Ep: 41 Top experts answer: "What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?"

The Accounting Answers Podcast, hosted by Rob Brown, asks critical questions of the experts, leaders and influencers who shape the decision-making of accountants, CPAs and finance professionals. Today we ask:

What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?

You'll hear insightful and passionate answers from these 5 experts and influencers:

Tad Stephens | Founder of CPEthink.com, CPE providers to the accounting world

Tamera Loerzel | Passionate coach and facilitator advocating for change and NextGen leaders

Tom Barry | MP @ GHJ: father, entrepreneur, partner, coach and business advisor.

Tom Wheelwright | Best Selling Author, Entrepreneur & Worldwide Authority on Tax

Tony Stevenson | Reformed Accountant, Cloud Specialist & Accounting Tech Specialist at FreeAgent

Tune into more on this daily show for short, sharp episodes that keep you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.

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The future of accountant, isn't just about

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numbers and financial statements.

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It's about empowering businesses to make

informed decisions, navigate complex

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And everyone recognized that Kansans

are at the heart of this and must become

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trusted partners with business acumen

expertise in data analytics, storytelling,

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strategic guidance, taking the clients

towards success and whatever your role

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is in this ecosystem, you need to stay

ahead of the curve to stay relevant.

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And that's why this accounting

answers podcast was conceived to

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keep you informed and competitive.

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I'm your host, Rob brown, and

I've interviewed 111 accounting

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experts, leaders, advisors, vendors,

and influencers in the last few

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months and collected for you the

very best and latest thinking on

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what works and what is coming up.

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And this week, they show 10 to 15

minutes gets you the low down on

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what matters today in the rapidly

evolving accounting landscape.

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And the professional is shed

in its traditional image of

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number crunching, embracing a

bold new future data technology,

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strategic guidance, reign Supreme.

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I've asked the same five questions

throughout covering the next

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generation of accountants.

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The proactive advice they need to be

given the drivers have changed the

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role of tech and software vendors

post the best predictions for the

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next few years, let's get started and

hear what our experts have to say.

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Holy squeak, Raskin, our

accountant experts and influencers.

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What should the tech industry and

accounting software vendors be doing to

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better serve the needs of accountants?

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More than any other question?

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This is elicit.

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The most emotions technology is

playing an increasingly crucial

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role in the accounting profession.

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So how is the tech industry meeting

the evolving demands of accountants?

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Let's see what our experts think.

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Next, we will come to the microphone.

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Ted Stevens, founder of CPE, think.com,

CP providers to the accounting world

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where his commitment to quality education.

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Helps professionals stay at the

forefront of the accounting field.

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Tad Stephens: Uh, stop trying to

do what I call linear sell, people.

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And that is, here's my widget, buy it.

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You don't want to buy it?

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It's the best widget in the world.

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Please buy it.

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Oh, you still don't want it?

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Oh, please buy it now.

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I mean, that is just,

that's straight line.

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I think somebody else called

that straight line selling.

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I call it linear selling.

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And it's, if somebody is looking

for that widget, That's great.

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Then they'll make a sale.

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Everybody be happy.

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But if they're looking for a solution,

which most people are, a solution to a

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problem that they perceive they have,

that's what they're looking to solve.

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And to this day, software

vendors, and a lot of salespeople,

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really, don't address that.

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They don't look at that.

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They don't take a more holistic approach.

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will that change?

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I don't know.

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you know, people are pretty Pretty

comfortable where they are if

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they're making enough money enough

whatever to get by so they gotta

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have a reason to change And I don't

know that they have one right now

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I think both I think the vendors, you

know As long as they're making their

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quotas as long as the you know, the

software company is making a profit And

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they're, you know, they, if they don't

see a reason to change, they won't.

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It's kind of like a spectrum.

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If you've ever studied psychology,

um, and bipolar, it's, it's, I

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would say the entire accounting

software industry is bipolar.

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And if you're familiar with

bipolar, you have euphoria on

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one end, and you have total chaos

and unhappiness on the other end.

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Well, you're not going to

change if you're euphoric.

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There's no reason to.

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And so they're doing well

enough on that scale.

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They're on this end of the scale and

they're not going to change when they

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get over here and they're destitute

and they going out of business and

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they're feeling pain, they will move to

someplace other and, but they're not here.

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And so until they get here.

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I don't see them changing because

they're happy enough as they are.

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Now, competition could change that

with software and AI coming on.

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there could be a lot of other vendors.

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competition could get a lot heavier.

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So, they could move over

to that non euphoric state.

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And, that would force

some change, I believe.

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Rob Brown: That's the perspective now

of Tamara Lowe's L passionate coach

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and facilitator advocating change.

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For next gen leaders focusing on

developing leadership and strategic

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skills within the accounting

profession for growth and innovation.

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Tamera Loerzel: The tech vendors

could integrate and automate more.

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We need to create capacity.

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And 1 of the ways to do that is.

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Automation and integration, the use of AI

and figuring out how we can create more

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efficient processes, reduce a lot of the

redundant work, reduce a lot of the time

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and duplication of work and entry and, you

know, systems not speaking to each other.

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Um, make it usable mobile device ready.

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It has to be mobile device ready for

our next gen to be able to access

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it anytime, anywhere in each of the

different systems that they might need

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to have access to same for clients.

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I would say that's another piece of it.

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How do we make that available to clients?

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Real time, easy, um, you know, that

they can get in there and see their,

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uh, company information or their

personal information at any time.

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Uh, so that it could just be a non

issue and how we serve our clients.

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And we can focus on the advisory

services that we need to be

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providing for our clients.

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So 1 of the concerns with that, and I

come from a technology software vendor

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background, and I know the issues with

legacy systems that we have and being

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able to translate the information

and have new technology that we're

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building for our platform forms and

our accounting software and all of the

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other applications that we're using.

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And so, you know, as a vendor, Okay.

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We also have to take care

of our current clients.

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We also have to focus on sales.

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Sometimes, you know, if it's a publicly

held company, we have those stakeholders.

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So there's lots of reasons that

it's hard to move off of that.

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And some of the newer vendors that are

starting grounds up with new technology

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are going to be faster at this.

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We've seen this already.

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But one of the things that software

vendors could do is more collaboration.

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I think there's We come from an

abundance mindset, and there is

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more than enough opportunity.

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If we could figure out how

do we speak to each other?

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What is everybody focusing on?

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How could we integrate and work

together to provide a broader

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client solution to the accountants

and clients by working together?

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Rob Brown: We welcome to the microphone.

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Now, Tom barring managing partner at G

H J father entrepreneur partner, coach

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business advisor, who combines his diverse

roles to lead his family and clients

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towards achieving their full potential.

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Tom Barry: What can the tech software

vendors do better to serve accountants?

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I think, there is a need.

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I won't name any of the main vendors

that serve the industry, but there is a

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need to kind of keep up with the times.

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I think, And, whether it's tax preparation

software or, even just time and billing

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and all these other kind of basic

things that we use, as a profession.

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there's not a lot of

innovation going into those.

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Now, there's a lot of innovation coming,

from the outside and how that comes in.

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And I think it's a little

bit of the consumerization,

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if you will, of technology.

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I'll give a great example.

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Once upon a time for like document

storage and all the big vendors

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had their own document management

solution and how this, you know, was

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gonna change things fundamentally.

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Things like Dropbox or Box or, you

know, these things that are being

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used by everyone really just got

adopted into, the workflow or the

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work, tech stack, if you will, of

all the firms, that are using them.

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So I think if they don't, incorporate.

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More data availability, more usability

by the firms and you know, they're

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starting to roll in some AI and

RPA functionality in these things.

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But I think most of that innovation

is either coming from the firms

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or some third party vendors.

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I think that those those tech firms that

serve the accounting industry are going

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to be at a risk of existing because

there's just other technologies that

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are kind of doing an end around on them

to provide the value or the services.

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I should say that the firms need.

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When I look at, just putting

a I again to the side.

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If I even look at something like

Google and you think about the research

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tools that have been used for decades

by firms and service providers.

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You can go to Google and get a pretty

close to good answer without having

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to subscribe to any type of service.

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Now, I didn't trust, we still need

to use our, our technical knowledge

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to go into the next layer of research

and make sure that we're getting

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the, validating sources and such.

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But I think Google is just a great

example of how, you know, firms used

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to have libraries full of research

and they don't need that anymore.

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And I think that is, kind of a, red flag,

if you will, how I see all these other.

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Traditional text services to

the, uh, profession are at risk.

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Rob Brown: I'm thrilled

to have with us today.

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The evergreen pioneer of accounting

toll wheel ride best-selling author,

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entrepreneur, worldwide authority on

tax known for his ability to simplify

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complex tax concepts and strategies.

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For building wealth and saving tax.

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Tom Wheelwright: Stop

competing with accountants.

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I mean, that's really the primary

issue is that the tech companies They

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don't want to work with accounts.

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They want to replace accountants.

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So instead, why not work with

accounts and say, look, here's

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some tools that you could use.

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I mean, think about AI and

the amazing power of this.

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Here's some tools that we have,

and you can, deliver reports.

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You can deliver analysis to

your, business owners, right?

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We don't want it.

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We don't want to take over.

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What we want to do is we want to

replace all the bad stuff you're doing,

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all the boring stuff you're doing,

make that simple, make that done for

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you and actually give you the tools

to do the more interesting stuff.

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So that hard work we were talking

about doesn't become so difficult.

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Rob Brown: It's time to listen to

Tony Stevenson, refund, accountant

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cloud specialist, and accountant

tech specialist at free agent where

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he applies his accounting expertise.

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To help firms leverage cloud

technologies for growth and efficiency.

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Tony Stevenson: So this one is the one

that's quite close to my heart, this

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topic, because I've sat on both sides

of the fence and I find it a really

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interesting topic for discussion because

I feel like the embedded bias in the

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question is always that it is on the

technology and accounting industry to

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make those changes, to improve things

and to facilitate better relationships,

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partnerships, engagements, you know,

professional and profit bearing

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outcomes between those two parties.

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my personal belief is, that whilst there

are Some vendors out there who could

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definitely do an improvement in that

area and we can all get better, right?

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I think the big jump is to be

made on the buyer side not on the

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seller side and I think that if the

accounting technology industry could

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do anything for the Profession it

would be to help the profession become

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better buyers I don't think there's

much pride in being a good buyer.

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and I think i've seen it Hundreds if

not thousands of times turn up to these

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conversations, and it's like, right.

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Okay, we don't know what our pain is.

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you know, we've come to this conversation

because someone recommended it.

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Or, you know, we saw somebody doing

it, somebody else at a trade show,

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whatever it was, no research on the

industry, no understanding of the problem

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that trying to solve or opportunity

that they're trying to exploit.

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and always the one that

really is missing is the okay.

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So practically, what are going to be

the barriers to implementing this?

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What can I afford?

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you know, what problem

is this trying to solve?

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And how is that feeding

into my overall strategy?

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So I think that if the vendors could

help accountants or encourage accountants

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to become better prepared for these

interactions, both parties would get

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loads more out of it, which I know is

probably an unpopular accounting side.

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but, turning up and being a

good buyer is, you will get.

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10x, 100x out of that interaction if you

are prepared for it and ready to make

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the most of it and entering it with a

partnership mindset, not a, you know,

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this is a second class citizen that I'm

dealing with here and I can cancel their

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meetings and I can, you know, I can

ghost them if it doesn't quite fit in

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with what I was expecting because they've

opened my eyes to things that I hadn't

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really given some consideration to.

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So, I'd love to see better buyers

on, average in the industry.

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and you know, the tech industry

can potentially help with that by

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providing better education and better

insight and better stuff up front.

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So

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Microphone (TONOR TC30 Audio Device)-2:

So they have five grand

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answer to the question.

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What could the tech and software vendors

do better to serve accountants each

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work in depth that week, Monday through

Friday, we give you the insights of five

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top influencers in the accounting world.

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On this critical area of the

tech providers, software vendors

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and how they serve accountants.

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That's 25 valuable perspectives,

viewpoints and best thinking every week.

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And with each fresh week comes a

fresh question and more thoughts

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from the best accounting leaders

and influences we can find.

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Thanks for listening to this brand

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If you want to join the conversation,

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The great opportunities to raise your

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peers until next time, this is your host.

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Rob brown, saying stay informed,

stay relevant and stay connected.