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Welcome back to Count Me In,

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IMA's podcast about all things affecting
the accounting and finance world.

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We're happy to have you back
for episode 149 of our series.

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This is Mitch Roshong,

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and I'll be your host getting you
ready for today's conversation.

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In this episode,

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you will hear from Kevin Au - bill.com's
head of product marketing, accountant,

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and wealth management. In a moment,

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you'll hear him talk about lessons learned
in the accounting industry and what

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the profession can anticipate as far as
roles changing and skills needed in the

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future. So without further ado, let's
transition over to the conversation now.

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So Kevin, thank you so much for
coming on the podcast today.

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We really appreciate you taking some time
out of your busy schedule to be a part

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of count me in.

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Great. Yeah. Thanks so much. Thanks for
having me. I'm a big fan of podcasts,

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so great to be here.

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Thank you. So there has been
a tremendous lessons learned,

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and changes across society and
business over the past 18 months,

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we've all been affected by it.

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You and I were just chatting about
it before we started recording.

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What have you seen in
the accounting industry?

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And do you think those
changes are here to stay?

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Yeah.

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So what we say in the accounting industry
as small to size business markets is

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that the innovation and the adoption
it's been accelerated about three to five

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years.

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And while every industry has been
disrupted by digital transformation as a

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result of pandemic and
working from home, right?

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This industry in particular has been
ripe for disruption like for years.

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We've been just saying that
over 90% of SMBs rely still on

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paper-based processes and checks,

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and that realization will be
over-reliance on outdated labor and manual

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intensive ways to do
business. As you know,

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bill.com works closely with the accounting
community work with 85 of the top 100

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firms plus 5,000 firms in total.

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And I remember I was talking with a
couple of accounting partners and one

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partner in particular. I heard a horror
story, literally during the pandemic,

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they had to use Uber and Lyft to transport
documents between houses to get them

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signed. And they even use
bike messengers. Like, I mean,

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this isn't sustainable, whether
it's pre pandemic or post,

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and we believe that this
community deserves innovation
and we're here to deliver

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it.

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So when I hear innovation, I think of
keywords like automation and AI, the,

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the buzzwords that we're
hearing all around,

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and these are powerful tools that
accountants need to have in their toolkit.

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Can you tell us a little bit about what
bill.com harnesses, in your solution?

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Yeah. So as, as part of the industry
deception that we talked about earlier,

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you know, we believe that
digital tools that all,

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that all three help our customers and
partners to see it's really important,

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right? And automated those back office
tasks and day-to-day activities.

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It gives our campuses actually more
time and focus on areas of interests and

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right. So like inviting
automation into the office,

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ultimately it just provides the accounting
professionals just more time take

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control of their careers and just have
more of a better work-life balance.

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As an example, you know,

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one of bill.com's customers is a wealth
management firm and they mentioned that

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when they use bill.com,

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they experience a say percent time
savings by streamlining all their accounts

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payable processes,

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but just then allows them to do something
more that matters to them around

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financial planning and then
managing their clients assets.

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An example for us on our platform,

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we do use artificial intelligence and
we have a tool that we named, IVA,

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which stands for intelligent
virtual assistant. And what IVA is,

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is a feature that just uses advanced
technologies like machine learning that

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helps us extract invoices and vendor
information from documents in our inbox.

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So that helps you actually
create vendors and bills faster.

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So it takes information like
the invoice number, like the,

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the amount you have to pay the due date,
the amount. And it makes us so simple,

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like just literally imagine if you had
a camera and he took a snap shot of your

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invoice and it gets automatically loaded
in and IVA can read it and put all that

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data very easily for you to just help
you get paid, to get paid faster.

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And that's, what's really exciting
about, you know, automation and AI space.

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That is very exciting.
Cause it, it allows you,

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it takes time away from the menial tasks,

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sometimes those tasks that take up more
of your time and allows you to do other

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things right?

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Exactly. Exactly. It's always about
like the stuff that, you know,

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what would you be doing on a Friday night?

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Would you rather be doing all
the manual checks and everything,

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or would you be going out
having dinner with your family?

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And what we do is like with
our technology and systems,

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it allows you to do the latter.

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So it sounds like the accountant's role
is expanding and has been expanding,

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especially during the pandemic, you
know, maybe they're saying, "Hey IVA,

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print me out my invoice". I don't,
I doubt it's voice activated,

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but you've talked about a new
Renaissance of the adversary accountant.

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What does that look like?

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Yes. So even before the
COVID pandemic, we saw,

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we heard businesses had a clear, and
active need for advisory services.

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During the pandemic they
became the go-to person,

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when they're helping clients
through their PDP loans,

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through changing regulations and so
much more. And they were the lifeline,

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they're literally the heroes,

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I think for a lot of the SMBs
offering their clients the best,

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the latest information and
advice actually keep them afloat.

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Like it was a really tough time.

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And we heard like accountants were just
working endlessly nights and weekends to

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make sure, like they have to figure
out how to do the PPP loans. Right.

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And that was a big thing that they did
and their SMBs where their clients were

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also thankful for that. So now, as we're
kind of getting out of the pandemic,

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right,

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accountants are just taking
the opportunities to redesign
their day-to-day jobs,

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especially by putting more time and
focus through these advisory services.

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And they also offer things like
client analysis and strategic counsel.

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And the goal here is not to add
more hours to their already busy

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Workday, but instead it's about
optimizing the work. And so for instance,

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you know, build a compromise, a lot of
different tools, insights, and data,

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and we believe that data is going to be
necessary to provide that efficient and

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essential path for that
advisory services. How?

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It's that it can raise up all those data
insights by unlocking that data in real

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time, in, in ways that they couldn't
have done before. We're like in the past,

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this data will be trapped in some hidden
spreadsheet or in a separate system

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that you can lock up.

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Now you have these systems and tools to
bring this up to light and show it at

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the right time.

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And so we believe that the shift in like
the bookkeeper's role is going to be

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actually more rewarding.

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It's also a really smart time for these
firms in terms of growth and what we

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did like bill.com, in 2019,

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we had a fire hire index survey and
we just asked them like what they're

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doing.

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And one of the things they said is like
more than half of the S&P participants

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are actually looking for,

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accounting firms that offer a wide range
of services around accounting tax and

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advisory services.

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And what we even said that there was about
almost half that said that they would

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stop referring their accounting firms
if they wouldn't offer strategic advice.

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So now strategic advice is almost the
norm that a lot of these firms and these

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clients are looking for.

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So you mentioned the end of the pandemic,

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obviously we've got different variations
of the virus happening. So there's,

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there's different things that are
happening with the vaccines and all those

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things happening,

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but that brings in new challenges and
new changes that are on the horizon.

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Companies going from completely remote
to hybrid situations or even fully in the

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office. There's so many
different things happening.

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So how can companies best prepare for
a potentially unpredictable future?

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Yeah, so I always learned the only
constant in this world has changed.

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And as we always move into the
future, changes is inevitable.

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And I believe that treating new
technology and using automation,

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it's an opportunity as a key to
imagine the future of accounting.

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And what we find is like, you know,

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finance and accounting leaders will
need to be increasingly clear about any

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changes, that their company does
in terms of processes or programs.

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And what this will do is it'll allow
you to prepare for that shift and

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communicate any concerns before anything
is set in stone, right? And as we know,

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speed, bumps are always
going to be enough, right.

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And businesses should
plan for it. For instance,

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having a buffer in their
budgets for unexpected expenses,

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making sure that you have the right
technology updates to happens,

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even have a plan for crisis management,
that if, and when it happens.

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And lastly,

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I think one of the things I always
think about when you want to prepare for

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changes, like stay on top of those trends.

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So kind of think you're
joining accomplices and
just reading what, you know,

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what are the things that are coming
up so that you have a sense and have a

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little bit of a north star of what
may be coming up in the not so distant

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future.

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So speaking of the future,
let's put our, you know,

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let's look into our crystal ball, five
to 10 years from now, you know, Kevin,

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when you're looking at an accountant,
what makes a good accountant?

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Like what are the good skill sets and
approaches that you anticipate will make

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that good accountant in the future?

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Yeah, so accountants,

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I believe their role is morphing and
in the not so distant future they'll be

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called upon to do more than just what
I call the traditional bookkeeping,

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the debits and credits of bouncing box.

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And we've already seen these professionals
step into these multifaceted roles,

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such as financial advisor, wealth manager,

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and even like a therapist as our world
becomes more interconnected and just more

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complex. Right. And I believe
the truly successful CPAs,

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will be able to balance the
client relations and ad-lib
consulting with the work

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that they've been traditionally
been associate with.

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And part of that balancing that
interpersonal and strictly I call them

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logistical aspects that we kind of lens
will involve knowing when they could

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pass off the certain responsibilities
and rely on technology and acknowledging

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the use of that automation taking
advantage of the capabilities will

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differentiate the good
accountants from the great.

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So to what extent do you think those
roles and responsibilities will change by,

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like, let's say 2025.

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Yeah. There's a lot. And, you know,

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considering what the pandemic
that businesses have pivoted

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already so much and their policies and
procedures in a matter of days and weeks,

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four years in 2025 is actually a long way.

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But I believe that the role is
changing and for the accountants

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and bookkeepers, it's,

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it's going so fast from that traditional
sense to more of the CFO advisory

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services. And our focus for us is
to help them make this transition,

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providing the tool sets to make them
successful, which is around data,

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the more automation
leveraging AI to do it.

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And this also includes investing
in employees with quality training,

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and also includes educational resource
to help them ease into these new

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responsibilities so that when you
do have to adopt new technology,

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it's not a big detractor reduction.

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I believe that upscaling will be a
big priority in the coming years.

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What we did see, you know,

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the lights stay at the AI
and the enterprise reports
show that once automation

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solutions having to establish, you know,

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those good business leaders actually
more sought after than those technology

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engineers. Why?

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Because they got to figure out what's
the other technologies built up.

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They've got to have some person with a
business sense, to make sense of all the,

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all the data and then actually figure
out what you want to do in terms of the

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business going forward. And as more
and more firms transition to digital,

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we expect the accountants.

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They can actually additional
responsibilities for
managing clients and offering

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strategic advice. I think, you know,

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most important about this role by
having all the technologies use the

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accountant's role is actually it can be
driven by more what they want to do as

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opposed to what they have to.

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And it's because those
increase automations will
just allow them more time to

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pursue more of their
professional interests.

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So what do you think the accountants
are focused on now? You know,

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as we look at the next, you
know, two to four or five years,

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what should accountants be looking at?
Or what should they be focusing on?

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You know, you said what
they're interested in,

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but they also need to worry about, Hey,
what does my job require me as well?

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So how do you find that balance?

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Yeah. So there's the so many things
I think of that, the jobs morphing.

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So if I were like, say like,

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if you're a new accountants and here's
the five skills that you want to have,

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here's where I think: number one,

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because of what we're
saying about the advisory,

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I think number one skills that you want
to have around the strategic client,

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right? We're just seeing just more
accountants, just doubling the hat.

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You can be the countless, but you're
the advisor, you're the therapist.

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So you having the ability to think
through strategically what clients are

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looking for. I'm thinking a little
bit ahead is going to really help.

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Number two, technology's our friend.
And so as an accountant, yes,

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you not, you're not that technology savvy,

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but you will have to be able to manage
technology and be technology forward

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thinking. All right.
The fact is, you know,

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using the technology as part of like one
of your arsenal and your toolkits will

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really help and having accountants who
will become the experts in managing and

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retaining these programs. It's kind
of really be helpful. Third one,

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as I mentioned, it's about the
customer relationships. You know,

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I count this is not simply just
doing the books and going away,

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or you gotta be able to work
closely with clients, address their,

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their questions and answers.

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And you have to build that relationship
over time and just be able to adapt and

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really listen to what they really want
and then figure out what you want for

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them. Fourth one is creative thinking,

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know our world is so complex and the
standard way of what we did even a decade

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ago is much harder now.

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And so what we see in a lot of accountants
is that they had the pandemic was

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this one of the situations where they
had to do something that's totally

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different for what they
ever had done before.

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And they had to think about creative
solutions that could meet the needs of

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every single one of their clients.

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And so the accountants to be
successful is going to have,

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be able to think outside the
box and outside the books,

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it's going to become the
norm. And then lastly,

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I think the last skill I
think for accountants to be
successful is finding that

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work-life balance, right?
That pandemic collapse,

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all the boundaries about
work and home life, right?

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We're still all working from home.
And as we emerge from COVID-19,

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I know both employees and employers are
advocating for practices that promote

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just better mental health
and permit that flexibility.

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And so automation and AI simultaneously
putting that time back on the

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accountant's calendar.

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So there'll be able to take more time
for themselves without sacrificing their

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career aspirations.

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This has been Count Me In,

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IMA's podcast providing you
with the latest perspectives
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the accounting and finance profession.
If you like what you heard,

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