No Fear and Loathing in Accounting

It’s not my father’s accounting firm any more.

Nobody’s bringing in paper forms and shoeboxes full of stuff, or plastic tubs full of paperwork, and we’re not trotting off to the bank to pick up a lot of bank statements, and we’re not manually reconciling checks and that sort of thing anymore.  It’s not like my father’s accounting firm any more.  We’re beyond that.

You’ve got to be, maybe, 50 plus years old to remember what it was like to do things with the old computers, the batch processes… or before that, when everything was done with paper forms, and almost everything was done completely manually.  Even with computers, you had to re write-up the check register, you actually had to write-up all the information, so you could input it into the computer and come up with a trial balance, and then do the rest of the work from there.

But anybody who’s maybe 55 or less (you see a focus on these people in a lot of technology awards programs – like the 40 under 40 and those sorts of things)… these are the guys that look at network and running the programs on your local computer as being the “old” way, and these are the guys that have adopted the technologies and work with the clients who demand the capabilities that these technologies can afford.  These people are more competitive, they’re more agile, they produce a higher quality of service to the client, and at the same time they’ve been able to leverage these technologies to increase the efficiency of the practice to the point where they’re not working harder, they’re working smarter.

They’re taking advantage of the fact that the technology does a lot of the work and the mechanical processing, allowing the professional to really use the talents and skills they’ve developed in providing insight and guidance to their client businesses.  And it is these people who have adopted the technology and who have adopted the way of thinking that’s going to allow them to continue to be more relevant and more important, more critical, to their client businesses, and to the market in general, on an ongoing basis… because these people know that there’s no fear and loathing in accounting.

These people know that accounting is exciting

Accounting is every aspect of the business.  Accounting is process automation, it is data collection and control, it is business analysis.  Accounting in today’s cloud economy is a cornerstone of making the most of every asset and every resource and every capability that the business has.  It starts with the professional practice, and once the professional practice adopts this mindset and this way of approaching business, then the mindset will flow down to the clients, and the professional practice will be in a position to grow the small business clients into midmarket clients and into enterprise clients and beyond.

Make Sense?

J

What’s up with the bunny feet?  Well, it’s all about the bunnies.  You know… like being able to work when and where it’s right for you; being able to work from home or on the road or on vacation – or at the office if you really have to.  But mostly it’s about mobility and access and being able to work in your bunny slippers.

Just remember: they can’t see your feet on a conference call 🙂

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