serial accounting software entrepreneur sees opportunity amid the market chaos.
q: how concerned should cpas be?
lacerte: cpas should be concerned. but, this is an incredible opportunity for cpas to step in and be positive change agents with businesses — to help them understand how the economy could effect their plans in terms of risk and opportunity, and help them streamline their operations like never before. cpas that don’t take the leadership role in proactively improving their client’s strategy and operations at every level, with new ideas and new technologies, will find that their services are less valuable and their practices will suffer.
q: what are the key issues cpas should be thinking about?
lacerte: cpas must focus on new ways for their clients to strengthen customer relationships and grow their businesses, while eliminating non-core processes and activities. their clients are being bombarded every day, at home and in the office, by new approaches and technologies that can add tremendous value when deployed in a thoughtful way. cpas are in a unique position to help their clients sort through this plethora of offerings. the latest web and “software-as-a-service” offerings for crm, accounting, bill payment, accounts receivable, and financial document management are proven to lower costs and drive new levels of efficiency and business insight. and, they can be deployed more rapidly and inexpensively than most people realize. cpas should understand these services and be at the forefront of using them to add value to their clients and to their own practices.
q: how will the terrain (financial world, cpa community, etc.) be different for cpas going forward?
lacerte: clients will expect more from cpas. and cpa accountability as both financial advisors and change agents will increase. as a trusted advisor, cpas will be asked to assess a client’s complete business picture and drive positive change. they will be expected to highlight areas of a business plan that are more risky than others and recommend alternatives. but beyond that, business owners will be looking to their cpas to deliver new, innovative services that help make mundane, costly, and time consuming activities simply go away.
bio: rené lacerte, ceo and founder. bill.com — rené founded bill.com in april 2006, bringing with him more than 18 years experience in the finance, software and payments industries. built from a legacy of four generations of entrepreneurs, rené developed the concept for bill.com based on personal experience growing new businesses. he realized the tremendous need to simplify and automate the way businesses manage bills, invoices, payments, contracts and other important financial documents; and the challenge of not having control and intelligence into daily spending and cash flow. bill.com solves these issues and also puts all valuable financial documents in one place for secure access anywhere/anytime.
prior to bill.com, rené co-founded online payroll service paycycle, which now employs over 100 people and serves over 75,000 customers. paycycle has received multiple 5-star awards from pc magazine and numerous accountant trade publications. both at paycycle and intuit, rené developed industry leading customer service organizations to provide an unparalleled customer experience to build loyalty.
rené spent five years at intuit, creating and managing the company’s bill presentment team and growing its bill payment and credit card businesses 30% in one year. he also launched intuit’s first connected payroll product, growing the team from two employees to 300 in 18 months.
rené received a masters of science degree and business administration degree in economics and quantitative economics from stanford university.