Accounting High

Episode #14

Kicking PITAs and Taking Names (feat. Stephanie Holt)

recorded 6/14/2021

Stephanie Holt, Head Guru 

Cloud Accounting & Consulting

1 Ackerman’s hoity-toity food blog https://scallionpancake.com/blog/catbirdseat

2 why’d you go the bookkeeper route and not the tax route?

3 people helping people

5 working in the deep south with good ol boys is exhausting

6 marginalized change agents

8 finding losses in the gains

10 transparency and accountability

11 the key to breaking bad habits

14 getting snowballed by some ex’s

18 break to pay the kids tutor

19 how do you go about firing a client?

21 do you rate your clients and give out PITA factors?

***shout out to Ed at Tax 1099***

23 not firing clients…raising prices

26 working with the Steady Eddies

28 setting expectations and the roadmap to success

Episode #13 

recorded on May 24, 2021

“FOMO Dave” Emmerman, EA 

Hello and welcome. We are the Sons of CPAs. Join us as we question the current state of the accounting and tax industry with the next generation of professionals leading this space, we are the change agents in an industry fraught with money and inertia. Let's begin The Sons of CPAs with your hosts, Jason Ackerman and Scott Scarano. 

4 Both Dave’s parents had practices! 

5 should out to the year-old Newfoundland puppy, Sophie! 

8 The challenges with buying 14 practices in 9 years! 

9 topping out at 1,000 returns per partner! That’s insane… 

13 providing value through conversations 

15 underpricing individual tax returns = undercutting ourselves as an industry 

19 Dave’s Doc Brown Moment! 

24 The art of getting Team buy-in 

25 flying from NY to SF, Dave's first visit to the Xero office 

***shout out to Frankie*** 

27 Finding Your Vertical 

30 from 80/20 Tax/Accounting to a 50/50 split! 

33 An industry that is ripe for change and making an impact as an ambassador for change 

***shout out to Ben Richmond*** 

35 leaving the rat race to actualize your real potential 

36 selling off your practice 

37 commanding a higher valuation by being tech-forward 

41 what do you think is holding Xero back in the US? 

***shout out to Xero (here’s another free one)*** 

44 brand recognition 

48 propagating problems 

52 don’t sell benefits to accountants 

53 the US market is now the #1 focus for the Xero product team 

54 working at Xero and Dave’s favorite tax season 

#5minLy | The Voice of the Heroes + the Coach

Episode 04  

GROWTH | STRATEGY | PERFORMANCE

Hello and welcome. We are all the Sons of CPAs. Join us with this week's #5minLy with Michael Ly where we feature an article of our choice from Karbon Magazine with your hosts Michael Ly and Scott Scarano.

https://karbonhq.com/resources/how-to-optimize-visibility-across-your-firm-to-uncover-growth-opportunities/

Episode #12  

Reverse Engineering your Firm (feat. Kenji Kuramoto, CEO) 

recorded 5/17/2021

Kenji+ Kuramoto, CPA

https://acuity.co/

Hello and welcome. We are all the Sons of CPAs. Join us as we question the current state of the accounting and tax industry with the next generation of professionals leading this space, we are all the change agents in an industry fraught with money and inertia. Let's begin The Sons of CPAs with your hosts, Jason Ackerman and Scott Scarano.

1 big time CEO here, holy triple digits!

2 Arthur Anderson

4 Big public accounting experience

8 You have to want to play that game to get to Partner

10 backing into things as an entrepreneur

13 people hire you because they like you?

14 are you smart or are you nice?

***shout out to Josh Lance***

17 CRYPTO

18 it’s fun to find some Niches

***shout out to Will Lopez***

25 CFO World vs Tax World

27 billing Time and Hours

***shout out to Liz Mason***

35 Working in the pricing matrix

36 how do you tell a client they’re not a good fit?

39 what’s one mistake you made at Acuity?

40 Growing fast and losing money

41 Customer Success and Customer Retention

***shout out to Delighted*** https://delighted.com/

***shout out to SalesForce*** salesforce.com

45 going after the ScaleFactor team, post bust

47 shout out to the 18 official Acuity TechStack Partners

#5minLy | Work-life Harmony

Episode 03 

1.  A period of time equal to about a twelfth of an hour, sometimes an eighth...

2.  Michael Ly and Scott Scarano discuss a choice article from Karbon Magazine 

https://karbonhq.com/resources/how-to-break-the-always-on-cycle-and-boost-productivity/

Episode #11

Beyond Building Momentum (feat. Nikole Mackenzie, CPA)

recorded 5/10/2021

Nikole Mackenzie, CPA

https://momentumaccounting.com/

Hello and welcome. We are the Sons of CPAs. Join us as we question the current state of the accounting and tax industry with the next generation of professionals leading this space, we are the change agents in an industry fraught with money and inertia. Let's begin The Sons of CPAs with your hosts, Jason Ackerman and Scott Scarano.

0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harem

2 the parallels of sports and business

3 shout out to Tammy

4 as a woman, tackling another woman

5 picking up golf during COVID

7 working with an NFL player who was paying $400k in accounting fees!

***NOT sponsor slot*** (kidding, Bill.com)

***NOT sponsor slot*** (kidding, Go Proposal?)

11 working with no scope

20 shout out to the Momentum Team 

25 what’s the ultimate goal for Momentum?

27 shout out to Will Lopez

29 why do you think it’s important that the team has excess capacity?

32 what do you use to measure scope?

***NOT sponsor slot*** (what’s up, Practice Ignition?)

34 TIME

37 remember Xero’s payroll module?

39 when does a client need to hire Momentum?

41 Momentum’s ideal client!

***NOT sponsor slot*** (shout out to QuickBooks Desktop, JUST KIDDING)

42 leverage technology to automate what we do

43 the problems with the family business

44 shout out to Marcus

45 do you get an ROI on the time spent on LinkedIn?

46 ProVisors 

50 what piece of technology is missing in the accounting space?

52 creating recurring revenue through automation

#5minLy | The Cult of Personality

Episode 02

https://karbonhq.com/resources/building-a-strong-accounting-firm-culture/

"#5minLy defined"

1.  A period of time equal to about a twelfth of an hour, sometimes an eighth...

2.  Michael Ly and Scott Scarano discuss a choice article from Karbon Magazine 

https://karbonhq.com/resources/building-a-strong-accounting-firm-culture/

Episode #10

Paperless since 1999 - The Oracle, Queen, Wizard, and Trailblazer (feat. Donna Bordeaux, CPA)

recorded 5/5/2021

Donna Bordeaux, CPA

https://calculatedmoves.com/

Hello and welcome. We are the Sons of CPAs. Join us as we question the current state of the accounting and tax industry with the next generation of professionals leading this space, we are the change agents in an industry fraught with money and inertia. Let's begin The Sons of CPAs with your hosts, Jason Ackerman and Scott Scarano. We could have called this, the children of CPAs, but that kind of sounds like a horror movie.

3 **sponsor slot** (sup? Xero)

4 paperless in 1999

6 outsourcing in 2005

8 develop or document a process

9 clients want results

10 falling into a Niche market Pottery Studios

12 Niche #2 Campgrounds!

18 Pricing your Niche clients

18 Marketing your Niche clients

20 using client’s Tax Waste to justify your Prices

21 Advisory clients vs DIY clients

24 focused 100% on MRR

25 the future, Automation of routine tasks

28 automating the sales process

30 TAX

31 **sponsor slot** (sup? LivePlan)

32 Cash registers and Calculators

33 Numbers and Technology

35 a business you can work ON not IN

37 don’t work with anyone you can’t provide value to

39 World Domination

42 Changing your Firm Name

44 The Trailblazers

45 shout out to Marjorie in Texas

48 being the Queen in the Chess of Life

50 King and Queen CPA firms

#5minLy | The Onboarding Passport

Episode 01

https://karbonhq.com/resources/get-new-hires-up-to-speed-quickly-and-painlessly-by-mastering-staff-onboarding/

"5minLy defined"

noun

https://karbonhq.com/resources/get-new-hires-up-to-speed-quickly-and-painlessly-by-mastering-staff-onboarding/

Episode #9

Total Control Accounting (feat. Marcus Mire, CPA)

recorded April 14, 2021

Marcus Mire, CPA

https://www.mire.group

5 shout out to Stephanie Mire

5 shout out to Tyler Warner

14 **sponsor slot** (just kidding, Practice Ignition)

19 **sponsor slot** (just kidding, Practice Ignition)

21 shout out to Quentin, John, and Stephanie

26 shout out to Niks

26 shout out to Acuity

30 shout out to Zachary Call

39 shout out to Cal Newport

40 Ackerman thinks he figured out the cause of COVID-19

43 TIME

50 the birth of Total Control Accounting, shout out to Tyler

55 shout out to Stephanie

55 **sponsor slot** (just kidding, Gusto)

55 **sponsor slot** (just kidding, Xero)