Today I’m speaking with Alexi Boyd Director of a Bookkeeping business and host of the Small Biz Matters podcast

In this episode, we talk about . . .

• Insights into how she runs her small bookkeeping practice, supporting micro and start-up businesses.
• Navigating a dislike for implementing and adopting new technology
• How curiosity, a growth mindset and a chance encounter with a radio station manager, was a catalyst for starting her podcast.
• How podcasting has helped her develop active listening and multi-tasking skills which she’s brought back into her bookkeeping business
• Useful tips for curating and facilitating panels, and why the CEO should not be hosting panel facilitations.
• Why it’s important to get involved in small business advocacy

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

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/

Today I’m speaking with Catherine Walker Community Manager at Xero

In this episode, we talk about . . .

• How writing a thesis on the viability of organising information on the internet as part of her Master of Library and Information Studies was a solid foundation for her Community Managers role.
• As one of Xero’s earliest employees, realising people were deciding whether to buy Xero over social media and jumping in to respond
• What the day to day role of a community manager looks like
• Advice for accountants and bookkeepers interacting on social media
• Inspirational and funny stories of people Catherine’s met thru the community
• Diffusing situations and dealing with negative energy on social media 

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Today I’m speaking with Dylan Burgess, Partner Relationship Manager of Float Cash Flow Forecasting. Dylan joined our afternoon community chat, to lead a discussion on Supporting Your Clients and Yourself Through Uncertainty. With the community, we discussed how we could assist our own business, and assist our client’s business. We explored how some people planned for every scenario, while others don’t plan for anything, leaning on the philosophy one plus one equals window. I’ve worked with the team at Float Cash Flow Forecasting for several years, and you can read about the way I work, at http://EndorsementDisclosure.com. Connect with me on twitter at @HeatherSmithAU and sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter, at http://HeatherSmithAU.COM

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.

'The Future of The Accounting Profession' panel discussion was held as part of the AcuityCon conference for the Acuity Financial Experts team.

The global expert panel included:

• Kenji Kuramoto Founder & CEO of Acuity Financial Experts Greater Atlanta Area USA
• Michael Ly Entrepreneur | Virtual CFO | Cloud Accounting Executive | Online Bookkeeping | Speaker | Coach | Advisor Burlington, Vermont USA
• Nayo Carter-Gray, EA MBA Making Accounting a Little Less Taxing for small business owners | Advanced Certified QuickBooks Online Pro-Advisor | App & Technology Enthusiast Baltimore, Maryland Area USA
• Rachel (Leaney) Fisch, CPB Product Evangelist, Accountant Channel at Sage Greater Toronto Area Metropolitan Area Canada!
• Will Farnell Accountancy Firm founder (Farnell Clarke) , Keynote Speaker, Author of The Digital Firm and Mentor to Accounting Firms UK!

Some takeaways for me included:

🧮Microsoft Word & Excel are the most popular small business tools

🧮Compliance is not dead ☠️

🧮AI is overhyped

🧮Non-traditional firms will embrace diversity

🧮Modern firms are not old style firms using Accounting Technology

🧮We don't need to worry about QBLive

🧮Paper checks ⁉️

Thank-you Kenji Kuramoto for the opportunity. Thank you to the Acuity team who helped make this possible. Thank-you for listening to Cloud Stories. I hope you enjoyed the show. Can I encourage you to sign up to the Accounting Apps newsletter, by visiting http:// HeatherSmithAU. COM

Beau Gaudron Tech Ninja from Growthwise joins us for a conversations, brainstorm, & ideas exchange, around this topic as part of our afternoon community supporting community chat. This session is a beneficial listening activity for all people working in the SOFTWARE PRODUCT area. Some takeaways for me were:

🔊Make sure that it's not something that you're doing wrong, make sure you've done your research, to ensure there is not another way to tackle the issue ~ Beau Gaudron

🔊 Karla Hourigan Loom's everything! & 🧡 that you can tell if your video has been viewed 👀

🔊Brooke Holmes of Practice Ignition highlighted when they're presented with an issue – they tackle it by Lifting and Digging. The surface issue may not be the problem.

🔊Pitch the feature and make the case for it worthwhile. Recognise there is a cost for them in fixing an issue, so they need to be able to justify the expenditure. (from me )

Find me on Twitter at HeatherSmithAU and please subscribe to the podcast.

Today I’m speaking with Alison Ball Director of Marketing and Influencer Strategy for Liscio, Inc. In this episode, we talk about . . .

• Her new role at a category breaking app Liscio
• Designing Customer Experience 2.0
• Building and Growing a Community
• Influencer Marketing and activities one can undertake to be an ‘influential thought leaders’
• The concepts of Hive Mind and Adjacent Possibility
• As well as exploring all things around community building and influencer marketing

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Today I’m speaking with David Leary Director of Accounting and Bookkeeping Evangelism of Melio Payments. In this episode, we talk about . . . • The impact Covid19 has had on Apps and how they can not only survive, but thrive. • My favourite Accounting podcast – The Cloud Accounting podcast with his co-host Blake Oliver and all things podcasting. • How the B2B payables and receivables solutions Melio Payments eliminates the need for checks. • Why Apps should be focused on adding tools and features that help accountants work with multiple clients using the solution. • Has a black swan event changed his thoughts on niching? • The origin story of naming his side business Sombrero Apps. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Today I’m speaking with Martin Zych CEO & Co-founder of Jirav

In this episode, we talk about . . .

• Building Jirav, as the solution Martin needed while working as a CFO throughout his career
• Interpreting and commenting on the business data, sharing nuggets of knowledge and wisdom, and adding value to your client's engagement.
• The recent Series A Funding raise and what that means to Jirav.
• I learnt the term "Cannon Ball in the pool" – Jump in and sign up for a trial.
• Why Martin thinks we should all read The Hard Thing about Hard Things
• Giraffes are actually Martin's favourite animal!

Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM