Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/39633
SUCCESSFUL SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTING T Doug Sleeter Mr. Sleeter is the founder of The Sleeter Group, a national group of accounting software consultants who serve small and medium-sized businesses. He is the host of the Accounting Solutions Conference and the author of several books including the QuickBooks Consultant's Reference Guide, and the leading market college textbooks "QuickBooks Fundamentals and QuickBooks Complete." For more information , call 888-484-5484 or visit www. sleeter.com. Doug can also be reached at Doug. Sleeter@CPAPracticeAdvisor.com. 24 S 24 September 2011 Se tptemb ber 2011 • www.CPAPra Approaching Zero Data Entry — How Could That Be? T is year is shaping up to be a big year for innovation in the world of accounting services and client business processes. I've been researching several companies lately, and I'm learning how they view the market, how they build solutions, and what technology approach they believe will win the most customers today and into the future. Have you ever noticed how some companies decide to lead customers while others just develop what customers ask for? Apple is the perfect example. Nobody ever asked Apple to develop a device that would hold all their music in their pocket (the iPod), or for a phone with applications (the iPhone), or a digital tablet with Internet and thousands of applications (the iPad). But Apple is really good at leading the marketplace and developing technologies and products that people will want as opposed to the product features people ask for. If Apple had wanted to give people what people wanted, they would have made a Windows PC. I'm a former Apple Evangelist, and it really got into my blood that true innovation comes only when you're willing to do things that customers do NOT specifi cally ask for, but rather provide something that SOLVES their needs and becomes what they WILL begin asking for in the future. In the accounting software world, nobody is specifi cally asking for some of the hot est new innovations coming to our standard ways of working. Probably the biggest step forward is mobile devices and smartphones. T e rate of adoption of mobile solutions is mind boggling, and it's quickly becoming accepted that there's an "app for everything." T is means we can assume everyone has the ability to access and interact with information anytime, anywhere … even without a computer. T at's HUGE. THE SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES BREAK THE RULES AND GIVE US A NEW WAY OF WORKING. market these days. But I predict the most successful companies will be those whose innovations solve many of the less-than- obvious customer pains and those who focus on the entire business process. When I say "entire" business process, I mean they must pay at ention to not only their product, but also to how their product fi ts into the rest of the business system customers require. Even if that means they have to provide extra integrations to make their product work well with other, sometimes competitive, products. T e successful companies break the rules and give us a new way of working. T ey lead customers instead of just giving them what they ask for. But leading also means they need to make their products compelling enough to make us change our processes. For example, the idea of printing and mailing checks to vendors is really gut-wrenching to those of us who have seen the light and begun using online bill payment services like Bill.com. But for some, the idea of changing their bill payment process is really a scary concept, fi lled with fear and doubt. T e driving force behind so many of these new and innovative products is what I call, for lack of a bet er term, a new world that completely changes how we use technology. In my July 2011 column (www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/ 10278833), I described the new world and discussed how it forces us to rethink .CPAPracticeAdvisor.com As we think about the practice of accounting as well as client business processes that touch the general ledger, we suddenly have incredible new tools that allow us to design and implement interconnected applications, mobile apps, data feeds and portals that enable us to collaborate with and serve clients in ways that were simply impossible just a few years ago. For several years now, we've been using systems where customers and vendors can enter accounting data for us when they place orders on our web stores, or when they send us electronic invoices. Compared with our old world of faxes and paper documents (both sales orders and vendor invoices), in which data is manually entered by the bookkeeper, that is a signifi cant leap ahead for effi ciency, accuracy, and reduction of the cost of bookkeeping. T is is the trend at the core of what I mean by "zero entry." We're also seeing portals emerge where accounting fi rms can publish fi nancial statements and tax returns, as well as client-facing "dashboards" that allow clients to run the business with real-time access to fi nancial information and key performance indicators. T is is also huge because it brings a variety of new client services for accounting fi rms, soſt ware consultants and business management consultants. Here are a few products that take maximum advantage of these "new world" technologies: T e fi rst is Xero, a relatively new online accounting product from New Zealand that is about to hit the U.S. market. Xero takes us towards a whole new paradigm where we won't enter transactions into accounting systems, but instead manage "data fl ows" on the Web where transactions are entered for us. Now, before you dismiss the idea of zero data entry, take a look at Xero's vision. T e Xero philosophy is to move us away from data entry and towards con- necting business processes with the accounting system via soſt ware connec- tions and data fl ows. We realize the goal of zero data entry by connecting the Xero product to banking feeds, customer- entered data, vendor-entered data, employee-entered data and automated entries that free the "bookkeeper" from entering data. T e bookkeeper role doesn't completely disappear, but the role changes dramatically from being the expert on how to enter transactions effi ciently to how to manage transactions and other "data fl ows" on the Web. T ere will be some data entry, but only a fraction compared to the way we do things today. T is is another HUGE thing. It means all the skills we acquired in the bookkeeping space can now be used to "teach" these various systems to talk together and trasmit the data between the apps in ways that serve the particular needs of the clients. T is stuff can't be leſt to the techies because they are not accounting professionals and don't have the broad range of skills that accountants have for managing diff erent types of businesses. Xero is a full online general ledger product that connects to major banks and pulls bank and credit card transaction data directly into the application. T rough the developer interface, dozens of add-on developers also off er an impressive range