The Accounting Podcast

Show Notes

David Leary on Twitter: "Sometimes I feel like the entire accounting and bookkeeping industry is getting flooded by "social media influencers” that have no real legs to stand on…" 

Joe Woodard on Twitter: "We thank @Xero for their sponsorship of Scaling New Heights Online…”

Right Networks Eyes SMB App Connectivity With Propelware Acquisition — PYMNTS — Small business (SMB) cloud accounting firm Right Networks has announced the acquisition of Propelware in an effort to connect its accounting technology to other areas of the enterprise. 

Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation — TechCrunch — The company is today announcing a $250 million Series C investment led by famed venture capitalist and the author of the Internet Trends reportMary Meeker, who will join its board of directors as part of the deal. The funds were raised at a valuation of $2.65 billion, according to sources close to the company. 

Intuit relaunches ProAdvisor program — Enterprise Times — Intuit has announced that it has launched a redesigned ProAdvisor program in the US, Canada and Australia.  

[Newsletter] What we’ve been working on all year — Expensify Blog — Expensify has just launched new plans for individuals at $5 per month. 

Upcoming Accounting Firm Trends into 2022 — Ryan Lazanis — Ryan breaks down key points from the The World Economic Forum's 2018 “Future of Jobs Report” and writes up four takeaways for accountants. 

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Show Notes

KPMG Moves into Small Business Tax and Accounting Services with Spark — Accounting Today — Big 4 accounting and business consulting firm KPMG LLP, is making a play for the small business tax and accounting services market with the launch of a new online system called KPMG Spark. The service is the result of the acquisition by KPMG of the cloud bookkeeping system then known as Bookly. 

Deloitte Joins Forces with Legacy Advantage to Grow Services in Western Canada — Legacy Advantage — Deloitte is acquiring specialized cloud-based bookkeeping firm, Legacy Advantage Chartered Professional Accountants Ltd. to grow bookkeeping, accounting and advisory offerings in Western Canada. Founded in 2015 and joining the ctrl by Deloitte practice, Legacy Advantage focuses bookkeeping and accounting services on not-for-profit organizations and private companies of various sizes. 

QuickBooks introduces 'Backing You,' starring Danny DeVito — Accounting Today — Intuit QuickBooks’ Backing You campaign, now in its second year, has named Danny DeVito a partner for its latest videos. The initiative is aimed at helping self-employed, small business and mid-market enterprise customers succeed. 

Universal income vs. the robots: Meet the presidential candidate fighting automation — MIT Technology Review — Andrew Yang announced he is vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination back in February. His mission? Preparing America for automation. 

140,300 new accounting and auditing jobs predicted by 2026 — Accounting Today — Approximately 140,300 new jobs for accountants and auditors are expected to be created by the year 2026, according to a new forecast.

Digital Divide Is Wider Than We Think, Study Says — New York Times — New research from Microsoft says that far fewer people have broadband internet access than government statistics have shown. 

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Show Notes

Cloud ERP: The Time Has Come - CFO Magazine - Low up-front costs, hands-off maintenance, and automatic updates make cloud systems deserving of a serious look

Why Blockchain May Never Benefit Corporations (Podcast) - Bloomberg - The Odd Lots podcast chats with Angus Champion de Crespigny, who formerly advised companies on how to use blockchain technology, but who now believes that ultimately it won’t get them anywhere. He explains the limitations of the technology, and where he sees actual opportunities.

Where Top US Banks Are Betting On Fintech - CB Insights - US banks are placing strategic bets across lending, payments, capital markets, data analytics, and blockchain. 

T-Mobile is launching mobile banking solution 'T-Mobile Money’ - Engadget - The pilot program offers four percent APY on up to $3,000. 

You’re Too Important for Multi-Factor Authentication - Network Alliance - Meetings, calls, contracts, emails…your day is chaotic from the first moment you check your phone in the morning until that last bedtime email scan under the sheets! You’re Captain Efficiency. Every second of your day is planned. When you’re this busy, you can’t possibly waste 10 seconds on multi-factor authentication, right? Quit dreaming. 

America needs more accountants in Congress - The Hill - Lawyers make up exactly 40 percent of the newly elected 116th Congress, while the American Bar Association reports that attorneys make up only 0.4 percent of the U.S. population. 

Have the Big Four lost their advantage? - Accounting Today - New research finds that national and regional firms are catching up to the New York giants in terms of technology adoption and deployment in audits. 

70% of people globally work remotely at least once a week, study says - CNBC - IWG CEO Mark Dixon said established corporates were leading the charge into remote working, to boost productivity and job satisfaction.

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Show Notes

Intuit Reports First Quarter Revenue Increased 12 Percent Led by 42 Percent Growth in Small Business Online Ecosystem Revenue — Intuit Investor Relations — The company announced financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2019, which ended Oct. 31. 

QBConnect 2018 - the review no-one else will write — Matt Paff on LinkedIn — Intuit’s theme for QuickBooks Connect was “Anything is Possible” but Matt thinks it should have been “Legacy.” 

Blink and it’s a Bank: Intuit Blurs Boundaries of Accounting Software — Digital First — Sholto Macpherson highlights Intuit’s not-so-secret plan to disrupt traditional lending with its new releases announced at QuickBooks Connect. 

38 Percent of Employees Don’t Want Management Dictating the Tech They Use for Work — SmallBizTrends — According to a new report from NexPlane, 38% of employees don’t want management dictating the tech they use for work. And more than half have pushed back on IT or management when they tried to dictate the technology they use. 

Will Waiting For Pay Day Soon Be A Thing Of The Past? — PYMNTS — According to a CareerBuilder report, 75 percent of consumers reported living paycheck to paycheck in 2017. That’s why an increasing number of firms embracing instant payments as an option for workers, and as a tool to both recruit and retain employees. 

The Best Day For Payday — NPR — Most Americans get paid biweekly. One of The Indicator's listeners wanted to know why. So they looked into it. 

2018 High Growth Study - Hinge Marketing - Check out this survey of over 1,000 professional services firms from across the globe.  

Blockchain Promise to Revolutionize Accounting Hits Reality Wall — Bloomberg Tax — Blockchain a year ago seemed poised to revolutionize accounting. Now, it doesn’t quite seem so hot. 

A leaky database of SMS text messages exposed password resets and two-factor codes — Tech Crunch — A security lapse has exposed a massive database containing tens of millions of text messages, including password reset links, two-factor codes, shipping notifications and more. 

Microsoft details the causes of its recent multi-factor authentication meltdown — ZDNet — Microsoft has posted a root cause analysis of the multifactor authentication issue which hit a number of its customers worldwide last week. Here's what happened. 

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VIDEO: Blake chats with Amy Vetter at the AICPA Controllers Conference — LinkedIn — I caught up at the FloQast booth with award-winning executive, author, and keynote speaker Amy Vetter at the AICPA Controller's Conference to chat about how modern accounting departments are refocusing to become proactive service centers as opposed to reactive cost centers.

Xero’s half year 2019 financial & operating results — Xero Blog — Xero is up to 1.6 million subscribers, with 380,000 added in the past year. Revenue is up 37%. Annualized monthly recurring revenue increased by 40% to $589.1 million.  

Xero increases dominance of cloud accounting with 37 per cent growth — Canberra Times — Xero has 981,000 subscribers in Australia and is growing quickly in the United Kingdom, where it increased subscribers by 40 per cent to 355,000. Its growth has been slower in North America, where it has 178,000 subscribers but CEO Steve Vamos said it was "relatively early days" in that market. 

Xero to spend NZ$10m on Instafile purchase — ZDNet — Instafile is a cloud-based accounts preparation and tax filing solution that connects UK accountants, bookkeepers, and small businesses to UK compliance bodies. 

We’re accelerating our UK banking connections with five brand new fintech integrations — Xero Blog — Here are five brand new Xero integrations with leading UK fintechs: Tide, Starling, TransferWise, Revolut and Soldo, all of which were made possible by Xero's new Bank Feeds API. 

10 new ways Xero will transform how small businesses, their employees and accountants work together — Xero Blog — A roundup of all the new features announced at Xerocon London. 

Gusto — Simple time tracking — Gusto — Gusto’s new, simple time tracking syncs perfectly with payroll. Review and approve hours with one click, then run payroll as usual. 

How Small Businesses Ride Their Payment Rails — PYMNTS — NACHA released new statistics late last week on the growth of ACH transaction volume in the U.S. According to the firm, B2B transactions were a key driver of ACH transaction growth in the third quarter of the year, leading NACHA Chief Operating Officer Jane Larimer to describe the ACH Network as “thriving.” 

Tempted to Expense that Strip Club as a Business Dinner? AI Is Watching — Bloomberg — AppZen, an 18-month-old AI accounting startup, has already signed up several big companies, including Amazon.com Inc., International Business Machine Corp., Salesforce.com Inc., and Comcast Corp. and claims to have saved its clients $40 million in fraudulent expenses. 

Four In 10 Road Warriors Use Corporate Cards For Personal Items — PYMNTS — Carlson Wagonlit Travel has debuted a study that shows that as many as 46 percent of American and European business travelers have said they used company cards to make personal transactions. In the Asia-Pacific region, that tally stands at about 38 percent. 

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Show Notes

Accounting firms challenged in adapting to technology changes — Accounting Today — Only 25 percent of accounting firms feel extremely confident about their ability to keep pace in the current environment of technology changes, according to a report 

Accountants in small and midsized practices embracing more technology, but feeling pressures — Accounting Today — Accountants who work in small and midsized practices are using more technology to serve their clients better, as well as attract and retain top talent, but are feeling pressures to lower fees and differentiate themselves from competitors, according to a new survey by the International Federation of Accountants. 

Intuit's incoming CEO: 'We have a huge opportunity to win the mid market’ — Silicon Valley Business Journal — Intuit's incoming chief tells the Business Journal why it thinks it can win the mid market as its aggressive plans to do so. 

Sage Group Elevates CFO Steve Hare to CEO — CFO — The U.K. software firm had launched an external search for a new CEO but was impressed with Hare's performance as interim COO. 

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Sage Intacct delivers quadruple win for Finance teams — Enterprise Times — Sage Intacct announced new features at its annual conference, including Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, an Interactive Custom Report Writer, and General Ledger Allocations. 

David Leary joins AutoEntry — Intuitive Accountant — David Leary has joined AutoEntry and will be serving as their principal technology evangelist moving forward.

Are you getting paid what you are worth? Results of the 2018 Intuit Average Billing Rate Survey — Long for Success — Notable results include the finding that hourly billing has decreased 35% and value pricing has increased 56% since 2016. New this year is an interactive tool that allows you to drill down into the results for insights.

The CPA’s First-Round Pick: Attracting and Retaining the Next Generation of Accountants — Accountex Report — As fear of a talent shortage looms, employing the right people with the right mix of skills and providing a culture that allows them to thrive will be the key to the success of any accounting firm. Here are three key steps that accounting firms can take to attract and retain the industry’s top talent. 

The Dark Side of Accounting Expertise — CFO — For top executives, managerial experience at an auditing firm is not necessarily a virtue, especially among those who are highly paid, a study finds. 

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 Show Notes

Join Blake and David at the Practice Ignition QBC Precon Party! — It’s November 4th (the night before QuickBooks Connect) Register here: https://landing.practiceignition.com/qbc-precon

From the mail bag: Heather Smith shares that Australia is introducing PAYID, an ID that allows people to direct payments independent of what bank you use. Should give Australians an amazing freedom to more easily change banks! 

Worldpay Finds Contactless Payments Surpass Chip, Pin Card Purchases — PYMNTS.com 

PayPal Posts 25 Pct Jump In Payments Volume — PYMNTS.com

The Case for a 4-Day Work Week — CPA Practice Advisor — “Nearly half (45 percent) of full-time workers say it should take less than five hours each day to do their job if they worked uninterrupted.” That’s from a survey of nearly 3,000 employees across eight countries conducted by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated.

Microsoft Debuts Expense Management App — PYMNTS.com 

Email Scammers Still Tripping Up Finance Personnel — CFO.com

12 signs that your firm is outdated — Journal of Accountancy

13 Important Questions to Ask Before You Sign Up With a SaaS Provider — Small Biz Technology

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