Accounting High

Episode #30

Yoseph West | CEO and Co-Founder of Relay Financial

Toronto, CA

***shout out to our sponsor TaxBandits***

4 Some cool things about Toronto besides it’s a hub for accounting tech

5 how did you get into the accounting space?

7 learning how critical the back office function of a business truly is

9 what’s the biggest thing you learned when growing your first startup to 70,000 users and selling to Wave?

10 lessons on bonds and friendships and leaving Wave on the path to working for HubDoc

12 the cloud ghost town of 2014… and early HubDoc days

***shout out to Deborah***

15 some light RPA talk… but not really

17 being at HubDoc right before their acquisition by Xero

***shout out to the Jamie Shulman and Jamie McDonald aka the Jamies***

19 the Genesis of… Relay Financial, let’s be the bank

***shout out to Evernote and Notion***

20 the challenges of small business banking and how the big banks really struggle with software

24 starting with the customer, and controlling the banking process from top to bottom

25 on the need for a FinTech banking charter

***shout out to Stripe, Square, and Evolve Bank and Trust***

26 what problems does Relay solve? 

28 Accountants love that Relay has partner portals, a direct reliable bank feed, and sending across rich transition data

***shout out to QBO, Xero, Plaid, Yodlee***

29 that all sounds great, but how do I sell that to my clients? We need to focus the conversation on solving the clients pain points, not on switching banks

31 fun fact: most small businesses have 2.63 banking relationships

***shout out to Nikole Mackenzie aka Niks***

***shout out to our sponsor Relay Financial***

37 SMB lending relationships with banks

40 whose the Rick and whose the Morty on this podcast?

41 accounting firms aren’t spending enough time on security in their playbook…

***shout out to Rewind and Practice Protect***

43 where do you see Relay going in the next 5 years?

44 in what space would a Relay acquisition make sense?

***shout out to Sasan Goodarzi***

46 what are some of the team culture ideas that you’ve learned along the way that you want to implement at Relay?

***shout out to the Relay Team***

47 some lessons to learn from the HubDoc days and values to share were empathy, integrity, transparency, and just having a fun culture

48 as a CEO what are you doing to make sure that culture is embodied by your team at Relay?

51 the future of work is a Hybrid model and flexibility

55 it’s the snacks and little things that people really love about an office

56 going from 3 employees at Relay to 50 to 100 by end of next year!

#PadgettChiefs | Capacity and Creating a Cadence for Communication (feat. Jeff & Amanda)

Bonus to Episode #29 

Recorded on November 17, 2021 at the Padgett Tax Conference … it’s Scott’s Birthday 🥳

2 one thing that I'm hearing consistently is we are too busy and we can't hire enough help. When the owner is the primary producer, the owner can't really run the business or work in the business. And so. How do we build capacity?

4 technology creates more capacity for us.

5 some people try to build their firms or build themselves up for somebody else or what they think they should be doing. At the core, it starts with, what do I want?

6 can a small, independent firm that does a lot of tax returns have capacity and a life?

8 setting priorities and letting the little stuff slide

9 to create more capacity you have to first delegate and create processes, set priorities, have patience, and proper planning

10 start with one thing, the lowest hanging fruit

13 find somebody that's done it already to help guide you through that process because anything that you're going to go through, somebody else's already gone through

14 how do you create more capacity for your team? You can’t just keep throwing more people at problems…

15 office hours, time blocking, and the hyperactive hive mind… we need to structure our internal processes and communications

20 Jeff’s secret sauce… outsourcing his email processing! the benefits of having a virtual executive assistant (aka a secretary)

25 removing the sense of urgency in your life requires deliberation and a cadence for communication

26 in hindsight, there are never any real surprises in a business… surface level problems appear to be surprising in the moment, but looking back we all saw them coming from a mile away

27 there are things we can delete from our lives that will create capacity for the things that really matter… remove the pacifiers for our minds, take a look at the things you do to escape

Episode #29 

Pricing Psychology 101: The Value Menu (feat. Mark Wickersham) 

Recorded September 27, 2021 

Mark Wickersham | Most Sought After Profit Improvement Expert, Value Pricing Expert, Professional Speaker, and Author

2 Portugal’s non-habitual resident's rules (NHR) scheme allowed Mark to save on 10 years of taxation

4 the COVID mindset shift that we may (or may not) have gone through

6 from one accident to another, Mark’s accidental entry into the accounting profession

14 what were the things you swore you wouldn’t do when you started your own accounting firm?

16 tell us about your pivot from running an accounting firm to consulting accounting firms?

***shout out to Steve Pipe, Paul Dunn, and Ron Baker***

21 what were the biggest mistakes you made when you first started your accounting firm?

23 from pricing mistakes to hiring mistakes, to being obsessed with top-line over profit

25 when you compete on price you win poor quality clients

25 if you don’t give the price upfront then you can’t get paid upfront

29 before we go further with value pricing, how do you go about changing your firm to a fixed pricing model? if I change the price for my existing clients, will I lose them all?

30 the Pareto Principle and 20%

39 Value Pricing 2.0

40 the pricing journey and taking things one step at a time…

41 fixed pricing is all about having a process for assessing the scope

42 the things we do to add more value are often the easiest things to deliver

46 tell us about Effective Pricing

47 one of the most powerful principles of pricing psychology is anchoring

50 what’s the idea timeframe between an initial call and the pricing call?

52 What’s one piece of advice you would give to accountants today that are starting this pricing journey?

#accounting #mindset

Mark's Social Media Links

LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwickersham1/

LinkedIn Author Page:  https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/markwickersham1

Twitter     https://twitter.com/wickersonabike

YouTube:     https://www.youtube.com/user/Pricing4Accountants

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/markwickershamfca

Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/mark_wickersham/

#NiksTips | The Future of Banking (feat. 👂 Blake Oliver, CPA, CPA and Nikole Mackenzie, CPA)

Sons of CPAs Bonus to Episode #28

5 the difference between Relay Financial and Wells Fargo is Relay Financial lets you create as many checking accounts as you want, Wells Fargo opens them up without your consent

6 the pains and perceived costs of moving bank accounts is so high that we don’t do anything

***shout out to Caleb Newquist and Greg Kyte, CPA of the Oh My Fraud Podcast***

9 for businesses that need to spin out different accounts really easily, that’s where the killer app is for Relay

***shout out to Mike Michalowicz and Profit First Professionals- It's your business. Shouldn't your profit come first?***

11 if you worked with a small sub-set of contractors, or co-hosts, you could setup Relay accounts for them

***shout out to Jason Ackerman, CPA, CFP®, CGMA and TaxBandits***

14 Business owners like rewards, how can Relay get them rewards?

15 Nikole Mackenzie, CPA’s Relay Wish List

18 a Simpsons and Twilight Zone break…

19 Niches and implementing new platforms at your firm…

*** shout out to Xero***

Episode #28

Sam McCraw, CPA, MAC | Tax Director - CFO Timonier, Wealth Beyond Financial™ | Winston-Salem, NC Recorded 

August 30, 2021 

3 tell us about your dad, who retired at 48 years old… 

4 tell us about being in the security forces for the US air force… 

7 why did you go into accounting after leaving the air force? 

14 tell us about the billing, marketing and service offerings at Timonier 

***shout out to our sponsor this week, Practice Ignition*** 

22 tell us about working as a tax analyst for Intuit… 

30 the Xero v Intuit QuickBooks debate continues… but, not really 

34 what would you say to a firm that’s thinking about adding wealth management? 

35 it’s like adding a passive revenue stream to your accounting practice… 

***shout out to our sponsor this week, Reach Reporting*** 

39 when you started at Timonier, Wealth Beyond Financial™, what were the first things you changed? 

40 A lesson on #ChangeManagement done right, from a fellow #ChangeAgent 

42 how do you prioritize doing 230 tax returns, by yourself? 

44 after the tech stack, what’s the next thing that you know you need to change? 

46 getting a lot of self-actualization by maintaining a stand-alone CPA firm on the side, with the entrepreneurial spirit… so why not go out completely on your own? 

47 as a sole tax practitioner, how do you get your training and do you have a support network? 

49 what’s something you miss from being at Scott Scarano 🥶’s firm? 

50 and another argument for tracking time at an accounting firm… 

51 you’ve worked in all these different industries, give our listeners some advice if they’re going to go out on their own…

Please subscribe to the Sons of CPAs on your favorite podcast player, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

#AccountingEvolutions | Future Change is Always Present (feat. Ian Vacin)

BONUS to episode #27

Recorded Tuesday, November 16 @ Padgett FOCUS 2021 in Atlanta, GA - the epicenter of the tax epidemic

Hello and welcome, we are all the Sons of CPAs, join us this week from the epicenter of the tax epidemic, with another special guest Ian Vacin

recorded in person in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, November 16, 2021

... today we're talking about the evolution of accounting, and it gets deep… here are some quotes from the episode

how do we look introspectively and figure out how we're going to do things differently going forward?

why would we impose change on ourselves or on our firm?

California seems to have a lot of the change. Well, the change curve kind of starts there when it comes to tech and other things. How about tax?

a lot of conversations I'm having start with, “I want to sell my practice”, OR “I want to buy books of business”

the reason why we got where we were two years ago to where we are today was because of the backs of the accounting profession. Helping support psychologically, financially, all different efforts to be able to create the programs, to get people the support they needed.

So we got to experience how much we, as accountants, have a lot more strength to withstand anything that could be thrown at us because we have a stoic mindset, we know that it could be worse. So my current present, I can choose and I have more power over the decisions.

there's a lot out there that are looking to buy. So I think the frequency of buyers has increased because it's like a gold rush, they see the value...

I think that the buyer's market can be a smaller firm and you can also play in that market. But if you do it, you better have gotten your house in order and the foundation needs to be there. You have to increase your margins. The problem has been consistent for the last 20 years. It's very hard to get talent. You're dealing with a situation where the talent growth has 0.4% - 0.6%. increased growth year over year on talent.

I've noticed that too with my conversations are a lot different these days. it's a different, level of understanding on both parties. I've always had my head in the clouds, so to speak and that's been hard to relate. A lot of people have gone through another level of maturity, even at an older age, with different level of understanding and empathy.

and people still let their egos get in the way…but that’s a story for another day, Cheers.

Please subscribe to the Sons of CPAs on your favorite podcast player, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Episode #27

Twyla Verhelst, CPA | Founder of Helm and Head of Accounting Community at FreshBooks

and the founder of the Women in Accounting Hub - www.womeninaccounting.online

Calgary, Alberta Canada

Recorded September 7, 2021

***shout out to our sponsor Tallyfor***

***shout out to our sponsor Practice Ignition***

2 outlets through COVID

***shout out to Acuity CFO Online Bookkeeping Accounting and Business Tax and Drink While You Think***

6 USA vs Canada, the North American race to STOP using checks

9 Where Accounting and Technology collide…

11 Becoming a Software Entrepreneur Accountant…

***shout out to our sponsor Tallyfor***

17 Twyla’s first Ethics/Integrity TEST

18 Starting, growing, and selling businesses…

19 The Birth of Helm | Cash Flow App…

20 The Birth of the Fresh Princess aka Head of Accounting Relationships at FreshBooks

25 Twyla, what’s your North Star?

27 Ackerman’s FreshBooks story

***shout out to Mike McDerment***

***shout out to our sponsor Practice Ignition***

33 FreshBooks was ahead of it’s time… in the cloud since 2003

35 There’s room for a 3rd player in the Cloud Accounting GL space…

41 Creating a client experience that your client can’t live without

46 Setting our clients up for success

48 Staying in your lane and widening the shoulders…

50 Why is there so much accounting tech coming straight outta Canada?

53 Stepping away from your firm and going deeper in the software biz to become closer to the Accounting Community

59 Give us one piece of advice to share with accounting firm owners…

***shout out to Kenji Kuramoto***

***shout out to all women in accounting***

www.freshbooks.com/accountants

The Sons of CPAs Thanksgiving Special 2021

Thank You…Jason Ackerman

Thank You…Liz Mason

Thank You…Michael Ly

Thank You…Zachary Call

Thank You…Will Lopez

Thank You…Jason Staats

Thank You…Joshua Lance

Thank You…Jeff Phillips

Thank You…Marcus Mire

Thank You…Donna Bordeaux

Thank You…Nikole Mackenzie

Thank You…Kenji Kuramoto

Thank You…Dave Emmerman

Thank You…Stephanie Holt

Thank You…Blake Oliver

Thank You…Lorilyn Wilson

Thank You…Amanda Aguillard

Thank You…Kathy Gregory

Thank You…Kristen Keats

Thank You…Ian Vacin

Thank You…Brian Clare

Thank You…Guy Pearson

Thank You…Roger Harris

Thank You…Chris Farrell

Thank You…Dave Olsen

Thank You…Nayo Carter-Gray

Thank You…Twyla Verhelst

Thank You…Samuel McCraw

Thank You…Mark Wickersham

Thank You…Yoseph West

Thank You…Brannon Poe

Thank You…Scott Scharf

Thank You…Marissa Jones

Thank You…Fady Hawatmeh

Thank You…Peter Wen

Thank You…Michael Kravshik

Thank You…Daniel Gertrudes

Thank You…John Garrett

Thank You…Donnamarie Ryder

Thank You…Rita Keller

Thank You…Justin Hatch

Thank You…Byron Patrick

Thank You…Michael Eckstein

Thank You…Dawn Brolin

Thank You…Jody Grunden

Thank You…Shane Mason

Thank You…Greg Kyte

Thank You…Tate Henshaw

Thank You…Marie Phillips

Thank You…Caleb Newquist

Thank You… to all our sponsors and to all our listeners!!!!

(Subscribe and leave us a review on Podcast…should you feel so inspired)

Hello and welcome, we are all the Sons of CPAs, join us this week with another special co-host, Marcus Mire, CPA

recorded in person in Lafayette, Louisana on Friday, November 19, 2021

... today we're talking about Change Management in an accounting firm, here are some takeaways:

Things are going to change around you and you've got no control over that. That's where you got to pivot your current mindset and shift. And th that's another story for another day...Cheers

Episode #26

❤️🖤💚Nayo Carter-Gray, EA MBA  | Founder of 1st Step Accounting

Baltimore, MD

Recorded August 30, 2021

6 Does the CPA matter to clients anymore?

9 from the summer job in high school to filing your own taxes and getting refunds

#SideHustleStories…

Nayo - High School doing friends 1040-EZ in high school for $25 a pop

Scott - High School selling CDs for $25 a pop

Scott - Middle School doing friends book reports for $10 a pop

Nayo - MaryKay to Slumber Parties, adult toys and lingerie for ladies…

12 getting an MBA in IT and passions for cyber security

***shout out to LastPass and Cashapp***

14 Internship at a black accounting firm in Baltimore during college

15 Healthcare accounting for 10 years

***shout out to Shoeboxed and Square***

15 Paperless from the jump

16 A Side Hustle is A Side Effect of growing up, not too rich…

17 multilevel marketing aka mini-franchises

21 the strategies of selling sex toys and making $750 an hour

22 to run a successful business you need to make sure you have scalable processes…

***shout out to 1st Step Accounting: We make Accounting a little less Taxing for Small Business Owners***

23 breaking down complex topics into simplified processes and formulas

24 Do you have any employees at 1st Step Accounting?

***shout out to InboxDone.com***

24 Outsourcing Email

25 How do you keep all the multiple hats of running a business on your head?

***shout out to the Passion Planner and Nifty and the Pomodo Technique***

26 TimeBlock and STOP trying to multitask, because it doesn’t work

***shout out to our sponsor Reach Reporting***

27 What Makes your firm different from other firms?

***shout out to Cognito Forms***

28 Where do you feel you’re at with 1st Step in your journey?

38 tell us a little bit about Steps to Success…

***shout out to Intuit QuickBooks and Xero***

***shout out to Amanda Aguillard CPA CISD and Cathy Iconis, CPA***

41 QuickBooks vs Xero is also Blue vs Green… speaking of colors…let’s talk diversity in accounting…

44 The first Intuit Black Accountants Meetup of 2019

45 It Starts with a Voice then you become The Hero

47 Unfortunately, it might take a generation “melting away” before we see some real change…

48 Take an internal bias test… once you understand who you are and what makes you tick, then you can really understand how you show up in the world

54 What are some of the barriers for black accountants to become licensed CPAs?

56 working hard and putting yourself through college as a teen mom

59 what’s the biggest piece of advice you can give other accountants?

***shout out to our sponsor Practice Ignition***