From The Trenches

BEST ON GROUND

David Boyar

• What if we think about change as a way to reduce our own redundancy risk?
• https://generationcfo.com/2020/02/11/automation- redundancy-risk-is-fake-news-heres-why-part-two/
• PI Women in accounting
• The best summary of the receipt app race right now.
• https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software-news/come-place-your-bets-in-the-data-capture-casino#.XkHk7qjSHsU.linkedin
• Another accountant trials a 4 day work week - what are the unexpected benefits of this.
  https://blog.connacc.nz/the-four-day-working-week-a-trial-for-connected-accountants/

Paul Meissner

• XLOOKUP in Excel. Hallelujah!!! 
• https://www.cbronline.com/news/xlookup-excel 
• AFR claim the court got it wrong, I say they got it right. Bulks up an argument for main residence test. I’d rather 100% tax free than 50%. 
• https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/the-wrong-call-small-business-hit-by-cgt-concession-ruling-20200206-p53ygd 

WORST ON GROUND

David Boyar

• QR codes aren't new and dont work. 
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stevenleaney_business-cards-are-something-that-havent-activity-6632503913545297920-jRsO/ 
• Offshoring will not - repeat will NOT reduce jobs
• https://theoutsourcedaccountant.com/blog/does-outsourcing-cost-local-jobs/

Paul Meissner

• $8m in tax avoidance out of PKF. Big firm, interesting the lack of oversight. The charges include knowingly lodging nine false income tax returns on behalf of the client and concealing, destroying and knowingly providing forged evidence in response to a Tax Office audit. 
• https://www.afr.com/wealth/tax/tax-partner-accused-of-evading-8m-for-client-20200211-p53zpw 
• How to damage staff morale. Partners get free breakfast while staff are told to drink less milk. 
• https://www.afr.com/rear-window/kpmg-partners-exclusive-breakfast-service-20200210-p53zek 
• David’s demo skills

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Change GPS. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST ON GROUND

David Boyar

• Accountants building their own communities to support each other through tech change 
• https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/accountants-tech-user-group-tickets-90561902087
• The CA automation playbook shows how the bodies can guide and lead without showing preference. 
• https://charteredaccountantsanz.force.com/MyCA/s/login/?startURL=%2FMyCA%2Fs%2Ffeed%2F0D52u000001mzqTCAQ&ec=302
• The #VDExperiment is a marketing masterstroke by Twyla Verhelst from helm but jus because you can doesn’t mean you should. Check out this great Linked in explainer from HLB Mann Judd Partner Josh Chye explaining Family Trusts. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/josh-chye-b4924a31_taxplanning-taxes-trusts-ugcPost-6629846910117257216-dtIE/ 

Paul Meissner

• Congratulations to Amreeta and the Nowinfinity team. $25m sale to Class. Interesting that Class’s head of sales moved on. Does that open the door to Ben Gill taking on the role? Do the sales cultures align? Time will tell. 
• SMSF platform makes $25m acquisition 
• Dilatory accounting cost Dixons £1.8m. For 8 years this business kept amounts open as accounts receivable. Not great year end accounting procedures not to write off earlier. 
• Dilatory accounting cost Dixons £1.8m 
• Afterpay, Zip Co get in first with code of practice. It’s a good start with some practical protections for consumers. One wonders what’s missing since there is no independence given the rules are written by those abiding by them. I’d like to write my own views.  
• Afterpay, Zip Co get in first with code of practice 

WORST ON GROUND

David Boyar

• Marketers are geniuses and people are stupid https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-corona-beer-not-related-google-trends-2020-1 
• Will MyGovID work for offshore staff?

Paul Meissner

• Open Banking - What will be the outcome? Predicted to “...“That completely takes the friction out of applying for a mortgage,”. Anyone who has applied for a mortgage knows that the more info you give the more issues come up in the application. I think Open Banking is a poisoned Chalice. 
• Open banking and rise of fintechs to disrupt big banks' 'rivers of gold' 
• Canberra urged to join the data sharing action - CBA displays a typical protectionist strategy against having to give up data by greedily demanding more. 
• Canberra urged to join the data sharing action 
• Chat about football or cricket in the workplace should be curtailed, a management body has warned.
• Chartered Management Institute head Ann Francke said sports banter can exclude women and lead to laddish behaviour such as chat about sexual conquests.
• "A lot of women, in particular, feel left out," she told the BBC's Today programme.
• Nanny state gone mad. What would the reaction be if this was to be excluding men? 
• Firms urged to crack down on office football chat 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paul Meissner

• Advice to my younger self
  
  
• Comes from: https://twitter.com/AliciaLMoreau/status/1206751875686469633?s=20
  
  
  • Try anything (audit, reception, advisory or compliance)
  • Extra 1hr per day makes a big impact, especially technical reading or asking why 
  • Make the right decision with the right information
  • Don't be outcome focused, just be your best
  • Client communication - personal interaction, not all online
  • Output focused, not time focused (timesheet issue)

David Boyar

• Fun work is still work 
• Keep Stumbling 
• Call out for help (mental help episode) 
• Network is only worth what you give to people. Keep giving 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Change GPS. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST ON GROUND

Paul Meissner

• Lodgement dates automatically extended till May. Aligns with other dates. Smart and practical.
• https://www.ato.gov.au/Media-centre/Media-releases/ATO-extends-tax-relief-and-assistance-for-people-impacted-by-bushfires/ 
• Trent Mclaren tweeted this interesting review of robot restaurants failing. Including a reference to Zume, the pizza bot we had on the show before. Reminds me of the factory automation research that showed co-bots being the most efficient
• https://www.businessinsider.com.au/san-francisco-robot-restaurants-failing-eatsa-cafex-2020-1 
• From tax commissioner to PM, the Russian experiment
• https://twitter.com/7newssydney/status/1217519639460106240?s=21 

David Boyar

• Labor dumps the Franking Credit Policy  - accountants should view it as a win
• https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labor-vows-not-to-take-the-same-franking-credits-policy-to-the-next-election/news-story/50eb8466897ba6a8cdf74dcc2e7f6d30  
• Disappointing that something as positive as grants and loans (with 2 years interest free and .6% interest) are given a negative spin
• https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/politics/morrison-bushfire-small-business/ 
• Remember Emma Tibbils? Here’s how a high performing young CA asses her employment options.
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/emma-tibballs-3805b8a6_ideas-career-impacts-activity-6613522602877169664-dAOt 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Change GPS. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Accounting predictions for marketers are what the budget summary email is for accountants. Everyone rushes to get theirs out first and they almost all the same.

Predictions are the new content fodder to grab your attention at the start of year and whilst we dislike content for contents sake we have a few things to say about what’s going to be important in 2020.

So here are our predictions to help you know what to focus on, and what to ignore.

Paul

1. Some add ons will fold/run out of money

2. Compliance holds as 80% of revenue for the majority of small firms

   Professional bodies have a chance to return to relevance.

   Catalyst success to continue

3. The Joint accounting bodies unite together to fight for the return of the accountants exemption. 

4. Conferences change forever (end of Accountech?, last chance for ABE)

5. The amount of business coaches for Accountants will peek out as the market gets sick of them

David

1. . Governance for accounting businesses will increase as more advisory work is done (all types of advisory), some firms are already struggling with PI.

2. The accounting bodies to work closer with members

3. Decade old ideas go mainstream

   1. Moving to cloud

   2. Cloud documentation

   3. Automation and efficiency focus (more than new service lines)

4. People give up on value pricing as being too hard

5. The cutting edge firms will worry less about tech and more about client and staff experience

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Change GPS. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

G'day! Welcome back to season 4!

Best on Ground

The ATO shows off its data strength with Bushfire support - Automated lodgement deferrals by postcode. Software can’t do that. 

Receipt Bank raises $73m to dislodge everything we thought about the Xero/Hubdoc move of 2019 (so last year).  

https://www.receipt-bank.com/blog/receipt-bank-raises-73m-in-series-c-round/ 

Check out these tools for accountants to help with bushfire victims 

• IPA: https://www.publicaccountant.com.au/news/ipa-offers-support-to-bushfire-victims 
• CA: https://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com/news-and-analysis/news/australian-bushfires-support-resources-for-you-your-clients-and-communities 
• CPA: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/professional-resources/business-management/business-recovery/disaster-recovery-toolkit 

Indinero founder calls out Intuit for over hyping AI and ML 

https://futurefirm.co/indinero-the-accounting-firm-of-the-future/ 

Worst on Ground

Accountants without significant new training are not business advisers but this message comes from someone who has been advocating the opposite for years. 

https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/business/13895-accountants-cautioned-on-advisory-jump

David can’t work out if this comment is a joke or not but it highlights the tech challenge the average firm is struggling with.”Our organisation does not have access to a smart phone so can I go back to lodging paper returns?”

https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/technology/13731-ato-details-mygovid-implementation-roadmap#!/ccomment-comment=8264

What's your social media obligation when posting old content?

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Change GPS. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST ON GROUND

Paul Meissner

• Xero nab integration vs online banking
  • Paid in Xero vs free online banking
  • Still need online banking for account transfers
  • Not all bills in Xero (including payment details)
  • Wages payment don’t create a bill in Xero
• Office 365 rollout for global big 4
  https://www.techcircle.in/2019/12/06/kpmg-earmarks-5-bn-digital-transformation-push-enters-into-five-year-pact-with-microsoft
• Great visualisation of the Timeline of startup funding:
  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/luiserazo_startupfunding-activity-6607792953941458944-EuY3 

David Boyar

• Xero Hubdoc
  • BE on Time
  • Revenue analysis
  • Features: need to use Xero Expenses
  • Good for xero
  • What does it mean for open eco system (Function v verticle) 
  • Social comms 
• The Data Visualisation of the year award goes to…...
  https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/what-is-a-standard-serve-of-minimum-chips-one-man-is-trying-to-find-out-20191202-p53g3y.html 
• Incredible transparancy from a franchisor in Russia https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6610152918978965504/
• Finally a valuable facebook group that doesn’t end in big noting or time wasting complaints https://www.facebook.com/groups/977122739056681/

WORST ON GROUND

Paul Meissner

• Corporate compliance startup attacks incumbents and gets called out. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/luke-moran-professional_too-many-asic-compliance-software-providers-activity-6608115595936440321-LHUT 

David Boyar

• 50% of companies behind on lease standard implementation https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/tax-compliance/13825-over-50-of-organisations-falling-short-on-lease-accounting-standards

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Best on Ground

• Optus Fined for Scare Tactics
  • The ACCC said in a statement that Optus had emailed a total of 138,988 of its mobile customers on 24 May 2018, claiming that their home broadband services would soon be disconnected, and urged them to “make the switch, before it’s too late” to Optus NBN broadband.
  • The real kicker, according to the competition watchdog, was that these customers’ home internet services were not even provided by Optus, but rather its competitors.
  • https://www.mybusiness.com.au/marketing/6454-optus-fined-6-4m-for-misleading-nbn-claims

• Are some business advisory services just too risky? 

   

  • There are roughly 100 accredited business valuation experts in the CA community, and they're struggling to get PI \

  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/977122739056681/permalink/2189420644493545/

• Nandos rolls out in restaurant ordering app but Paul saw this on the Greek Islands last year. Is tech that slow? 

   

  • https://www.thebusinessconversation.com.au/2019/11/15/nando%E2%80%99s-table-ordering-technology-revolutionises-fast-casual-dining/1573788749
• The Outsourced Accountant tackles a common offshoring question "how do I protect data?" in a simple info graphic in their private client facebook group (pic on the website)
• You can now feel free to use you bad grammar 
  • Apostrophe warrior gives up fight, saying ‘ignorance and laziness’ has won
  •  Apostrophe Protection Society has closed
  • Here is the ultimate guide: https://www.apostrophe.org.uk/page2.html
  • https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/apostrophe-warrior-gives-up-fight/news-story/04b0858fcec41e6ea4477046d0fa8f09

Worst on Ground

• Regulating the wild west just got knocked back a rung. 
  • 7.30 Report missed an opportunity to have an important discussion about the wild west of non bank lenders by using a hard luck, Aussie battler story instead. 
  • https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/the-wild-west-of-shadow-banking/11748144
• The next wework collapse was for a $300m dog walking business (we can't make this stuff up)
  • https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/27/tech/wag-dog-walking-softbank/index.html
• The Tesla Cyber Truck launch has created 250,000 orders, each with a refundable $100 deposit. Does that qualify as a sale in marketing language? What about accounting standards?

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST ON GROUND

David Boyar

• https://twitter.com/Rich_Preece/status/1199164672370450434 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl4lzz3uhkI&=&feature=youtu.be
• Chad Davis at IFAC

Paul Meissner

• London Xerocon - printed coffee cups and cricket pitch. 
• Blockchain is Dead? Crypto Geeks Debate Merits of Once Dear Tech
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-12/blockchain-is-dead-crypto-geeks-debate-merits-of-once-dear-tech 

WORST ON GROUND

David Boyar

• https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/westpacs-systemic-failure-opens-door-to-criminals/news-story/d022ddd339400bcdbe35ccda4b24c457
• David accepted 100 Linked in connections at once. 20 automated responses, 1 real conversation. 

Paul Meissner

• https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/firm-management/news/12083988/8-good-reasons-why-every-accounting-firm-should-survey-their-clients
• CRM Fail from a cold caller. 2nd call in a month. Same telephone number. 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST ON GROUND

Paul Meissner

• Have we hit peak crazy for Venture Capital. Will we learn from WeWork? https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/op-ed/venture-capital-slow-down/
• Congratulations to Xero on hitting 2mil subscribers. https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/a-big-milestone-xero-hits-two-million-subscribers-revenue-jumps-20191107-p5387t.html
• Another amazing company breakdown. This time Ryan takes a look at McDonalds. Do McDonalds profit from burgers or property?https://twitter.com/investing_city/status/1192200769652396032?s=21

Worst on Ground

• Findex CEO in trouble over the changes to CGT. Never a good look for the head of an accounting firm to have incorrect tax returns. 
  https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/findex-ceo-fights-ato-over-tax-on-capital-gains-20190815-p52hfv
• Apparently Advisory is the path to growth for accounting firms. Based on the AFR top 100 list, it’s the hidden growth from acquisition that could be the key. 
  https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/advisory-the-path-to-growth-for-accounting-firms-20191111-p539cg?&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:fac-14omn0053-optim-nnn:nonpaid-25/06/2014-social_traffic-all-organicpost-nnn-afr-o&campaign_code=nocode&promote_channel=social_facebook
• How do you raise money for drought relief? If your Findex apparently you do it by wasting water. 

About Us

From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.