Accounting Apps Podcast | Accounting Technology | formerly Cloud Stories (Heather Smith | Accountant & Storyteller)
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| 20 Dec 2015 | Providing Businesses With a 1️⃣ Stop Shop| Jamie Davison | 00:28:02 | |
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. | |||
| 28 Oct 2020 | Building and Running a Highly Engaged Community 👥| Catherine Walker aka OG | 00:56:08 | |
Today I’m speaking with Catherine Walker Community Manager at Xero In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 03 Sep 2020 | Microsoft SharePoint 🖥️ for Accountants and Bookkeepers| David Jackson | 02:07:53 | |
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. If you are keen to learn more about the Accounting Apps sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter, by visiting http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 14 Feb 2016 | Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses 😎 | Bernadette Schwerdt | 00:48:54 | |
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:
Resources mentioned in this interview Connect with Bernadette Schwerdt
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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| 08 Feb 2016 | Straightforward Communication 💬 Can Improve the Everyone's Bottom Line 📄 | Geni Whitehouse | 00:55:47 | |
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 Contact Geni Whitehouse at: | |||
| 04 Sep 2015 | Creating a 👣 Pathway for Accountants to Embrace the Modern Accounting Practice | Guy Pearson | 01:07:30 | |
Highlights of my conversation with Guy Pearson
Questions
Resources 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
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| 23 Apr 2019 | Reducing Fraud ⚠️ and Improving Supplier Relationships Through Digital Approval Workflows | Martin Peirce | 00:38:48 | |
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/ | |||
| 20 Feb 2015 | Minimising Costs and Complexities Associated With Foreign Currency Payments 💰 With TransferMate | Barry Dowling | 00:40:15 | |
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. Mentions · TransferMate Global Payments - http://www.TransferMate.com/ · Fintech - http://www.fintechinnovationlab.com/ · Xero - https://www.xero.com/ Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter (34.9% open rate – double industry averages) Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/ (over 1300 downloads) 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 (over 173 000 views, over 1000 subscribers) Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU (over 8600 followers) Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU (148 likes) Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU (over 2100 connections) Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts(over 55 000 views)
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| 13 Oct 2021 | Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz | October 21 | 00:34:30 | |
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’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 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 | |||
| 23 Jan 2020 | Discover the Secret Sauce to Writing Killer Content: 🔝 10 Tips | Brad Ewin | 00:40:58 | |
Brad Ewin from GoCardless shares his Top Ten Tips for Writing Better Content.
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. | |||
| 20 May 2020 | 📍Common Traits of Successful Modern Accountants and Bookkeepers | Luis Sanchez | 00:45:41 | |
Today I’m speaking with Luis Sanchez, General Manager of Receipt Bank Australia In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 30 Nov 2015 | 8️⃣ Key Business Disciplines for Success | Peter Vessenes | 01:00:12 | |
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- | |||
| 17 Mar 2021 | How to double your clients' profits in 5 🖐easy steps | Aynsley Damery | 01:02:32 | |
Today I’m speaking with Aynsley Damery Founder and CEO of Clarity In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 05 Sep 2017 | 🤝 Benefits of Teaming up With Cloud Integrators | Helen Goodman | 00:48:48 | |
Today I’m speaking with Helen Goodman, of Invisible Business Solutions. In this episode, we talk about . . . Discussion:
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/ | |||
| 17 Oct 2016 | Gen-Y Accountant Interested in Challenging the Flexibility 🤸 of the Cloud | Andrew Van de Beek | 01:07:03 | |
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.
Subscribe to Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 | |||
| 17 Feb 2021 | Never talk directly to clients about Cash Flow, and other secrets from the Cash Flow Queen | Martha Yasso | 00:58:46 | |
Today I’m speaking with Martha Yasso, Principal of Yasso Books. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 21 Aug 2020 | Building a 🎯 Multi-Disciplinary Professional Services Business | John Knight | 00:49:28 | |
Today I’m speaking with John Knight, Founder and MD of businessDepot In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 22 Oct 2023 | From Pioneers to Partners: A 20 Years Journey with NetSuite | Don McLean | 00:32:04 | |
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 . . . 1. Don McLean's background and history with NetSuite over 20 years 2. The benefits of NetSuite's multi-tenant architecture and how it cuts costs 3. How NetSuite enhances business productivity through integration and visibility 4. Triggers for when a small business should consider an ERP solution like NetSuite 5. The partnership between PKF and NetSuite and how they work with customers 6. A case study of how NetSuite improved Thermomix's profits and efficiencies 7. Topics discussed at Suiteworld 2022 like AI, benchmarking, and productivity tools 8. 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/ | |||
| 16 Jun 2021 | Delivering Practice Management solutions 🚀 for professional services | Celso Pinto | 00:30:10 | |
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.
Stay up-to-date and subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM Contact details for Pixie
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| 30 Aug 2018 | An Accounting Technologist Embracing Symbiotic Relationships 👥 with Accounting Apps | Clayton Oates | 00:56:51 | |
Clayton Oates is an Accounting Technologist | Small Business Enthusiast | Encourager | Educator | Story Teller | Each Day Appreciator 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 | |||
| 17 May 2023 | A Rising Cornish Tide Raises All Ships⛵ | Paul Miller | 00:21:05 | |
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: Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU | |||
| 28 Feb 2023 | 🎙️Live from the Brisbane Xero Roadshow 2023 | 00:58:51 | |
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.
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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| 25 Nov 2020 | A Restaurant Solutionist Creating Magical ✨ Client Experiences | Kristen Nies Ciraldo | 00:54:10 | |
Today I’m speaking with Kristen Nies Ciraldo, Cloud Advisor and Restaurant Solutionist of the Friday Guide. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 26 Aug 2020 | ☁️A Cloud Integrator for the Construction Industry | Robert Hudman | 00:42:35 | |
Today I’m speaking with Robert Hudman Managing Director of Knight Solutions In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 24 May 2023 | 🔍The three-step approach to software implementation | Graeme Tennick | 00:36:30 | |
Interview with Graeme Tennick, Chief Impact Officer of Tennick Accountants
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.
Connect with me here: Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU Medium: https://heathersmithau.medium.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ANISEConsulting/podcasts
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| 11 Sep 2017 | A Modern Chartered Accountant Focused 🔎 on eCommerce | Tracey Newman | 00:32:40 | |
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. Discussion
********** Connect with Tracey Newman at: W: http://www.cloudcounting.com.au/ F: https://www.facebook.com/cloudcountingptyltd | |||
| 30 Jun 2021 | 6️⃣ Steps to Transform to a Digitally-Enabled and Sustainability-Focused Accountancy Services Firm | 00:23:17 | |
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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| 09 Apr 2020 | How to Create a 🏗️ Scalable Modern Firm that Can Sell | Ryan Lazanis | 00:47:21 | |
Today I’m speaking with Ryan Lazanis Founder of Future Firm. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 31 May 2023 | The Storyteller📜 is the Most Powerful Person in the World | Paul Dunn | 00:50:31 | |
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 http://accountingapps.io/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU Medium: https://heathersmithau.medium.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ANISEConsulting/podcasts
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| 07 Aug 2024 | Accounting Technology Updates: 🌐 Bridging the Technology Learning Gap, Zoho Expansion, the Evolving Payroll Landscape, and More | 01:02:05 | |
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:
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 | |||
| 18 Oct 2016 | An English Lit Grad 👩🎓Thriving in a Tech World and Helping Businesses Automate Bookkeeping | Sophie Hossack | 00:40:20 | |
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 Website: https://www.receipt-bank.com/ Subscribe to Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 | |||
| 27 May 2020 | 🔐 Unlocking Your Untapped Capacity Using Cloud Applications | Amy Holdsworth | 00:56:57 | |
Today I’m speaking with Amy Holdsworth, CEO & Founder of Clarity Street In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 23 Sep 2020 | 🏗️ Building Communities, Influencer Marketing and Customer Experience 2.0 | Alison Ball | 01:04:19 | |
Today I’m speaking with Alison Ball Director of Marketing and Influencer Strategy for Liscio, Inc. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 30 May 2016 | 👣 A Trailblazer Helping Modern Firms to Grow, Embrace Change and Drive Profitability | Wayne Schmidt | 01:10:56 | |
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: In this episode I talk to Wayne about:
Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview
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. | |||
| 11 Aug 2014 | Time Tracking ⏱️, Inbox Zero, Internal Collaboration Tools | Jared Armstrong | 00:46:50 | |
Highlights of my conversation with Jared Armstrong
Mentions
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. 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 | |||
| 10 Apr 2023 | The Retirement of WorkFlowMax 🌄 | What You Need to Know | 00:49:32 | |
Xero have announced that they have decided to retire WorkflowMax (WFM) on 26 June 2024. 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. 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
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.
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| 06 Dec 2023 | Live from Sydney Accounting and Business Expo | 00:46:10 | |
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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| 24 Mar 2021 | Building a reconciliation solution for eCommerce businesses✅ | Shopify Stripe Square | Michael Astreiko | 00:46:35 | |
Today I’m speaking with Michael Astreiko CEO of Synder. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 02 Sep 2020 | How to Build Culture While Working Remotely 👨💻 | Brian Walsh | 01:38:40 | |
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 . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 14 Feb 2016 | 📍 The Ultimate Guide to Delivering Quality Xero Training | Lisa Martin | 01:02:27 | |
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:
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 Connect with Lisa Martin
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. | |||
| 13 Nov 2024 | Accounting Tech Updates 🖥️ Third QTR '24 | 01:14:45 | |
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. BLOG : https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/technology/20731-latest-tech-updates-for-the-accounting-space 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 | |||
| 28 Jun 2021 | Makers 🆚 Managers: The Battle Over Remote Work | Postcard | 00:08:23 | |
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. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 22 Sep 2021 | Virtual Cards: The Future📡 of SMB Payments| Daniel Kniaz | 00:41:22 | |
Today I’m speaking with Daniel Kniaz, CEO and Founder of DiviPay In this episode, we talk about . . .
I have a strategic partnership and work with the team at Divipay. Read more here http://EndorsementDisclosure.com. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 29 Jan 2016 | 🎯 Cloud Accounting Podcast Host Shares Recommended Accounting Apps 🚨| Blake Oliver | 01:35:57 | |
In this episode Blake Oliver and I discuss his I loved this episode! Connect with @BlakeTOliver & @HeatherSmithAU on twitter and let us know if you agree. Or visit http://www.blakeoliver.com/ and 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. | |||
| 16 Oct 2024 | ⚙️ How AI-Driven Efficiency Is Revolutionising Business Processes | James Chisham | 00:21:53 | |
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 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:
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 | |||
| 10 Jun 2020 | Accounting World Domination 🌏 | Liz Mason | 00:50:09 | |
Today I’m speaking with Liz Mason, CEO + Founder of multiple businesses including High Rock. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 15 Aug 2014 | Coffee With Rod Drury ☕ Inspired the Birth of Re-Leased: Residential Property Management and Trust Accounting | Tom Wallace | 00:38:47 | |
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: http://2012.redjungle.com/xero
Contact Tom Wallace at Contact Heather Smith at | |||
| 31 May 2015 | Building 🏗️ a UK Modern Cloud Accounting Practice | Alex Falcon Huerta | 00:30:14 | |
Highlights of my conversation with Alex Falcon Huerta founder of Soaring Falcon Accountancy
Mentions included :
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| 30 Mar 2021 | 📩2020 Accounting Apps Newsletter Insights | 00:21:43 | |
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/ | |||
| 27 Aug 2015 | Partnering With an IT 👨💻 specialist | Sonia Cuff | 00:49:02 | |
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
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| 25 Jul 2018 | How To Get Clients Wanting You To Increase Their Fees 🆙 | James Ashford | 00:58:10 | |
James works with firms of accountants from around the world, helping them to become more profitable and maximize the value of their clients
Overview
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesashford/ | |||
| 30 Oct 2024 | Empowering Customers through AI Innovations 🤖 | Brian Chess | 00:24:18 | |
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:
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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| 28 Jul 2015 | Employee Rostering Solution Leading to Improved Business Culture 💯 | Steven Shelley | 00:42:27 | |
Highlights of my conversation with Steven Shelley
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/ | |||
| 27 Sep 2023 | The Magic Change Management Playbook | Weel | 00:44:51 | |
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 . . .
Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ Read more about Weel here : https://letsweel.com
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| 18 Aug 2021 | Do Accounting Firms need an office🏢 anymore? | 01:00:00 | |
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 During the session we discuss:
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 | |||
| 13 Sep 2023 | Prioritising User Voice to Drive Product Development at Dext | Sabby Gill | 00:26:05 | |
Today I’m speaking with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/
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| 14 Dec 2022 | 🧬Partnership Masterclass: You no longer have to grow alone |Bryan Williams | 00:36:12 | |
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.
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. | |||
| 11 Jul 2024 | Scaling to 7 Figure: 💡Enhancing Your Fractional CFO Services | Michael King | 00:39:53 | |
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: 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 | |||
| 26 Oct 2023 | Scaling a Boho Bridal Gown Business with NetSuite | Sarah Rynja | 00:22:13 | |
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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| 16 Apr 2016 | Online Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers 🖥️ | Matt Wilkinson | 00:53:39 | |
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: 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:
5 Common mistakes accountants and bookkeepers make on their website
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 Connect with Matt Wilkinson 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. | |||
| 10 Aug 2015 | 🔝 Time Jump to October 2016 for a Special Interview | Sophie Hossack | 00:40:20 | |
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.
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| 27 Feb 2020 | Building a Practice Workflow Solution That Stops Client Work Falling Through the Cracks️ 🌀 | David Cristello | 00:52:50 | |
Today I am speaking with David Cristello CEO and Founder from JetPack Workflow In this episode, we talk about . . .
Sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter here: https://HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 01 May 2016 | The Importance of Processes and Collaboration⚙️ in Building a Modern Practice | Greg Tuckwell | 00:36:19 | |
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: Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. In this episode I talk to Greg about:
Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview Connect with 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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| 21 Dec 2022 | Why this job costing solution comes with branded baby swag 🧦| Tony Harcourt | 00:37:16 | |
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:
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. | |||
| 19 Jun 2024 | How to protect 🛡️ your business with stronger financial controls | ApprovalMax + Xero | 00:56:12 | |
Financial controls enable accountable growth by distributing responsibility across teams… Today I’m speaking with:
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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| 07 Jun 2023 | Building Bridges between Accounting Platforms and Google Spreadsheets | Andrey Kustarnikov | 00:19:38 | |
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: Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU | |||
| 13 Dec 2023 | Solving the Multi-Entity Problem: The Story Behind Translucent | Michael Wood | 00:59:20 | |
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 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. | |||
| 29 Nov 2023 | MediaPhones to Accounting Dashboards to Digital Marketplaces : The Design Journey of Xero’s Co-Founder | Philip Fierlinger | 01:02:40 | |
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 . . .
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. | |||
| 06 Mar 2020 | A Serial Entrepreneur on Building Businesses, ⛵ Navigating Cultural Differences, and Always Learning | Michael Ly | 00:49:29 | |
Today I’m speaking with serial entrepreneur Michael Ly - CEO of a number of businesses including Reconciled In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 03 May 2023 | How leaders can prioritise themselves, reclaim energy and find joy | Mel Kettle | 00:48:00 | |
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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| 27 Oct 2022 | Tour De #Xerocon 2022 ✈️. And the winner is … ? | 01:09:03 | |
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/ | |||
| 05 Jun 2024 | Unravelling the future of AccounTech Sydney Xerocon 2023 🌐 | 00:44:43 | |
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”.
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. Her background 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. 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, plus 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 | |||
| 11 Dec 2024 | Empowering Multi-Entity Businesses: New Tools ⛏️ for Data Accuracy and Reliability | Michael Wood | 00:43:44 | |
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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| 25 Jul 2024 | Navigating the Startup Ecosystem: How Accountants Can Thrive in the High-Growth Tech Space 🚀 | TIF24 | 00:20:00 | |
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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| 07 Dec 2022 | Unlocking 🔓 potential with digital transformation | Sabby Gill | 00:26:12 | |
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:
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.. | |||
| 06 Mar 2015 | Transforming an Oxford MBA Assignment Into a Cloud Credit Control Solution 💳 | Steven Renwick | 00:33:51 | |
Highlights of my conversation with Steven Renwick
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.
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
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| 15 Jan 2025 | Accounting Bingo 2025 🎯 | 00:34:38 | |
🎙️ 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 | |||
| 02 Feb 2024 | Kicking Off 2024: Adventures, Insights, and Changes from Heather Smith | 00:10:01 | |
The big news is I'm rebranding the Cloud Stories podcast to the Accounting Apps podcast (fingers crossed) In this episode, I talk about . . .
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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| 27 Mar 2023 | Live 😎 at the Melbourne Accounting & Business Expo 23 | 00:53:50 | |
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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| 16 Aug 2015 | 🏥 Modernising Health Care Practices | Marcus Wilson | 00:41:55 | |
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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| 23 Dec 2021 | The Great Acquisition vs The Great Resignation | The Buzz Dec 21 | 00:54:10 | |
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 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 | |||
| 22 Jul 2020 | A Chat About Insolvency and 🤔 How Advisors Can Help Their Clients Through These Difficult Times| Jarvis Archer | 01:10:29 | |
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. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 29 Sep 2021 | Using online advisory services to increase your revenue | 00:51:18 | |
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:
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 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 | |||
| 14 Oct 2023 | Live from the Accounting & Finance Show Asia | 01:23:51 | |
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 | |||
| 29 Jun 2021 | Researching an App? How Accountants/Bookkeepers Charge Their Time ⌚ | Postcard | 00:09:12 | |
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 | |||
| 03 Nov 2020 | 🎊 Celebrating 100 Episodes of the Cloud Stories Podcast | 00:12:35 | |
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/ | |||
| 21 May 2015 | Word of Mouth 📣 and Non-Traditional Marketing Evangelist who Literally Put Xero in the Clouds | Saul Colt | 00:57:46 | |
Highlights of my conversation with Saul Colt
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 … | |||
| 07 Oct 2020 | The Future of the Accounting Profession 🔎 | Kenji Kuramoto | 00:48:34 | |
'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:
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 | |||
| 02 Feb 2024 | An Accountant's Manifesto 📖: David Boyar's Journey to Transform the Profession | 00:45:59 | |
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/ 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 | |||
| 18 Nov 2020 | Why an Accountant Started a 📊 Bookkeeping Business | Meryl Johnston | 00:52:07 | |
Today I’m speaking with Meryl Johnston, Founder and CEO of Bean Ninjas. In this episode, we talk about . . .
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 02 Nov 2022 | An expert shares secrets 🤐to an optimised eCommerce tech stack | Kelly Gonsalves | 00:55:42 | |
Kelly Gonsalves Founder of Totally Booked and many more companies joined me today and we had an in depth discussion about all things eCommerce
Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM | |||
| 17 Nov 2021 | Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz | Nov 21 | 00:52:06 | |
In this episode, we:
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 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 | |||
| 31 Mar 2021 | 🤖App Advisory for Accounting Professionals | Kellie Parks | 01:00:59 | |
Kellie Parks Cloud Accounting Aficiando of Calm Waters Bookkeeping joined me and we:
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| 14 Oct 2020 | 20 Trends Changing the World of Work and Transforming the Nature of Careers in Accountancy 🔊 | Kevin Fitzgerald FCCA | 00:53:18 | |
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. | |||
| 06 Oct 2021 | Supercharging business productivity by using no-code automation tools | Kelly Goss | 00:57:33 | |
Today I’m speaking with Kelly Goss Chief Problem Solver at Solvaa. In this episode, we talk about
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| 31 Jul 2024 | 🏆 Developing and keeping a competitive advantage | TIF24 | 00:40:29 | |
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 | |||
| 08 May 2024 | 🥊 Excel vs Software Battle: Fighting it Out Over the Future of Accounting Tech | 00:29:39 | |
- 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/
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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| 01 May 2024 | 🤖💼 The FAB Debate: AI vs The Human Touch in Accounting | Samuel Green | 00:24:25 | |
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 | |||
| 02 Oct 2024 | Unlocking Productivity Gains 🧩 | Meredith Rowan | 00:29:04 | |
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 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:
OECD Productivity Statistics: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/data/oecd-productivity-statistics_pdtvy-data-en 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. 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 | |||
| 05 Apr 2023 | BlueRock 🔷Acquires WorkflowMax Brand | Peter Lalor | 00:20:25 | |
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?
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