Accounting Apps Podcast

How a Computer Game 👾 Designer Turned Accountant Built an App to Transition his Practice to the Cloud | Paul Murray

Paul Murray co-founder of Account – Kit joined me to talk about . . . His surprisingly in-depth knowledge of Disneyland and his background as a computer game artist, the ongoing challenges of modernising a server-based practice, and Building tools needed for the Accounting Practice - Murray Business Solutions and commercialising them into a solution called Account Kit Leveraging his background as a computer game artist, to build gamification into Account-Kit The different tools found in Account Kit, including the inter-entity loan reconciliation, and client mapping tool. The Adelaide Tech Users Club Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.com

Decision Making: The Art and Science of 🖼️ Finding Value | Lance Rubin

Lance Rubin of Model Citizn joined me to talk about . . . The journey from being a Chartered Accountant to a Cash Flow Financial Modeller How Lance tackles simple financial modelling problems to make an informed, relevant and purposeful decision with insight. And yet - with all the data and technology – why making decisions is still difficult Questions accountants can ask their clients and How businesses can utilise modelling to prepare for uncertain times Plus, the different technology Lance uses for data modelling, including DataDear, Power BI, Etani Business Platform, Tableau Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here: http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

How She Started a 100% Cloud-Based Practice 📋 | Natalie Lennon

Natalie Lennon from Two Sides Accounting joined me to talk about . . . How she started a 100% cloud-based practice What Accounting Apps she uses to Automate her practice How she offers Apps Advisory to her clients How she is using Zapier to connect a number of solutions  Natalie's commitment to helping the Love Mercy Foundation and the Cents for Seeds program for each new client onboarded. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here  http:// HeatherSmithAU.com

A Serial Entrepreneur on Building Businesses, ⛵ Navigating Cultural Differences, and Always Learning | Michael Ly

Today I’m speaking with serial entrepreneur Michael Ly -  CEO of a number of businesses including Reconciled In this episode, we talk about . . . How Michael stays focused on working on his businesses, rather than in his businesses. The complexities of navigating different cultures in the work environment, How starting a new business gets easier each time, as you learn from past experiences. Michael sharing how his upbringing, in the hot desert of Arizona by Cambodian refugees, impacted his approach The structure of his online bookkeeping and advisory firm The Accounting and Business tools he uses Michael’s philosophy of 'Always be Learning'. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Building a Practice Workflow Solution That Stops Client Work Falling Through the Cracks️ 🌀 | David Cristello

Today I am speaking with David Cristello CEO and Founder from JetPack Workflow In this episode, we talk about . . . Why he created a company to build a Workflow and CRM solution for practices What some of his favourite features and reports are within JetPack Workflow The importance of asking better questions, to uncover real issues. The longest milkshake analogy ever told on an accounting podcast! Also, we heard about an atomic habit that David has adopted, and from that discussion I’ve followed James Clear on twitter And David expressed his interest in understanding if practices really examined their own capacity. If you have thoughts on that – send him a message on Twitter at @DaveCristello not David, just Dave…. Sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter here: https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

People, Processes, Technology and Data: Essential Elements of a ♻️ Sustainable Business | Nick Sinclair

Today I am speaking with Nick Sinclair from TOA Global. In this episode, we talk about * What outsourcing and offshoring are, and what they involve * The different size business models leveraging offshoring * the importance of building offshoring into your people strategy, and incorporating ongoing training for all staff * Why TOA Global choose to base their operations in the Philippines, and how they prepare for natural disasters. * The ethical concerns people have about offshoring. * The typical life cycle of a practice utilising offshoring *  How to maintain a healthy work-life balance when over a third of the year is spent travelling Contact Details          W: www.theoutsourcedaccountant.com T: https://twitter.com/nickqsinclair L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicksinclair/ Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.COM  

Discover the Secret Sauce to Writing Killer Content: 🔝 10 Tips | Brad Ewin

Brad Ewin from GoCardless shares his Top Ten Tips for Writing Better Content. Have it all in the intro Write long Edit short Tell the story with headers Provide key takeaways Always have a CTA Draft 15 headlines Create a curiosity gap Make it readable Don't be a perfectionist I also want to let you know that I’ve created the Accounting App Content Creator Facebook group – An educational environment for inspiring and facilitating content generation around the specialist theme of Accounting Apps. Your welcome to join.

🕵️‍♂️ An Inventory Nerd Solving Complex Problems with Simple Solutions | Jeri Wambeek

Jeri Wambeek in her own words: Having owned 3 businesses, myself from a young age, coming from a very entrepreneurial family, I live for helping business owners succeed in finding the best way forward and solving complex problems with simple solutions. As a fully qualified accountant and former tax agent, I stumbled into the world of cloud solutions when I discovered Xero in 2009 and have never looked back. Immersing myself in cloud solutions and the Add On ecosystem surrounding Xero and QuickBooks Online, WhichAddon was inevitably born in 2015 when I knew business owners and cloud advisors around the world were going to need to help to find the right cloud solutions and implement them without all the headaches. Over the years of accounting, cloud conversions and implementations, we have learned what it takes to move to the cloud. Our proven systems provide clean and clear data migration and optimisation, customised training, transition support and ongoing customer care. WhichAddOn We help proactive entrepreneurs grow their profitable business, one awesome cloud software system at a time! WhichAddOn has one purpose: to educate businesses and their advisors on how to find, understand and implement the best cloud software solutions for their business. Jeri and Marlon have 35+ years combined experience in business, accounting, system analysis and business consultancy. Separately they have run our own businesses and managed finance divisions for others. We have both worked in public practice and the commercial accounting arena. They both discovered Xero and the Xero ecosystem back in 2009. Together Jeri and Marlon joined forces in July 2015 to create WhichAddOn. They have both been lovers of learning since we were young, but more importantly love to share everything it is that we learn that is useful so that others can benefit from the process. WhichAddOn lives to educate and empower others to share from our experience and knowledge to find the right solution for any business. Connect with her here: whichaddon.com https://twitter.com/whichaddon https://www.linkedin.com/company/whichaddon-com https://twitter.com/jeri_murph https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerimurphy/ Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here https://HeatherSmithAU.COM  

On a Mission 👨‍🚀 to Make Humans as Employable as Possible | Ben Thompson

Today I am speaking with Ben Thompson from Employment Hero  In this episode we talk about How he combines his economic law background with a love of technology How his solutions enable small businesses to offer employees benefits, which are typically only afforded to the larger firms. What fascinates him about building employment related businesses – that combine technology with people management? The concept psychology principal of Reward and Recognition – to create a positive workplace culture everybody should receive four times more positive feedback, than negative feedback, Some of the technology tools he uses, including GSuite, and Evernote some of his favourite business books, including Verne Harnish.

Reducing Fraud ⚠️ and Improving Supplier Relationships Through Digital Approval Workflows | Martin Peirce

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/