Podcast Transcription:
Hello again, everybody. It’s Tom Freer here from the Modern Workplace Hacks podcast. Today it is Josh and I again having a chat about what we’ve been doing specifically in the accounting, the finance industry of Light. We’ve found ourselves doing quite a lot of work in that area and working with a number of firms. So we wanted to share some insights into what we found and how we’re working with them. This one’s great for all your accountants out there. Enjoy. Welcome to another Modern Workplace Hacks with Tom and Josh.
How are you, Tommy? Josh, it’s been a while, mate. Our podcasting has been very slack of light. We booked some guesting guys for the next few weeks, so we’re pushing ourselves into a corner, so we just do it today. We have been very busy and part of the business has been really busy is helping a number of accounting clients. And I want to kind of have a chat about that and reflect on the fact that I feel like we’ve gone to a whole new depth of trying to understand some of the challenges that they have. And over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to have some people that have endeavoured to fix those problems with technology, which is what we’re all about.
Yeah. Look. And it’s been an interesting few months, as you say, we’ve gone really date with a number of clients to help them solve some pretty specific issues that they’ve got around these systems. And whilst we’ve been working with the based accounting systems for years now, the more of the how now is a couple of others zeros and all the goods that go with it. I think we’ve been a little bit standoffish around where the gaps are. Yeah, definitely. I think with the work we’re doing with these clients at the moment and sort of pushing the technology aside a little bit just to delve in how they’re working and where their pain points are.
It certainly highlighted that there are some quite significant gaps in their process that technology can actually help. Yeah. And myself, I think we were skimming the service and obviously helping them with that breakfast reactionary type of the infrastructure. And that’s been our focus is getting that platform right. And now the platforms are right. It’s giving us, I suppose, to go and work with these clients now at a deeper level, which is great, which is always where we want to head to and getting to that sooner has been really good, particularly with the three, six, five platforms we’ve been rolling out and using we’re able to nut out and smash out these issues quickly and then have some real conversations.
Yeah, absolutely. And we’re sort of finding these common workflows that sort of happen within accounting firms, and they tend to be common problems, which is refreshing because you don’t always want isolation. I think a number of people’s minds and brains working on one problem sort of always makes it easier. But yeah, we’ve definitely, I suppose, lifted the lid on a few interesting technologies which are excited to share with everyone over the next couple of weeks. Yeah. And I think what it’s done, we’ve always and I think there’s a lot of process within an accounting practice, lots of data, lots of documents moving around, reminders, deadlines, storage and compliance of all that information. So there’s a lot of moving parts. And particularly when you’re talking about clients using different platforms, some might be using My or Brecken zero.
So the accounts are going to have all those systems. But then you’ve got the tax office throwing information at them. You’ve got potentially superfunds when they’re doing auditing and things like that. So it’s a challenge for them. Yeah. It’s based. And it’s been really exciting to open that up and have a look. And as you say, you’ve been doing a paperwork with some of the vendors in that space, I think they’ve sort of even opened their eyes a little bit more to. Oh, okay. Yeah. This is more of an end to end solution rather than a point fix, which you’re going to have throughout. But you want a title together.
What does it look like? Absolutely. At the end. Yeah. And I think the way we’re trying to look at it is bring everyone to the party instead of working in the silos, and instead of individual companies just coming in and fixing their one problem, how do we be the glue that pulls all that together and the consistency of communication around that glue, which we find really across the board, is that communication element. And you’re right. So it’s bringing all these people to the table because they’ve all got exceptionally good platforms for what they do and where they sit within that workflow. And I think it’s key to understand that not every product is going to solve every problem. And it’s okay to use multiple platforms and multiple products as long as they’re all aligned and talking, communicating and communicating both at a technology level and at a management and implementation level.
Absolutely. We’ve seen examples where a client, we’ve not been able to get the system to run. Okay. Well, let’s have a look and work out what that is. Well, that’s because these guys aren’t talking to those guys. How about we’ll just facilitate that conversation? Oh, look. Now it works. Yeah. And that’s just facilitating the process. Absolutely. That’s our magic. We get it right most of the time. It’s a really interesting area. And I think the deeper we get into it, even talking with our accountant, CFO and things like that, but in the same, it’s like, man, there’s just too much data. It’s just a minefield. You can see as they’re trying to scale the overhead and the people requirement to manage that. That’s the cost. Yeah. Absolutely.
So if we can do some smart things with the tech and again, back to our sort of motto is leverage the platforms you’ve got where appropriate and then bring in what’s needed to fix those issues across the board for sure. And I think it’s a dead time. I think we’ve spoken a bit about in the past around getting people doing the highest value job they can do, not the silly little things. And that’s where we’re really saying that a lot of these technologies are focusing in on debt collection. Where you got a lady that’s chasing 200 invoices a month. Yeah. Manually where it’s a piece of tech that could facilitate that for her with a couple of reminders and some automation around emails and also giving clients a way to be able to access their accountant without clogging up their email. And I think that’s really cool. Yeah. I like the analogy.
The dead time. It’s an interesting thing across the board. Doesn’t matter what we see it here, but I think that leads to getting the most out of your people as well. If you can get them doing those high value tasks, they are going to be more engaged. Someone at some point has got to do that low level stuff and there’s a need for it. But the more you can automate or workflow or at least systematize systemised systemize systems. I’ll do an English course one day, but if you can systemize those processes, then you get a free up that capacity to do more or, as you say, do more of the higher value. Yeah, that value stuff, because I think accounting is moving and has been moving for the last few years to a more sort of commoditized business. I suppose there’s more people. It’s more competitive.
The costs are coming down. There’s a number of variables around that. So if you get your people doing that high value stuff, it works well, that’s where it is. And I think in the accounting space, you’re seeing the likes of the ATO getting more sophisticated with the data since you touch payroll. Like I had that conversation, my county goes, I’ll just tell you what you’ve been paid for the year already year to date, like and previously wasn’t available. So there’s certain functions and the role of accounts, I think, is obviously changing absolutely in that sense. But the compliance is still going to be very key to that.
But streamlining, that is where they’re going to get the most value and obviously then be able to spend the most time with their clients doing that again. That high value strategic and business components. Yeah. We just sort of wanted to migrate the chat across to a bit more accounting focus over the next few weeks and get a couple of interesting people on that are solving problems in that sphere. We’re also working internally and wintaking pulling together a really good document. Monetizing. Sorry, I was just looking at the thing. We got to keep going. We got to keep going. It’s still going. It’s still working. That’s good. Sorry, but yeah, there’s been a lot happening and that’s, I think why we’ve been off the air. Let’s call. We’re off the air. Yeah. I don’t think we’ve released anything yet.
So when you’re hearing this one, there’s probably two or three beforehand that are going to be so out of context, but we’re going to release them anyway. Got to this point. These guys. Yeah, these guys are alive. They are all over the show. It’s been a little bit that way. 2021. We had big ideas. Yeah. I think I feel like the end of 2021, we’re going to get a rhythm. We’re going to get rid of it. We’re getting a rhythm. We’re wicked off topic, but it’s been a horrific year, but I don’t know how horrific is not the right. No, it’s not the right word, but it’s destructive. No, maybe that’s not the right word. It’s been intense. Yeah. And it’s funny because I feel like the bridge to this accounting uncovering was us going really deep on SharePoint.
I know for myself, it changed my psychology around looking at the way in which we’re engaging with businesses and looking at stuff from more of a workflow point of view, looking at it from. Okay, well, how does this best work? And we’re not just the technology that sits in the corner anymore. We’re the engaged party that is driving performance within a business. And that’s where we need to sit. That’s where we need to play. We need to be at the table. We need to be having the conversations and understanding. Where are the bits where that dead times happening? Where are the bits that can be optimized? What is it? And it’s led us on a great journey. Yeah. And it’s been great.
It’s been good in that sense. And even internally, it’s uncovered a whole lot of stuff. Okay. Well, maybe we’ve put a bit of idea, but it’s good. It’s eye opening, and I think that’s the key element. But, I mean, even talking to clients over the last few months. I think the comment I heard the other day was When’s Christmas. Yeah. Like it’s been. It’s been pretty high pace at a different yeah. I think that’s it. It’s a step up from last year, which in fairness, is probably. Well, I think it was exhausting for people last year because the unknown was taking a lot of energy away. Now it’s like, well, that’s kind of gone a little bit, but still we’re trying to catch up from last year, and it’s like, let’s go flat out you were talking to a client this week and they said we don’t even report on our 2020 numbers. It doesn’t exist. It’s the blip. Yeah, 100%.
And it’s funny because you asked me, what did they do last year, and they can’t tell you that’s the announcement, which will probably be over by the time this gets released, is we’re doing the bridge to Bridgeman. Everybody’s doing it. It’s not good at this time. What will be 101 days. Yeah, 101 today. We’ll release this pretty soon. Yeah. Hopefully you’ll get an update. Funny, I’m talking context of like you’re listening to it right now. Yes, I will keep you updated on the fitness journey of the Wintec team. Absolutely. Everyone’s excited, but no one’s actually started training yet, but we’re all excited. I think there’s one Bevin for a walk this week. Oh, there you go. It’s starting. It’s not running yet. It’s ten case you could walk it. I might end up walking. It probably roll down the bridge first one. I don’t even know if I get up the Hill on the bridge on the first one. That’s going to be pretty exciting.
But now, look, we are making an effort to bring these back, and we’re good. We think we got some really good feedback from our last season or last year’s topics. We probably had a little bit more free time then as well. Yeah, but this year, I think we get back into it. And hence why blocking some people into the podcast? Because you’ve got to rock out prepared. Tom and I do have a bit of a habit of booking it, and then getting there going today is too busy. Can we push it to tomorrow? Yeah, it’s been good. So, yeah, looking forward to it. And we hope to bring you some exciting guests in the next few weeks, particularly around the work that Josh and I have been doing around accounting.
It is a big part of our business for our clients, so we think it will add a lot of value to the listeners. And even if you’re not in accounting, I think the process side of things and how you can apply some of those to your own business anyway, because everything we sort of discuss on can be applied across the board. Absolutely. And even with a number of these applications, stuff and the power apps, I mean, we’ll go pretty deep into some of that because there’s been some pretty cool stuff the team have been put together, but. Yeah, and you’ve probably got access to most of it already. He’s going to turn it on. Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks, Tommy. So it has. Look forward to it. Bye, guys. Thank you for listening to the Modern Workplace Hacks podcast. Hope you got some value. We’d really love for you to subscribe to the podcast or follow us on YouTube and LinkedIn. Look forward to bringing you some more episodes soon we’re.