The Accounting Podcast

Show Notes

53% of accountants’ clients ready for Making Tax Digital launch — Accountancy Daily — Significant numbers of accountants’ clients are still struggling to prepare for the advent of Making Tax Digital for VAT, which is now only six months away, according to the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) 

Outsource Everything but Accounting, Quality Control and Sales — Entrepreneur — Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey argue that "It’s almost impossible to get... critical numbers in a timely manner from an outsourced accountant.” Sounds like an opportunity! `

Warns of Hackers Using Remote Desktop Protocol, Is Your Business at Risk? — SmallBiz Trends — According to the FBI, use of Remote Desktop Protocol as an attack vector has increased, and intrusions are difficult to detect.  

6 Things Your Remote Accountant Policy Should Include (But Probably Doesn’t) — AccountingFly  — Here are six excellent items to include in your policy about working with remote staff. — Also check out this related story on the legal liability of freelance remote accountants.

Outsourced CFO Engagements: A Risk/Reward Perspective for CPA Firms — CPA Practice Advisor — Outsourced CFO work is a lucrative practice area, but firms must be sure to assess the risk of these client engagements. 

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Scott runs Operations at Kruze Consulting, a fast growing Startup CFO Consulting firm that works with over 160 startup clients. Kruze is based in San Francisco with clients in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York. In addition to his Operations responsibilities, Scott runs the Venture Debt Consulting practice at Kruze. 

In his spare time, Scott publishes the Founders & Friends Podcast, which interviews Startup CEO's, Investors and Other Service Providers in the Startup Ecosystem. 

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.  

Show Notes

(2:05) Learn how Scott made the move from investment banking and venture debt, to accounting & finance for startups.  

(5:23) Scott shares what makes his firm, Kruze Consulting, a leader among providers of outsourced accounting services. We also discuss the importance of standardizing processes so that you can move away from being just another “high hourly rate” expert and build a business that can scale. 

(11:05) Venture Debt Fetch, Kruze Consulting’s new automation-assisted tool to analyze term sheets and connect startups to the best banks and lending funds, is a great example.

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Blake and David reconnect to talk about what's new in the worlds of QuickBooks and NetSuite. Intuit is discontinuing their QuickBooks Desktop Advanced ProAdvisor Certification — could this be the beginning of the end for desktop? 

Meanwhile, NetSuite is soaring according to the latest Oracle quarterly results. NetSuite also announced their new "Banking as a Service" or "BaaS" offering, which will allow banks to connect directly to NetSuite's ERP to process payments and reconcile transactions, just to start. 

Also, blockchain is no longer a much-hyped theory. Walmart will require all its suppliers of leafy greens to use IBM's blockchain to track its supply chain starting in 2019.

For this and more, listen to Episode 38! 

Show Notes

Intuit Discontinues QuickBooks Desktop Advanced ProAdvisor Certification — Insightful Accountant — Intuit has just announced the discontinuation of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Desktop Advanced Certification effective December 31, 2018.  They cited a 'declining number of certifications' over the last several years as the basis for this decision.

QuickBooks Online Advanced - September Update — Firm of the Future — QuickBooks® Online Advanced is a new offering for customers who are outgrowing QuickBooks Online Plus. It includes up to 25 simultaneous users with full access, a dedicated customer success manager, priority technical support, and free online training. 

NetSuite soars in Oracle results — Enterprise Times — Mark Hurd says, "NetSuite ERP had a spectacular quarter.” He added that revenues were up 26% and bookings up 40%, 39% in the quarter. He also added that the growth followed a huge fourth quarter where bookings growth for NetSuite had been 70%." 

Customers Achieve Efficiency and Cost Savings with NetSuite Banking as a Service — NetSuite Blog — The recently released Oracle NetSuite Banking as a Service (BaaS) Program strengthens bank-to-customer relationships in a digital transformation where banking services are delivered within the ERP system. 

The US Census Bureau says there are 32m small businesses. They're wrong — The Guardian — According to Gene Marks, only a third of these reported ‘businesses’ have actual employees – the rest just report extra income on their tax returns. 

Maybe in 2018, Every SaaS Contract Should Have An Automatic Out Clause — SaaStr — Jason Lemkin argues that SaaS companies should stop selling annual contracts, make onboarding and buying as simple as possible, and let customers cancel whenever they want.  

Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain — Wall Street Journal — Walmart Inc., in a letter to be issued Monday to suppliers, will require its direct suppliers of lettuce, spinach and other greens to join its food-tracking blockchain by Jan. 31. The retailer also will mandate that farmers, logistics firms and business partners of these suppliers join the blockchain by Sept. 30, 2019. 

The AICPA’s Twitter Totally Got Hacked by Bitcoin Scammers — Going Concern — The AICPA Twitter account was recently hijacked by someone masquerading as Coinbase. The hackers then used the @AICPA account to tweet out cryptocurrency scams.   

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Learn more about intheBlk software at http://www.intheblksoftware.com.  

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Connect with Sean on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Show Notes

New Bank Feeds using Tokens — Insightful Accountant — This overhaul provides a faster and more reliable method for connecting with your bank so that your account transactions stay up to date with fewer sync errors. Initially, three banks agreed to participate in the new connection type; Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. 

China Tariffs Threaten Cloud Costs — Wall Street Journal — The Trump administration’s proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods includes levies of up to 25% on routers, switches and servers that will raise prices for cloud services in the U.S. According to this Wall Street Journal article, a 10% levy on these imports would slow U.S. economic output by $163 billion over the next 10 years, while a 25% levy would slow output by $332 billion. 

Tired of Excel hell during planning cycle? Sage Intacct reveals acquisition — Enterprise Times — Sage has announced the release of its own budgeting and planning application for small to midsize businesses. Budgeta is now rebranded Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning. 

AI And Machine Learning Could Empower Your Accounting Career Path — Forbes — Levi Morehouse of Ceterus says that accountants "can either become communicators of critical business data and information, empowered to advise key stakeholders on business initiatives based on keen insight; or they can become experts in redesigning traditional industry processes to be more efficient by leveraging modern technology.” 

Leadership and Life Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — Wall Street Journal — Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos tries never to schedule a meeting before 10 a.m. and likes to make a small number of high-quality decisions daily. 

PwC's Digital Accelerators program looks to future-proof staff — Accounting Today — In a constantly changing business environment, the Big Four firm is doubling down on education to prepare its employees. 

Focus on Billable Hours Drives Millennials Away — CPA Practice Advisor — The point of this article isn’t the age old question of billable hours vs. value pricing. The focus today is the value our people provide to our firms and how we measure that value in a way that doesn’t drive them away. 

She Didn’t Win Miss America, But Miss Missouri’s Appearance Was a Win for Accountants Everywhere — Going Concern — Miss Missouri, Katelyn Lewis, is a senior at Missouri Baptist University, receiving a BS in Accounting. 

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Stories in this episode:

• Stephen Kelly ousted as Sage CEO after dismal results and faltering transformation — Diginomica
• Why Technology Won't Hurt Client Relationships — AccountingWeb
• Kevin Garnett Sues Accountant Over $77 Million Lost To Wealth Manager — CBS Boston
• Xero expands machine learning features for small businesses — ZDNet
• The Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting — Accounting Today
• How Blockchain Is Disrupting Enterprise Finance And Accounting Departments — CMSWire
• The Accountant Unemployment Rate Remains Low in Q2 — Robert Half

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Show Notes

• Buy Xero for Dummies on Amazon
• Watch Heather Smith’s popular YouTube channel
• Listen to the Cloud Stories podcast
• Subscribe to Heather Smith's email newsletter

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Stories in this episode:

• CPA Practice Advisor Announces the "40 Under 40" and "20 Under 40" for 2018 — CPA Practice Advisor
• Accounting Partners are just Franchisees — Medium
• The Story of a Remote CPA in Indonesia with No Internet Connection — Ryan Lazanis’ Blog
• FASB simplifies accounting for cloud computing service costs — Journal of Accountancy
• Bitcoin Accepted [Everyw]here: Square Wins Patent for Cryptocurrency Payment Network - CNN

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Show Notes

• Learn more about Practice Ignition and connect with Guy Pearson on LinkedIn. Visit his accounting firm Interactive Accounting.
• Read The Global Talent Crunch report by Korn Ferry to learn how global talent shortages will constrict growth for organizations and economies in the future of work.
• Buy The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz on Amazon.

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