XU Magazine - Issue 14

Page 100

Virtual Advice is the future for Accountants and Bookkeepers…

@Invizbiz

Helen Goodman FCCA is #notyourordinaryaccountant, with 20 years experience as a management accountant in the corporate world. Helen now runs a successful cloud integration business to identify, implement, train and provide ongoing support to small business looking for cloud solutions. Specialising in Health & Wellness, Family Trades, Professional Services and Inventory Management. Invisible Business Solutions was one of the first Authorised Cloud Intregrators to be recognised by Xero.

In the last 10 years the technology available to accountants and bookkeepers has evolved way beyond what many of us could have ever imagined! And as take up continues within accounting firms, maybe it really is time to look at the future of accounting – Xero seems to think so anyway. We’ve all been hearing on the grapevine (for the last few years) that AI will be the end of accountants and bookkeepers... I think it’s now clear it won’t be the end... but it will certainly mean CHANGE...

C

loud based solutions have automated the boring mundane data entry, and as we have seen it’s more efficient and more accurate. This has meant that the role of bookkeepers and accountants has had to change and now the professions has to look at other ways to offer small business valuable services. If you attended last year’s Xerocon in Melbourne, they made it very clear that this change was coming and accountants needed to listen! Yet so many accountants still just prepare tax returns, track historical information to meet the legal & statutory requirements. So why are so many ignoring the massive opportunity that exists to provide small business with so much valuable information? Who knows, maybe I’ll ask a few when I’m at the Bookkeeping and Accounting show in Sydney in March, but for now I believe the simple answer is because Accountants and Bookkeepers are so busy ‘doing’, that they haven’t looked up to see the opportunities they are quite literally staring them in the face! 100 / Issue 14

Opportunities like: • Becoming an advisor to small business on niche apps, for example if a Bookkeeper focused on Trades, becoming an expert ServiceM8, Tradify or WorkflowMAX • The opportunity to provide consulting and virtual CFO services assisting small business to understand their financial and non-financial KPI’s and make better business decisions as a result. • To provide support for AI Solutions in other areas of business, for example assisting business with automated marketing workflows, CRM management or job management solutions. Each element of the business effects the financials, why shouldn’t the accountant or bookkeeper provide the value of their experience in these areas as well? Or is it simply that although they see the opportunity, it’s not in their current skill set? And they are not sure what to do about that? Well

I know for a fact there are options out there, you just need to know where to look (insert a Cloud Integrator here!). The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants commissioned a research study into the future of the industry called— Professional Accountants – The Future Drivers of Change and Future Skills. This research has explored the important changes that have occurred and are expected to be encountered by the year 2025. The research found among other things that in the future Accountants will increasingly need to be educated in digital technology (including cloud computing and use of big data), globalization (outsourcing of accounting services), and evolving regulations (tax regulation, new forms of corporate reporting, integrated reporting regulation etc). The ACCA report also revealed that knowledge of digital technologies is the key competency area where professional accountants have

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook

Articles inside

National Australia Bank (NAB) to allow

2min
pages 114-116

Virtual advice is the future for accountants

4min
pages 100-101

INTERVIEW Q & A with Andrew Sims, SuiteFiles

12min
pages 94-97

Good succession planning for family

7min
pages 88-91

Value added cloud: Who needs a cloud integrator?

5min
pages 92-93

NEW XERO CONNECTED

4min
pages 98-99

How to use information that you have in Xero to

9min
pages 84-87

Meet serviceshare: A support network for

4min
pages 82-83

EVENT Q & A Accountex: worth the time?

9min
pages 78-81

Q & A - From paper to cloud

2min
pages 64-65

WorkflowMax: Knowledge is beautiful

6min
pages 60-61

TUTORIAL How to go clutter free: insight into

8min
pages 74-77

The importance of building app stacks

6min
pages 70-73

BSI CERTIFICATION

5min
pages 62-63

The importance of having headspace to grow your

3min
pages 58-59

Q & A

4min
pages 56-57

EVENT What’s new at the Accounting Business Expo

5min
pages 54-55

Meet Makoto, creator of CaFE, a cash flow solution

5min
pages 42-43

CASE STUDY What makes a successful cloud

5min
pages 36-37

Looking ahead, preparing for tomorrow

5min
pages 38-41

Inventory management in the cloud - How

4min
pages 52-53

Discover Loc8 Lite: The app that offers a new

6min
pages 48-51

CASE STUDY

5min
pages 32-33

Bookkeeping: your new revenue driver

5min
pages 28-29

It’s Alive! The Modern Practice is back

5min
pages 14-15

EVENT Accountex visitor registrations flood in

4min
pages 20-21

Extremely cloud and incredibly close: the

5min
pages 26-27

Two ways to profit using Entryless

3min
pages 12-13

Single Touch Payroll is coming

2min
pages 22-23

INTERVIEW Q & A with David Tuck, Chaser

13min
pages 16-19

How to make and save money documenting a

3min
pages 24-25

COVER STORY AdvanceTrack: Strength in Numbers

5min
pages 8-11
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.