Accounting Apps Podcast

The Strategic Value in Understanding Your Numbers 🔢 | Dan Schmidt

Dan is a CPA with a passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed by understanding the meaning behind the numbers in their business. With more than 12 years in public accounting and consulting, Dan specializes in creating cloud-based systems that make businesses more efficient – helping accounting, inventory and other systems seamlessly work together. About EBCFO You are busy running your business, but what you really want to do is create and grow, not focus on the day-to-day operational grind. That’s where we come in. EBCFO is a virtual CFO firm that helps start-ups, non-profit organizations and e-commerce companies at all stages by offering bookkeeping, accounting, cash flow management, payroll services and CFO services. We help business owners like you move beyond putting numbers in buckets. We are not just another accounting, consulting or advisory firm - we make sense of those numbers so you can make smarter business decisions. Focus on what you love with EBCFO. Contact Details Website www.ebcfo.com Social Networks Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ebcfo/ Twitter @EBCFO LinkedIN http://www.linkedin.com/in/danschmidtcpa Blog http://www.ebcfo.com/blog

Providing Businesses With a 1️⃣ Stop Shop| Jamie Davison

Focused, driven, committed and energetic. Jamie has a whole host of traits that have led him to where is he now; director of Perth’s multi-award-winning Carbon Business Group. Coming from property investment and accounting background, Jamie formed Carbon with a vision to provide businesses with a one-stop-shop for their core solutions- accounting, bookkeeping, business systems, insurance and finance. As an innovative thinker, Jamie continues to adopt the latest technologies in an effort to maintain Carbon’s position as industry leaders. Jamie’s dedication to all divisions of the business will ensure its continued growth, with future plans to spread the magic of Carbon Australia wide. Carbon Business Group is effectively a one-stop destination offering core business solutions tailored to each individual business. Our suite of services is comprised of Accounting, Bookkeeping, IT, Insurance and Finance. Each department is powered by highly qualified professionals who are specialists in their fields. We only employ “Carbonites” – individuals who strive to achieve the very best for their clients to ensure they see their business grow, in the same way that Carbon has since opening its doors in July 2014. https://jamiedavison.com.au https://carbongroup.com.au https://www.facebook.com/carbonbusinessgroup/ https://twitter.com/CarbonGroupBK https://www.linkedin.com/in/davisonjamie

A Cashflow Forecasting Solution Donates Over $1M to Grassroots Organisations 🌱 | Mick Devine

Mick Devine is the CEO and co-founder of Calxa, producers of the leading budgeting, reporting and cashflow forecasting software in Australia and New Zealand. He’s an accidental accountant with a strong desire to solve problems.  One of his goals at Calxa has been to deliver software that makes life easier for customers, maximising the time they can save. Another, bigger one, has been to make the world a better place and Calxa’s donation program for grassroots Not-for-Profits is one of the key vehicles for delivering on this. Calxa helps accountants, businesses and not-for-profits by delivering better management reports in less time, without the need for complex spreadsheets. Linking to common accounting systems eliminates duplicate data entry and provides the basis for accurate reports. Calxa’s software makes reliable cashflow forecasts available to non-accountants so they can take charge of their businesses. Accountants love Calxa because it gives them the tools they need to provide a true advisory service – helping their clients with cashflow and budgets and using KPIs to monitor important statistics. Calxa is based in Townsville, North Queensland and has customers as far afield as Japan and Scotland.   Contact details: www.calxa.com  www.facebook.com/calxa  https://twitter.com/calxa  https://www.linkedin.com/company/calxa-australia  http://www.calxa.com/more/news-blog 

8️⃣ Key Business Disciplines for Success | Peter Vessenes

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-

From the Trenches Podcast Host Shares His Origin Story ✍️ | Paul Meissner

Paul Meissner is the next generation of Accountant. His firm, 5ways Group, operate 100% in the cloud. Paul has a passion for the small-medium business market and using technology to streamline how businesses operate. He and his firm are active on social media, networking and sharing ideas with Accountants around the world. Paul and 5ways do know technology and Xero. They were 2014 Xero Award winners ("100% Cloud), are a Xero XPAC member and were one of the first Accountants to embrace Xero here in Australia. " 5ways Group are a creative cloud accounting agency based in Melbourne. 5ways is the way accounting should be. We are all about the success of our clients through our club type culture that embodies ‘the modern accounting practice’. Our firm is at the forefront of technology and we strive to be a part of our client’s success and have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Spreading the Word of Affordable Cloud Integration in the UK 📢 | Matt Flanagan

I had a cushy corporate job as a Project Manager at Cap Gemini. The people were great, the role was enjoyable & I had a secure career. As is the nature of the corporate structure (and my impatience), my career progression was not at the pace I wanted. This frustration led to a conversation with an old friend over a BBQ and a beer, which resulted in us both quitting our jobs and starting a company. The next day was quite the hangover… We purchased BlueHub a Software Development and Integrations company. Up to this last year, our focus was on bespoke development until we made the move to Xero. BlueHub focused on software development for over ten years. The cost of bespoke priced us out of smaller businesses. We began using “off the shelf” cloud products to manage BlueHub. We started using Xero and WorkflowMax. Once we saw how good these cloud-based systems were, we asked ourselves; “Why are we reinventing the wheel?” We started testing a range of Xero Add-ons & cloud systems, re-marketing to lost clients and spread the word of affordable Cloud. The uptake was incredible! We found a solution that cut the costs, sped up the delivery and increased the amount of people we could help. Now we help clients across sectors find, set-up and integrate cloud systems. From our past, we are able to assist users with complex integrations. www.bluehub.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/BlueHubSolutions @blue_hub https://www.linkedin.com/company/bluehub-solutions-ltd- https://plus.google.com/+BlueHubSolutionsLtdPriorslee/posts http://www.bluehub.co.uk/blog.cfm

Creating a 👣 Pathway for Accountants to Embrace the Modern Accounting Practice | Guy Pearson

Highlights of my conversation with Guy Pearson ·    Taking a holiday break gave him the perspective to launch his own accounting practice ·         Niching to both differentiate and understand your clients' businesses ·         Changing from compliance-focused to looking forward ·         Accountants adverse to change will end up with a fire sale of their firm ·         Practice Ignition – on-boarding and management solution for accounting practices ·         Navigating relationships with other software solutions Questions ·         Who would you like to have coffee with and why? ·         What inspired you in September 2009 to founded Interactive Accounting? ·         Why do you think it’s important to differentiate your accounting practice by focusing on a niche? ·         Within your own firm you were focused on systemising your firm to achieve a greater ROI. How did you go about doing that? What platform did you do it on? Is this where you recognised the need for Practice Ignition? ·         Can you explain to our listeners what Practice Ignition does? ·         Can you write code? What code is it built on? ·         How does an old school practice move to the clouds, how do they adjust their business model, for such a major upheaval? ·         Would it be easier to just start again? ·         How long have you seen it take, and can you estimate how much they should budget for it? ·         You have had the opportunity to spend time abroad residing in Silicon Valley and roadshows in England and Canada – what’s your perception of the state of the global market and adoption of cloud? ·         Is there any future in a compliance only based accounting practice – that is one that only does tax work? ·         Your accounting practice has won numerous awards from Xero, and your solution Practice Ignition has received investment from one of the main investors in Xero, so it’s fair to say you’ve had a long term relationship with Xero – how do you navigate building relationships with other accounting software solutions? ·         The MD at Interactive Accounting Lisa Callaghan has recently written an article on linkedIN highlighting Capacity Planning and Staff Allocation are both unnecessary pain-points in today’s practices. And she estimates it is taking her $30K a year to achieve. What are your thoughts on this issue? Resources www.practiceigintion.com https://www.facebook.com/PracticeIgnition https://twitter.com/ignitionapp https://www.linkedin.com/company/practice-ignition https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/100124838410297066883/+Practiceignition/about   http://www.practiceignition.com/blog

Partnering With an IT 👨‍💻 specialist | Sonia Cuff

Highlights of our conversation: •Partnering with an IT specialist who understands the cloud and gets Xero •The Windows 10 update •How to unlock revenue by better utilising already available technologies •Google Apps and  Office 365 •Secrets to massively speed up your computer's performance   www.ctaspley.com.au    

🏥 Modernising Health Care Practices | Marcus Wilson

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        

Building Teams and ⚡ Growing Businesses Fast | David New

David New bio: A 20+ year (young) ‘veteran’ of the financial software industry. After enjoying a long and successful 16 years with leading mid-range accounting software vendor Attaché Software, has held Senior Executive positions with both Xero and Receipt Bank. With both organisations was responsible for building local AU / ANZ teams on the ground-based in Sydney effectively from scratch… and in super fast time! Passionate about cloud technology and helping businesses solve real everyday problems, to allow them to be more efficient and productive. Questions I asked David New: What historical figure would you like to have coffee with and why? David, you’ve spent twenty years in the financial software industry, first hand witnessing the shift from DOS to Windows, and more recently from Desktop to Cloud. What concerns do you hear from people worried about moving to the cloud?   You’ve worked in senior executive positions at Xero, and New Zealand based company and Receipt Bank a UK based company, what have you learnt from introducing software solutions into Australia and New Zealand.   What advice do you have for business software solutions who want to grow a presence in Australia and New Zealand? [If not addressed with the previous question] Where should they spend their time.   At the time of speaking, August 2015, the Xero community is surrounded by four hundred add-on solutions, some one man bands, some massive entities. When in their life cycle do they need to direct money away from developing their solution towards promoting their solution.   Melbourne Xerocon is on at the moment-and outside the event competitor software have set up ambush marketing campaigns. Using Xero branded colour one was giving out coffee, one was giving out sausages and one offered to host bar tab for people in the industry not going to xerocon. What do you think of marketing tactics like that?   A number of the software solutions are looking to crack the enormous US market - do you think it’s achievable and what would your plan of attack be.   Reflecting upon your time at Xero and Receipt Bank, what were your successes and what would you have done differently?   We are surrounded by so many startups – do you feel the inclination to take the risk join a start-up and see where the journey can take you?   How does someone in a senior sales and marketing solution, manage a work life balance?   What do you look forward to doing most in your work life?     Looking outwards what are your work life aspirations?