heather smith: we are the oxygen for the businesses around us.
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the disruptors 
with liz farr for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
heather smith has loved accounting since she was 14 and loves the flexibility the profession offers. since the mid-2000s she has been one of the original cloud accounting nomads, with an accounting business that she says fits in a lovely italian handbag.
more: randy crabtree: follow these three rules to keep employees happy | erik solbakken: yes, you can work less and make more | donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshift | jennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone loves | mike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practices | hector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be free| private equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinson | when financial statements go extinct with corey schmidt | can geraldine carter save accountants from themselves? | re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson
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in 2022, the anise consulting founder based in brisbane, australia, demonstrated that nomadic lifestyle by attending all three live xerocon events: london, new orleans and sydney. heather is a tireless advocate for her small business clients and a fan of technology to improve our lives, including staffing.
for example, the accounting talent shortage depends upon technology to be resolved. because it’s everywhere – in the us, england, singapore, asia and australia–companies should ask does your business have the flexibility and support to engage the perfect candidate, regardless of their location and regardless of when they can work? beyond salary, what makes your team want to work with you? include your staff in all of your recruiting practices. are they sharing stories of what it’s like to work with your firm? encourage them to give potential candidates fomo.
10 more takeaways from heather smith
- don’t limit your search for candidates to only those with a compliance background. accounting firms also need people with experience in advisory, data science, and software implementation.
- firms that are always losing people need to fix the problems causing that leaky bucket. it’s easier to keep a good person than to replace them.
- business models for accounting firms are changing, as detailed in a recent acca whitepaper. a traditional firm might transform either through a rapid big bang change or might establish a modern branch that operates side-by-side with the traditional practice. heather’s practice in a handbag exemplifies a micro practice with a network of experts she calls upon for more complex issues.
- growth means different things to different people: growth in your profits and your client base, growing your service offerings, adopting a growth mindset, or nurturing continuous, lifelong learning within the work environment. but growth isn’t for everyone and should not be at the expense of sustainable growth and a good work-life balance. the key is to have fun and enjoy yourself and your clients.
- we are the oxygen for the businesses around us. our superpowers are ethics, integrity, and critical thinking. empathy for our clients became vital during the pandemic.
- accountants should stop doing work that does not bring them joy and satisfaction, and they should do work they love. they should also stop giving away stuff for free or for discounted prices. your website should have advice and answers to faqs, plus videos of yourself and your team so prospects get an idea of who they’ll be working with and your culture.
- stop chasing clients for information. bake deliverables and deadlines into your contracts and consider using a tech tool like liscio to get information.
- never give up clients with cute dogs in the office.
- block off time in your schedule for thinking. great leaders throughout the world don’t spend all their time working but take time out to think.
- do you drive your calendar, or do your clients drive it? block out time for thinking, for family, and for meeting with colleagues. if your firm won’t let you do so, find a firm that will.
more about heather smith
heather smith fcca, fca, ficb 
i sit at the intersection of accounting, education and content creation. i educate the accounting community to positively embrace accounting apps. or as i lovingly refer to them, ‘my robots.’ i host an accounting technology podcast called cloud stories, curate an accounting apps newsletter, and am the author of xero for dummies among ten other business books. i moderate an advanced mastermind community, which shares efficient automation, integration and business process workflow solutions for leveraging cloud apps – you’re welcome to apply to join for free.
leveraging my accounting qualification as a global passport, i’ve lived and worked in england, singapore, and canada and now i’m based in brisbane, australia. after teaching accounting at the local unis, i launched a virtual micro-management accounting practice in the early 2000s. my practice fits in my handbag, and i’ve worked with clients worldwide, and when permitted travel extensively.
i’m obsessed with how effective automation and integration can unlock and produce timely clean data to surface information for fast, informed analysis and decision-making.?
usa’s accounting today listed heather smith (me) as one of 21 people helping shape (and reshape) the accounting industry in 2020 and beyond.
i’m one of 15 hosts of the global acca the practice room community series dedicated to supporting small and medium firms. you are welcome to register and attend these sessions for free. i also volunteer on a number of acca forums, including the sme and technology forums.
i’m an ambassador for innovation for the chartered accountants australia and new zealand cacatalyst initiative and through this support the design and delivery of education programs for modernizing smp’s. i also volunteer on a number of caanz committees, host the caanz accounting innovation & technology discussion group, and write a monthly column on technology for acuity the membership publication.
i share my love for accounting apps, and my learnings and observations of the accounting industry through content creation. search heathersmithau on your favorite platforms. i look forward to connecting with you.
changemaker. socially responsible. incurable optimist. community leader.
transcript
(transcripts are made available as soon as possible.they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
liz farr 00:06
welcome to accounting disruptor conversations. i’m your host, liz far from 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. and in this series, i’m going to be talking to thought leaders, consultants, another change makers in the accounting world, some may be well known to you, some you may have never heard of. but these are all people who have interesting ideas about how to move accounting into the future. my guest today is heather smith. and i’m very pleased to have you on on the show today, heather.
heather smith 00:43
thank you so much, liz, for inviting me on the show. and thank you to accounting trendlines, for making this all possible. looking forward to it.
liz farr 00:51
well, we’ve got a lot to cover. so let’s get started. well, counting talent in the us and around the world has been very scarce for years. and the pandemic made it worse. what are some ideas that you have on how to make things better? and what have you seen firms do successfully?
heather smith 01:16
great question, liz. so recently, a few months ago, a young man contacted me, he had excellent credentials, he’d gone, he’d gone above and beyond in getting certifications, specifically in e commerce apps. and he really demonstrated a can do attitude. so his current role was to compliance space, then he wanted to shift he wants to move on. but the the the small point, the small catch here is that he was based in malaysia. so he’s the perfect candidate based in malaysia. so i know, an ecommerce focused accounting team that actively support remote work, and asynchronous communication. so that’s the ability to communicate in different time zones. so they actively support that. so being in malaysia, being on a malaysian timezone was absolutely irrelevant. and i made the introduction there, and he was offered the job. and i just recently checked in, and they said he was their new favorite teammate, and he was just doing wonderfully with them. so to do that story, does your business have the flexibility and support to engage the perfect candidate, regardless of their location, and regardless of when they can work? and to that, i would also ask questions around. how are you differentiating yourself as an employer in attracting talent to the firm? what makes them want to work for the firm? i and i’m sure many people think that it’s actually more than salary. in terms of your branding, are you encouraging existing staff to be part of the process of attracting staff? are they sharing their stories on social media and fostering a team spirit? are they giving potential candidates fomo feeling of missing out over wanting to be included in that accounting team? how are you sharing your office culture? are you attending events? are you winning awards? do you have friday morning tea? and are you then sharing them on social media? i’d also be encouraging your staff to do that, and encouraging them to share job ads, and make sure the staff know whom you are looking for, know who else you want to add to the team. but also to that, i would review the process of applying for jobs within your company. is it streamlined? is it respectful? are there inbuilt biases in the process? and to that, the story about the young malaysian gentleman when i spoke to the firm and the accounting practice, and they said yes, we’re interested, he actually went through their process, and it would have automatically kicked him out because he didn’t have a compliance background. but they were like, oh, okay, it’s okay. because heather said that you’re okay to apply. and that was the differentiator that got him through. so are you only looking for compliance space staff? there’s a lot more people out there that can actually join accounting firms such as people working in advisory people working in data, data sciences, and for him, he could fully project manage an e commerce implementation for a client. there were other people who could support him on the client, the compliance based so yes, that your application process review you what’s actually written in the job description and the job titles on offer? and also think about how do you find the passive candidates who are not actively looking for jobs? yes, the last two years, i think really has changed the way that we engage talent. has it changed that for your firm? are you open to gig workers? and are you open to hybrid workers? and also, are you do you have a leaky bucket? and are you looking to fix that leaky bucket, i know there’s a person here in australia, who is always losing staff, and is always advertising for new staff. and it’s like, there must be something going on, that’s causing that leaky bucket. and that is something to look at, it’s far easier to keep someone who’s good than to lose them. and to that, i love my technology. so i’m going to mention a solution called ever perform. and i’m sure there’s other solutions out there. but what it looks at it sort of does a data set on sort of the happiness, the work life balance of your staff. so look at that. are you assessing how happy you are? and are you addressing that. so hopefully, a few ideas there, on how to tackle this issue. and you did open with this, but i will emphasize this. it’s happening everywhere. it’s happening in england, it’s happening in singapore, it’s happening in asia, it’s happening in australia. so there has been a big shift. and we need to be open and working with it.
liz farr 06:47
i agree completely. and i liked what you said about being open to candidates who don’t tick all the boxes. when i was working in public accounting, we hired a in a receptionist who had a background in communication. and on her own, she started taking some accounting and bookkeeping courses, just so that she knew what she was telling the clients to do. turned out she really liked it, she was really good at it. and so within just a few months, she was doing tax returns for us. so you just never know. and now she’s on a cpa track. so you just never know.
heather smith 07:37
but she showed her initiative, her attitude and her commitment to lifelong learning, which is fantastic.
liz farr 07:44
absolutely. until recently, the business model for accounting firms hadn’t changed much for decades. now, and here in the us, everybody’s still stuck on billing by the hour. and we have these rather rigid organization charts. but what are some things that you are seeing in the firms that you work with?
heather smith 08:10
so from my perspective, and i just quickly slip in about me, i loved accounting from when i was 14, and loved the opportunities that it gave me to move around. and my practice fits in a lovely italian leather handbag, and i can be anywhere and my clients can be anywhere. so really, i was always pushing that sort of ability to work from anywhere from about sort of mid 2000s to do that. so to that and sort of a step. to answer your question. i avail myself to the professional associations when they have roundtables. and so acca which is the association of chartered certified accountants, which is a global organization had a think tank on this topic. i do think being involved in these roundtables with associations is something meaningful that you can do to actually help push the industry forward, push the community forward. and so one of the studies they did was and they produced a white paper on it called careers in small and medium sized accountancy practices. and, and within that they actually identified four new models that were evolving. so they are the ambitious sole practitioner, the digital startup, the transformed partnership, and the micro practice with expert network. okay, so they did this massive study and they identified these four, these four new models, so i’ll briefly briefly describe them and you can see whether that you can recognize them in what’s happening around you, the ambitious solo practitioner highly networked and visible serving clients, and winning business proactively the digital startup so we do see a lot of this. and i think you’ll see a lot of this happening in the usa, centered on one or two entrepreneurial pioneers, starting from scratch, and focused on servicing high growth small businesses with a strong digital course. so they’re using a lot of technology, they’re using another apps, and then they’re in there pushing for growth. this is an interesting one, and one that needs to be more embraced, i think for an easier transition into the digital world, which is the transformed partnership. there’s traditional firm, taking a variety of approaches to transition their firms to digitalization. so, from the big bang, switch over life, suddenly just moving everything to digital, to building a new practice side by side. so you have the traditional with the modern practice working side by side, and you make decisions about which clients, you move into the modern practice in which clients are keeping the traditional practice. and this has been a model that i’ve seen sort of successfully move along and see if you are sitting in a traditional firm, and you want to modernize it something to explore and something to potentially take to the decision makers in the firm. and then you have and this is probably where i sit in the micro practice. so i’m very small practice with a strong expert network. so i, i know someone everywhere who does everything i’ve always got someone to tap into. so it’s a sort of a newly emerging model, highly networked. and you can bounce you can sort of if you’ve got issues, you can handle them to a net, an expert to to actually resolve that and then bring bring the client back in. so you’re supporting your client through your extensive network. so hopefully, those four make sense. and there’s some sort of new ones to sort of think about in terms of the evolving models of accounting practices.
liz farr 12:20
well, those are really interesting. and i especially like the idea of operating in parallel. because so many firms are just terrified of making the big switch from the way that they have run their business for perhaps decades, to a new way of interacting with clients. they’re just petrified of that. and so because they’re so frightened, they don’t make that change.
heather smith 12:52
absolutely. and find look within your firm and find the entrepreneurial spirit, which is we call it an intrapreneur and look and sort of give them ownership over developing that side of it and have sort of really clear. not necessarily, you don’t want to encapsulate the two firms. but okay, when this comes in, this is where it’s going. and this is where it’s going. and if people feel they want to move across, then these, these are the bridges to move them across. because, interestingly enough, many firms have a bigger firm has up to five generations of people working in that firm. and and then they’re dealing with clients who are probably seventh generation. so they may not necessarily be able to adapt to the technology. i appreciate that it keeps you moving keeps you on the track and you can have that modern comfort with traditional homeliness and rustic pneus.
liz farr 13:59
yes, yes, i do like that. and one of the people that i do quite a bit of writing for is the name of l. anderson, who is working to modernize audit. and he recommends that audit firms set up an r&d team within the firm, who is given a blank slate to just start an audit from scratch, throw out the checklist, throw out last year’s work papers, and just try doing things from new. and he cautions that yes, at the beginning, this will take longer, it will be very hard. but once you get a few reps then then it really does pay off quite well. so what about gross? how do you think firms what are some good strategy use for growing a practice.
heather smith 15:03
so the word growth always worries me a bit because anyone can blow up a balloon. and they keep blowing it and blowing it and blowing it. and what happens is it bursts. and when we talk about growth, i think it’s really, really important to encase that with sustainable growth, and embrace a work life balance. so growth for growth’s sake is not necessarily a good thing. and it can mean a lot of different things to different people growth, your profits, your client base, grow your service offerings, adopting a growth mindset, and nurturing continuous, lifelong employment at lifelong learning within the work environment. so i’m very much someone who probably would lean into row slow and sustainably and be aware of what is happening around you. and i know that we can probably be bring analogies in about, you know, the slow will be eaten by sharks and things like this, they always like to scare us with things like that. but don’t feel that you need to grow. if you’re in a practice, and you’re just constantly being bombarded with people telling you to grow, don’t feel that you need to take on a huge staff base or more partners. if that doesn’t align with what your work life balance is, the sole practitioners can lead a really great lifestyle, and as well as the bigger firms can lead a really great lifestyle. but it’s that sustainability that rounds up for them. and one of the things to embrace growing sustainably is be selective about your client base, be selective about the projects that you’ll take on, be selective about the services that you’re going to offer. and really enjoy yourself. have fun, and enjoy time with your colleagues, your family and your friends. so not perhaps the answer you wanted.
liz farr 17:27
but i do like that answer because it is a much saner approach to growth than simply adding more zeros to the top line. because if you’re not doing that in a way that brings joy to your work and joy to your life, then you’ll just burn everybody out, including yourself.
heather smith 17:53
yeah, absolutely. and i know as a micro business, who embraces a lot of technology, my bottom line is a lot healthier than people i know who have multiple people in their firm. so my work life balance is a lot healthier too. so don’t grow because that’s the constant messaging out there.
liz farr 18:18
that’s a really good reminder. now, what skills do you think accountants need to be successful today and in the future?
heather smith 18:30
so again, really interesting question. and i did a roundtable with the acca on this topic, and they produced a white paper. and i’ll give you both the links to these white papers, which is the digital accountant digital skills and a transformed world. and they actually list out the variety of skills that accountants will need moving forward. so, so massive surveys gone forth. and then we have this information. so i think first one, which is a skill, which is an old skill that we’d have had, but we just really always need to embrace it. and accountants superpower is ethics and integrity. and that runs through everything that we do. and that is why we are such an important part. we are the oxygen for the businesses around us. so really lean into that ethics and integrity point. critical and analytical thinking. so thinking beyond what has been placed in front of you. being comfortable with technology and i get that that won’t be for everyone but trying to be comfortable with technology and explore. understand how it works and explore a bit further. strong communication skills and empathy, which i’m sure one lizard is one that you agree with. i’m coming from a communications background. it’s so i’m important to be able to read the numbers, but share the story of what the numbers are, i’m telling you, and that empathy piece never became more important than during the covid. turmoil, and all of accountants across the world, suddenly accountants and bookkeepers, embracing their clients and supporting them through tax stimulus offerings that were out there, and the empathy of keeping them going and trying to support them. as you know, there’s that saying accountants and bookkeepers don’t save lives, they save livelihoods. and that empathy during covid is very important for that. openness to share and cooperate, adaptability, that can continuous learning, the continuous learning mindset, lifelong learning, and an entrepreneurial mindset. so sort of some interesting skills that that were highlighted within the report. and so many of those skills are soft skills. but they’re actually the hard skills, aren’t they?
liz farr 21:17
yes, yes. those are always the hardest ones to learn. and they’re not the ones that are taught to us in our accounting classes at the university. unfortunate, unfortunately, you know,
heather smith 21:33
absolutely. and i think that the accounting world does need to evolve in terms of of some of those topics that are actually being taught and, and let us evolve with it. and that’s the great thing about having a podcast such as yours is that accountants out there who have gone through this system can actually listen to other people whom you’re having on the podcast and hear what they’re actually saying. and, and from there going, sort of pick something, and going, oh, someone says, i need to be able to tell the story from data. okay, how do i do that, search on youtube, search other podcasts and find out, find and take that initiative yourself to learn it? i wish the study element was less if we sort of agreed to embrace continuous learning, i don’t know how you do that. but i wish the study element was less than we could get to get more people in, like the lady whom you mentioned at the start, who started as the administrative assistant and just kind of kept on going.
liz farr 22:42
oh, i agree, you know, and i, i really do think that the future will be empathy and storytelling. you know, there were so many times when, you know, early in my career, i started at an h&r block, which is a retail tax office. and at the very beginning, i tried to go line by line through the client’s tax returns. but i just saw these glazed eyes. and they just really didn’t understand what was going on. and all that they could understand the only thing that they really fixed on was the amount of their refund. that was all they really cared about. now. i remember one young man being irate that his refund was $1,000, less this year than the year before. but that was because he made $10,000 more. and so well, of course, you know, you’re still $9,000 head. but that kind of storytelling was something that we really need it that was something that i didn’t really know how to do at that time. and i really wish that i had known that. so i could explain to him well, look, you had more money going into your bank account during the years, so you’re better off with a smaller refund. so
heather smith 24:32
yeah, yeah. and people like that, then try and navigate the scheme so they earn less money and you’re like going, but that’s not how it works. that’s yeah, it’s really about trying to explain it and it’s a shame again, it’s not taught at schools had a general level all the way through.
liz farr 24:52
absolutely. now, accountants are bombarded with all sorts of things. they should do they should be a marketer, they should keep up with the latest technology. but what do you think accountants should stop doing immediately?
heather smith 25:17
i think accountants should stop doing work that does not bring them joy and satisfaction, and they should do work that they love. i think that they should stop giving away stuff for free or for discounted prices. you need to embrace that as your decision to give away pro bono work. volunteering can improve your brand, etc. but don’t just give it away because it’s demanded of you. the giving away one hour free session to have that introductory meeting with someone? yes, to some extent it is required, but how else could you do it? look at look at sort of the freemium advisory content model. so share advice, and all the frequently asked questions have that publicly available on your website, have videos of yourself and other team members on your website? so they know what the culture is and who they’ll be speaking with? and so they have all of those questions answered before they get a loan. so yes, you may have a short meeting just to see that it’s all going to be okay. don’t have a five hour long meeting. in depth advisory, you need to be charging for that. and you need to have sort of that barrier in place that they’re not thinking they’re not just going to see you for free. yeah, so stop repeatedly requesting information and paperwork from clients. the delivery requirements of that paperwork, and all that information should be baked into the contract. and it should be an agreed part of the contract. there’s also technology that will assist you in that process such as licio, and carbon and some another number of data collection software’s. but if your client isn’t providing the information, you need to do their work. why are they your client? okay? if you have to chase them up, have it baked into the contract that every that there are additional charges, this is the price. and if i have to chase you, like, behind, there are reasons for chasing people, which is necessary. but if you have to repeatedly chase someone, and they return the work the day before it’s doing those extra charges on that, like why would you why would you do that to yourself, and you see it constantly. accountants and bookkeepers complaining about that constantly, but you’re enabling it to happen to yourself. and so to that point, stop working with the c and d clients, your c and d clients, or someone else’s, a and b clients set them free. so everyone wins. i know people, i’ve sat in groups and spoken to accountants and particularly like i’m like, who is your ideal client. and then like the one that everyone else complains about? fine, working with that client. take that energy and pass it to this guy who actually wants that client. and i completely get that some people love that challenge. that’s great. if those c&d clients don’t, don’t, don’t, you know, slow down, you can move for those sandy clients, move them to another canoe. and just work with the amb clients are all moving in the same direction as you.
liz farr 29:12
i agree with you there about getting rid of the c and d clients. but for so many firm owners that is so difficult, because maybe this is a family member or somebody that they’ve worked with for a very long time. how do you how do you deal with that kind of situation?
heather smith 29:43
i guess that’s okay. so i guess that’s about making sure you’ve got the filters in upfront to maintain that you’re working with a&b clients and understanding because as you do go through your work as you do gain experience, gain understanding of the whole thing, you do better refine, who are the clients that you want to work with. and it should be your choice. now, if there are some people who are dragging the chain for you, there is it may be that you move them to other, you move them to other people within the firm who can work with them. if there is a whole family group, but one person is more difficult than then the rest of the people in the group, i guess it’s a matter of assessing it as a whole, because they can somewhat make life difficult completely agree and it’s not a cut, it’s not a simple textbook, let’s just take the plug out and move it over here. it isn’t simple, it’s you know, these are people that we’re dealing with. so it is a process of working out who it is, but recognizing who they are, and providing easy ways to move them on. and having that as part of your process will help you in that some people will easily move on and some people won’t. and that’s, that’s a matter of i’m not saying make their life difficult, always be kind with them. but if you have, if you identify where they could easily move to, and you give them that explanation, that that might be a suitable way to move them on. and if they refuse, you know, work with it and keep going ahead, but again, baked into the contract, additional charges if they’re painful.
liz farr 31:39
i do like those extra charges baked into the contract. and i think that that is something that far too many accountants are afraid to do. and they willingly let clients bring in the paperwork at the last minute. and then well, okay, you know, you brought it in on the 14th, then it’s due on the 15th. and i will stay up all night to do this for you. because i love working with you or what, whatever, i don’t know.
heather smith 32:22
yeah, yeah, you’ve got to, you’ve got to define the relationship to suit yourself. and like, you know, and i’m going to say to this, when i started out, my first client, i was charging $50 an hour for, and they were my first client. and you know what, i kept them all the way through to when their business finished, they closed up their business, they knew my rates had quadrupled in that time, they knew they’d gone up, and i’d arrive and they’d be like, heather, they’ve made me a lovely cup of tea, they’d make me scrambled eggs, and i’d sit there and have my breakfast there, i’d do my work. and it was okay, i was perfectly happy working with a client, who was not only an ideal client, but they were just lovely. and it was okay. and and i was happy to support them, because they’d supported me in the early days. and that’s completely fine. it was a joy to be there. also never give up clients with cute dogs in their offices. definitely never do that.
liz farr 33:25
oh, that’s something that i will have to remember. and would you also say cute cats in the in their office? also,
heather smith 33:34
i’m allergic to cat. so i’m not a cat person. i’m a dog person. and but if you like the cat, then that’s great. whatever animal is it? there’s cute animals there we can we will, we will always take on site visits for the cute animals.
liz farr 33:50
very good. well, i won’t tell my two cats who are sleeping in the room with me that, but what you just said. now, and we’ve talked a lot about the things that accountants need to do differently. but too often accountants refuse to do them. they don’t do what they know they need to what do you think are the biggest blocks to change?
heather smith 34:22
yes, that is going to be capacity. and that might be sort of capacity just to simply think about it. and finding blocking off time in your shedule just the thinking as we evolve through our career. and as the robots take on more of the work. we really need to block off time and we need to consciously block off time in our schedule, simply for thinking and sometimes because we’re not set in their billing in six minute increments or billing and 15 minute increments or something, we struggle with that. but it’s really important. if we’ve managed to implement something, or if we’re doing something and we need to grow, we need to think that if you look at all the leaders in our society, they’re not sitting there typing away on their calculators or their computers, they are taking time away to think. so how does? how are you going to do that? do you need to take a holiday? do you need to reduce down to four days a week? do you need to embrace meditation. so really pulling back to see actually pull back, slow down to see what the big picture is and where you’re actually going for and what the actual purpose happening here is. so hopefully, that that makes some sense. but i know that for me, personally, i do all of my hard work in the morning. and i do all sort of my easier work in the afternoon. and i block out monday, and thursday, about three hours on both days for thinking time. and also, i take an hour walk every morning, again, which is typically thinking time.
liz farr 36:26
oh, those are really, really good ideas. and, and i would say that all of the partners and cpa firms that i worked with would have benefited tremendously from taking time to just think about what they were doing. there was one partner who, with whom i had many, many conversations about how he could leverage his 10 years of experience working as a cfo to really give some of his small business clients the insights of having a cfo on board, you really could have done that. and and while he agreed with me, he really didn’t see how he could fit that into his time. it just wasn’t a line item on his calendar. he just couldn’t do it.
heather smith 37:27
yeah, you have to block you have to block your calendar out. who drives your calendar? do you drive your calendar? or does someone else drive your calendar, we have a person here called nicholas sinclair, who heads up the outsourced accounting group. and he always proudly sends me messages. my calendar is fully sheduled out for the next six months. and he has thinking time, and he has great time, and he has time with his children time. and i and i know that if i need to contact him, it has to fill into one of those slots, which is meeting with colleagues time to to tap into him and access him. he drives his calendar, he drives his life. he he knows what his plans are. so and i have a quite a driven calendar as well, very blocked out calendar.
liz farr 38:25
so that’s how nixon cleric gets so much done. i wondered about that.
heather smith 38:33
well, well, he he’s, he’s a really great person to listen to in terms of that. he’s very much. it’s, we’re speaking on international women’s day, and it’s very much it’s very lovely to have a man who’s like, yeah, however, i’m not speaking to you, i’m not going to be available, then i’m with my children. i’m like, great, fantastic. that’s where you should be. you block out whatever days you need. and that’s why you’re laid back to me. that’s great. hallelujah. fantastic.
liz farr 39:04
yeah, well, more accountants could do that. if only they were bold enough to do so.
heather smith 39:15
to help on that, that front, but i do. you know, everyone kind of you have to enable people to drive their calendar and drive what they need to do. so and i guess that part of that is influencing ups upwards, and understanding who the decision makers are. but again, if that’s not happening in your firm, let’s circle back to question. there’s a lot of people out there looking for great talent, so look to somewhere that will let you drive your own calendar.
liz farr 39:48
absolutely. now here in the eu with client accounting services or client advisory services, whatever you want to call it is really big. great now, what do you think will be the next big thing? so it’s interesting
heather smith 40:07
because you have this term cas, and here in australia that actually aligns with sort of an auditory compliance. we’re working with the government type of service. so it’s always, i see all of the commentary about it. and it’s always quite confusing, because it’s a really specialized area. but i’m guessing, is it? does it encompass management, reporting and advisory? is that what it is?
liz farr 40:37
yes. yes, it is. it is. yeah, it is. not just doing the bookkeeping. but also trying to give business owners some insights as to what those numbers mean.
heather smith 40:56
it’s funny how you came up with that term, because you have like, america has a chartered management accounting institute over there. so it is really funny because like i’m, i’m, i’m sort of by trade a management accountant. and, you know, have been for years and years, like, years and years and years and years. but but as we’re evolving, everyone keeps taking our name and giving it another name. so so cass does seem to be sort of some umbrella top umbrella coverage for much of what a management accountant would do. but let’s get to what the next big thing is. so this is a, it’s really interesting to think about what the next big thing is, and why do you need to know about it? are there gaps going to be in your service delivery, if you’re not aware of it? and do you want to be pulled into providing service in this area. so just because we’re going to talk about a trend, and just because we’re going to say, it’s the next big thing, doesn’t mean you have to jump on it. but if it looks fine, if it looks interesting, if it looks like you can make some money, jump on it. so i think with the low interest rates, mergers and acquisitions is just it’s happening almost daily out there, mergers and acquisitions in all different levels. so providing advice on that and assisting with that and and then pulling the whole businesses together. i think that is just going to be constantly happening for the next few years, at least, perhaps until something happens in the world markets. and i’m not permitted to that. blockchain and cryptocurrency while as well as being sort of buzzwords of the industry, we can see a lot of technology being developed in this space, we can see a lot of individuals partaking in this and thus turning your accounts and sophos and sort of seeing many, many scenarios of our, they got into cryptocurrency, and they traded every day, and it looks like they’ve made 59 cents profit. but it’s going to take 1000s of dollars to process the accounts for this. however, it is something that is here. and, and being aware of it. i think it’s it’s definitely an area to nishan. okay, so i think it’s definitely an area to nation. and as sort of along with that, and this has been coming up as well is e s, g, which is environment, environmental, social, and governments reporting on that, embracing your financial and your non financial reporting, to embrace esg. and while this is particularly targeted at the top end of town, i am we just my little micro practice is very much trying to embrace it making steps forward in embracing it. and i am seeing practices going out and getting the global global certification, the big b corp, which is the global certification sort of in this space. and i, i can see and i know but i’m not supposed to tell you. there are solutions that are going to come out that are going to be enabling you to do some really great reporting in this area, surfacing the financial and the non financial data so it would be things like to just throw something samples out there reporting on how much renewable energy the business is using per employee. how much renewable energy is the business using sort of, versus their profit, publish profit. so things like that, that they need to be considered. how many volunteer hours are the firm doing and just sort of popping those numbers out. and maybe, maybe sharing that information helps tell the story in a way that the read the layperson can can understand a bit more. so there’s a few ideas out there. and i think if they’re of interest, you follow them. but if they’re not lean into what you love, don’t, don’t put the blinkers on lean into what you love and just be the best at it.
liz farr 45:53
yeah, no, i especially like your discussion about mergers and acquisitions. because in a previous life, i held a credential of cva certified valuation analyst. and we were generally called upon when there was going to be some sort of change in ownership. and doing that kind of work, figuring out what the value of a business was, and what was unique about that business. what were the key things that that business had that others, like it did not have that i thought that was all very fascinating, was a lot of fun to do that kind of work?
heather smith 46:49
yeah, absolutely. and that might be something for people to consider out there. if they’re interested in that going ahead and sort of in their spare time going out and getting that that certification, and bringing it into focus on the area. if we go back to the business models, it’s recognizing an expert in every area. so if you start putting it out there, okay, i’m doing an accountant. and i’m really keen on this area, i’ve got this learning behind me, push them in my direction. and it’s so much easier to push work to an accountant who’s an expert in something, it makes you feel good to do that. it might not. it might not hit your bottom line, but it does make you feel good to do that. but it means you’ve got more capacity to take on the clients that you know, and cannot work with, you know, inside out upside down before they start working with you.
liz farr 47:47
oh, yes, yes, you know, and, you know, in the us, there is no requirement to have any kind of professional accreditation to do a business valuation. and so thanks very much.
liz farr 48:09
it was kind of the wild west kind of anything goes and we would look at the work that others have done and find out. don’t know. but it is it is an interesting thing and there and it just demonstrates that there’s always something new for somebody to do. you don’t have to just be tied down to doing bookkeeping, or tax compliance or audit. there’s so many other things that you can do. well, i want to thank you so much, heather, for our delighted, delightful conversation, and thank you for taking the time to talk to me. now if people want to connect with you, where is the best place to find you?
heather smith 49:06
liz, thank you so much for having me on this podcast episode with 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 it’s very easy to find me. i am on all the social media platforms at heather smith, au au representing australia. so if you find me there, just connect with me let me know that you found you heard me on the podcast i always like to connect with people and i put out an accounting apps newsletter and again you can find that heather smith a you.com. so all of those quite easy hopefully to find there was just too many heather smith’s out. so i think there’s like 80,000 of them so
liz farr 49:48
oh my hey, you that works.
heather smith 49:52
i always play other ones. if someone gets noticed someone does something naughty though.
liz farr 49:58
that’s a good thing to be to jira. well thank you so much, heather!
heather smith 50:06
thank you so much liz been lovely speaking with you and thank you 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间.