipt Bank does?

Gayle: Okay, Receipt Bank would be my all-time favourite to date. Every business can use it and I think what happens is … because my husband is real estate agent and then I’ve got my brother is an eel fisherman and neither one of them … I keep my receipts all squashed up. They have the ability, like everyone’s got a phone, is to take a photograph of the receipt and it goes straight to Receipt Bank where I can code it automatically and then it comes straight down into Xero with the receipt attached both up there in the cloud with both of them: one copy’s in Receipt Bank and the other copy comes down into Xero. So you’ve got two places for that which is great back up.

Then it’s already processed so I don’t have to punch it, scan the receipt and get their books done for them each month. Every client I come across that has a shoebox, I will get them to buy Receipt Bank and have that as part of their suite of software. It just saves so much time. It’s a no brainer, everyone gets it. It’s like, “Nope, you’re having it.”

Heather: Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of selling it to the client, you just tell them that they’re getting it? I’ve found it difficult to push it to encourage clients to use it. Even though I think it’s a really good solution, I’ve found it really hard to sell it to clients.

How do you go through that process of saying you’ve got to use it?

Gayle: Yeah, it comes as … it’s part of the package. The reason being is the first thing everyone sees is oh, I quite like the idea of my receipts coming off the Eftpos machine, they actually fade over time. I say, “Look, as an obligation, this is part of the obligations of being a director of the company in this country is that you must keep these receipts.” I say, “If you can take a flick and get a photo up there and we’ve got two copies in two places,” and unfortunately last year the tax department here agreed to hold documents outside of New Zealand so that was fantastic, that takes away that resistance to come in and have it held in the cloud which is cool.

So for them I say, “Look, this is what you’re going to be doing,” and I walk it through them and get them to … I will load it on their phone for them or get someone close to them to do it for them which is normally the case. Then once I’ve done it, I show them the difference and how long it takes, with them on Skype next to me, how long it takes for me to do it for them and how long it would take if they would just take one photo.

Then straightaway they look at it from now it’s an hourly rate, not the fact that it’s only $20 a month.

Heather: Absolutely. No, definitely.

Gayle: So I just say for $20 a month you can do this or you can have me for $150, which would you prefer?

Heather: Yeah, absolutely. That’s great. For someone going back and investigating what’s happened into the business, it’s so much easier just to have that receipt attached to the transaction so you can go and refer back to it rather than the time involved in searching through paperwork. Even if they have been properly filed, it is just a no brainer.

Gayle: Yes, it can be a nightmare.

Heather: Absolutely, so we encourage everyone to sign up to a solution like Receipt Bank. You said something that I’ve never heard before. I didn’t know you had such a thing as an eel fisherman.

Gayle: Yes, there is. There are many of them.

Heather: Really?

Gayle: Yeah, they are. They’re doing some investigations at the moment with a lake nearby that’s starting to turn red. It looks like a rusty colour so the eels in there are obviously starving of food. Yeah, and I mean we export, New Zealand exports around the world.

Heather: Eels?

Gayle: Mmm, smoked eels , yum-o.

Heather: So is it a full time job?

Gayle: It is and it has been for him for nearly 40 years now.

Heather: Oh my goodness, well there you go. He’s a legend. An eel fisherman using Xero.

Gayle: An eel fisherman, yes, and Receipt Bank.

Heather: I frequently watch this very late show that appears on TV here in Australia and it’s really late at night. It’s shot in New Zealand and it’s your New Zealand Police Department and the New Zealand police are catching people who are going and getting something out of the water. I think it’s like a shell, a paua shell or something like that.

Gayle: Paua.

Heather: And they’re only allowed so many kilos but then they go in and wrap it around their engines so they can sneak it.

Gayle: I know.

Heather: It’s just like the craziest thing.

Gayle: They’re naughty. They’re just naughty.

Heather: But again, I’ve never eaten one of those either.

Gayle: Well they are lovely, especially if they’re cooked properly. You just need to make sure they get cooked properly.

Heather: Oh, do you? Okay, well, promoting eels and pap … how do we say it?

Gayle: Paua.

Heather: Paua, eels and paua, very good. New Zealand delicacies.

Now, on the side as well as running your business, one of the things I first discovered you on is that you actively facilitate a group on LinkedIn and the group’s name is Xero Bookkeepers (International).

You actively facilitate the LinkedIn group called Xero Bookkeepers (International), what does this bring to you? How does this fit in with your business?

Gayle: In that first year or two, part of the social media part to grow not only my name and then start growing the company name, is that I have been taught that it’s always grow your name first and then start growing your company. So part of that was LinkedIn is what I consider the professional group for the social media marketing.

I went, “Right, I’m going to start this group and what I’m going to do is start helping other bookkeepers that are coming in on board on Xero and let’s start sharing ideas and let’s just start bringing all the bookkeepers together.” Because it can be kind of a lonely place and getting up and going in and networking sometimes we sort of get to put your head down and get immersed inside all the numbers.

I thought if we start this group it means that we can collectively get together around the world and I’m sure bookkeeping is the same everywhere. So I started invite … I just invited absolutely everybody that had Xero next to their name in LinkedIn or anyone that I ever met and brought them all together. What it did was it just helped me feel not so alone as I was building my business.

I thought hold on a minute, everyone else has got to be feeling the same way I am. I wanted to give as much as I could because it had taken me nine months to just get started. I thought well if I could help people get past that nine months really quickly and help them just get to where they wanted to go, it’s just good karma. I like it. I like to give them …

Heather: Absolutely. I think that’s the place probably I first discovered you, so if you are listening to this podcast and are interested in learning more about the Xero ecosystem and you’re working as a bookkeeper or sort of the numbers assistant in the business, go and have a look on LinkedIn for the Xero Bookkeepers (International) Group. I find it an excellent resource to actually go and ask perhaps an in depth question and get some resources back.

I know like … Gayle, you know that I go in there and ask a few questions when … it is isolating. You know how to generally do something but then you find something that you’re pondering over and perhaps to my discredit some of the things I sometimes work on are a few things that are bespoke in that it’s like the first time I’ve come across them. It’s like how do I resolve this? How do I get through this? I work as a freelance so there’s no one in the office to … around the water cooler to discuss that with.

You kind of want to be private about it but you still want to have some good resources out there, so I really benefit, I really find working in that group, all going in and discussing in that group beneficial. As you said, I think it’s also really important to really give back to the group and to answer other people’s questions. I never really understand people who don’t go in and say, “I know the answer, call me.”

Gayle: Yes, I know. I’ve gone through it a couple of times and tried to weed out some people that aren’t contributing or sitting there and they come around personally and say, “Please, please can I stay? I just haven’t brought myself to say anything.” What I’ve found and learned about bookkeepers since I’ve been working as one is that they’re very shy. They’re incredibly shy and ...

Heather: Voyeuristic maybe.

Gayle: Amazingly talented woman and then when you give them this platform they just come alive. That’s what I like about that group. Now, there are a heap of Xero staff in there and a lot of accountants. It was all about, “Look guys, we’re the bookkeeping, you’re the accountant, we’re here to bridge the gap and help each other. This isn’t a war. That’s what we’re here for. These are our roles. Some of us cross the line and others don’t but that’s okay. We understand that but come out and just help each other.”

We can’t take on … for me it was all about I can’t take on the world and help every business but I can help someone else help 100.

Heather: Absolutely.

Gayle: So there are about 800 of us in there now, so you know I’m hoping that group is helping at least 8,000 businesses grow. That’s kind of neat.

Heather: I always think it’s about helping the small business owner and if you can help the small business owner, that feeds on into their lifestyle, into their children being able to go to ballet class, into the freedom and flexibility to go down to the beach on a Monday when they want to go down rather than have to kind of stick to the 9-5 grind perhaps. That’s what I like to be able to do.

So, essentially, if we can do that and give them that freedom through assisting them in that way, we’re sort of moving the whole world forward.

Gayle: Aren’t we, yes.

Heather: Superhero.

So what activities do you do Gayle to grow your business?

Gayle: Mine is very much referral based. My growth is ensuring I go to Xerocon each year in Australia and in New Zealand, and then also attend the Accountant’s Republic workshops and there Republic Day which is they mentor accounting firms and ultimately … really accountants are my clients and their clients are who I train and help.

Because my niche was to niche down and help accountants because they have got … most of them have got a couple hundred clients each. I did try for nine months to try and talk to those couple hundred clients but I found that they were all in different niches and I couldn’t get them to see the niches I wanted to work with which was very much that creative and the construction site, which include the tradies inside of it. So I found the accountants that had the tradies and went along and helped them.

Heather: Ah okay.

So you go through the accountants, do you go and like do training at the accounting firms or do you just … they just facilitate that?

Gayle: It’s all virtual.

Heather: I should know that, sorry.

Gayle: It’s okay. But sometimes, some people want you to hold their hand, so if I’ve got accountants down the South Island and they’ve got … and I train all of the South Island clients obviously.

Heather: Yes.

Gayle: If I can get to them in the North Island when they need a hand hold, I’ll go and do that. That’s okay but they just have to understand that time does get cut down for the services we offer. Sometimes it can work out really well to move some of them forward because … I mean they’ve even got clients who want to bring their accountants to the training. I mean we haven’t heard that before? I mean that’s very cool.

Heather: No, that is very cool. It is an interesting evolution in that there’s a solution out there and we see a lot of business owners pushing to move to Xero. However, their accountant still hasn’t heard about it or they’re actually bringing the accountant along for the ride. So you’re getting this accountant ringing up saying, “What do I do now?”

And saying that, rather than worry listeners out there, I have accountants who had never used Xero before and I said, “Look, I will come in and do whatever training you need so you know it.” But they picked it up and they said … picked it up really quickly. “I could see exactly what I was supposed to do and I worked through it that way so that was fine.” They didn’t feel that was … but then I’ll get other accountants who want to learn more but on a high level they’ve found it very easy to pick up. I guess that’s a good thing to know.

Now you mentioned Accountant’s Republic. What’s Accountant’s Republic?

Gayle: Accountant’s Republic is run by and owned by a woman called Viv Brownrigg. She grew her accounting firm up to over a million dollars and a global company called CCH actually bought it for its processes and systems and the library that she’d built. Now she’s a mentor to accounting firms in New Zealand and Australia.

Each year there is like a Republic Day and I work closely with them because we both agree that our ultimate is to get bookkeeping out of accounting firms. I’m like going, “I’m here with all the bookkeepers. I’ll take all the bookkeeping.” It’s kind of neat.

Sorry, aside thing, just going to a side issue for the moment is that because we’ve now got this national list of bookkeepers in New Zealand through the Bookkeeper’s Association and the group, LinkedIn group, it means that any leads coming in from her accountants through the country that I can’t get to, I can pass on to like a Bookkeepers. So being a part of that group has helped that network and we all share leads as such that we can’t get to.

That’s what I promote is if you can’t get to them someone else can so pass it on, and that’s what Viv does. We are out there helping … I’m out there helping those accountants with the bookkeeping side and the Xero side. She’s out there actively promoting the fact that you shouldn’t be doing bookkeeping, you’re an advisor, go off and do that. It’s way too expensive for you to be training people on Xero and Receipt Bank, and any of the add-ons. It’s not your core business. Move us … outsource it and use Number Nurses. So it’s been great. We’ve worked together on that quite solidly for a couple of years now. It’s working really well.

Heather: That’s really interesting. It’s really useful to make those relationships with people that you … sort of those trusted relationships with people and grow and evolve in a sort of a complementary fashion. That sounds really interesting.

So does she hold session days in New Zealand or days in New Zealand and Australia?

Gayle: Day in New Zealand and is moving … has a rather large library of workshops now which is great.

Heather: Fantastic. Excellent, I’ll put that in the show notes for listeners, a link to Accountant’s Republic. Thank you for that.

Now Xerocon is … just for people who don’t know, Xerocon is the main country’s Xero conference that’s held … I think currently it’s held … there’s one in New Zealand, one in Australia, one in England and one in San Francisco or sorry, I should say America. I’m not sure if they’re held anywhere else but I know our Australian one’s coming up, is it September Gayle?

Gayle: August.

Heather: August, okay sorry. So the Australian one is coming up in August and I think the New Zealand one is in February, is that correct?

Gayle: Yes.

Heather: Okay, so if people are interested, again, I’ll put those in the show notes.

Now you say that you grow your business and your customer base from attending Xerocons, so how does that work?

Gayle: Those are the accountants that I’ve met virtually. I’ll meet them, they’ll come up to Xerocon, I’ll actually encourage them to come up because of the atmosphere that the conference provides, you know, you’ve got between 800 and 1,000 people in a room over a couple of days. It’s awesome for them and their staff to come up.

As they come up, I’m sort of the link between the bookkeepers there to here and introduce them to those bookkeepers and those accountants. When the accountants can actually see that there’s a bookkeeper actively promoting relationships between the firms nationally, it’s trust, you know, you build your trust there.

The referrals will come a lot thicker that way than they will doing it any other way. I mean you’ve got a captive audience within a room and from day one I’ve always sat in the front row because I’m a bit of a geek because I don’t like anyone standing in front of me and blocking my view because I need to see everything. I’m so excited.

It’s been great for the last few Xerocons, encouraging all the other bookkeepers to come up and sit at the front. We’re sort of the rowdy guys in the front row which is kind of cool.

Heather: And Xerocon, for people who are considering attending, it’s a huge amount of information but it’s a really positive … it’s just a positive fun atmosphere. It’s kind of like Disneyland for bookkeepers and accountants. It’s just so much fun to go there and meet so many people. So much of what we do is virtual, to actually touch base and actually meet people there and have the opportunity to have some longer in depth conversation with them is sensational.

One of the things that really impressed me when I met you Gayle is you had a little nurse’s cap on.

Gayle: Yes, it is a chance to market yourself.

Heather: Branding, sensational branding.

Gayle: There’s a lot of accountants that still turn up in suits so we try to encourage them to bring weird branded t-shirts have some fun while you’re there.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely.

Gayle: You can see who’s been there two or three times. They’re the ones having the most fun I think.

Heather: Yeah, and one thing that really surprised me about Xerocon is whenever you go to conference they typically give you something. So Xerocon on the first day gave us t-shirts. I thought t-shirts, people are going to wear t-shirts so people are going to have to wear t-shirts. I remember getting up the next morning and I thought well it’s a nice t-shirt, what can I wear? So I put the t-shirt on and I’m not the kind of girl who’s actually built for a t-shirt but I put it on and it looked okay, it was actually a really nice quality, nice material t-shirt, and I put it on and I thought oh my, what if I’m the only person wearing a t-shirt.

I got down there and everyone had their Xerocon t-shirt on and I was so happy. Yeah, it was very cool. I thought am I going to cope with this, am I going to cope with this? Everyone is going to see me wearing a t-shirt but no it was very exciting. I know that everyone I spoke to who it was their first one, so I’ve been to a few now, was just blown away by how exciting it was.

I talk about a conference dance card, in that as well as being casual about attending the conference you really have to be structured and say, “Contact people beforehand. Either encourage them to go or say, “Hi I know you’re going. I really would like to spend some time talking with you. Can we do that?”” I know, for instance, I wanted to spend some time with you Gayle, so we actually walked to the conference … from the hotel room to the conference. Doing those things with people like jumping into a taxi with people, going to the evening events, actually don’t sit there and talk about sport, get out what you need to because this is your opportunity. So really work that conference hard.

Gayle: Yes, I mean it is very open to all of that. I just like the way that it all opens up with Rod Drury standing up in his jeans and his t-shirts and his sneakers, you know? That’s what it’s like and if anyone starts getting too corporate here, you’re fired, you know. It’s just so cool and I love that line.

Heather: Absolutely. What is very exciting, like you brought up Rod Drury who’s the CEO at Xero, is that he and so many other staff are available to talk to you. I know that I’ve been to accounting conferences of other providers in the past and trying to speak to anyone of a senior level, I was banging my head against a wall. As a writer I need to speak to … maybe not everyone needs to speak to people in that level but I need to speak to them to understand timelines, what’s coming out and what direction they’re going into. I’ve just found everyone so available and just sitting there talking to you.

I know that, for instance, there was a little coffee area and Rod Drury just like sat in the coffee are and just like, “Come and talk to me if you need to talk to me.” As well as running around and doing everything that he was doing, it was like so accessible which I was really impressed about.

Yeah, so that’s another good reason to come to the conference this year. You can actually touch base with so many of the staff members of Xero if you need to.

Gayle: And they’re all very real. Everyone is very real that you meet and it’s lovely. I have not come across anybody that I’ve gone and thought you were absolutely nothing like I thought you would be, you know, so it’s really neat.

Heather: Yes, I just had a funny situation in that I’ve had a virtual relationship with a gentleman I’ve done business with for about a decade. I always kind of had this impression that he was perhaps sort of a geeky, just a spotty, geeky, sitting on his backside doing spotty geeky things. He uploaded a photo of himself and he looks like Ryan Gosling.

Gayle: Oh my gawd.

Heather: I was like, “Oh wow.”

Gayle: Gorgeous.

Heather: Yeah, so it is funny that when you actually do meet someone in real life it’s very exciting.

Gayle: The other thing too is I always say to everyone, “Try and keep your LinkedIn photos as current as possible please.”

Heather: Oh absolutely.

Gayle: “So when we go to Xerocon, at least we can see what you look like.”

Heather: Yeah, absolutely. People come up and they launch into this conversation with you and you’re like, “Who are you? Who are you? Remind me who you are.”

Gayle: You’re smiling trying to look at their nametag. You don’t want to be rude or anything. It’s like “Oh okay, you had black hair in your photo and you’ve got red hair now.”

Heather: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Update your LinkedIn photo, very important.

What advice do you have for our listeners?

Gayle: I’ve got a couple of things here.

Heather: Okay, what would you like to share with our listeners Gayle?

Gayle: Okay the biggest thing I found is just remember it’s okay if people don’t like you. That’s one of the … it does break your heart when you’re with a client and they just don’t like you.

Heather: Yes.

Gayle: So just understand that they won’t and I went to a course, a Skillpath course once and the lady stood up and spoke about project managers. She said, “Just remember us. For every 60% of the people that you are going to meet in your lifetime won’t like you.”

So if you work along those odds, it’s great, because you just keep going and saying, “Hello, hello, hello,” and it doesn’t matter. Six out of ten are not going to like you but it’s not because of you. So just remember that. That’s okay. Look for the 40% because they’re the cream that you want anyway.

Heather: And pass them on to someone. Just like if it doesn’t work just say, “Look, this isn’t working. We’re not communicating well for some reason. Would you like me to find someone else to work with you?”

Gayle: Absolutely.

Heather: Or just say, “Look, I think you need to maybe go have a talk with ...” I know that I have a network of people around myself who I will just pass clients on to. It’s simply boundaries, you know, they might not like the way you speak, whatever. So I completely agree with you there.

Gayle: Yeah, just find someone for them. Then always be transparent and honest. It’s easy to repeat the truth.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely.

Gayle: I mean especially in the industry we’re in now. It’s very global. If you drop in … like I’m very active on the Xero blog or in any of the groups and just out there helping as many people as I possibly can. I’m really consistent because I’m just honest and transparent.

That is the part that a lot of people are going to gravitate to as well is that 40% that you want, they’re going to come and ask you. It isn’t rocket science but I find a lot of people aren’t kind of doing that. So when you start doing that then all of a sudden things just start happening for you.

Heather: Absolutely.

Gayle: Yeah, and then always make … I’ve always said to myself, “Make sure you make as many mistakes as you possibly can and laugh at yourself like you wouldn’t believe.”

Heather: Yes.

Gayle: Then get a group … what we’ve got is a group of chicks together we call the #smokinghotbookkeepers, and we just have fun. It’s okay that we’ve made a mistake. It’s great because they all come together and they say, “Oh, I’ve only done that four times this year. Oh no, I’ve done that six times this year,” and it’s good because I’ve only just done that once you know.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely.

Gayle: Laugh. It certainly helps you physically as well as mentality.

Heather: Yeah, and get that strong network around you. You did mention one thing there that I’d just like to just explore a little bit. You make yourself transparent, you’re active on social media, you actively facilitate the LinkedIn group. One of the things I’ve found with having a profile as a writer is that sometimes when people see you doing all of this they think that they can then directly come to you and seek free extended consultation with you.

Gayle: Absolutely.

Heather: You hear me?

Gayle: Yes.

Heather: So I probably never have a problem answering someone on social media about a question but when they do come … from my perspective when they do come to you for extended consultation, you’re moving into consultation, you’re moving into an area that I need to be insured for. Sort of you’re moving into an investment that you need to consider. People need to protect themselves from ... I think it’s really good to give out free and transparent advice and comment on LinkedIn areas and on social media but that’s sort of one of the … you have to have some sort of … do you agree that you have to have some sort of boundary there?

Gayle: I do and I learned that the hard way too. That was one of my blood noses. When I couldn’t get my workload out because I was giving away way too much time to other people and helping them, I then came across another add-on from Xero called Timely and it’s fantastic. It’s an appointment add-on which I use now. What I found is I spoke to a couple of friends in Australia and the States that were going through the same kind of thing and I says, “Look, it’s easy enough to say I’m really sorry. If we’re going to get into this, you do understand that I’m going to have to charge for this consultation.”

I had a lot of accountants giving me these lines and stuff and they didn’t resonate with me, so I just went, “Hold on a minute.” I got into Timely and it was great because I book all of my training sessions through that. Then I found this wee button and you can put the button on your email address and if anyone emailed you I just email back and said, “Hi, just book me below, click the button.”

Heather: Yes.

Gayle: When they click the button, they’ve got to choose how much time they’re going to have me and how much it’s going to cost them. You know what? No one even came back. I had one person and it worked a treat because I let them down … they knew straight away and that’s the power of software. Love it.

Heather: Yeah, automation software. That’s fantastic. So that’s another Xero add-on called Timely that people can have a look at and that you can actually incorporate into your email. That’s another sensational, fabulous suggestion there from you Gayle.

Thank you very much for agreeing to be on the show here with me Gayle. I’ve just got one more question for you before you leave.

What advice do you have for you 17 year old self?

Gayle: My 17 year old self. Never be afraid to be you.

Heather: Cool, very good advice there Gayle. Thank you so much for giving up your morning and sharing so many useful tips and hints with everyone. I really appreciate it Gayle.

Gayle: A pleasure Heather, it’s lovely to spend time with you.

Heather: Thank you.

Gayle: You’re welcome.

Mentions

http://www.numbernurses.com/
https://www.facebook.com/NumberNurses
@gayle_buchanan
http://nz.linkedin.com/in/gaylebuchanan
+gaylebuchanan
http://www.numbernurses.com/blog
http://www.workflowmax.com/
http://www.jobsheetapp.com/
http://www.Receipt-Bank.com
https://www.skillpath.com/
LinkedIn group Xero Bookkeepers (International)
Accountants’ Republic http://www.arepublic.co.nz/pages/home_accountants/about
Xerocon
- Australia: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/sydney/
- New Zealand: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/auckland/
- USA: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/san-francisco/
- UK: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/london/

· Contact Heather Smith

· http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/

· https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU/

· https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

· http://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau

View Details

Highlights of my conversation with Colin Hewitt Founder of Float CashFlow Forecasting Solution

· Insights into pitching and attracting the right venture capital

· The impact on the business of working with an investor

· Experience of being part of the Xero add-on eco-system

· Forming CodeBase a co-sharing space and the Edinburgh start-up scene

Note: After this interview was recorded Float won Xero Emerging Add-on Partner of the Year 2014

Transcript

Heather: Welcome Colin to Cloud stories. We’re so pleased to have you here.

Colin: Hi Heather, good to be here.

Heather: What’s the weather like in Edinburgh at the moment?

Colin: Well it’s a little bit cloudy at the moment. We had a good stretch probably about a week of good weather. It’s come to an end unfortunately today but we’re hoping that’s it’s just temporary.

Heather: Sensational. So Colin, I’ll start with a really hard question upfront.

Who is your favourite superhero and why?

Colin: My favourite superhero? Well, I’m not sure if you have the same superheroes as you do in Australia but I was always like a big Spiderman fan.

Heather: Sensational, that’s Scottish Spiderman version.

Colin: Scottish Spiderman, of course, yeah. I like the way he had a spider sense, you know, how the spider sense was tingling. That’s always a good line and sometimes I think have that as well.

Heather: The spider sense. That’s a good heading for a story about you. Sensational, thank you for that Colin.

Can you share with us what your business [Float] does Colin?

Colin: Yeah, so our business Float is a piece of software that we’ve designed to try to help business understand a bit more about their business. Really the main thing that we focus on is how much cash is in the business and what your bank account’s going to be at any point in the future. So we think that’s one of the most interesting or the more interesting parts of the business. You can get lots of insightful management reports but sometimes you just want to know, can I afford to pay for this and will there be enough cash at the end of the month to pay the salaries? That’s what we focus on at Float.

Why is it important to have a forecast or a cash management system in place?

Colin: Yeah, I mean the story of where we got Float from is I used to have a web design agency, and we were always asking that question of, you know, is there going to be enough to do X or Y, and having to go back into a spreadsheet was a painful process because it was always out of date and we always felt well, hold on I can answer your question in a couple of hours when I’ve put in all the figures. So yeah, having a forecast is really … is definitely important but certainly it can be a bit of a pain to manage if you don’t have it updating automatically.

Heather: I know that spreadsheet pain.

When did you start your business Colin? When did you start this business which is Float.

Colin: So Float … there was kind of an overlap period. We started as a side project while we were running the other business, so I think we started in about 2010. It was me and my co-founder. So he was working on it in his spare time. I had the idea, I had the spreadsheet and I said, “This is what I’m looking for,” and he thought it would take about three months. So four years later, we’re still working on it. It was a sort of gradual start but my co-founder came on board full time I think in around the beginning of 2011. Then I sold the web agency in the beginning of 2012. So we’ve probably had about just over two years being full time on Float.

Heather: Sensational.

Did you come from a numbers background?

Colin: Not at all. I actually flunked my Maths A level exam.

Heather: You didn’t need to share that with us but it was interesting you said coming from a web design business into numbers which a …

Colin: No, absolutely. I guess where I came from was I was the one who was having to deal with the numbers. We were using spreadsheets to run our business and I thought our spreadsheet was pretty darn good. I’d worked on it quite hard and it did everything that it needed to do. It just took so long and we actually started using cloud accounting software. We used a package initially called Free Agent which is great for our really small business, also another Edinburgh company, and then we just realised that it was amazing to have a lot of that stuff automated all of a sudden and in the cloud.

It took a lot of pressure off me but then it didn’t have the forecasting part that was really important to me, so we still had to use the spreadsheet for that. But yes, I wasn’t a numbers person naturally but I’d kind of come to this out of necessity. Then I found I kind of had a little bit of pleasure just about getting everything to match up to the penny but it probably took me a lot longer than it would for some other people. Yes, numbers weren’t my strong point. I had no background in accounting, and when we spoke to some accountants about forecasting and read about forecasting, it all seemed very complicated. We just thought, “Gosh, it’s got to be simpler than this.” Even some of the language, just clarifying, was a helpful starting point.

Yes, so we really approached it from a non-accounting point view and then tried to get back to some of the corporate language from accounting as we’ve gone on.

Heather: That’s an interesting perspective to take it from certainly. I’m a great believer that everyone can get their numbers, so it’s exciting to hear someone coming from a different side but sort of coming to the numbers party.

Where did you get the name Float from?

Colin: Good question. So what we really like … for me the concept of cash flow is like a wave, you know. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down and when we look at our cash flow graph, it is much more like a wave; we’d get high points in the month and then low points. It was always trying to make sure that the low points weren’t too low.

So we sort of have this nautical theme, you know, riding the waves of cash flow and making sure you don’t sink and all this kind of thing. We explored a lot of nautical themes, thinking about life boats, binoculars so you’re looking out over the horizon and all that kind of thing. So we really like the nautical concept of now beginning your way through the business. Yeah, we’d also liked concepts that were about flow, so it was flow, flow, flow. Then we sort of thought, “Float, that works, you know.” Then somebody pointed out that there is also a concept of cash float in a business, you know, you’ve got enough cash in a till to get you started at the beginning of the day. So it all came together pretty nicely for us.

Heather: Serendipity.

Colin: Yeah, we’ve played with the few different variants but Float was the one that stuck.

Heather: So what are the waves off coast of Edinburgh?

Colin: Well, unfortunately they’re not great for surfing because it’s sheltered but if you go up to the north of Scotland, I think you’ve got some of the best waves in the world. But yeah, for the Edinburghers’, it’s not a great … you don’t get a lot of great waves unfortunately.

Heather: So you weren’t inspired by looking at your window and seeing the floating boats coming?

Colin: Well, I also grew up with the North Coast of Ireland, so I was quite used to being in the sea.

Heather: Yeah, I think it’s always good to have a name that has that connotation attached to it.

Colin: When we started off the business, we actually had a lot other parts in the graphics. It was a lot more fun and we’ve kind of grown up a bit but we had light houses and sharks and all those kinds of stuff.

View the other Float logos here: http://blog.floatapp.com/2013/11/01/7-steps-to-our-new-logo.html

Heather: I went and had a look at those.

Colin: Did you? Yeah.

Heather: So if listeners are listening, go and have a look at floatapp.com blog. I think if you just do a search for logos, there’s a list of all different logos that you’ve got there.

So you’re based in Edinburgh, what’s the internet connection like there?

Colin: Yes, it’s great actually. Scotland seems to have … they’ve really invested in that. We’ve just moved into a new building with a lot of other start-ups called CodeBase in Edinburgh. It’s right next to the Edinburgh castle.

Heather: Oh wow.

Colin: We’ve got a fibre line directly into the building and we get about one hundred megabytes up and down which is incredible. It really makes a big difference just having that consistency.

Heather: That’s amazing. That’s really good. So you’ve moved into Codebase, is that an incubator or a sharing spacing?

Colin: Yeah, so it was interesting, I actually spent a bit of time over in Boston and went to see some incubators there, one called Techstars. Came back to Edinburgh and just said, “Look guys, there’s no point all being on our own. If we were in together, there’d be a lot of synergy, a lot more sharing of knowledge.” Just at that time a building came up and about fifteen start-ups all decided to move into it together. We worked on it, we painted it, we stripped out the carpet. It was a really good experience for the local sort of start-up community.

Heather: Sounds like a reality TV show.

Colin: Yeah, it was. It was a really interesting time just sort of getting the work together and the community forming. That was about two years ago. Then from that building, once there was enough start-ups in that building, we realised we could do with more space and we found this other building which is obviously huge. So there was lots of room to expand. There are about 300 people in here now.

Heather: Oh my goodness.

Colin: Yeah, they’re all working on sort of technology start-ups and a lot of shared talks at lunch time. It’s really … if you’ve got a problem with something or other, we can go and ask somebody else who’s an expert from another company. It’s great, we really love being in here.

Heather: Sensational. So if someone is in the start-up innovation space and they’re visiting Edinburgh, should they pop down into Codebase?

Colin: Definitely, yeah.

Heather: Is that a sort of okay. There’s an open invitation, arrive at the door?

Colin: Yeah, come and see us. You can come and work in our office if you need a desk for an afternoon. Yeah, Codebase is great. It’s really helped Edinburgh and sort of set us up as one of the main start-up hubs in Scotland. It makes such a difference to your business having all these around.

Heather: No, it certainly does. I liaise with some of the ones locally to us and the people in there say that it moves them ahead so much faster than if they were at home doing it, which is interesting. It’s the ideas, I guess, and the connections that you’re making and the inspiration that you’re gathering. Sensational. Now, I have to ask, while this interview is taking place, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games are on at the moment, have you travelled across to them?

Colin: You know what, I haven’t.

Heather: You’ve got to go. You’ve got to go.

Colin: I watched the opening ceremony on TV. That was probably the main investment that I’ve given in my time to the Commonwealth Games. Not that I don’t enjoy it but it’s just been such a busy couple of weeks. Yeah, and apparently it’s quite difficult to get tickets. Edinburgh and Glasgow are …

Heather: Just go to the town. Enjoy it.

Colin: Yeah, there’s a bit of a rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Heather: I know.

Colin: They’re about 40 minutes away. I think it’s always a sort of thing of which one should really be the capital city of Scotland. Maybe we’ll go over for a day just to soak up the vibe.

Heather: Soak it up.

Colin: Yeah.

Heather: I know that … I went to the Sydney Olympics Games which is slightly different but it was amazing. We just got the crappiest tickets to anything we could and we really, really enjoyed it but I digress. We enjoyed it and it created a lot of memories for us. It didn’t matter what it was, it was such a good vibe, and you can’t work all the time.

Colin: I will take your wisdom and put it in my diary.

Heather: Sensational. So Colin, late last year you received a significant investment of a £110,000 from Rob Dobson, the tech incubator. Now, Rob Dobson for the listeners, I hope I’m saying his name correctly, was the founder of a mobile phone software company. So with this investment;

What insights do you have to share with our listeners who may be keen on attracting a significant investment into their business? What insights do you have to share to them about that?

Colin: That was a good time for us but it was also a very hard time because we’d been pitching for a while, probably about a year of trying to raise some funding. The first piece of advice was that we were probably initially pitching to the wrong audience. The investors that we were pitching to weren’t software based, that was not where they made their money. I think it’s difficult to always understand the software business if that’s not your background. So, when we spoke to Rob, it was a completely different kettle of fish. He really understood it, he really got the prospect, and having run a business himself he understood the pain points. So definitely aligning the investor with the story of your own business is really important and will save you a lot of time.

The other thing would probably be making sure you tell a good story. Sometimes it’s easy to kind of play … I find you can play yourself down and certainly in the UK, we don’t like to brag. We can kind of say our … you know, “The business is okay and we’re doing all right.” Actually, you need to tell the story in a way that’s going to caught their imagination and make them want to be a part of the story. Yeah, I’m really thinking a lot … we’re actually going into another funding round pretty soon and just thinking about how do we tell the story? It is a great story, you know, it’s something we’ve put our lives into and we’ve got a real passion about.

It’s all about telling that story and really painting the picture of the possibilities of the future. We want to grow a great company and think this product can be wide reaching and really make a difference in the lives of business owners. So yeah, it’s all about putting that compelling story together so that investor can get excited about it as well.

What tips do you have about sharing your story? Do you work through a process of that? Do you work with someone to help you do that? Does it just come to you while you’re drinking?

Colin: Well, I think if you sit down and really think it through it terms of where did the idea come from, what really gets me excited about this, what’s my dream for this company, and you start really tapping into some of the bigger picture stuff first of all … especially for me, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details, you know, how you’re going to do something. Then that tends to become quite small picture, like we’re going to add this, we’re going to add this feature next month and then we’re going to hire one more member of staff, and then we’re … you’re thinking through a very specific plan whereas the story has to come from a much deeper place of the beginning of where the idea came from to the end of where you can go to. If that’s not an exciting enough story then it brings up a few questions as well.

One thing I find helpful is actually asking other people, to say, “How do you perceive the story of Float? What are you seeing?” Then sometimes they’ll say, “Well, I think this is incredible that you guys manage to go for so long without raising any money,” or “I think, you know, what you’ve achieved with a small team is amazing.” Then you sort of think, “Oh yes, that’s a good point, I didn’t realise that.” So having other people feed back to you what they perceive the story will help you understand things that are actually true but you’re missing or you’ve neglected to include.

Actually I had a breakfast with Rob yesterday and he was sort of saying, “I was getting prepared for this next funding rounds, here’s some of the ways that I see this, this product is innovative, the space is really hot right now and there’s all this activity happening, there’s more and more people moving into the market.” You know, just hearing him describe it makes you think, “Oh yeah, that’s true.” When you’re in it for four years, you sort of … it becomes you don’t get the same perspective, so having another perspective is really helpful.

Heather: Is Rob Scottish or is he American or is he something else?

Colin: Yes, he’s English.

Heather: Oh he’s English, okay.

Colin: So, unlike many good Englishmen, he’s moved to Edinburgh with his wife. There are so many people that I meet here who I ask them where they come and they say it was because of a woman or a man. So they moved up after he sold his business. You know there are some great schools up in Edinburgh and they have some family up here as well. They looked around and decided Edinburgh was the city. Yeah, it was good for us.

Heather: Sensational.

So Rob Dobson has joined your firm as a director. Apart from the money and the investment, how has he impacted … how has he becoming a director impacted Float?

Colin: I’m a big fan of Rob because I think … we spoke to a few other investor and they all have very different agendas. Rob manages to walk the line very well between pushing us and not interfering too much, so it doesn’t ever feel like we’re working for him but he really provides us sort of mentoring and just a constant push, you know, because sometimes it’s easy to kind of not have that when you’re running the business if you don’t have a board set up. So Rob really just pushes us, he was pushing me the other day about how much money we want to raise, how fast we want to grow.

It’s easy for me to think that the first step is about survival and the small picture, and he sort of lifts us out of that and says, “No, I think we can do more here. I think there’s more potential.” So Rob really brings a different perspective, especially because he’s been there before. He’s done it, he’s grown a business, he understands the process, and that gives him a lot of credibility in terms of if somebody else was saying that from he hasn’t been here before and done that, you don’t tend to listen to them the same way. Yeah.

Heather: Absolutely, yes. It’s interesting because the newspaper headline that ‘a small tech has received a large amount of funding’, you sometimes think, “Oh, that’s going to be good,” or “That’s going to be bad.” So it’s always good to get your insights in finding that right person and you obviously have done that and it’s working out really well for your business. When these people do it, the passion, which is their baby, their small business, is taken in another direction and it’s kind of heart breaking.

Colin: I think that we looked at another investor at the same time as Rob and it was much … you can tell that the incentives were much different for the other investor because he was looking for board fees and consultancy fees. He was going to take a very active role. It’s a very different place when they’re seeing it as a monthly income, whereas Rob’s never taken anything from the business. He just really wants to see it succeed.

Heather: That’s sensational. I hope we don’t get an influx of people going and harassing Rob after this. He sounds like the greatest man in the world.

Colin: Yeah, he’s a good investor. I’ve definitely introduced a few people to him. He seems to manage to see everybody. He picks the ones that he likes but we need more people like Rob up here. Hopefully there are a few Edinburgh companies that are going to be having a few big exits soon. We’ve got a great company called SkyScanner here that are doing quite well, and everybody is hoping that they’re going to get their IPO away soon and make few people some money so they can go back and invest it into the start-ups here too.

Heather: Sensational.

So your product, Float, integrates with Xero. What has your experience been as being a part of the Xero add on ecosystem?

Colin: Yeah, it’s been amazing really. When we started building Float for Free Agent, we felt Free Agent was the best piece of software out there. We felt that Xero was nice but it was a bit bland. At the time, there were roughly about the same number of users in the UK but what Xero managed to do in terms of growth over the last three or four years has just been incredible, and we realised that at some point we have to get this integration with Xero built. That actually took us about a year to do. So it was really a big investment of our time and resources to rethink how Float was going to work because there’s such a larger … Xero has a lot of larger companies. Free Agent is typically freelance … freelance one or two people businesses, so the volume of transactions is quite small.

We moved to Xero. It was the big investment of our time but we really recognised that they were the ones that were leading the way. The degree I think about Xero is the support that they give to us and the encouragement and saying … that feeling of, “We’re going to help promote you. We want this to work, the add-ons Market page, the add-on support team. Yeah, everything has been really good there, and just a willingness to promote the add-on, that was really a step up for us. We probably saw about a ten times increase when we launched for Xero in terms of signups. It was a big step up for us.

Heather: Sensational.

Did that affect your infrastructure then?

Colin: Yeah, it did actually because we launched it in September at Xerocon in London …

Heather: Oh, okay.

Colin: Last year and basically we soon realised that a lot of the larger companies weren’t able to … we weren’t able to get all the information displayed in time before the browser timed out, we were trying to load everything in at once. So we had to then take another couple of months to rebuild Float in order to allow for these much more significant companies, some turning over upwards of a million dollars a month. It was a big change for us, so we have to rethink the whole thing.

In terms of hosting, we host it on the cloud and it’s really … that wasn’t such a big issue. We can scale that really easily now which is such an advantage for cloud businesses that were … you know, before we might have to have upgraded our servers and changed everything around, and now that’s really not been the problem. It’s more just been about how we build the software and how we handle the page load speeds and all that kind of stuff.

So if Xero releases an update, say it releases an update next Sunday, do you have to do something in your backend or is that okay? It’s just goes with the flow?

Colin: Yeah, it’s fine. Nothing that Xero do on the actual Xero app should affect us because they have their API teams separately. It’s really only when they change something in the API that affects us. More often than not, the API is a little bit behind what the main office is doing, so we’ll only get access to certain data, you know, typically a couple of months later. There hasn’t been, touch wood, there hasn’t been problems yet in terms of Xero changing something, that we haven’t come across. Generally it has been changes for good so we get more and more information that we need.

Because that’s always been the thing with cash flow forecasting is it requires a vast amount of data to achieve it. That’s always been the thing, trying to get that in the right place.

Colin: Yeah, there are a lot of transactions that we need … we actually forecast right down to the transaction level. So we’re building up a whole report based on your transactions. It’s not a report that we can just pull out of Xero. We have to only start from scratch and build out ourselves, so we put in a lot of information. As I said, that’s a challenge.

I know you use Xero in your business; do you use any of the add-ons from the Xero eco space in your business?

Colin: Yeah, I’m a big fan of Receipt Bank. It’s something that … I met the guys a few times up in Edinburgh first actually. Didn’t really feel the need for a time, and I think I was chatting to Michael at Xerocon and just thought, “I’m going to give this a try,” and really haven’t looked back since then just in terms of processing all my expenses. Now, we’ve actually upgraded to the business version and we send our invoices as well. You know, it just saves me so much time. So we’re looking for a system … we’re looking for a complete system basically where we don’t have to have any much touch on the bookkeeping side of things. Receipt Bank is a big part of that and, you know, they’re improving all the time as well.

Heather: Yes, they’re definitely evolving. Was Michael wearing his kilt at Xerocon?

Michael: No, I haven’t seen that.

Heather: Haven’t you? Every time he wears the kilt, he wins a prize. That’s the theory.

Colin: Ah, I’ll have to bring my kilt over then to the Xerocon Australia.

Heather: Yes, you will. Oh my goodness, if you turn on a kilt, you definitely win a prize.

Colin: That’s it.

Heather: That’s the rule.

Colin: That’s the secret, okay.

Heather: Michael’s obviously not sharing that secret.

Colin: No, he hasn’t.

Heather: There are many photos of him in a kilt at Xerocon.

Colin: Okay. Yeah, so the other one we’ve been looking at is a new one that you probably won’t have heard of. It’s more in the UK but it’s called CreDec. What they do is they connect into … they set up a box payment system, so in Xero you can just mark all your bills as paid on a certain date and they’ll actually then set up a box run and it will just go automatically for you when you approve it. That’s quite a nice one to have when you go into your bank account and sort of do all the pay run and pay all the bills.

Heather: So it kind of creates a bank file does it and then extracts the income and pays … extracts the money and then pays it?

Colin: Yeah.

Heather: Okay, and what was the name of that again?

Colin: It’s called CreDec I think.

Heather: Okay, sensational.

Colin: They’re pretty new. They’re also Edinburgh based. I’m not sure if they’re just the UK at the moment but the concept of having that complete system is really great.

Heather: Yes, it is. I don’t recall them being … hearing of them in Australia but I’ll check and I’ll include them in the notes for show listeners.

So, in your business, can you share with us any other useful tools you actually use in your business that other listeners may benefit from?

Colin: As a product business, we feel that customer support and feedback are absolutely crucial. So we use a product called Intercom to do that. It’s a relatively new product but it’s absolutely fantastic in terms of it lets us send automatic messages to users, it does all our internal communications with the users, and we can send out newsletters. It makes building newsletters really easy as well and it also uses our support system, so anybody can write to us from within the app and we can assign that to one of our team and everyone can track their responses as well. It’s kind a like Zendesk from that point of view but also MailChimp.

Also it’s having the auto messages going on at fixed periods during the trial is a useful part of it as well. This can be in-app notifications that just pop up on the screen or they can be emails. It’s a great way just for us to say, “We pushed a new feature,” or “We’d love to get some feedback on this if you’re interested, get in touch,” that kind of thing. We really try to maintain a close relationship with our user and that’s a tool that I think is fantastic if you’re a product company. You’ve got a web based product. That’s one thing we use.

We use Evernote quite a bit just to track all our documents and keep little notes of things rather than trying to have a complex filing system where you have to dig around for a lot of things. Evernote seems to work pretty well. We use an app called Trello to do our product management and bug tracking. Have you heard of that one?

Heather: Yes.

Colin: It’s like a sort of card based thing, you can drive them around. That kind a keeps us organised. Those are kind of the main ones. I’m always looking for new tools to bring us up to the weekly integrating but it can be a bit of overkill as well.

Heather: Yes, there can be and sometimes you have go and test one for a while to see whether it’s actually going to fit in with what you’re doing. You can see how it fits in for other people but the way you’re doing it, you either have to perhaps change your methods or sometimes they just fit right in. I have one last question for you Colin.

Colin, what would you say to a 17 year old about to leave school who wants to be the next Colin Hewitt? He wants to found a tech space, he wants to found a tech company, he wants to attract funding, and he wants to live the dream?

Colin: Wow, there are a couple of things. One is you need to discover what it is your passionate about and don’t try and fit yourself into some mould that isn’t you because that’s just not going to work. I think for me, I find … at 17, I would have said, you know, “Go to university if you can. Go and get some experience,” because I didn’t have a clue at 17 that I wanted to do a tech company.

It was actually after university that I worked freelance for a bit and then came up with that concept. “Spend a little bit of time in America,” I think because there’s a really … there’s a real sort of positive can do attitude you can pick up over there which is actually where I get the courage and the idea to start my first company.

Heather: How old where you when you started your own company?

Colin: 21, 22, and it was just that can do Californian attitude, people saying, “Yes, go for it, why not.” I kind of came back to went, “Yeah.” That’s the attitude. It’s always about the level of passion and energy that you can muster because there will be hard times and you have to kind of be able to ride those out. The other thing I think is for us ending up with Float was something we found because we worked in a business. I’d say that it’s an evolution. If you do something you love then it’s often within that process you’ll actually find a real problem that needs solving.

That was the case for me but I think that often guys at 17, the apps that they come up with, the ideas that I’ve heard are all very much around something like you want to go out with your friends and you don’t know where they are so you want to be able to have an app that finds your friends. That’s just not … the chances of you solving that problem socially on a B-C level, is going to be really difficult. Whereas actually if you go and work in an industry, it’s much easier to solve a problem that there’s a niche of people that have rather than trying to be the next Twitter or Foursquare or something along this lines.

So I think at 17, you’re going to perceive a very different view of the world. Building up experience and working with good people and sort of learning what you like and what you don’t like about the way other businesses run is a good principle but also not to get sucked in. One of the things I was tempted to do is just go and get a job straight out of university with a big software company. I kind a resisted that and I’m glad I did because I think you can get sucked in for a quite long period of time when you get comfortable, and then you don’t want to try anything new. So if you’re not feeling it, sometimes holding off and just taking some time is a good option rather than jumping in.

Heather: Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us here Colin today. We really appreciate it. It was really interesting.

Colin: Yeah, pleasure.

Heather: If people want to get in touch with you, they can go to your website at floatapp.com or they can go and knock on the door of CodeBase. You’ll be there with a cup of tea waiting for them.

Colin: Yeah.

Heather: Thank you so much.

Colin: No worries Heather. Good to chat.

Mentions

· Float website http://floatapp.com

· Float logos http://blog.floatapp.com/2013/11/01/7-steps-to-our-new-logo.html

· CodeBase http://www.thisiscodebase.com

· Sky Scanner http://www.skyscanner.com

· Receipt Bank http://www.receipt-bank.com

· CreDec http://www.credec.com

· Intercom https://www.intercom.io

· Evernote https://evernote.com

· Trello https://trello.com

Contact Heather Smith

http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/

https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU/

https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

http://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau

View Details

Valerie Khoo

Valerie Khoo is National Director of the Australian Writers’ Centre, the country’s leading centre for writing courses. With campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Online, the centre has helped more than 17,000 students to get published, change careers, or write with confidence. Valerie is also an adviser and investor in start-ups. Her blog has consistently been named as one of the Top 20 Business Blogs in Australia.

Highlights of our conversation:

Identifying your passion and turning it into a business success
The process, development and delivery of online courses on the Open Learning platform
Breaking in and setting up the CRM Infusionsoft
Online tools Valerie Khoo uses in her business
The benefits of learning to write for a business person

Transcript

Heather: Hello, today I‘m speaking with Valerie Khoo, the National Director of the Australian Writer’s Centre. Hello Valerie, welcome to our show today.

Valerie : It’s great to be here Heather.

Heather: Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today. Really appreciate it, I’m really excited about talking with you today and I know from listening to you speak in so many other capacities that our listeners will really appreciate what you have to share with them today.

Valerie: Well I hope I can share a few insights that people can learn from.

Heather: Sensational, that’s exactly what we want to hear. So Valerie you run the Australian Writer’s Centre which is something that I’ve sort of been involved in on the side. You’ve currently got campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and online and you’ve helped more than 17,000 students which is amazing.

Can you give us an outline how your business operates and sort of what sort of courses it offers?

Valerie: Sure. As you mentioned we are the Australian Writer’s Centre. We actually just started off in Sydney but then we grew over time. Our first foray into another state was the centre in Melbourne that’s going really well. And then earlier this year we opened in Perth. We have another one in the wings I’ve just been checking out venues for that but that’s yet to be announced.

Heather: Anywhere close to me?

Valerie: It’s not official yet, I can’t say anything. You’ll have to stay tuned.

Heather: I hope it is.

Valerie: But we also have a very, very active and large online campus so to speak. About 40-45% of our students study online from all over Australia and the world. What we do is we offer writing courses and they are designed to help people; adults improve their writing, or get published, or change careers or write with just more confidence.

So they are in all different genres of writing and the beauty about our course is they’re pretty short. So you can just do a tester, you can do five weeks, or you can do a weekend course that sort of thing. The good thing is if you decide that you like it you can build on it. You can do the next course, and you can do the next course and they’re all relatively short so that it’s all in manageable bite size chunks.

We find that, as with most people these days’ time is a scarce commodity so we want to make sure that it’s something that people can do and commit to.

Heather: That’s interesting; I hadn’t realised they were around as being short courses that you have like this first course, then second course. You’re completely right. People get overwhelmed if it’s too much involved. I know that while they are short courses I’ve done two of them now. They’re packed with lots of insight and information.

Valerie: Yeah that’s one thing I’m really committed to because I’m a course junkie from way back and I’ve done many, many courses. I’m never without doing a course and one of the things I don’t’ like about some courses is when they treat you like a dummy or treat you like an idiot. They think you’re not capable of learning more and I do believe people are capable of learning more. I do believe that people want to learn more and have a thirst of that knowledge.

So I make sure that we do have a lot of information and really interesting things in our courses.

Heather: Absolutely, that’s sensational. I completely agree with that. People are really into content specific courses these days and it probably leads to a whole other conversation of whether people need to go out and do further education. Whether they should just tailor their life around content specific short courses like the ones you offer.

Why did you actually start your business?

Valerie: Well I started it because I was at a period in my life when I was thinking to myself I really want to do something different and I really want to make a difference in people’s lives. But I also needed to eat and pay the mortgage. I thought to myself well what am I passionate about? And as clichéd as this may sound it is the honest to God truth, what I love doing, what gets me excited is when I help people realise their potential. Or help people realize the steps that they can take to get what they really want in life or achieve what they really want as a goal. So I know that sounds little bit ra-ra.

Heather: No it doesn’t, I’ve seen you in action so I’m not going to disagree with that because I know that you do that and I know that you’re very good actually pinpointing people. I’m not speaking about myself but I’ve seen you in action pinpointing people and just extracting what bringing the cream to the top and saying go for it.

Valerie: I just love doing it and I love to see them go on that journey and nothing makes me happier. I thought well okay could I do? I didn’t want to be a life coach really or didn’t want to be a business coach. But I did have the technical skill; I was very experienced with writing, success as a writer. I thought well while I may not be able to help somebody climb Mount Everest because I would have no idea or win at Master Chef because you know I can’t cook. I could certainly help them with their writing goals.

That’s where it started. What’s interesting though is even though that’s where it started and I thought okay I can help people achieve their writing dreams because I can teach them that technical skill and I can provide courses that can equip them with the right skills, it actually spilled over a lot. Because even though it starts off as writing, some people discover writing and it actually changes their life because they can suddenly have a lifestyle that they wanted, or they can actually can earn more money than they thought than they would as a stay at home mom perhaps.

They get more confidence in doing something that they’ve always wanted to do. It’s just been the most rewarding experience so that’s where it started, me kind of trying to marry my passion with the technical skill if you know what I mean.

Heather: How long did it take you to formulate your passion?

Valerie: I think my passion has been with me for a long time. I kind of even remember I think I’ve just always felt this way because even my friends will tell you that I’m slightly annoying in that I’m the one when you catch up for drinks, or dinner or whatever I’m the one that says, “Of course you can do it.” Just do this, do this, do this- you know what I mean.

So I’m a little bit of a- they probably think I’m a little bit of a nagger even though I think I’m a cheer squad. So it’s something that I’ve always done for as long as I can remember. But it took me just a little while to articulate it and figure it out when I was thinking what I wanted to do for my business or my career.

Heather: It’s interesting that isn’t it? When you actually need to do it to monetise it, it’s like what’s my passion? It can take people a second to think about it.

Valerie: Yeah, I didn’t really know. I didn’t sort of identify it until I thought well what really fuels me and I sat down and made myself think about that and I realized that’s what I do to all my friends is what I love because I care about them and I want to see them succeed. It expanded from there.

Heather: Excellent. So can I ask you, what platform are the business online courses built on?

Valerie: Lots of different parts.

Heather: I grammatically phrased that really badly.

Valerie: We understood you so that’s okay. Lots of different ones but the main one that the online course specifically is built on is an application called Open Learning which is a fantastic company in Sydney. I’m fortunate enough to also be one of their advisors because I really believe in their product.

Basically it’s an online learning platform so like a learning management system which is designed to obviously deliver online courses but design for the students to have a great user experience that is similar to sort of Facebook. In the sense because so many people are used to that these days so then you can reply to each other, you can like each other’s comments, you can dip into different areas. Just like in Facebook you dip into different pages, or groups, or whatever. Yeah it’s called Open Learning.

Heather: Okay, thank you for sharing that with us. How long does it take you to go through the development of a course? Sort of what process do you go through?

Valerie: You mean from scratch?

Heather: I guess so, from the formulation or conception of a course.

Valerie: Forever.

Heather: Forever, okay.

Valerie: It takes a really long time to be honest. Because typically we start our courses in a classroom setting, in real life, in most cases. Because that is where you figure out what works and what doesn’t, you know what I mean. You get immediate reactions to certain things and you can see all the pennies drop, or you can see blank faces.

Typically we start off in a classroom experience and once we know that we’ve nailed it, and then we know that we can turn this into an online course. And that takes way more time than you think; it’s a lot of work.

Heather: I think it takes a long time in that I’ve tried to develop my own and it’s like, it’s life sapping. Wow.

Valerie: It takes a really long time because you need to make sure that every I is dotted and every T is crossed because you just never know when someone’s listening. They could be listening on the bus, or in front of the computer, or doing the laundry or whatever in the car. You’ve got to make sure that the information is conveyed not in a lecture style but almost in a conversational story telling style so that it’s easily absorbed and remembered.

It takes quite a while to change information into something that’s digestible like that because unlike a classroom course you can see people’s reactions on their faces. They can ask you a question immediately and you can fill in that particular gap. You have to think of every gap at first before you do an online course so that all those gaps are already filled and that any possible question is answered.

Of course people may still have their own other questions and certainly in our course they have the opportunity to ask them but in the first instance you need to make sure that as much as possible is covered. And so it’s not only the creation and the structure, and the design of the course, it’s then also the creation of the actual course materials. The MP3s, the handouts, the online delivery all that kind of stuff. So yeah a long time.

Heather: It’s interesting to hear you say that because you didn’t have a teacher’s background did you?

Valerie: But I lectured at Sydney University at both within the faculty of Economics but also I did for years I was a teacher at the Centre for Continuing Education at Sydney University.

Heather: That gives you an understanding of the course development from a teacher’s perspective. Because I always kind of wondered whether you had teachers in there just guiding on that structure of things rather than coming along as the expert and applying it.

Valerie: I had that background for oh gosh, I was lecture at Sydney Uni more than 20 years ago.

Heather: So what’s the most popular course that you offer these days?

Valerie: I would say that creative writing is currently very popular. They all go in peaks and troughs of course depending on what’s fashionable at the time. Creative writing is very popular and is a perennially popular one because it is a great first step for people who think they might be interested in writing. They’re not sure but they love reading or they kind of, in the back of their mind think that they love to write a novel one day. They just love telling stories.

That’s a good one because then people get a taste for what it’s like in a slightly more structured environment so then they kind of see yeah that structure actually helps my writing. And I might be taking the next step.

Heather: It’s interesting seeing people because I’m in one of your community groups and seeing people, how they kind of need to be prodded along by people. My goal posts and settings, and people are encouraged and motivated by other people pushing them along or other people doing what they’re doing. That is interesting.

Valerie: Definitely, it’s inspiring to see.

Heather: It’s very inspiring. The Writer’s Centre has had so much success which has been so impressive for what you’ve done. I understand you use a product called Infusionsoft, do you still use that product?

Valerie: I do.

Heather: Okay, so Infusionsoft for those who are listening is a sales and marketing automation software for small business that combines CRM, email marketing and ecommerce. That was a pre-prepared question because I thought I’ll go on the website and make sure I get everything that it does.

Can you give listeners a bit of an insight about this Infusionsoft product and how you’re using it, and what it’s done for your business?

Valerie: So basically as you mentioned Infusionsoft is a cloud based application that uses a combination of a CRM but also has an email marketing function. It has kind of like ten bazillion features of which I’m using maybe five, not quite.

We are using quite a few of the features but there are many more that suit different types of industries and businesses which just wouldn’t be relevant for my particular business. So we have only been using that since around January 2014. I had actually explored it a few years ago and when I was exploring similar applications to decide which one to use and I decided against it at the time.

I wasn’t impressed with it at the time to be honest. But over the last sort of year or prior to moving to it, quite a few people who I respect said that they had started using it and that they were finding it good. I thought it was time to give it a second look and so I did a lot of research again and decided to give it a second look. And I ended up deciding to give it a second go.

It’s worked out well so far, I’m glad we made the decision to move to it. We were on a different application before that and so what it does is that it powers back end if you know what I mean. That means the back end when you book into a course, or so in terms of communication to students and perspective students that’s done by Infusionsoft.

In some cases you may fill in some web forms and that’s done by Infusionsoft. The delivery of the courses is not done by Infusionsoft as I mentioned that’s done through Open Learning. But essentially it powers our back end. The booking system, and the communication system, and the database system.

Heather: No, it sounds very impressive. It seems to sound like you have to set up a huge number of email templates. People have told me about it sort of responsive to everyone’s reaction to different ways to the way that they react and what they’re interested in.

Valerie: You can make it really complex where you have a bazillion email templates because you may have really complex sort of decision trees. If someone clicks on this then they get this email, if they do not click on this than they get this email. If they do not click on this after five days then they get an email.

But we haven’t actually gone to that level of complexity. As is its simpler than that. At this stage, however there is potential for you to create really complex journeys if you want to.

Heather: Yeah absolutely. One of the things that’s always impressed me about you is I know how thorough you are about researching something. You’re actually using something I know a huge amount of researchers got into that product.

Valerie: Yes.

Heather: And it does seem to be that more businesses in Australia are exploring that product and seeing good results. As with anything it needs to be properly implemented so I’m sure that took you a bit of time and there are a few experts out there who do the implementation. Because you did a course didn’t you or something like that, or training sessions with them.

Valerie: I think I was really lucky in the sense that typically what I found, I’ve meet many Infusionsoft users now and typically what I have found is that a huge number of them like almost all of them who aren’t Infusionsoft consultants. Almost all of the non-consultants, just like normal businesses say yeah I had it for six months or a year and I only did one campaign. Then I finally decided to get into it and oh my God it blew my mind and I realized I could have been saving so much time over the last year.

So people seem to get it because they realize it’s a good idea but they seem to step very slowly into it because it can seem kind of overwhelming and daunting. However we were in this unique situation where we decided it’s going to start in January. And our quietest time of year is the period between Christmas and New Year.

Heather: Really that’s surprising.

Valerie: For obvious reasons you know. Everyone’s just on holidays in Christmas and New Year.

Heather: And not being creative.

Valerie: They start on January 1 their New Year’s resolutions but Christmas and New Year they’re busy eating, drinking. We had no choice but to create the entire business of Infusionsoft between Christmas and New Year.

Heather: Of course no choice whatsoever, yes.

Valerie: I had no Christmas break. Every working hour I was creating Infusionsoft campaigns. I was kind of lucky in the sense that I went bang straight into it, very in depth and therefore got to learn it very quickly. I didn’t do that stepped approach so I got to understand what its capabilities in a very short concentrated space of time.

Yeah it was an interesting period.

Heather: It’s interesting to hear you like you’re a national director of a big organisation with numerous employees and you actually say I went in, I got into the detail, I know how to do it. So it’s always one of those things I like I always wonder in business, I get very into the detail. I’m like maybe I should be pulling back from the detail. It’s interesting to hear you say that you really got into the detail of it.

Valerie: Probably that’s because I have a curiosity.

Heather: Yeah.

Valerie: Probably because I just am a little bit geeky and I kind of want to know stuff. Once I know a certain level and once I know I have the staff member who knows way more than me about this, I step back and I let it go.

But you know it was new to every staff member at that time so we were all starting at ground zero. We all had to learn it.

Heather: They all like spending their Christmas with you, hulking down on working with Infusionsoft.

Valerie: Not quite. We didn’t to make the Christmas and New Year but as soon as one or I think two January we were straight into it. But you were referring to a course I didn’t actually go to a course. I went to a conference run by Infusionsoft in Phoenix, Arizona which interestingly wasn’t all about the platform itself.

Only about 30% of the sessions were platform specific, the rest was about marketing and growing a business.

Heather: Interesting, that’s interesting that they do that. Cool.

Okay I’m sure some of our listeners will find that product interesting if they’re not already using it. Go off and explore that.

In your business you’ve mentioned that you have a tendency to be a bit geeky and curious. What other online tools do you use in your business that you think your listeners might benefit from?

Valerie: Cloud File storage changed my life. So it’s really normal now but I’ve been using it for years and years. The fact that I can be on any device in any city, well any of my devices. Because I spend a lot of time in between Sydney and Melbourne and here I have an office in Sydney but I have a home in Sydney. And then I have an office in Melbourne and a home in Melbourne.

There’s already four places that I got devices that I spend time to work. I needed from years ago I wanted something to liberate me from the desk, from the single computer and so the first thing I discovered which I still love is SugarSync which is cloud file syncing application.

Of course similar things can be done with Google Drive, and Dropbox, and Cubby and I use all of them actually for different reasons. For me I love SugarSync the best. But because they all have slightly different limitations and parameters, Sugar Sync it doesn’t do everything. It doesn’t work with a server whereas Cubby works with a server and Google Drive works with server.

Dropbox is a little bit annoying because you have to put everything in the Dropbox. So yeah. I think that cloud file sharing services just liberates you so that you can actually work from anywhere with internet.

Heather: Absolutely, they are amazing. Amazing tools.

When you have SugarSync can you just go and like search and it will just pull up the document you’re searching for?

Valerie: You have it locally on your computer that’s the bit that I love as well. Even if you do it and you change it locally on your Macbook, on your laptop it will sync to the cloud and this cloud will then sync to every other device where it’s also stored locally.

You can just base it in the cloud if you want but I like having my files locally on whatever I’m working on.

Heather: Yeah absolutely. I think it’s also quicker if you do that. Just push it to the cloud but if you’re using it, if you can pull it back down and work on it, and then push it back up into the cloud.

Valerie: Definitely.

Heather: I think it all comes down to sometimes the speed of the internet connection. I know sometimes we see you frustrated by your internet connection in certain areas of Australia.

Valerie: Yes.

Heather: So having that versatility is beneficial. Do you use cloud accounting?

Valerie: That’s definitely been a game changer to have cloud accounting. I remember the days when I just had to go to this particular computer in the office. I could only use that computer because that’s where the accounting license was on. Therefore I had to drive in at specific times to do it whereas with cloud accounting you can do it anywhere, from wherever you want and it’s so easy to transfer the files, or to look it up from a whole other country. I love that.

The other one it’s not about business but I love it to pieces which is sort of cloud based is two things the Foxtel TV guide, I love it to pieces because I can be in Las Vegas and go oh my god I got to tape The Good Wife or whatever. I can be in my hotel room in Las Vegas because I’ve got two Foxtel boxes. I can choose which room even to tape it.

Heather: Really. So you set it up and you can set it up to record and you come home and you’ve got all your recording sitting there.

Valerie; I love the Foxtel app.

Heather: Well that’s cool and is it like on your iPhone?

Valerie: Your iPhone or your iPad. You can be having a conversation with somebody. Oh have you seen that documentary about whatever and you can search for it on the Foxtel app. And when you find it you can just tape it and choose to tape it in my bedroom, or in lounge room.

Heather: Excellent. That’s a great share, I’m sure people can record some business shows on their using that as well.

Many of our listeners probably come from a business background so what course does the Australian Writer’s Centre offer that you recommend to a business person interested in writing?

Valerie: it depends on what they want to write. But typically most business owners I find are keen to do a couple of things. Potentially write a blog in order to build their profile but also to write for the industry publications, or even consumer publications to build their profile.

One course that I think is useful is the course Magazine and Newspaper writing because even if you don’t necessarily want to write for a newspaper, what it teaches you is a great structure for any article that can translate to a blog post but is ideal for writing articles for magazines. That’s a great way to build your profile when you have a column or a regular article placement in your industry magazine.

One of the things it also teaches you is when you understand how journalists want to write the magazine article and if you’re on the other side of the fence like you’re being interviewed you can also help them with the kind of content that’s going to make the magazine article sound good if you know what I mean.

Heather: Absolutely. That’s actually been an interesting phenomena that I’ve been realising lately in that I did one of those courses and got a lot of blog posts out there and they don’t take a long time to write it but then you see a journalist looking for a source to talk about X, Y, Zed and you know what the key things are to tell them, to entice them to use you. And then you’re like well I didn’t have to write the article, I got an article in Sydney Morning Herald and I’m quoted as the expert and it took maybe ten minutes work.

Valerie: That’s right.

Heather: You do learn that structure from these are the key thing that I should be highlighting and this is a way to phrase a sentence, etcetera. Whereas sometimes you speak to people and they don’t get to that point quickly.

Valerie: Yeah exactly right.

Heather: That’s really good. Now one of the questions I wanted to ask of you was, you had been involved with a lot of podcasts and I know you currently, what’s the name of it. You’re doing a writer’s podcast with Alison.

Valerie: Yeah it’s called So You Want to be a Writer and it’s with Alison Tate.

Heather: Yes, and it was recently featured on the best new podcasts or new featured podcasts on iTunes is that correct.

Valerie: Yeah new and noteworthy.

Heather: New and noteworthy podcast that’s very good. So what suggestions do you have for me since starting up a new podcast.

Valerie: Do something that you’re passionate about. Clearly your passion is about various concepts to do with cloud, and productivity that can be enhanced as a result of cloud which I think is a wonderful niche. I think cloud is a game changer. People often think cloud and they just think cloud accounting but there are so many applications that are really useful in the cloud.

I probably use even another 20 but they’re such a normal part of my life I don’t even think, I’m going to use the cloud you know what I mean.

Heather: I think that’s right. People turn to me and go, well how do you manage to get so much done? It’s like well I just sort of activate this, and I activate that and it’s all done. But yeah it does make life easier, it’s quite funny. I did a productivity session in a meeting business group the other day and the outcome of the productivity session was sharing calendars with your children to get them to do the work as well.

But yeah it was kind of interesting how you do adopt a lot of them without even thinking about it.

Valerie: Yeah absolutely.

Heather: So you’ve told us the future for Australian Writer’s Centre, you’re perhaps looking at having another location here in Australia. IS there anything else in the future for the Australian Writers Centre?

Valerie: Well we definitely will be transforming more of our business writing courses online. Because we find that there’s a real need for people to access that information wherever they are. They can’t necessarily take a day off work to come to a cause, a business writing course, because these are typically one day courses during the day in a week. And also if we can transform them into online courses which are modularised, people can do two hours each and they might be able to do two hours on Wednesday, or two hours on Friday.

They didn’t have to do it in a whole chunk of time. That’s definitely one of the next things on our agenda. Quite a few people have asked for various courses to be transformed online and we’re definitely looking into that. As I mentioned it’s a very long and involved process. We just need to decide in which order we’re going to deliver them.

Heather: Yeah absolutely. So Valerie one last question for you. What advice would you have for your 17 year old self?

Valerie: Oh my goodness what a good question. Okay that’s quite a hard one. My 17 year old self, I would say- that’s a really tough one.

I would say that if it was specifically to me I would say that, see I was very lucky in that even at 17 I truly believed that anything was possible. But what I didn’t know was that sometimes in life things, circumstances, people will disappoint you. Will let you down.

That’s okay. Don’t let it in the way of you or don’t let it get you down even if they let you down. Just accept that that’s part of life. It may not have been personal, or anything like that. It’s just going to happen throughout life. But don’t even sort of try and view it as a letdown just kind of go okay, and move on. Don’t take it to heart.

I don’t want to end on a negative thing though.

Heather: Because I asked that question because I have a 17 year old child myself and so I’m asking that question of everyone sort of thinking that he’s going out into the world. It’s kind of what does he need to know or how is he going to quickly get to where he needs to get to. I know you’re a CPA, would you have still gone down that route?

Valerie: What do you mean would I have still gone down-

Heather: Because you went and did accounting initially didn’t you?

Valerie: Yeah, no I still would have taken the route that I’ve taken now. Because I always fundamentally believed in doing what you love. I just happen to love writing more. I would have definitely gone down this path anyway because it was just what was going to be nagging at me. Like I would have always felt that thing inside me, that itch that I had to scratch and I knew I had to go down this path in a sense.

But if I had to I would just have sort of changed it around a bit. If I had to give advice to your 17 year old son as opposed to my 17 year old self I would probably say A, anything truly is possible if you put your mind to it. B, just wanting it isn’t enough though. You need to work out the steps you need to take to get there. It’s not going to be handed to you on a platter but it is in your reach and once you work out the steps you need to take to get there, you just need to take them.

It’s as simple as that and once you take them if you’re serious about it, you will get whatever it is that you want in life.

Heather: Absolutely. On that very positive note thank you so much Valerie for sharing your time with listeners today. I know that you’ve always been such an inspiration to me and I’ve benefitted so much from the number of courses that I have done through the Australia Writer’s Centre.

I look forward to more success from you and with the Australian Writers Centre growing and taking over the world, improving English one course at a time. Thank you very much.

Valerie: It’s been my pleasure. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed talking to you Heather.

Heather: Sensational.

Mentions

· Infusionsoft : http://www.infusionsoft.com @Infusionsoft
· SugarSync https://www.sugarsync.com @sugarsync
· Foxtel TV guide
· Google Drive https://drive.google.com
· Dropbox https://db.tt/PxaW85E @Dropbox
· Cubby https://www.cubby.com @Cubby
· Cloud File https://shellycloud.com/documentation/cloudfile @ShellyCloud
· Open Learning https://www.openlearning.com @openlrning
· Facebook https://www.facebook.com @FaceBook

Contact Valerie Khoo

Australian Writers’ Centre http://www.writerscentre.com.au

https://twitter.com/ValerieKhoo

https://twitter.com/WritersCentreAU

Contact Heather Smith

http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/

https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU/

https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU

http://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau

Accounting Apps | Accounting Technology | Modern Practice: Recent Episodes

Heather Smith | CAANZ | ACCA | Xero | QBO

ItsAllAboutTheView Greg’s version of Stop and Smell the Roses. You’ve got to enjoy what you do and life.