The Accounting Podcast

[00:00:00] Thank you to our sponsor, Canopy

David: What is accounting practice management software? Is it the operating system for your accounting practice? Is it an all-in-one software solution for accountants? Is it the crucial tech standing between your practice and utter chaos? Accounting practice management software should bring together all of your practice’s mission-critical functions in one place, to make your life and your practice easier.

Stay tuned to hear more from our sponsor, Canopy, later in the episode.

[00:00:28] Preview

David: Apps are gonna shut down. I truly believe this is gonna happen. There's gonna be issues because you don't have access to the API. And just another thing being turned off that you don't have control on, as a firm. And it's- these are the things that burn bridges, and then you wonder why accountants are like, “I only wanna use desktop ‘cause nobody can turn it off once I buy it and install it on my hard drive,” right? Like, that's- this is the- our behaviors as an industry cause other people's behaviors as an industry.

David Leary: Coming to you weekly from the OnPay recording studio, this is The Cloud Accounting Podcast.

[00:01:09] Introduction and what this episode will cover

Blake: Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.

David: And I’m David Leary. Blake, I get to see you in 48 hours. Two days.

Blake: That's right. That's right. We're gonna be together at Scaling New Heights in Orlando.

David: A little different than here is- I mean, how hot, like it got to Tucson, it was like 109 yesterday. It was ridiculous. It got- we got some clouds, but monsoons might be here. But how's Phoenix?

Blake: 113, something like that. I don't know. I stay inside.

David: I was looking at Orlando, and I think some of the temperatures were pushing the high 90s, and the humidity of like 85%. I'm like, “I don't know how I'm gonna do this. We're gonna die.”

Blake: I'm excited to tell you, David, that my end of this podcast is now ESG-compatible because I just got solar on my house.

David: And if I have a solar tube, the light in my studio- we're getting credits everywhere.

Blake: You have a what? Like a- what do you mean solar tube?

David: It's just a hole in my roof.

Blake: Oh, like a sunroof or a skylight?

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Essentially.

Blake: Skylight?

David: Skylight, yeah.

Blake: So, that's how you light your office.

David: Yeah.

Blake: I see. Yeah. Well, so, you know, our ESG score has improved, I'm sure, for the podcast. Although I have to go find out from the utility, where the electricity is being produced so that I can factor that into our ESG score.

David: I think on July 15th, we ordered, in December, one of those Microsoft Maquis- I think I've talked about on the show before. And like, I was trying- I didn't wanna break the news, but- to my wife- but I'm like, “There’s a high probability coal’s being used to make the electricity for the [INAUDIBLE], so I don't know like, how good this is.

Blake: Well, David, we gotta get to the news and we're gonna talk about app news first because we had some breaking news, when it comes to two different apps that affect the accounting profession and our clients. We also have a voicemail from Byron Patrick, from Heather Smith.

David: We got two reviews.

Blake: Yeah, two reviews. Great. And a crazy, crazy clip from an interview with Senator Lummis, Cynthia Lummis about crypto, from a little while back that I heard on a marketplace podcast that I just have to play for everybody. ‘Cause it just indicates the level of insanity we're at with crypto right now. And of course, we gotta talk about the recent crypto crash, and you know, I gotta say David, I- we deserve some credit for our coverage of this because the whole time crypto was going up, you and I were-

David: That's true.

Blake: -skeptical about it. And I think a lot of the problems that we highlighted have become very evident now, that, you know, crypto is not a great store of value, at least not yet.

David: I even took the advice of so-called crypto experts that are out there, that said, “Oh, the key is to buy low.” So, I bought on Monday, and I even lost money from that buy.

Blake: Yeah. Bitcoin, right now, as we record on Friday, June 17th, is like flirting with the $20,000 number. And you know, if it goes below that, psychologically, that'll probably drive it even further down. But yeah, let's talk about app news first, right?

David: Yeah.

[00:04:18] ClearSpend completely shuts down & why accountants are reluctant to try new software

David: First app news came in literally, this morning, through email, and then saw it on Twitter. ClearSpend is another- is one of those apps, you know? It's prepaid spending cards, and you spend it, it's expense management. It's the whole stack that we've seen lots of apps like this.

They were new, fairly- coming to market. Their first conference was AccountingWEB. What was that? Three weeks ago. They had the biggest booth at AccountingWEB. They were really ready to make their big splash. And then this morning, some accountants are- start sending emails that they're getting contacted by employees, that said, “We don't have- we need to cancel our meeting we had for today. ClearSpend is no more. So, they've completely shut down.

Blake: Yeah, yeah. Here is an email from Adam Sessions, who is like a channel partnership person at ClearSpend, and this was forwarded to us by a listener. He said, “Hi. It is much- it is with much sadness to say this, but I feel felt you needed to know. ClearSpend is no more. I know it's a shock and I wanted to reach out before they shut down our emails. So, my personal email is blah, blah, blah.

I wanna say thank you for trusting in me and apologize for failing you. The parent company of ClearSpend tried to raise more money than needed. And when the markets dropped, the evaluation- I think he meant valuation- dropped and we were left with only a 90-day runway, in short.”

So, you know, David, you then posted about how this is why accountants tend to be skeptical of new products, and adoption tends to be kind of slow because we're- we've been burned before.

David: This has happened. It's happened for a decade. It's happened forever. This is not just a startup thing, right? But accountants- like, could you imagine like, three weeks ago, you went to them at their booth, you get excited, you're like, “Hey, I like this product. It's free. I have some clients it fits for,” you onboard 'em, and it's going away.

And this could happen with any app, any company, right? But really, the lesson here is, it's not like shame on you startup-type lesson. It's not that. It's not accountants and bookkeepers like, “Oh, you should be slow to adopt. It's like, in your nature, I get it,” but it's really for all the app developers and apps that are out there that all think they can get accountants.

Like, every time I meet a new app developer and some app, they think they're gonna be the app that's going to crack the 24 months sales cycle to accountants and bookkeepers. But you can't do it because they have to make sure you’re a real company. And this is a perfect example of this. It was really funny, I had a- at AICPA Engage, I had a conversation with Accountant’s World, somebody from Accountant’s World.

He does all their conferencing. Forgive me, I forgot his name. I know he is a listener. I apologize. But he- Iris now bought Accountant’s World, the Iris group out of the UK. And he said that- we were just talking about how long it takes to sell, and he's like, he had an accountant that came to their booth last year, who basically said, “I've been watching your booth for six years.” And he finally had the courage to come to visit them in the booth.

Now, the problem is, this doesn't reconcile with the VCs in the software industry. Because the VCs are gonna give any company money because they want the company to double in size in six months. But it doesn't work for VCs and money and accounting and accountants and adoption of software. And it's like, maybe this slow and steady approach is the best approach here.

Blake: For accounting, absolutely. And you have to understand, the reason the sales cycle is long, it's not just because accountants are conservative by nature. It's because we have to vet the apps for our clients, because the worst thing is when you recommend something to a client, and then it disappears. Right? And it shuts down or they change strategy. And that's really disruptive, especially when you've gone and put something in place with dozens of clients.

And then you have to go find a solution. It's hugely disruptive. So, that's why we're reluctant to just go with any brand new shiny thing.

David: Not to mention for accountants in the sales circle, your time's dictated by the tax year and deadlines, and there's all these other variables. And then on top of that, your clients are small businesses and they have their own schedule and variables. Like you just can't come in like, “We're changing all your apps tomorrow.

Like, it just- it's very, very hard to do, but this is one of the main reasons people are very cautious.

Blake: And the other reason is that a lot of VC-backed companies come into the accounting profession and they think we're just gonna be a channel for them, that they're just gonna sell to accountants, but they're not gonna do anything special from a product standpoint. And that almost never works. If you are going to have a successful accountant program or partner program, first of all, don't call it a channel program, because we're not a channel.

We're not a sales channel. We are a partner to you. You have to also dedicate development resources. Because if we don't see you building stuff that we need as accountants, we're not going to invest our relationships in your business.

David: And it's resources on both sides. Yes. You need to invest in your product, but you have to- you know, you have to go to the conferences, sponsor booths. You have to build a relationship with the accountants. It's not show up, “Here's the lead capture. We're gonna convert you” like that.

Blake: It's a long- it's a long journey, but it can be very rewarding, as we saw. Right? Bill.com, it took them 20 years, and they did it in something like half-

David: Or 10. Decade, decade. 10.

Blake: A decade.

David: Expensify, decade, yeah.

Blake: Half of their revenue at Bill.com- I don't know what it is for Expensify, but Bill.com, practically half of their revenue ended up coming through the Accountant Channel, but it takes time. It takes a long time.

David: And so, one thing that ClearSpend that kind of can- like, in general, I do feel like there's a lot- every time you go to one of these conferences, there's another expense management app that's free. They're all using this kind of free model ‘cause they're trying to make money on the arbitrage or whatever. And so-

Blake: The interchange.

David: With the interchange. So, other apps that are out there, apparently, were in the news this week as well, a competing app.

[00:10:11] Brex shutting down the banking for a lot of small business customers

Blake: So, Brex, which started out as basically, the same thing as ClearSpend, a credit card, virtual cards that you provision to your employees, and also, physical cards, right?

David: Yes.

Blake: Spend management platform, an alternative to getting an AMEX corporate card. They have changed direction, and they're shutting down this banking product they created.

David: They're- so, they're 100 percent shutting down the banking product. I thought they just kicked me off because I don't use it enough.

Blake: I said it wrong. They're shutting it down for some users. So, they've decided to pivot- well, here's the language, how they explained it.

David: Okay.

Blake: There's a article on their support site, and the headline is, Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer? Brex is constantly evolving our business, and after changes to our strategy, we are less suited to meet the needs of smaller customers.

And so, the discussion online is Brex decided they can't be serving both small businesses and enterprise, and mid-market. They've been trying to do too much. So now, they're just gonna go after the enterprise, ‘cause that's where the money's at, right?

David: Yup.

Blake: And they're just cutting loose all of these smaller businesses and smaller startups that they'd started out on this banking product. And they're just shutting down their accounts. And basically, they- a lot of people, we don't know how many, but enough where it created like a trend on Twitter, got an email from Brex saying, “We're shutting down your account in two months.

You gotta move off of it.” And that can be hugely disruptive, to lose your banking partner, as a small business. Like, that quickly. And now, you gotta move everything around. What if you've got incoming deposits that now you've gotta reroute? If that account is closed, are you gonna get your money ever?

David: Or you're an accountant that put clients on this, and now, the clients don’t have a bank. Like, again, this ties back to this, like, this is why accountants are skeptical about software. They're gonna be slow to adopt.

Blake: Yeah. And the question is, you know, how much did Brex spend to get these customers too? Because they were giving out something like 100,000 points. They had this point system, which, you know, that ends up being worth by 1000 bucks. So, they were basically paying like 1000 bucks to get you to sign up for a bank account with them. And then, maybe there wasn't a lot of activity, they end up-

David: This is a problem in general with a lot of these startups, right? You take VC money, there are these huge ad campaigns. You know, some of these startups are spending $1,000 to $2,000 to get an accountant onto their platform. Right? And if your cost of acquisition is that, and you have a free product, it doesn't really work out, and then you're outta money, then you go out of business.

So, it's gonna- and it made sense, ‘cause even with, I remember with Melio early on, like people are very- like, accountants, the question they’d just ask was like, how can you be free? Like, how are you gonna stay in business? Now, Melio has a free structure, but that’s a big question. And it's a concern. It's a valid concern because can't put your clients on products that vanish. You just can't.

Blake: Mm-hmm.

David: Or worse than that, they pivot like this, which is really bad.

Blake: Yeah. So, if your clients got purged by Brex, I would recommend Relay Financial. I have a relationship with Relay Financial. I'm their Accountant Community Advocate. So, I have my own opinions, like- but I think they are the best solution.

David: As we run the podcast on it, and I run my other business on it because PNC is horrible. Like-

Blake: Yeah. We run The Cloud Accounting Podcast on Relay. It's easy to set up. It's the small business banking solution in the cloud. And I think every accountant will love the features they have. And they are really investing in the Accountant Channel. They've built a dashboard where you can see all your clients, you can manage all the permissions.

It's not just a marketing thing. It's a real thing for accountants. It's a real partner program. Oh, and we just launched our certification, which I- I'm the voice of the certification. So, you can go and get it. I think it's about two hours, and you can become a Relay partner, certified partner, and get a badge to put on your website. And we're gonna look into adding a CPE to that as well.

[00:14:19] Thank you to our sponsor, A2X

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[00:15:25] Lili debuts a new app center and updates invoice software

David: So, just other app news to pivot, just to go off of that, that is related to this expense card type thing or new banks. So, there's- we may have talked about them in the past. There's a small business, like one of these Neo banks called Lili. L-I-L-I.

Blake: Lili.

David: Lili. Well, they just debut viewed a new app center. So now, you can take this bank and connect it to your accounting software platforms, other payments apps, marketplaces like Etsy. They- and they upgraded and made their invoicing software more robust so you can customize the invoices. So, this is an online bank, right? Going after those- it's that the first thing people need to do is launch- get a bank, right?

And now, the invoicing’s there, you know, everybody wants to be the full tech stack. And we've talked about this before, and they’ve just really made this a lot more robust. So, you know, the march is- there's options out there, you know, for a small business.

[00:16:16] Voicemail from Heather about DataDear alternatives

Blake: We got two voicemails that are related to app news. I wanna play the first one now. This is from Heather Smith, in response to our coverage of DataDear. DataDear is shutting down for non- like, who are they that got acquired?

David: So, DataDear had like a Excel reporting thing that synced with QuickBooks and Xero. Right? And there's been other- there's other products, I think LiveFlow is out there. G-Accon.

Blake: Genius Sheets.

David: What's the other one?

Blake: Genius Sheets.

David: So, there's a couple products that do this, and DataDear got acquired by Intuit. Intuit rolled it up because that's what they're doing right now. They're buying companies and rolling that software into QuickBooks Online Advanced, and through this journey now, they've- they're disabling access to-

Blake: Access for non QBOA users. Right? So, Heather is doing a public service and has been looking into some alternatives. So, let's hear from Heather Smith, our Australian correspondent, on her opinions on what we should look into.

Heather Smith: Hi, David and Blake. This is Heather Smith here, your favorite Australian roving reporter for The Cloud Accounting Podcast here. So, as you've mentioned on previous episodes of The Cloud Accounting Podcast, DataDear will soon no longer be available to users outside of QuickBooks Online. So, I've spoken to the Intuit and the DataDear team about it.

And as, again, I think you've mentioned the solution will be built into QuickBooks Online. So, it will no longer be available to external users. So, I guess if you are on QBO, it's business as usual, and you actually get an additional solution there if- additional features and functionality there, if you so wish to use it, but if you are not using QBO, well then- and you still want to use DataDear, well, maybe you can move all of your accounting software across to QBO, or you could change from DataDear to another app in the market.

So, I wanted to quickly give you just run through a few apps out there, a few options. So, we have G-Accon based outta Michigan, founded by Andrey Kustarnikov. G-Accon connects Xero, QuickBooks and FreshBooks with Google Sheets.

And you can find that at accon.services. Another solution is Reach Reporting based out of Utah, connects Xero and Gusto with Google Sheets. Find that at Reach Reporting. Then another solution is Flex Financial Reporting, based out of Perth, founded by Rory McCarran. It used to be called Quick Win Development and it connects Xero directly to Microsoft Excel.

Find that at flexfinancialreporting.com. And then a new player on the market EXL cloud, based out of Melbourne, founded by Lance Ruben. He's developing a solution that connects Xero with Microsoft Excel. It's currently in beta, and you can access it at exlcloud.io. So, hopefully, that all makes sense. and you can find, um, verified accounting tools on the Xero marketplace. So, this sort of functionality actually counts as a tool.

So, search for accountant tools on the Xero marketplace or on the marketplace of the accounting software package that you're using. So, I've worked with a number of those solutions and they all work very well, and I was strategically partnered with DataDear for many years, and I'm currently strategically partnered with G-Accon.

So, hopefully, that's useful information for everyone out there. Thank you, Blake and David, for such a brilliant and informative podcast.

David: Wow. Our job is done. We could just roll up now.

Blake: Thank you, Heather. I know.

David: That was great.

Blake: We gotta make this a regular segment.

David: Super in-depth.

Blake: Yeah. I think these tools that are all cropping up are so cool. Being able to just pull your Xero or QBO data into a spreadsheet, and then do what you want with it, and keep it up to date automatically without having to export and cut and paste, you know? This is-

David: And obviously, Intuit gets that value. That's why they bought it. But the lesson here is, again, here's another app getting shut down. So, you commit to something, and then you get divorced or broken up with maybe, right?

Blake: Yeah.

David: And in a way you didn't want to. So, that leads me right to our next story, Blake. Next.

[00:21:02] Internet Explorer is shutting down

Blake: Internet Explorer shutting down?

David: No. Well, that's a whole- I didn't even wanna touch that story ‘cause I saw somebody post on Facebook ‘cause Internet Explorer used to be embedded in QuickBooks Desktop. And there was a Facebook- I was like, “I'm not even bringing this to the show.” Like, the desktop people are worried about Internet Explorer and like, it's the double, triple whammy. I don't wanna talk about that.

Blake: Well, I wonder- I don't know the answer to this, but Internet Explorer is shutting down and I know that the way that you exported data from QuickBooks Desktop to Online was through Explorer. Internet Explorer was the only way you could do it. And have they-

David: Yeah. And I think they've moved away from that a while back, but it was just- I just, oh man, I don't wanna get on that path, we're still gonna speak about Intuit, so.

Blake: Well, but wait, can I just reminisce with you about Internet Explorer for a minute?

David: Okay. I didn’t know that-

Blake: This is the end of an era, David. End of an era. Now, now, do you know when Internet Explorer was released?

David: I was working at the mall. So, this had to be 94, 95. 95, maybe.

Blake: Yep. You're right. August 16th, 1995. Waterfalls by TLC was the number one song in the country. Bill Clinton was in the White House and Microsoft introduced a new way to surf the web, Internet Explorer. That's the lead of a New York Times article all about this nostalgia.

David: Yeah, and we were- you would buy a mosaic box or you'd buy the Internet Explorer box and take it home to install your browser.

Blake: Well, what's funny about it is that it was around for so long and it was the default browser, but from the beginning, people said it's buggy and slow. And it really never shook that, right? It was always the browser that your mom used or that you had to use at work, because it was the only one that was secure.

David: Well, a lot of engineers would code to it. And that's why- this is my big problem of a lot of apps. You can use apps, they only work with Google now. Google Chrome. This is the same dance, over again. Well, you have to use Google Chrome to use our app. I'm like, “That’s just gonna put us in the same boat. You're just the new Microsoft Explorer, i.e.” I don’t know.

Blake: Yeah. Well, and you know, the solution is- it's actually kind of funny to think that most of the time, when we work in a cloud environment, we're working in a Chrome browser. And we have 200 tabs open, and that is what's actually pushing our computers to the max these days. Most people, they gotta upgrade their computer just to handle the tabs, right?

David: The browser. It’s the browser.

Blake: Yeah. Because you know, and browser apps are- like, if they're really resource intensive, they're not as efficient as a native application. But that's just- it's the world we live in now, right?

David: Well, that's ‘cause you always have some tab open and it's playing six auto play videos you didn't even know we're running. It's just, I always know to go check when I start hearing my laptop, the fan just going crazy, and it’s like, I'm like, “What- who- this app just decided to play these videos on their landing page.” So, should we get-

Blake: Well, and you know, what's sad about Internet Explorer, what was sad about it is it ended Netscape Navigator. You know, they basically became that default and it was also the reason- don't forget- that Microsoft ended up in the crosshairs of regulators for antitrust, because they were bundling Internet Explorer as the default browser in Windows and-

David: Well, beyond that, I can even take this deeper in. Partially, the reason- I mean, this is a little speculation here, but somebody who was that Intuit at the time. Remember when you first used to install Windows, early on when they released the Windows 98, I would think it was. That's when they really started embedding IE in there.

And on the desktop, they would put some icons. One was the disney.com or ABC Go or whatever the hell it was called, go.com, at the time. There was a desktop icon, a shortcut to quick in. So, there's probably a little swaping. All right, “We'll make- so, Intuit, if you make IE your official default browser in all your apps, we'll put your icon on our desktop.” I'm sure there's some back scratching there. So, it does tie full- like, the IE story, you can't tell without the Intuit journey. They are very deeply tied together, those two products. And always have been.

Blake: Well, David, thank you for going down memory lane with me. I'll let you get back on track.

David: All right.

[00:25:09] Intuit to require all apps to jump through "hard requirements"

David: So, we'll go back a couple memories ago. I wanna say about eight months ago, we actually titled our episode that thousands of apps are going to lose access to QuickBooks Online data.

Blake: Remind me why.

David: Intuit has requirements for apps, and there's two tiers of that. There's like this basic set of requirements. So, if you have an app and you're gonna have- it's a custom app maybe. You have three customers. You're never going in the app store. Why do you need to jump through a bunch of extra hoops to get on- if you're not gonna be on the app store? It costs Intuit time and money to research your app and vet your app out.

If nobody's using it, it's a custom app, whatever. So, they basically decided to change those requirements to where everybody has to jump through the hard requirements now. And so, if you think about the thousands of developers, I mean, you have what, 750 apps or maybe it's probably a thousand. A thousand apps in the app store by now for QuickBooks Online, you probably have another 4,000 to 5,000 apps that are probably connecting through the APIs, right?

So, that's a lot of- some of it's teeny small apps, some of it's one-offs, and now, all of them have to meet the new requirements. And they've started to do this transition, and they've already transitioned. So, if you're an app not meeting these requirements, you can't take new customers onto your API connection. But the big shutdown’s come in the end of July, so now, we're, you know, six weeks out or whatever, for July 31st.

And I just wanted to check the status of it because I did hear rumbling from an accountant who's like, “Oh, we just had to fix something yesterday ‘cause we got turned off,” and there's valid questions on this. Right? You know, I asked Intuit developer, you know, how- what's the status? Is it still on track? Are they still shutting it down? And the response I got was, yes, they're gonna limit the ability.

Right? But existing users- so, if you have a connection already on that app, your API- you're not gonna be turned off, which is good. But then it opens the door to like, what if somebody connects and- disconnects and reconnects, right? And then it'd be great to get the list, right? How many numbers, how many app developers have migrated to these new policies? How many haven't?

Because apps are gonna shut down. I truly believe this is gonna happen. There's gonna be issues because you don't have access to the API, and just another thing being turned off that you don't have control on, as a firm. And it's- these are the things that burn bridges. And then you wonder why accountants are like, “I only wanna use desktop ‘cause nobody can turn it off once I buy it and install it on my hard drive.”

Like, that's- this is the- our behaviors as an industry cause other people's behaviors as an industry. And now, there is a developer that piped in that said it was- you know, they wanted to update their app card prior to, but they were already gonna be on the app store. So, it doesn't really matter. It’s really the people with those custom integrations and those smaller apps that aren't in the app store.

That’s, I think, where the risk is. So, if you have clients that are using an app that connects to QuickBooks Online, make sure you're preparing for things and make sure you're decks are in order for this. And which kind of ties to a bigger discussion where it's like, you know, Intuit dev’s doing this, they're shutting down this API if you don't meet the qualifications. In the meantime, Xero's charging developers on their app store. Right?

So then, what happens? What if an app developer's like, “Screw Xero. I don't want to pay your little fee to be on your app store.” And then now that app’s API connection gets turned off. Who knows, right? Like, this is just- I think it's very short-sighted thinking. Instead of this long-term victory, which is open APIs, everybody. And I see this pendulum swing a lot, and it always has, you know, in this industry. I remember like, back in the day, ‘cause if you had QuickBooks Desktop and ADP, you could be a very good customer of both products, but you paid a penalty.

You had to like export your file out. Then you put it on your desktop, then import it into QuickBooks. Then next week, take the file from ADP, import it into QuickBooks. And it was very mistake-prone. It's dangerous. Like, all those old ways of doing things are bad. APIs are great, but these companies are getting- I don't know. They're gonna burn bridges with accountants.

This doesn't help any of us long-term, shutting off APIs, charging developers a little extra premium for short-term victory. It doesn't really help all of us. We will see.

Blake: I agree.

[00:29:21] Thank you to our sponsor, Canopy

David: This episode of the The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Canopy. Accounting practice management software should bring together all of your firm's mission-critical functions in one place; client management, document management, workflow, time and billing, and payments to keep your team organized. Canopy knows that not all firms are on the same practice management journey or timeline.

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[00:30:38] Fathom introduces integration with Google Sheets

Blake: So, continuing on in app news, fathom now has an integration with Google Sheets.

David: We could even talk about Fathom having- they got pulled out of- they're getting pulled out of one of the Intuit offerings. There's another, you're committed, you're onto something that gets pulled out. We talked about this a couple weeks ago, but.

Blake: Yeah, QuickBooks Online Advanced had Fathom as the built-in forecasting tool and dashboard tool.

David: Was it Online Advanced or was it the accountant’s edition?

Blake: I thought it was Online Advanced. I thought everything's been going into Online Advanced.

David: ‘Cause like, both are called QBOA. It's so dumb.

Blake: Well, so they-

David: Call other one Enterprise.

Blake: They got pulled out of that and Centage got put in, which doesn't surprise me because you know, Fathom's really more of like a dashboarding tool. It's not really a forecasting tool, where Centage is an actual, like, FP&A- full FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, BVA application. But you know, what I wanna point out about this integration with Google Sheets that's really nice is that now, you can bring in your non-financial data into Fathom, which is something I used to do for a client.

And I had to do it manually every week or every month. And now, you can just set up the columns and the rows in a Google Sheet, have somebody go update that with your non-financial information and that gets pulled in automatically to your Fathom dashboard. So, that's a really nice feature. I think it took a long time-

David: That’s a value add, right? For your clients.

Blake: Yeah.

David: If you you're like, “Hey, I [INAUDIBLE] this dashboard, but oh, you wanna know the weather because you're an ice cream shop and you need to see the weather each day?” You can.

Blake: Yeah, I mean, financial dashboards that only have financial data are useless, in my opinion. I am willing to go out on a limb there. I am willing to stake- put a stake in the ground on that. It's totally pointless. If all you have are these lagging indicators of financial information, your clients will never look at it.

You have to find out about their business, learn about their business, learn about what operational metrics matter to them. Is it orders? Is it phone calls? Is it leads? Is it properties under management? Is it patient scene? Is it- whatever it is for their type of business, you gotta get that in.

David: ‘Cause usually, that’s the data they're using to make decisions anyways.

Blake: Yeah. That's the leading indicators, right?

David: They’re not making decisions based on debt to equity ratio. They're not making any business decisions based on that.

Blake: No, no. The current ratio, like, you know, who cares? Like, in a, you know, in a small business, it's all cash flow, right? And you need to have the metrics that lead to cash. Cash coming in the door. And so, if you have a SaaS company- I've talked about this in my technology talks for years now.

[00:33:10] FASBI should standardize KPI metrics

Blake: And we've actually got a voicemail about this from Byron Patrick. Maybe this would be a good time to get to that. You know, I think that FASBI, if it really wants to make accounting more useful, accounting standards more useful, should standardize these KPIs that we use in all these different industries, especially in subscription businesses and technology companies. Because we've got this whole methodology for calculating all these different metrics, but it's not standard.

And every company does it in a slightly different way. And when you're doing due diligence on these companies, it can be a real challenge to figure out what is actually going on. Stuff as basic as like whether or not you include gross profit in your calculation of lifetime value, or if you're just going on revenue. There's actually that a difference in that- in the way different companies calculate it.

And it makes a huge difference in your numbers. So, shall we hear from Byron?

David: Jump in.

[00:34:02] Byron's voicemail

Byron Patrick: Hey, Blake and David. Byron Patrick from Fieldguide here. just listened to this past week's episode. And Blake, you know, I say this with love. Sometimes, I'd like to just get to app news, but this week, not so much. I really enjoyed your perspective regarding the metrics and KPIs of businesses and the idea of auditing those metrics.

I really think about it, especially with SaaS organizations, the use of many of these metrics, everything from, you know, cost of customers, to churn rates, number of clients, number of users, et cetera. A lot of these things get presented to investors, potential buyers, used in marketing information and beyond.

And frankly, you know, there's fuzziness around a lot of those metrics, the way they are measured, the way they are presented, et cetera. And the idea that auditors could participate in confirming the confidence or integrity of those numbers, I think makes a lot of sense. And to your point really, is aligned with the origin of the financial statement audit and creating confidence in numbers that, you know, outsiders don't necessarily have visibility into, but need a third party to create some confidence.

So, just, great topic. Great thought. I, I think it's something that really kind of has me challenged, thinking about the application of the audit, and always appreciate the perspective. So, great catching up this prior week at Engage. Good seeing you both. Look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Keep up the good work. Thanks.

Blake: Thank you, Byron. It was great to see you as well. And thank you for that note.

David: And I think that was our conclusion last week, that if you just are really good at audit, you might have a real business model there.

Blake: You know, like, why don't auditors audit like- and maybe they do, but I there's no standard on what is a subscriber and why don't we have all subscription businesses reporting their number of subscribers, their churn, their lifetime value. This would be information that I, as an investor, would really like to have in deciding whether or not to buy Netflix stock, for instance, or Disney stock or any of these businesses or Adobe. Right?

Any of these businesses that have turned into subscription businesses, they kind of just choose, right? Like, Intuit decided to just stop releasing numbers on their number of QuickBooks Online subscribers one day. Right? Because maybe it no longer benefited them to do so ‘cause the number was slowing or something, but we don't know. Right?

Because there's no rules around this. You can do whatever you want when it comes to those non-financial numbers. You choose what to present. And the non-financial stuff for these subscription businesses ends up being more important than the GAAP numbers because GAAP isn't really good at describing a subscription business. More app news? I got more actually.

[00:37:12] EY investing $1 billion into audit technology

David: And that's why Byron's gonna love it. ‘Cause we have lots of app news. It's almost a total episode, but I do have quick- just a touch on EY in audit.

Blake: This counts. This counts as app news, right?

David: Yeah, it counts because they're going to invest in audit.

Blake: Audit technology.

David: They're gonna put a billion dollars into an audit app. Audit technology. Now I read their press release and I'm just gonna rewind, you know how, like, remember- I don't even who it was from the Big Four, they built- they were working on with some of the states.

They had all these contracts to build their COVID appointment software. And then, you know-

Blake: It never worked?

David: California's getting advised by different parts of- different Big Four companies to build out their big, huge California ERP system that's now taken-

Blake: 20 years.

David: A decade. I think in Canada, there's some payroll system or something that they're getting consulted on by like IBM's advising group and it just never- these things are happening. So, to me, I read this press release and it sounds like EY’s advising division sold a billion-dollar contract to the audit division. So, here's the quote from the pressure release.

“The investment will support the integration of existing EY assurance technologies into one seamless platform that combines the strengths of the organization's leading class global audit platforms and leverages advanced technologies from EY Alliance partners to power a new generation of data-driven assurance services.”

This is the type of stuff the advisory division sells to corporations all over the- all the time. Like that kind of verbiage. We're gonna take all your systems and make a super system. And then they get into a 10-year contract for a billion dollars. It sounds like they basically EY, the audit division just got sold a billion dollar contract, which now, think about this.

What if they do split? Right? This is a way for the advisory division-

Blake: The consultant.

David: -to get some- the consulting division to get some money.

Blake: The auditors have to do something because whole audit business model has been founded on getting recent college graduates to come in and very cheaply, do a lot of labor. It's very human intensive, human capital intensive. Not a lot of technology has historically been applied to audits.

It's been very manual. And with the supply of fresh graduates drying up because of the demographic shifts that have happened, fewer people becoming CPAs, fewer people interested in becoming auditors when salaries have stagnated for years and years, the only way that we're gonna solve this problem is with technology.

So, they really need to make this investment. And there was just a story, an opinion piece in Going Concern by Robert Conway, who is a former, retired Big Four audit partner and former leader of a PCAOB regional office. He's the author of the book, The Truth About Public Accounting. He just wrote an article in Going Concern a week or two ago.

“The audit profession's inability to retain talent poses a serious threat to audit quality.” So, because they haven't been making these investments, they've just been using people, they don't have the tech to like, do high-quality audits without a lot of people. And-

David: It’s just going to make their audit division less valuable.

Blake: Yeah. Well, and this goes back to, you know, our discussion in the previous episode that, you know, like, if something doesn't happen, we are gonna have serious threat of audit failure in the United States like we've seen in the UK and we've seen elsewhere. It's just hard to imagine how these audits are being done in a- like, it's just hard to see how when you've got fewer people every year, you can do a high-quality audit if you've been doing it the same way every year, so.

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[00:41:41] Nuula app launches

David: Other app news. What's the big battle you- when you had your bookkeeping business and you talked to a sole proprietor, what's one of the biggest battles you have with them?

Blake: Like a prospect that I'm talking to, or somebody?

David: Well, they're your client, these sole proprietors. Like, I think one of the big battles is you can't get them to separate their business from their personal expenses. They commingle everything.

Blake: Oh yeah. They commingle.

David: It’s kind of a big, big thing. So, the new app is out there. It's a fintech app called Nuula, N-U-U-L-A. And the headline is they're talking about how they're launching in Canada. So, they're a Toronto company and they've been launched already in other markets, but now, they're finally launching in their home market. But what's interesting about this app, they call it a super app.

And it allows small businesses to track their cash flow, monitor critical financial and commercial metrics, and then bring in like, your online ratings and reviews. But only that, it allows you to buy personal and business insurance, loans for personal things, smart credit cards, integrated wealth management. So, it's like an app that's commingling everything back together again.

Blake: Oh, great. That's exactly what we need as accountants. Well, I don't know where to go from here. We could talk about the Google AI engineer who claimed that the AI is sentient, or we could talk about cryptocurrency.

[00:42:59] Decimal announces $9.2 million seed round

David: Let’s- let me cover one more app news here. Decimal. Decimal is a technology platform for small businesses, accounting operations. They announced a 9.2 million-dollar seed round. It's again- it's another accounting firm with engineers, so.

Blake: What’s their- Decimal is the name?

David: Decimal.

Blake: Decimal-

David: Dot com. Dot com. Decimal.com.

Blake: What's their website? Decimal.com. Oh, they must have paid a lot for that. All right. Let's take a look at it. Accounting firm with engineers.

David: And while you’re doing that, they launched in January of 2020. And they've just been growing for two years with no- by raising no capital at this point.

Blake: Huh. You didn't start your business to do accounting. Get back to running your company. Decimal is accounting operations for small business bookkeeping technology set up/support, bill pay, payroll and more, and they start at $500 per month. And then they have examples of different types of companies that pay- here's a thousand, here's $2,750. Who founded this? Let's see. Leadership team. Matt Tate is the CEO and Jacob Cloran is the COO.

David: I didn't recognize when I poked around a little.

Blake: So, this is- it's an interesting way to present an accounting firm, like from a marketing standpoint, right? It doesn't look like an accounting firm when you go to this website, decimal.com. It looks like a tech company. And-

David: Which tricks the VCs too.

Blake: Well, you know, I think it's a good way to present your firm because the big difference between, I would say a modern accounting services firm and a traditional firm is traditional firms are focused on the partner relationship with the client, and that personal relationship, and the modern corporate model of doing this is based on the brand relationship with the customer.

So, that's what you want. If you wanna build a firm that you can sell someday, you don't want it to have your name on it, and you don't want the clients to have a personal relationship with you.

David: Yeah. And that’s the personal there.

Blake: And that's something that if- like, you need to decide early on when you're building your firm, because that affects all the branding, and it affects the way that you build the firm. Like, you don't wanna be doing the work. So, like, I built a firm years ago where by the end of my five-year journey, I didn't talk to any clients. When it came to the sales process, I had a salesperson. I didn't onboard any of the clients.

I didn't do any of the work for the clients. I just managed the team and the team collectively delivered the final product. And that is easy to sell because it doesn't rely on you, the owner, doing the work.

David: All you do is add in some AI, Blake, and you'd been rich.

Blake: I know, right?

David: You could have got that into your pitch deck.

Blake: Should've gone out and raised some money from a VC for that, right?

[00:45:47] Crypto app news

David: All right. I have two 10-second app news that's gonna tie right into your crypto.

Blake: Okay, cool.

David: So, two apps, Legible, they closed a 20 million series A round, and then another app that's similar, Cryptio, they raised 10 million to make crypto accounting easier. So, both these apps essentially connect to all your wallets and help summarize tax and gains and losses for accounts and bookkeepers. So, that’s it for app news. I think I'm done. That’s a lot today.

Blake: And thank you to Mike Dawn for sending us the info. At least he sent me the info on Cryptio, you know, which is one of these apps that like sends- that you plug all your wallets into, and then it figures out the calculations for the gains and the losses that you gotta do for tax purposes. So, thanks for that. All right.

[00:46:31] Crypto crash

Blake: So, let's talk about crypto. You know, we didn't talk about it really in the last episode, but there's been a crypto crash. A big crypto crash, a loss of- the numbers keep changing because it keeps going down further, but like $1.5 trillion in value has disappeared from-

David: Pulling out my fancy Cash App here.

Blake: Yeah. How's your $10 investment in crypto or Bitcoin doing right now, David? You did it all in Bitcoin, right, was it?

David: Yeah, Bitcoin and I did it through the Cash App. I think I did some through PayPal and Venmo too, but very small - $10. But then on Monday, I bought even more. So, right now, I'm at- I'm down again. So, it's $9 and 57 cents. And it was down at $5.55-

Blake: And your total-

David: And I doubled it. So, I invested, at the end of the week, another $5.55, because people are saying, this is the time, you gotta buy low, sell high. So, I doubled my position on Monday and I'm down already.

Blake: So, there's a lot that's been going on. You know, I think this- the whole crypto crash was set off by the collapse really, of the Terra stablecoin and Luuna, which was related to it. And it's these algorithmic stablecoins that have fundamental issues with, you know, not being able to be stable, and that set off this whole thing.

David: But it's not just that. It's the economy's changed. And all of a sudden, people had play money and they're goofing around with crypto are realizing it's not a real sustainable thing, and they're pulling their money out.

Blake: Yeah, well, and to me, what it indicates is this, is that like Bitcoin and Ether and crypto as a store of value has not been- has been disproven at this point. You know, maybe yes. Maybe someday, it could become that, but it's not digital gold. If it was digital gold, it would not be acting like this. When the stock market is going down, assets, hard assets like gold, stay steady, or go up.

And so, it's proving that a good chunk of the people that were in this market were in it to speculate. Right? And you know, we saw- you see this, it's sometimes called The Greater Fool Theory. And that's what Bill Gates said when he was speaking at a TechCrunch talk on climate change on Tuesday, he described the phenomenon as something that's “100% based on Greater Fool Theory” referring to the idea that overvalued assets will go up in price when there are enough investors willing to pay more for them. Right?

So, there's nothing like fundamental to cryptocurrency that gives it value. It's based on less than even stock prices, right? It doesn't make a product and it doesn't typically give you a return, but there are ways that people have been earning returns.

[00:49:12] Celsius shuts down withdrawals

Blake: And this is what's crazy. Is that Celsius, which is like a bank for cryptocurrency that was paying a return to investors has shut down withdrawals. Something like- I wanna say $11.8 billion in customer assets, based on the company's May report are now frozen.

David: And it's turning out, they're starting to surface like founders, certain insiders are getting- able to get out. Like, this is- people are gonna go to jail for this stuff. It's crazy.

Blake: Well, so, that is the question is, will- maybe nobody will go to jail because it's not like this stuff's regulated. And you know, it's not- we don't know. Are crypto exchanges, are cryptocurrency securities the SEC has waffled on this and has failed to regulate it. And companies like Celsius, which act like banks, are not regulated. And so, if you invest in them, if you put money into these accounts, if they go out of business, you're just another unsecured creditor. You know, it's not like FDIC insurance for banks and people are getting-

David: So, that’s what [INAUDIBLE] was saying, if it's under 100,000, go file small claims court things right now, before they declare bankruptcy. There's a- yeah, there's a lot with this. And it's crazy. After we left Vegas that- for AICPA Engage, I’m in the Taxi cab, the Taxi cab driver's all like, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You gotta buy crypto.”

And he's so confident, and to the moon, you know, all that crypto bro talk and I was- and he's like, “I get so many tips, you know, ‘cause-” and yeah, of course, because all the crypto bros are gambling. They also gamble when they're in Vegas. It's like they're all the same kind of personality.

So, they’re in the car and they like to brag how much they made on crypto. Just the same way people that gamble a lot tell you how much money they won when they'd never tell you about how much they lose, and it's that same game. There's really- it makes sense why taxi cab drivers in Vegas are all pro crypto, trying to convince you in the car that you know- arguing with me- he wasn't arguing with me. It was just, I was trying not to participate, but guy was all in, man. He's gonna be so rich from crypto. I’m like, “Dude,” I don’t know.

Blake: So, the way Celsius worked is interesting. If you're a customer, you would lend money to Celsius, you deposit money to Celsius in exchange for yield. So, unlike a cryptocurrency investment, which gives you no yield, Celsius was promising you a yield. And they would take your money and then put those deposits in decentralized finance investments, and lend out the funds to other users.

And the yields were like spectacular, up to 18.6% on cryptocurrency deposits, which just hearing that makes me think that's totally ridiculous. Right? Like, that's not sustainable. That sounds like a Ponzi scheme right there, to offer that kind of return. And that's the sort of returns that, you know, people who create those schemes would promise people.

And basically, when the market collapsed, Celsius, you know, couldn't- it couldn't get its money out. And so, the customers, the depositors are the ones who end up getting screwed. And it's just like- it's just- it's like the Wildcat banking period in the United States, in the 19th century all over again. And the regulators have-

David: But then, at least you could take some of that money and maybe buy a good and service. It's amazing like, talking to- people jumped on me on Twitter, ‘cause these- they defend Bitcoin. I'm like, “Well, what have you ever bought with Bitcoin?” “Well, I've never actually purchased with it.”

Blake: Right. It’s not-

David: It’s like- and that's the thing, it’s like, at least I've done that. I have micropayments in a podcast app that I have sent to another podcaster. Like, I'm utilizing Bitcoin for one theory- should be for like micropayments. You can send money. I don't have it as an investment thing, but the fact that people are- they're so Gung Ho about it, and they've never actually used it as a transaction, is bananas to me.

[00:52:53] Will this cause crypto to finally be regulated?

Blake: So, here's the good news about this whole collapse is that it might-

David: The good news.

Blake: Well, it might finally result in regulation because what usually happens when people lose a lot of money, is lawyers come out and do class action lawsuits, ‘cause there's a lot of money that was lost. There's a lot of small investors and you could create that, and try to get something back from these VCs, from these founders that created these assets in the first place and who timed it so they got out before the collapse, or they got a good chunk of their money out. Right?

And so, that is the theory of an article in the Wall Street Journal I read called, “Who Pays For Crypto's Collapse?” And so, that's the idea is, you know, the SEC has failed to regulate these, maybe lawsuits will make it happen, or maybe political pressure now will make it finally happen.

The problem is that the people who are supposed to be regulating cryptocurrency are often invested in cryptocurrency. And so, they have these- they have conflicts of interest and there's nothing in the law that prevents politicians in Congress from investing in the same products that they're supposed to be regulating.

[00:54:08] Senator Lummis talking about crypto

Blake: And there was this crazy exchange on television that I have to play for you. It was Senator Cynthia Lummis talking about –

David: And where is she from?

Blake: Senator Lummis. She is- she's a Republican from Wyoming.

David: Gotcha.

Blake: And there's this bipartisan group. She appeared on TV. I'll just- I'm gonna play this clip from- for you, okay? From her TV appearance. She's talking about Fidelity's plan to allow their people to allow their customers to invest up to 20% of their retirement funds into cryptocurrency, which I think is just nuts. But anyway, here we go.

TV Host: Fidelity, the largest 401k manager in the country, announced that they were going to offer Bitcoin to users or to consumers. Companies have to choose to allow their employees to put Bitcoin in their 401ks. Labor Department came out and said this is a terrible idea. What do you think?

Senator Lummis: I think the Labor Department's wrong. I think it's a wonderful idea. It should be part of a diversified asset allocation. And it should be on the end of the spectrum of a store of value. Obviously, if you have a fully diversified asset allocation, you have some assets that you want to produce income in the short run.

You also want some assets that are just a store of value. And I think that's where Bitcoin really shines. I think it's some of the hardest money that's ever been created in the world. And for that reason, it belongs as a slice of a diversified asset allocation for retirement funds.

TV Host: Senator Gillibrand, you agree, disagree?

Senator Gillibrand: No, I agree.

David: So, this is why when you vote, people, every incumbent, vote 'em out of office. Like nobody- they're all idiots. They don’t deserve to be there. None of them. Across the aisle, vote every single person out. We can just be replace with other idiots, which is better than the idiots that are there. So, like, just vote everybody out. Like, they don't deserve to be there. None of ‘em.

Blake: Senator Lummis is on the committee in the Senate that's supposed to be regulating cryptocurrency and blockchain and all that. And she disclosed that she purchased somewhere between $100,000 and $350,000 in Bitcoin.

David: It’s nice to have that disposable income.

Blake: And here she is, talking about it- here she is, talking about it as the hardest money that has ever been created. And meanwhile, it's collapsing. You know?

David: She has to talk it up. This is the exact same on Twitter. Sean Stein Smith, Dr. Sean Stein, Smith, PhD, CPA, he just got some major award from AICPA. He’s been like the crypto expert in our space, does talks all over the country, state societies. But really, if you start listening to it, he's pumping crypto. And now, crypto's down. I tweeted at him on, you know, Monday, like, “What should I do?”

And he's like, “Oh, buy-” he's in the same boat. “Oh, this is an opportunity. The game here is to buy low and sell high,” like as in buy more, right?

Blake: Yeah.

David: And then I asked him, “Well, are you gonna tell me when to sell?” So, I created a Twitter search that tracks the word sell or sold, so I can see if he ever sells and I’ll know when to sell, like- when are we at the top? When do you sell?

Blake: Yeah. You know, the Chinese rising global power banned cryptocurrency and created their own state-run cryptocurrency, like we should, I think. And they're not dealing with this crap. Letting this go on further, it's a humongous mistake and it's just gonna hurt small investors, and it could lead to instability in our financial markets when you have all these Wildcat crypto banks.

And you know, I think it could be the next cause of the next recession. Maybe not this time, it won't be a big deal, but like, if nothing happens, if regulation doesn't happen, and these unregulated banks are allowed to continue to exist, they could- values could pump up again and then we could have another collapse.

[00:58:24] MicroStategy stock dropped 25%

David: Well, do you remember that company MicroStrategy?

Blake: Yeah.

David: They bought billions of Bitcoin to put on their balance sheet. It’s like a hedge. Well, because of the crash, their company lost- had its own crash. So, the Bitcoin crash on Monday caused their stock to drop 25%. If they didn't have this ridiculous investment in Bitcoin, their stock would not have fallen 25% in one day.

Blake: Yeah

David: So, it's starting to affect real company's earnings. And the crazier thing is, let's go back to the beginning of the thing in startups, and there's a lot of startups that have taken VC money, and then put some off to the side into crypto.

Blake: Yeah.

David: We're gonna hear about a startup that- like a startup that has nothing to do with crypto, that mismanaged their cash and spent- put some into crypto, and that app crashed. We're gonna have a- I wouldn't be surprised if it's an app in our space. We'll be talking about that soon where an app completely went under because they took VC money, instead of investing it in the product, put it over here into Bitcoin.

[00:59:30] Podcast reviews and wrap up

David: Should we get into the reviews?

Blake: Yeah, let’s read those reviews.

David: All right. So, this first one's on Podchaser. It's a bit long, but I'll read this. It's a five-star review. It's from Heather77498.

“If you work in Accounting and you're not having fun, you’re: one, working in the wrong place. Two, not listening to these guys. I've listened to several podcasts, but I really look forward to this one the most, each week. David and Blake provide a great blend of relevant and useful and entertaining information. This is what we all strive to give our clients. These guys offer us the same value. Really, anyone in any field would benefit from listening to them.

Heather K, the executive geek. Thank you so much, Heather. It's amazing.

Blake: Yeah, thank you. That makes it all worthwhile.

David: And that was on Podchaser. So, you can go to Podchaser.com and leave a review there. If you can, try to mention working press in your review, amazing press. Use words like that. That would be great - news and press.

Blake: Well you know, I've decided that when AICPA said that they only invite working press to their events, I think they meant they only invite press that work for them.

David: I get it now. This is the- you figured- you decoded it. Got it. Another review, this is on Apple Podcast. This is another five-star review. The title of the review is “Cloud Accounting in Canada.”

Great show, even though I am from Canada. Love to hear about all the apps out there. And this is from Debbie1938.

Blake: Thank you, Debbie.

David: So, I'm glad we get some of the Canadian love. And Blake, I guess it’s time to shut down. I gotta pack. I gotta head to Orlando.

Blake: Yeah, me too. Great to see you, David. If listeners wanna get to know you online, where can they follow you?

David: I'm on all the socials, just @DavidLeary.

Blake: I am @BlakeTOliver on Twitter. You can email me Blake@BlakeOliver.com and let us know what you think about this show, anything we've talked about on the show, anything you think we should talk about, send us a voicemail.

You can record that with your phone, email it to Blake@BlakeOliver.com. We will listen and we will likely play that on the air. David, I’ll-

David: And if you wanna get CPE credit for this- Blake, you haven't talked about Earmark in the last two episodes.

Blake: Oh yeah, I know. I know. So, Earmark is up to over 2,000 members who are earning free CPE for listening to The Cloud Accounting Podcast and many other amazing podcasts and YouTube videos. We take those episodes and videos, we wrap them in courses. You can get it on your mobile phone and earn CPE on the go. Download Earmark-

David: So, I’m doing my laundry, I'm listening to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm done. I whip out my phone. I pull up the Earmark app, I answer three questions, boom, I get CPE credit.

Blake: Technically, five questions, but yeah, you get the idea.

David: Oh, five questions, sorry.

Blake: It takes you like five minutes to get the CPE for the episode you've already listened to. So, you're already at the end of this episode, get free CPE for it. Download EarmarkCPE.com on the App Store or go to EarmarkCPE.com in your web browser to sign up.

Yeah, it's great. We're gonna hopefully launch our subscription offering so our members can support the app. Hopefully, this month, and yeah-

Blake: David: Amazing.

It's going good.

David: All right. Bye everybody.

Blake: Bye.

[01:02:46] Classifieds

David: Time for the classifieds.

[01:02:50] Future Firm

David: If you're looking to quickly grow a scalable, systematic, seven-figure accounting firm without having to work 50 plus hours per week, check out Ryan Lazanis’ online coaching membership, Future Firm Accelerate. Designed around Ryan's experience taking his cloud firm from scratch to sale so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

You'll get online learning in topics that help you automate and systemize all aspects of your firm. You'll get coaching when you need help with implementation. And you'll also join a collaborative community of hundreds of other forward-thinking firm owners. For more details, head over to www.futurefirmaccelerate.com.

[01:03:25] Get W9

David: Tired of clients not remembering to get W-9s? getW9 automates and streamlines the collection and storage of W-9s. getW9 has a QBO integration, and they have a partner program that pays 25% commissions. getW9 plans start at only $19 a year. Visit getW9.tax today to get started. That is getW9.tax.

[01:03:28] Advisors For Change

Are you looking for a dream job in cloud accounting? We have the job for you. Advisors For Change delivers cloud accounting systems to small and medium nonprofit organizations. Join our team of friendly and collaborative nonprofit accounting professionals while working from home. Our systems associate will join our experienced systems manager to implement and support cloud accounting systems such as QBO, bill.com, Divvy, [INAUDIBLE] and others.

To learn more, head to our website at advisorsforchange.com/join-our-team. That's advisorsforchange.com/join-our-team, where you’ll find a link to the full position description on indeed.

[01:04:26] Royalwise Solutions

David: Are your bookkeeping clients driving you crazy asking the same questions over and over? They need QuickBooks training and you have more important things to do with your time. Let Royalwise be your training partner. Create your own customized client training program and outsource your QuickBooks training department.

Listeners of this podcast are invited to join our partner program and receive a 10% referral commission when you sign up. Join us at Royalwise.com/partner to learn more and get started today. Again, that's Royalwise.com/partner.

[01:04:56] Resolve Works

David: Are you a tech savvy accountant that knows how to lead a team and loves interacting with clients? Are you looking to grow from a controller or CFO into a leadership role? Resolve Works is hiring a director of client accounting to lead our services team and be a key member of our firm leadership.

We are a collaborative team serving entrepreneurs building fast-growing startups. We are fully remote, offer flexible schedules and have a suite of attractive benefits. To learn more and submit your interests, visit resolve-works.com/careers. That is resolve-works.com/careers.

[01:05:29] Oh My Fraud: A True Crime Podcast for Accountants

Blake: Hey, podcast listeners, it's Blake, and I wanted to let you know about a new show I'm working on with CPA/comedian, Greg Kyte, and blogger/former CPA, Caleb Newquist. It's called Oh My Fraud, and it's a podcast all about financial crimes. That's right, a true crime podcast for accountants, by accountants.

Caleb and Greg are going to come together every couple of weeks to unpack their favorite frauds, and explore the circumstances, psychology, and interpersonal dynamics involved. They also fully indulge in victim blaming the defrauded widows, orphans, infirm, and feebleminded - because who can resist?

If you fancy yourself a trusted advisor, or prefer your true crime with spreadsheets instead of corpses, listen to this show to learn what to watch out for, and to keep your clients, your firm, and even yourself, safe. To subscribe, go to ohmyfraud.com, or search "Oh My Fraud" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[01:06:28] How to advertise in these classifieds

David: Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the show notes for the link to get more info.