Beyond Insights

This episode of the podcast explores the importance of cash visibility, the potential of idle cash, and how modern finance teams can leverage automation to make more strategic decisions.

We're joined by Stan Markuze, CEO of balance, who shares his views on the challenges of cash visibility for growing businesses, including fragmentation and common blind spots. We also consider how to find strategic opportunities with "idle cash" and plan for the future.

In this episode, we speak to Jody Padar, the Radical CPA, about the critical role of AI in the future of the accounting profession, emphasizing its shift from compliance-based tasks to strategic advisory roles. Some of the topics covered include:

• Immediacy of Adoption: Accountants must embrace AI now to remain relevant; those who do not by 2030 (or potentially as early as 2028) may no longer be competitive.
• Client Expectations: Clients are already using AI and expect their accountants to be familiar with the technology to better serve them.
• Up-skilling Professionals: The focus should be on using AI to up-skill individual professionals first, treating it as a "strategic thought partner" before automating workflows.
• Efficiency Gains: AI can handle "grunt work" and data entry, freeing up accountants to focus on advisory skills they previously lacked time for.

• Communication Analysis: Tools like Navi integrate with Zoom or Microsoft Teams to record and analyze client conversations, providing feedback on your communication skills.

• Mindset Shift: Accountants should view AI as an opportunity to change their identity from data processors to advisors who can "10x" their impact on a client's financial life.
• Professional Judgment: Only 5% of professionals currently use AI correctly; Jody stresses that AI output must still be reviewed with professional skepticism and judgment.
• Starting Small: To alleviate stress, professionals are encouraged to be curious, take courses, and even use AI for personal tasks to build comfort with the technology.

In today's episode, Laurika sits down with Geni Whitehouse to discuss the importance of being able to speak a client's language. They consider everything from combatting the stereotype of the "boring accountant" to empowering clients as experts in their own fields to providing advisory services using the language that makes most sense to your clients.

Geni is a CPA, CITP, CSPM, an award‑winning keynote presenter, President of the Information Technology Alliance (ITA), and founder of The Impactful Advisor, where she helps accountants shift from compliance to confident advisory through storytelling, financial fluency, and heart.

Is the traditional accounting model dead? In this episode, we sit down with Blake Oliver (Founder of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast) to discuss the radical shift toward modernizing the profession.

We dive deep into how firm owners can stop trading time for dollars by adopting SaaS metrics, productizing services, and leveraging the subscription economy. If you’re looking to scale your practice without burning out, this conversation is your roadmap.

In this episode, we cover:

• Modernization: Why the "old way" of accounting is holding firms back.

• Value-Based Pricing: How to move beyond the billable hour.

• SaaS for Accountants: Applying software-as-a-service metrics to your practice.

• Productization: Turning your expertise into a scalable product.

Rapid-Fire Recommendations:

• Read: Subscribed by Tien Tzuo — The blueprint for the subscription future.

• Tech: AI Agents via Zapier — Combining autonomous AI with rules-based workflows to automate your firm.

• Blake’s New Book: Building a Sustainable Accounting Firm

In this episode, we talk to David Leary CPA, the co-host of The Accounting Podcast! The discussion covers what you need to be a future-proof accountant, with some new and unconventional perspectives along the lines of:

• Turning the idea of "grunt work" on its head - and why ensuring your bookkeeping is on point it so important
• Why AI is critical but also overhyped - and thought about in the wrong way
• What "higher value" work really looks like in the era of AI
• What small businesses really want and how they think
• The challenges that new CPAs will face as they enter the world of work
• Why it's important to "stay in the weeds" of accounting work
• And how a cooking vs. baking analogy works well when thinking of when to use - or not use - AI

Time's Top 100 Influential Voice in AI, Benjamin Rosman, returns to Beyond Insights to discuss the latest trends, efficiencies, and decisions in the world of artificial intelligence.

In this episode, we are joined by Steven Werley, Owner of Closable.ai, to discuss how AI can serve as your silent business partner - handling repetitive tasks, client communication and more.

Rapid-fire recommendations:

• Software: GoHighLevel, a marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) combination that allows users to manage their entire sales pipeline, call bookings, and create marketing pages.
• Best podcast: The best SEO podcast.
• Most valuable lesson about building a business: Execute and don't make it perfect; "done is better than perfect".
• Key takeaway: Don't "sleep on AI" and don't view it as a "big horrible terrible thing". There are many ways to use AI, even to help with simple tasks, and it can serve as a "silent business partner". If you haven't started using AI, "just start now".

Learn more about Steven and his business at: https://closable.ai/

In this episode, we explores why Japan has over 33,000 companies that have endured for more than a century. Our guest is Angad Soin, the Managing Director of ANZ and Global Chief Strategy Officer at Xero. Soin helps lead global strategy for the fintech platform and oversees operations across Australia and New Zealand.

The discussion focuses on six Zen-inspired business principles that promote longevity. The core takeaway from these principles is the importance of reinvention.

The Six Zen-Inspired Business Principles

1. Sharing Your Vision and Priorities: It's important to couple a vision with underlying values that provide "actionability" and guide employee behavior. For instance, Nintendo's vision of providing entertainment allowed them to evolve from a card trading company to a digital games and merchandising giant.

2. Having a Long-Term Vision: A vision should be enduring, actionable, and tangible. A long-term vision guides investments and choices over many years, enduring through multiple strategy cycles. For founders who want a lasting legacy, their vision should initially seem unachievable.

3. Your Employees and Your Customers Come First: The treatment of customers and employees must align with the long-term vision. Small business owners should build in time—quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly—to reflect on their written purpose and strategy to ensure their hiring and client choices are aligned. Course correction can involve difficult decisions, such as parting ways with a long-term employee no longer aligned with future goals.

4. The Harmony of Tradition and Innovation: This principle involves balancing a company’s original successful elements (tradition) with the need to evolve (innovation). The core promise—such as value, quality, or differentiation—should remain consistent even as the product changes.

5. Being Frugal: Frugality is not about not spending, but about allocating capital and time wisely. It also means maintaining cash reserves to have flexibility and "optionality" to make the right decisions during challenging times.

6. Building a System for Succession of Culture: For a lasting legacy, the company's operating principles must be systematized and passed down. This system must be built into the company's behaviors and systems, not relying on a single individual or just saying the words. New employees should be able to understand why things are done a certain way, not just that "we've always done it that way".

Rapid-Fire Recommendations

• Choose the Right Investors: Businesses should select investors who are committed to the long-term vision and strategy, even if it means losing money along the way. This ensures alignment and minimizes surprises.

• The Accountant's Role: Accountants and bookkeepers play an important role in advising clients on these principles. By asking clients about their "why" (e.g., whether they want a quick exit, a sale, or to hand the business down), they can tailor advice on entity structure and capital.

This episode features Steven Puri, a speaker and serial entrepreneur, who is the CEO of The Sukha Company, a flow state app. Steven has a unique background, having been a senior executive at film studios, running tech companies, and raising over $20 million in venture capital. Steven discusses what makes remote work successful and shares insights on achieving focus, mindset, and intentionality for knowledge work in a world full of distractions. He explains how to apply high-performance patterns from film and business to daily work life.

Rapid-Fire Recommendations:

• Software : The Sukha Company app.
• Best Lesson on Building a Business: Respect your natural rhythms.
• One Key Takeaway: Begin your day with intention.

In this episode of "Beyond Insights," we discuss how to appreciate customer feedback and respond in a way that benefits your business, customers, and teams. We are joined by Melanie Fischer, the Customer Experience Director at Xero in the UK, who has over 20 years of experience in embedding cultures of continuous improvement. Melanie shares insights on how to handle difficult feedback, the importance of "voice of the customer," and strategies for building customer loyalty.

Rapid-Fire Recommendations:

• Software: Gemini.
• Best Podcast: Women in Travel.
• Best Lesson on Building a Business: Balance the three elements of the business: customer, people, and profit.
• One Key Takeaway: Listen to your customers.