QuickBooks Connect was on in Melbourne last week and The Bookie & The Beano were there.

The conference itself was two days of sessions led by industry experts to help solve business challenges.

Both Diane and Kane presented sessions across the 2 days to a huge crowd that was a mix of small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers.

In this episode we visit and chat to a few of the vendors showing off their software solutions in the exhibit hall.

This is a key aspect of being an advisor in the digital age, choosing the right tool that fits your client.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

Most people undervalue themselves. They see themselves at a lower level than they are or what they could be.

However it's so important to value what you do not only for yourself, but for what you bring to the people you work with and the clients that you help.

No one will value you a cent more than you value yourself.

So how do you go about valuing yourself higher to be more confident and to add value to your clients?

We discuss that and more on this episode.

Before we dive in to this weeks episode Bookie & The Beano will be live at this years Quick Books Connect conference in Melbourne on 30th and 31st May. It's a fantastic event and it's almost sold out, but the there are small allocation of tickets left...so register at: https://au.quickbooksconnect.com/

Use the code QBC19Kane to get 40% off.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

Jerry Seinfeld once joked that most people fear public speaking more than death: "This means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy."

In almost every case this has nothing to do with the speaker's ability to talk clearly and fluidly (which most of us can).

With both of us currently preparing a talk for the upcoming QuickBooks Connect Conference we thought it was an opportune time to discuss why we put ourselves through this as well as how we prepare for a presentation at a conference.

Our preparations are completely different and what works for one of us won't necessarily work for the other (or everyone).

We discuss our approaches.......and whether we picture the audience naked?

Before we dive in to this weeks episode Bookie & The Beano will be live at this years Quick Books Connect conference in Melbourne on 30th and 31st May. It's a fantastic event and it's almost sold out, but the there are small allocation of tickets left...so register at: https://au.quickbooksconnect.com/

Use the code QBC19Kane to get 40% off.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

We are back with more from the recent Accountants Business Expo.

This week we chat to Alan Fitzgerald from Practice Connections, Ron Drost from iPractice Apps, Gary Sheffield a cyber security expert from Cybercillin as well as some conference attendees/speakers all the way from Colorado!

Before we dive in to this weeks episode Bookie & The Beano will be live at this years Quick Books Connect conference in Melbourne on 30th and 31st May. It's a fantastic event and it's almost sold out, but the there are small allocation of tickets left...so register at: https://au.quickbooksconnect.com/

Use the code QBC19Kane to get 40% off.

Now enjoy Bookie & The Beano roaming at the recent Accountants Business Expo.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

This week we are chatting with a few different people we met at the recent Accountants Business Expo in Sydney.

First off we chat with Laura Venables a key person behind organising the event and one of the new additions to the Expo the QuickBooks Table Talks.

During one of these table talks that we were facilitating we met Kyelie Baxter from IQ advisors on the Gold Coast whose firm is 95% paperless.....we got chatting with her after the table talk and asked her about how she got to 95% paperless and what was next for her.

One of the resources that she saw at the Accountants Business Expo was RocketBook which is an innovative approach to notepads.

So we chatted to the Managing Director of RocketBook (Carl Robertson) about RocketBook's functionality.

Enjoy Bookie & The Beano roaming at the recent Accountants Business Expo.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

Last week we were at the Accountants Business Expo in Sydney where we gave our opinions on Single Touch Payroll as part of a panel with QuickBooks Online (hosted by Meagan Wood).

With a room filled to over capacity (it was standing room only) it's fair to say that Single Touch Payroll is a hot topic for accountants and bookkeepers out there.

We share our opinions and tips to make sure you are best placed to not only overcome the challenge of Single Touch Payroll, but also make the most of the opportunity it provides to you and your clients.

It's a very important topic and session.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

We discuss discounting your fee this week.

Discounting your fee as an accountant or bookkeeper can be dangerous.

We'll make it up with quantity we hear you say.

They will tell our friends about us we hear you say.

Well the facts are that if your present net margin is 30% (average), and you give a 10% discount, you need to increase your turnover by 50% to make the same amount of profit. And all they will tell their friends is that you're cheap.

It's far more profitable to work out some marketing strategies or change your service mix that adds value rather than to discount fees for this reason.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

The Accounting Business Expo is the big, free conference for business owners, managers, finance decision makers, and accountancy and bookkeeping professionals to learn, network and explore the latest products and services for their business and career development.

With over 160 sessions across 2 days in Sydney (20th and 21st March 2019) there is a lot to see.

This week we preview the conference and breakdown the sessions we are REALLY looking forward to see.

It's not too late to register at: https://www.accountingbusiness.com.au/register/

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

Unfortunately there are plenty of unscrupulous and dodgy accountants and bookkeepers practicing out there.

They are the ones who are gaining an unfair advantage and by doing so are increasing their market share unfairly. This group usually take part in intentional and sustained misreporting, usually through making false deductions claims and they are generally unresponsive to the ATO initial interventions.

In short these accountants and bookkeepers are dudding their clients and they are dudding their fellow professionals.

We chat about a few personal stories from our time as professionals.

The Single Touch Payroll system automatically reports payroll and superannuation information directly to the ATO every time employees are paid.

Businesses with more than 20 employees are required to transition to the system, with legislation currently before the Senate to extend this to companies of all sizes from 1 July 2019.

Micro employers (1-4 employees) will also have a number of alternate options that are not available to employers with 20 or more employees - such as initially allowing your registered tax or BAS agent to report quarterly, rather than each time you run your payroll.

It all sounds rather confusing, but we work through what this means for you as an accountant or bookkeeper and what it means for your clients.