In this episode, Damien and Penny discuss how accounting and bookkeeping firms have been impacted by the pandemic. They discuss Penny’s recent trip to Chennai and how people are shifting towards remote work, businesses have had to adjust to a high rate of turnover, and schools have been on Zoom for two years. They delve into gender inequality and unequal representation in the workforce, as well as the importance of allowing people to tell their own stories.

Tune in as Damien and Penny discuss the current state of accounting firms in the age of the pandemic!

[00:00 - 01:55] Opening Segment

• Penny recently traveled to Chennai and noticed some similarities between India and the US in terms of remote work preferences and difficulty finding employees
• Business owners in Chennai are having difficulty filling jobs due to a lack of education caused by the pandemic

[01:56 - 13:12] Growth And Transformation Through Technology and Coaching

• Investment in the office space, HR person, and administrative assistant
• Change is difficult for accountants
• Hiring technology people to work with apps and train on the accounting part
• Building camaraderie among team members
• Leadership classes for team leaders
• Openness and freedom of employees to state what they want

[13:13 - 25:42] Exploring Opportunities For Change In Accounting And Bookkeeping Firms

• They talk about clients having problems with QuickBooks
• Accounting firms struggling to communicate the value of services effectively
• Tax business model doing the rest of the profession a disservice
• Providing timely, paperless, digital access, and good communication back and forth leads to little price resistance

[25:43 - 37:19] Closing Segment

• Damien and Penny share with the listeners that having control of the flow of accounting data starting January 1st makes doing the tax return easier!

Tweetable Quotes

“If you could control the flow of the accounting data starting January 1st, and you can do it under the control of you are going to have access to everything you need when you need it to close those books every month. Then doing the tax return is easy.” - Penny Breslin

“At the end of the day, it's an accounting firm, probably just like yours with people, with technology, with the process and, and challenges and, and, and solving those challenges, and instead of the individual clients being the business client, and the actual client is the accounting firm.” – Damien Greathead

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Websites: https://moneypennyllc.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damiengreathead/

Twitter: @Damien_GH

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penny-breslin-0228b81/

Twitter: @pennyb57