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< Intro >

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– Welcome back to Count Me In.

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In today's episode, we have 
Graham Stanton 

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and Edgar Thomas, 
the co-founders of Avise.

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A company that provides 
accounting technology solutions.

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Both my guests have 
seen many pain points

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that accountants face daily,

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and have worked hard to build solutions

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that address those pain points.

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Despite the available innovation,

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practitioners still use the same 
tools from 15 to 20 years ago

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because of the lack of 
penetration by newer tools.

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Both Graham and Edgar share their vision

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of making an accountant's job easier

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and reducing manual processes.

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Join us as we discuss how
technology can help accountants

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and the challenges they face,
adopting new technology.

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< Music >

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– Graham, Edgar, I just 
want to thank you both

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for coming on the podcast, today.

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We're really excited to have
the co-founders of Avise

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on the podcast with us, today.

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And today we're going to talk 
about accounting technology.

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And I figure we could start off

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by discussing what is the 
current state of the market

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for accounting technology,

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and the status of the industry, today?

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Because it's constantly
moving and evolving.

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– Yes, thank you, Adam, really appreciate

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you having us both on, today.

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And, yes, it's a topic

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that we both feel very passionately about.

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For me, as an inactive CPA,
but a practitioner

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that has worked with a lot 
of accounting tools,

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I've seen it from both sides.

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So, right now, as an entrepreneur,

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building a solution that solves
a lot of the pain points

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that I saw in the marketplace.

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But also the pain points that
we're getting feedback

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from our current clients
and prospects of our own.

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It is an exciting time to be looking at it

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because there is a lot of 
innovation going on today.

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But quite, frankly, practitioners, today,

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are doing a lot of the same thing

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and using a lot of the same tools

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they were using 15, 20 years ago.

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Because there's been 
such little penetration

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by the tools out there, today, available.

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So when I was practicing 
as an in-house accountant,

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a lot of the tools I found lacked the vision

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or the understanding of what 
a practitioner needed to do.

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So they were focused more on FP&A

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and other finance functions.

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But didn't really focus on improving
the lives of the core accounting suite.

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That the accountants had 
to do their jobs in

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on a day-in and a day-out basis.

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So if you go and talk to an 
in-house accountant, at a company,

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and they talk about their close.

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And they say that 
it's five days, it's 10 days,

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it's 15 days, or maybe even 30 days long.

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And when you, actually, dissect
the things that they're doing,

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you immediately see opportunities

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for improvement based on the 
tools that are available today

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but are not available 
to the accountants, yet.

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So that's one of the things that

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I feel very passionate about.

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Changing that and making it so that

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the accountants benefit
from a lot of the tools

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and a lot of the innovation
that we see elsewhere

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in the finance tech stack.

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So when it comes to tools 

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like the ones we're building 
at Avise it's really focused on

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how do we make the 
accountant's job easier?

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To close the books, 
report out the information,

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the financial data more accurately, 
and in a timely fashion,

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and reduce a lot of the manual processes.

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– Yes, I'll add to that a little bit.

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Obviously, Edgar and I share 
this vision here,

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and when we were getting started

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there's a lot of real pain coming
through in our discussions.

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I previously worked 
somewhat cross-functionally

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and had a lot of experience with the tools

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that the marketers get,
and that data engineers get.

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Ultimately, FP&A was starting to get,

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and, for whatever reason,

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the accountants have been 
at the end of the line.

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And there's been a lot of attitude
of, "Well, accountants are paid

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to do this busy work, 
so what's the problem here?"

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And it's unfortunate, 
and thankfully accountants

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are starting to wake up

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and saying, "Well, it's 
the year 2022, almost 2023,

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we don't need to put up 
with this anymore."

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– And I think sometimes the biggest thing

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is that if it's not broke,
they don't want to try to fix it.

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We've been doing the same thing

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and using the same technology

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for 15, 20 years, as Edgar was saying.

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But why change things up and mess it up?

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What do you guys think 
is the biggest problem

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with the current technology,

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the state of the technology as it is today?

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Edgar mentioned some of those things,

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people are trying to cut down the close,

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and those are some of the big problems

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that they're dealing with.

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But what's the problem
with the actual technology

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that you think is causing them to
not adopt it as fastly as possible?

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– Yes, I can take this. 

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I like the way your insight there 
is that, for a lot of folks,

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they accept this status quo,

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as like "This is the way 
things are and should be,

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or will continue to be."

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One of the things I really 
enjoy about my job today

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is that as we show our tool to folks,

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the response is very common one.

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Where it's just like, "Oh, I didn't 
even know that that was possible,

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or I didn't even think 
about how much time

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it took for me to do that task."

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So a simple thing like a reconciliation

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month in and month out,

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may take an accountant 30
minutes, an hour, 2 hours,

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and it's just an accepted part of the job,

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"My job is to reconcile an account."

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But then when you reimagine
what a reconciliation is, 

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and you automate a lot 
of the components

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of that reconciliation, and reduce that

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from 30 minutes down to five minutes,

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a light bulb goes off.

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It's just like, "Okay, these 
are minutes, hours, of my life

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that I can get back, and I 
can do more value added things

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for the business besides 
a lot of these things,

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which are, quite frankly, busy work."

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So one of the things that 
we've come across is that

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there's a lack of knowledge.

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I've never seen this before 
among my accounting friends,

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I've never seen something like this before.

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And then it's like maybe a hesitation,

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like you said, "If it isn't broke don't fix it."

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If I know the system has 
been around since 1970

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and, literally, my predecessors 
have been doing this,

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I know it works, and I will
continue to do it.

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So it is a really exciting journey

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that we've been on at Avise.

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It's showing people you can do
things in a different way, 

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and seeing that light bulb go off.

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And literally seeing people saying,

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like, "This has changed my life.

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This has given me back time

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that I didn't know was possible."

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– Absolutely, we view technology
as an enabler, really.

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We say we're looking 
to unlock the potential

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of the accounting team, 
of the accountants,

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and that's what we're seeking to do.

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But really any good software made

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should be automating the busy work.

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As we both said, it should be
making things more efficient.

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But it's not doing the accountant's job,

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and I think that's exactly what
that light bulb moment is.

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It's the realization that the job

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isn't to do the busy work.

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The job is to use your brain

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because accountants tend to
be pretty smart people.

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Who know the businesses
they work in really well

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and have a lot to add.

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And, unfortunately, so many of them

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are just stuck manually 
entering data into the system.

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Often the same data multiple times,

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entering it into the GL, 
entering it into Excel,

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comparing the two to see if they match,

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that whole flow could be automated

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just with some human review.

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But, yes, the point is to 
free up the accountants

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to use their brain, use their insight,

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use their creativity, 
and do what accountants

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have historically always done, 
help the business.

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– Mh-hmm, and they 
can become a stronger,

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strategic business partner

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as opposed to just a number cruncher.

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– Exactly.
– So when we think about

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the accounting team 
and how they are evolving.

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As they start to apply 
these different solutions

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that you guys have been describing.

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The accountants, what we just said,

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stops being the number cruncher,

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they become the business advisor.

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And as we look at these solutions,

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we've talked about some of the problems.

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You guys have discussed

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the current state of the industry.

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Maybe we can give some 
examples of some success stories

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that you guys have seen,

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as teams have applied these principles,

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and become successful

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by applying these solutions
for their accounting team.

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– Yes, I also had a few here.

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We try to follow our own principles

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and look for the best tools out there,

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and to make our own lives easier.

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And as Edgar mentioned earlier,

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there is innovation in 
and around the space.

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So our payroll system 
and HRIS is Rippling.

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I haven't used all the solutions out there,

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but I have, in the past, used
some of the more established

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software providers in the payroll space,

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and I can say they have a lot of
busy work built into them.

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So we've been happy with Rippling,

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them taking a modern 
approach, cutting that out.

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And then on the AP side 
and corporate cards

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we've been using both Glean and Ramp.

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And both, in different ways, have cut out

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the manual process of reading receipts

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and transcribing them
into the general ledger.

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Which is something a computer
is very well suited to.

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– Yes, and I would add there 
is that with our solution,

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and with other solutions
that focus on helping

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the accountants do
their job more effectively.

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We've seen people reduce their close time

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from 30, 20 days down to under five days

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and using tools that allow them

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to collaborate a little bit better.

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Put their close into a state 
of perpetual closing

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where the system is 
alerting them to things

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that maybe may look fishy.

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Like the variance analysis it's spitting out

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versus an accountant poring
over all of the data, all the time.

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Or like Graham was 
talking about, essentially,

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entering and reentering the same data.

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I remember when I first
left public accounting,

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and one of my jobs was 
to export from QuickBooks,

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the variance analysis tool,
and do a variance analysis.

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And whenever an entry 
was booked in QuickBooks

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and the numbers would change,

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I would have to go back 
and re-export that data

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and redo everything, and that 
was a waste of time.

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I should not have been doing that.

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But, unfortunately, a lot of folks

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are still doing those types of exercises

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that are not really best 
utilizing their skill set. 

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I have a master's in Accounting 
and I'm a CPA.

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Those skills that a CPA learns,

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both academically as well 
as in the workforce,

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allows them to be a huge asset
to any organization alone.

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And if that skill set has been utilized

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to re-export again and again,
every day, the same thing,

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I think, that's a waste of human capital.

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– For sure, you sit for a CPA exam,

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or IMA has the CMA exam,
you sit for these exams.

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And you put the time in, 
you put the work in,

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and for your job title to be to sit there

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exporting something and looking at it.

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It can be too much after a while.

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– So what you're saying is that

253
00:11:09,090 --> 00:11:10,860
this isn't the content of the CMA exam?

254
00:11:10,860 --> 00:11:12,560
– No, it's not the content.

255
00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:17,200
There's maybe one, little, 
page of the CMA exam.

256
00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:19,320
Edgar, you brought up 
something like QuickBooks,

257
00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,320
and it makes me think of small 
to medium-sized businesses.

258
00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:24,780
Those are the ones that that's 
the tool a lot of them use

259
00:11:24,780 --> 00:11:26,280
for keeping their records.

260
00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:27,960
Now, how can these solutions

261
00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:31,000
help small to medium-sized businesses?

262
00:11:31,020 --> 00:11:32,700
Maybe connect to things like QuickBooks

263
00:11:32,700 --> 00:11:34,200
and connect to those smaller tools.

264
00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:36,120
So that they can help their accounting

265
00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:37,640
because if you're a small business,

266
00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:38,880
you don't have a big accounting team.

267
00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:41,280
It may just be one person 
doing the CFO work,

268
00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:43,840
all the way down to staff 
accountant work, all in one person.

269
00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:48,000
– Yes, definitely, and there are
a lot of tools out there.

270
00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,520
I think it does become a point, now,

271
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,000
where people have to make
decisions like the accountant

272
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:55,260
or any other person that makes decisions,

273
00:11:55,260 --> 00:11:57,240
"What do I want my tech stack to look at?

274
00:11:57,240 --> 00:11:58,800
What are the pain points?

275
00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,600
Let me kind of tackle the 
pain points and get solutions

276
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:02,880
that integrate with QuickBooks."

277
00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:06,180
I think QuickBooks is a great tool,
at a great price point,

278
00:12:06,180 --> 00:12:08,040
for a lot of businesses,
and that's why people use it.

279
00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:10,020
But I think as your business grows,

280
00:12:10,020 --> 00:12:12,660
inevitably, your business 
is going to outgrow

281
00:12:12,660 --> 00:12:14,580
a lot of the capabilities of QuickBooks.

282
00:12:14,580 --> 00:12:17,580
So when you look at the progression

283
00:12:17,580 --> 00:12:20,040
of just QuickBooks alone,
going from QuickBooks Desktop

284
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:21,560
to QuickBooks Online.

285
00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:23,280
To, now, you have 
a QuickBooks Marketplace,

286
00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:25,560
and you can literally go to 
the QuickBooks Marketplace

287
00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:27,900
by pain point, and look 
at this point solutions

288
00:12:27,900 --> 00:12:29,600
to help augment what you're doing.

289
00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:35,160
I think it's awesome, and that 
really helps the accountant,

290
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:38,160
the entrepreneur, get a handle 
over their books,

291
00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:40,680
and over their close process,
and over their reporting,

292
00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:43,680
in ways that you couldn't 
do ten or 15 years ago.

293
00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:45,660
For our tool, that we're building,

294
00:12:45,660 --> 00:12:48,060
we integrate with QuickBooks, 
so it's very easy.

295
00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:52,320
There's no long implementation 
period to adopt our tool.

296
00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:54,300
A lot of these other tools which take time.

297
00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:59,280
So, I've been through an ERP
migration that took several months.

298
00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:03,600
It was several months 
beyond the original deadline,

299
00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:05,400
which is a waste of time.

300
00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:07,680
So it's really exciting that 
technology now is at a point

301
00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:10,680
where you have open 
APIs that, essentially,

302
00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:12,360
you can do these integrations 
much faster,

303
00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:14,920
and you can get people up
and running much faster.

304
00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:17,280
And then you can tackle
depending on your pain points.

305
00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:19,080
So if a business is a small business,

306
00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,000
but it's acquiring another small business,

307
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:22,680
all of a sudden, you have to think about,

308
00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:24,880
"How do I consolidate those two entities?"

309
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:26,160
And right now you would not be able

310
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:27,720
to do that in QuickBooks Online.

311
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:29,820
But there are tools out there 
that will help you

312
00:13:29,820 --> 00:13:31,380
consolidate those two entities,

313
00:13:31,380 --> 00:13:34,760
and report on them 
as the combined entity.

314
00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:37,120
One of those tools happens to be Avise.

315
00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:41,200
– And to pick up on that,

316
00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:45,780
we joke that ERP migration
that was a few months behind.

317
00:13:45,780 --> 00:13:51,000
It might be the most seamless 
ERP migration I've ever heard of.

318
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:54,440
I went through one that was,
probably, two years behind

319
00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:57,280
and just involved countless 
people and consultants.

320
00:13:57,280 --> 00:13:58,740
People we had to hire, in-house,

321
00:13:58,740 --> 00:14:00,240
just to help manage the consultants

322
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:02,360
help manage the migration,
and then the system.

323
00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:05,760
And in, particular, for small
and medium-sized businesses,

324
00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:07,980
growing ones, where the 
business is getting more complex,

325
00:14:07,980 --> 00:14:11,240
but the team is not that large, yet.

326
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:15,360
The old model of software really
designed for bigger businesses,

327
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:17,700
where you need more people
to operate the software.

328
00:14:17,700 --> 00:14:19,860
It's the exact opposite of what you want,

329
00:14:19,860 --> 00:14:23,240
if you're trying to be lean, and nimble,

330
00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:24,880
like a small and mid-sized business.

331
00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:27,440
You want software that 
frees up your time.

332
00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:29,600
That enables you and your existing team

333
00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:33,240
to get more done as 
the complexity goes up.

334
00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,420
And rather than making it 
so that actually you need

335
00:14:36,420 --> 00:14:39,120
to hire more people
just to operate the software.

336
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,640
Which is an antiquated 
way to look at software,

337
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:44,700
and it's a very big company thing
where the assumption is

338
00:14:44,700 --> 00:14:47,120
you're hiring so many people, anyway,

339
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:48,600
of course, you're going to operate it.

340
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:50,440
So as Edgar mentioned there,

341
00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:54,720
we've built Avise largely based
on our own frustrations.

342
00:14:54,720 --> 00:15:00,760
Aimed at smart accountants
to leverage their own abilities.

343
00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:05,200
A few shouts outs to some 
of the software we use,

344
00:15:05,220 --> 00:15:08,320
and it's a modern software 
across the board,

345
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,680
largely, outside the accounting 
function today,

346
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:15,600
has had that attitude, where it 
should be increasing efficiency

347
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,480
and unlocking the ability 
of the people using it.

348
00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:22,080
– For sure, yes, and when I think
about mergers and acquisitions.

349
00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:23,820
You have to have everything in line,

350
00:15:23,820 --> 00:15:26,880
in order before you can 
even cross that line.

351
00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:28,740
And having the technology,

352
00:15:28,740 --> 00:15:30,520
we've been talking about, in place

353
00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:32,480
to get your foundation in order

354
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:34,140
seems like a very important thing.

355
00:15:34,140 --> 00:15:37,560
And it seems like if you're 
interested in getting into mergers

356
00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:39,920
and growing your company 
through that way,

357
00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:41,340
putting these technologies in place

358
00:15:41,340 --> 00:15:44,240
would be your first step 
to getting things in order.

359
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:47,040
– Yes, that's a very good call-out.

360
00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,680
I mean, for sure, if you're 
merging with other companies,

361
00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:51,160
if you're acquiring other companies,

362
00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:53,480
that just greatly increases the complexity.

363
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,840
But the complexity shouldn't 
be one plus one equals five.

364
00:15:57,840 --> 00:15:59,880
It should be one plus one 
is something less than two,

365
00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:02,340
in terms of the difficulty 
of managing the two.

366
00:16:02,340 --> 00:16:04,200
But, yes, if the systems aren't in order,

367
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,380
then, for sure, it could 
be managing two companies.

368
00:16:07,380 --> 00:16:08,480
And then doing the consolidation

369
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,840
is a lot harder than 
doing them individually,

370
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,160
the right systems make it easier.

371
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:16,360
And, yes, for the flip side,

372
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:18,300
if your company is going to get acquired,

373
00:16:18,300 --> 00:16:20,840
that's something we've come across a lot.

374
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,360
Where people say, "Yes, I 
didn't really appreciate..."

375
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:26,280
maybe tech company 
founders, or whoever it is, say,

376
00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,680
"I didn't really appreciate the 
importance of good accounting

377
00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:32,960
until I went to sell my 
company to Salesforce,

378
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,400
and they had expectations that things

379
00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:37,320
would be totally in order beforehand."

380
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:39,920
– So as we wrap up the conversation,

381
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,600
as we look at the future
of accounting technology.

382
00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:44,460
I want you guys to look in your crystal ball

383
00:16:44,460 --> 00:16:46,980
of all the experience you've had,
throughout the years, 

384
00:16:46,980 --> 00:16:50,560
and tell us where you think 
things are going?

385
00:16:50,580 --> 00:16:55,080
– Yes, at the end of the day,
the accountants, their jobs,

386
00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:56,640
to Graham's point,

387
00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,460
the technology is going to 
enable accountants to do

388
00:16:59,460 --> 00:17:01,560
and empower them to do 
their jobs more effectively.

389
00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:03,480
And then giving them more time

390
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:05,640
to do more value additive things

391
00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:07,920
for the business, which is really exciting.

392
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:12,520
One of our values, at Avise,
is we look to Luca Pacioli,

393
00:17:12,540 --> 00:17:16,140
who is the godfather 
of double-entry accounting,

394
00:17:16,140 --> 00:17:18,280
and he was a monk,

395
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,720
and quote-unquote, "Invented 
double-entry accounting."

396
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:23,700
Which, essentially, allowed merchants,

397
00:17:23,700 --> 00:17:26,640
who were trading internationally,

398
00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,460
be able to maintain their books

399
00:17:29,460 --> 00:17:32,160
and really understand, "I sold this amount

400
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,920
and I bought this amount,"
and balance their books.

401
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,560
And that really just allowed businesses

402
00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:39,840
to achieve so much more complexity.

403
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:41,280
And we're in a really exciting time

404
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:43,500
that we believe where this technology

405
00:17:43,500 --> 00:17:44,820
is really going to be embraced.

406
00:17:44,820 --> 00:17:47,640
And in the next 10, 15 years,

407
00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:50,700
businesses are going to be 
able to do a lot more,

408
00:17:50,700 --> 00:17:53,700
a lot faster, and feel confident that

409
00:17:53,700 --> 00:17:58,440
what they're looking at is accurate,
in terms of the numbers.

410
00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:00,780
I've been in places, I worked
in a few different companies,

411
00:18:00,780 --> 00:18:03,240
where it's just like day 30 is the day

412
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:04,560
that we say "We're comfortable

413
00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,160
with the numbers from 30 days ago."

414
00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,800
And then the CFO cannot 
operate relying on data

415
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:16,140
that's 30 days old because
that's so stale in today's world.

416
00:18:16,140 --> 00:18:18,840
You need stuff now
and you need it accurately.

417
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,160
So, yes, accountants are going
to be empowered by the tools.

418
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,320
I think for any young accountant

419
00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:25,880
or a prospective accountant
who is thinking about it.

420
00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:27,240
 I think, it's a very exciting time

421
00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:30,360
because technology is going 
to make their lives

422
00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:32,280
much better than what mine was,

423
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:35,680
when I first came out, which
is really exciting for them.

424
00:18:35,700 --> 00:18:38,040
And then it's going to be 
a challenge to them

425
00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:39,680
to be real technologists.

426
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,240
To really learning the newest technologies

427
00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:46,120
that are coming out, understanding
the advantages of the new tools.

428
00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:48,840
Integrating those tools so that they have

429
00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:50,560
a very coherent tech stack.

430
00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:52,860
And at the center of it, we believe firmly,

431
00:18:52,860 --> 00:18:54,360
is that you need a GL.

432
00:18:54,360 --> 00:18:57,240
You need a single source of 
truth for an organization

433
00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,880
that can ingest all of that data

434
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:01,560
and that can be relied on.

435
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:03,420
And that's one of the things
that we're really excited about,

436
00:19:03,420 --> 00:19:04,680
we're building personally, at Avise.

437
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:06,720
But in general, I think that 
the future is very bright.

438
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,600
– Yes, I don't think I can add much to that.

439
00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,400
I mean, I really go into Luca Pacioli

440
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,160
to answer the question of
what's going on in the future.

441
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:18,300
But, yes, that's exactly it,

442
00:19:18,300 --> 00:19:22,320
even just to tweak that last bit a little bit.

443
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,300
Because there's been 
innovation in software

444
00:19:24,300 --> 00:19:26,520
outside of the accounting team.

445
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:29,280
We're in this weird point in history,

446
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,200
where business decisions are being made

447
00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:34,140
based on data that doesn't 
come from the general ledger,

448
00:19:34,140 --> 00:19:35,700
that doesn't come from 
the accounting team.

449
00:19:35,700 --> 00:19:40,240
Because it's a lot more up-to-date,
it's faster, it's often wrong.

450
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:43,740
And it often has all those same problems

451
00:19:43,740 --> 00:19:46,800
that were present in 15th-century Italy,

452
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,440
before double-entry bookkeeping
became widespread.

453
00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,640
And we're excited for the
accounting software to catch up

454
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,480
and for accountants 
to retake their places,

455
00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:58,920
to actually providing the information

456
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,640
that drives the business.

457
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:02,920
– And it's all more important 
for the accountant

458
00:20:02,940 --> 00:20:04,800
to have the technology in place.

459
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:06,560
So that they are not sitting
there, bogged down

460
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:08,280
by doing this menial work.

461
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,520
Having the AI take care of those things

462
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:12,120
so that they can be the business partner,

463
00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:14,160
be the storyteller, and help drive

464
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:17,560
the strategy with the
actual data that's there.

465
00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:19,440
– Yes, and that's exactly it,

466
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,900
the AI can't think for the business,

467
00:20:21,900 --> 00:20:23,960
the AI can't think like an accountant.

468
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,640
But the software, at least, 
driven by whatever

469
00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:28,200
the latest advances are,

470
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:30,600
can take on the role of busy work.

471
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:32,120
– Well, Edgar, Graham, thank you so much

472
00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:33,780
for coming on Count Me In podcast.

473
00:20:33,780 --> 00:20:35,040
We really appreciate having you on

474
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,080
and sharing your expertise with us today.

475
00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:38,320
– Thank you, Adam, really appreciate it.

476
00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:39,200
It was great being on.

477
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:41,840
– Yes, thank you so much,
I enjoyed the chat.

478
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,080
< Outro >

479
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,620
– This has been Count Me In, 
IMA's podcast.

480
00:20:46,620 --> 00:20:48,880
Providing you with the latest perspectives

481
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:51,600
of thought leaders from the
accounting and finance profession.

482
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:52,740
If you like what you heard,

483
00:20:52,740 --> 00:20:54,300
and you'd like to be counted in,

484
00:20:54,300 --> 00:20:56,680
for more relevant accounting 
and finance education,

485
00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:03,600
visit IMA's website at www.imanet.org.