Cloud Accounting Podcast
Summary: The Cloud Accounting Podcast is a show for accountants and bookkeepers using cloud technology to make their jobs more strategic and impactful.
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- Artist: Blake Oliver
- Copyright: Copyright (c) 2018 Blake Oliver
Podcasts:
David is back from his well-deserved vacation and ready to discuss with Blake Sage’s sudden move to oust Stephen Kelly as chief executive. Chairman Donald Brydon reportedly said, “We need to get a CEO that has SaaS in their veins.” Kelly joined Sage four years ago with a mandate to shake up the company, but despite the acquisition of Intacct, he has apparently been unable to turn things around quick enough for the board. Sage is facing increased competition from Xero on its home turf in the U.K and has been unable to gain market share against juggernaut Intuit in the U.S.
Heather Smith is a chartered accountant, business and technology writer, author of eight books (including Xero for Dummies). Her educational YouTube channel has been viewed one million times and her Cloud Stories podcast is one of the top five accounting podcasts worldwide. Heather was one of the original cloud accountants. What inspired her to be an innovator? As a working mom of two, Heather only had the hours between 9 and 3 to get meaningful work done, so she had to be as efficient as possible. Driving around to access client data just wasn’t going to cut it. Learn how Heather made the transition from management accounting to training, speaking, and consulting, and where she thinks the profession is headed when it comes to technology.
CPA Practice Advisor has announced their annual “40 Under 40” in the accounting profession for 2018. Congrats to our friend and interview victim Dr. Sean Stein Smith for making the list! His Cloud Accounting Podcast episode will drop in the coming weeks. Down under (in Australia), Jason Andrew makes the argument that accounting firm partners are essentially franchisees. Not sure if going for partner is the right move? This post should help you decide. Up in the great North (AKA Canada), Ryan Lazanis blogs about a guy who is probably the most remote cloud accountant in the world. At least he’ll hold that title until someone sends us an even better story — Tweet suggestions to @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Meanwhile, back home (in the USA) our fabulous FASB has simplified GAAP for cloud computing, but manages to use complicated English to describe it (if you can call it English). Finally, it looks like Square could be the disruptor that makes cryptocurrency payments go mainstream. The payment processor and point of sale supplier has got a new patent that could make accepting Bitcoin and Ether super easy for millions of Main Street merchants. Oh, and Blake had an exciting morning.
Guy Pearson, founder of Practice Ignition, turned down an offer of partnership in an accounting firm at age 24 to travel around the world for a year. After running out of money, Guy returned to Australia and started an accounting firm out of his house. He set out to automate the firm right out of the gate and built a business that could scale up on its own. That meant Guy could very quickly go off and start a software company called Practice Ignition while running his firm on the side.
David shares the big news that Brad Smith is stepping down from the CEO role at Intuit after 11 years guiding the transformation of Intuit from a U.S.-centric desktop-based software company to a global cloud platform. David is also himself departing Intuit after twenty-one years! What’s next? For now, just lots of relaxation and Madden football on the PlayStation. Blake shares the news that Deutsche Bank has downgraded Sage Group to a “sell” rating, citing the threat of key competitors Xero and Intuit to its core mid-market business. In other big software company news, Thomson Reuters has debuted its own cloud accounting app for small businesses. Welcome to the show, Thomson Reuters! Then, Blake and David discuss claims from an investor that Xero could become a $100b global tech giant company — the same investor who also says that Xero made a huge error by coming to the U.S. before taking over Europe. Finally, Blake will be in NYC on September 13 for a panel discussion for accountants and controllers on Best Practices for the Month-End Close hosted by Stack Overflow and FloQast. Don’t miss it!
Blake and David chat about three things this week: 1) A 15-year-old is the new Microsoft Excel world champion, 2) How businesses are failing to help employees keep up-to-date with their digital skills, and 3) the risk of performing Client Accounting Services (CAS) (AKA outsourced accounting) in public accounting firms that aren't equipped to manage client expectations when it comes to the scope of services offered.
Jamie Shulman, Co-Founder, Co-CEO at Hubdoc, joins the podcast to talk about Xero's acquisition of Hubdoc, how that came about, what it means for non-Xero users, and what's next for the company.
Geni Whitehouse shares how her CPA firm carved out a niche serving the wine industry — not just with marketing mumbo jumbo but with a proprietary industry scorecard that created real value for her clients. We discuss what's holding firms back from offering more consulting services, and how to build confidence as a public speaker when you're natural nerdy and shy. Finally, we all complain about how public accounting holds back junior staff from developing communication skills by keeping them away from clients, and why that's a bad thing.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended the use of phishing-proof FIDO security keys to prevent tax scams. Also this week: payroll and HR provider Gusto raised a $140 million Series C at a $2 billion valuation; cloud accounting software maker Xero has moved to acquire Hubdoc (a data capture solution); Stampli, an invoice management platform for midsize and enterprise businesses, raised a $6.7 million Series A; and attacks on the open office continue unabated.
Blake shares his thoughts on the first year of the Accounting & Finance Show LA under new management, then David & Blake discuss the latest accounting news, including: NetSuite's outage this week that prevented many businesses from accessing their ERP for almost a whole day, Google's hardware multi-factor authentication program that has prevented 100% of phishing attacks on its huge workforce, the recent breach of ComplyRight (a large 1099 processor), and why Hector Garcia's popular QuickBooks-focused YouTube channel was suddenly deleted without any warning. (We still don't know).
Ed Kless joins the podcast to talk about how he's managed to thrive as a "business iconoclast" in a corporate environment, why he is a Libertarian, why timesheets are a total scam, and how his musical theater background has helped him succeed both on and off stage.
The Today Show asks "What is 'The Cloud?'", Intuit sells its data center and plans to move everything to Amazon Web Services, Xero dumps its own U.S. payroll product in favor of a strategic partnership and deep integration with Gusto, and Certify adds Abacus to its portfolio of expense management applications.
Matt Paff joins the podcast to discuss what he means by his article "Hey Mid-Market, Xero and Intuit are coming!" on Digital First. We learn about the vary definitions of the term "mid-market" between the United States and Australia, why mid-market vendors need to wake up and start innovating fast, and how Matt's background in mid-market software gives him insight into the future of software and the accounting profession.
David & Blake discuss Matt Paff's article, "Hey Mid-Market, Xero and Intuit are coming!" a study predicting that highly skilled labor costs will skyrocket over the next decade, and Bill.com's big announcement that it will soon support international electronic payments.
Donny Shimamoto joins the podcast to chat about the IRS's new "postcard sized" 1040 form, the potential consequences of California's new privacy law for businesses, and the Houston CPA Society's efforts to improve education and outreach to accounting students.