Stop Paying Consultants to Tell You What to Automate

Marcus and Rachel introduce the Automation Idea Generator from Collected by DBA, a free tool designed to help accounting firm teams identify what to automate, assess ROI, and get started without hiring a consultant. The episode walks through a live demo and breaks down a key distinction the whole firm needs to understand: AI designs the process, automation runs it. They also get honest about the real barrier to adoption in most firms, which isn't the technology, it's the team.

Sponsors
Discover.AI -  discover.ai 

The Automation Idea Generator:
https://collective.cpa/automationprompt

Watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/zIW4hkn8wYw

Introducing Collective by DBA
https://collective.cpa
https://www.linkedin.com/company/collectivebydba

Learn More About Dillon Business Advisors
https://www.dillonadvisors.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/dillonbusinessadvisors

Sign up to get free CPE for listening to this podcast
https://earmarkcpe.com

Download the Earmark CPE App
Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/earmark-cpe/id1562599728

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.earmarkcpe.app

• (00:00) - Welcome to Who's Really the Boss
• (01:15) - Episode Tool Teaser
• (01:34) - Family Travel Update
• (05:42) - Why This Free Tool
• (07:07) - AI Vs Automation Basics
• (08:38) - Tech Pace And Firm Context
• (11:25) - Automation Initiative Start
• (12:47) - Credit To Tool Builders
• (14:10) - Temporary Tool Mindset
• (16:31) - Team Training Exercise
• (18:49) - Evaluating Automation ROI
• (21:08) - Real Example Prospect Folder
• (23:06) - Integration Reality Check
• (28:05) - Demo Begins Tool Link
• (30:36) - Software Stack Setup
• (32:12) - File Storage Choices
• (33:02) - Define the Pain Point
• (34:06) - Payroll Email Use Case
• (36:49) - Time Savings and ROI
• (38:57) - Generate the Prompt
• (41:10) - Claude Reviews Automation Ideas
• (44:18) - Risks and Change Management
• (48:13) - Empower the Whole Team
• (51:39) - Wrap Up and Feedback

Creators and Guests

Host

Marcus Dillon, CPA

Host

Rachel Dillon

What is Who's Really the BOSS??

"Who's Really the BOSS?" highlights the joys and challenges of running a CPA firm with your spouse or family. From hiring and terminating to improving capacity, cash flow, and culture, our conversations cover leadership, operations, and current accounting industry challenges. Our mission is to strengthen families and accounting firms by helping listeners avoid the mistakes we have made, so they can lead and live happily ever after.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Rachel Dillon: This is Who's really the boss. A podcast for accounting firm leaders who want to grow with intention and lead with purpose. I'm Rachel Dolan, and along with my husband, Marcus Dillon, we share real stories from our accounting firm, Practical Firm growth strategies, and the tools you need to lead your clients, your team, and your life well.

Rachel Dillon: Welcome back to another [00:00:30] episode of Who's Really the Boss podcast.

Marcus Dillon: Hey, thanks for having me back.

Rachel Dillon: If a listener today is new, we say that exact opening every single time. And our friends like to tease us that listen to the podcast regularly. Um, you know, if one time you, Marcus, are going to say something different, uh, instead of, hey, thanks for having me back.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. Um, I know our friend, uh, Matt, when we were together in, uh, in [00:01:00] Mexico for our recharge event. He brought it up and he's like, it gets me every time. And I'm like, dude, you must be so easy to please, because if that gets you every time. Um, so yeah, it's it's good. It's kind of a tagline, I guess.

Rachel Dillon: All right. Well, this episode is all about a free tool that will help the entire team at your accounting firm work faster or smarter. Or maybe that's both. You're working smarter if you're working [00:01:30] faster, and if you're able to work faster, it's because you're working smarter. Um, but before we get into the tool, before we get into the tool, we have to do a life update because we had some questions about that as well when we were at recharge in Mexico. So first thing I want to mention a few episodes back, our oldest daughter, Kinley, was trying to figure out a way to get her and her friend to Mexico, not Mexico, to New York City for two days. [00:02:00] Actually, this coming up weekend as we're recording this, I just wanted to let everyone know she is not going to New York City. So thankfully, our niece had a bachelorette party that kind of filled that need for travel and excitement and adventure a few weeks back. And so she kind of dropped the idea and the ask to go to New York City.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. Um, well, it's also Mother's Day weekend as well. And so thankfully, [00:02:30] she's making the right mature choice to spend time with all the moms in her life. So we're actually going to pick her up, you know, in Waco on the way through. Go see, obviously you, uh, celebrate, you celebrate, uh, your mom, my mom and your 99 year old grandma, right. Who's still around. Um, so maybe that also helped, um, sway that, uh, trip really wasn't that needed. Um, And if you can make a young adult be a little less selfish [00:03:00] in life, uh. You've won. I, I believe so.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, absolutely. We'll make this quick. Um, the, the most current events, recent things happening in their lives. They are Kinley and Avery at separate schools, but both taking finals right now. And so Kinley just shared these were the two exams they were most nervous about. Kinley was nervous about her political science because as a fashion design major, she doesn't have that many challenging exams. That's usually projects that [00:03:30] she has to turn in or present. And so she made a 96 on that. And then Avery, um, was concerned about her statistics class, which she ended up making a 90 on that final. So, um, lots of celebrations there as they, uh, kind of started out their finals week. So at least they had two wins to kick off that, uh, kind of stress filled time.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. No, and it's been, it's been good, I know that may. We're recording this at the beginning of May. May is a very busy month for parents [00:04:00] with kids in school, especially parents who are finishing the school career. So parents of seniors, we've got Leslie on our team who's who's a parent of a senior. But then also if your kids are in college, you got to move out of dorms. So we have the joy of, of moving our youngest out of the dorm tomorrow. Um, so all the fun stuff, uh, whether they're in school, out of school, it just keeps on giving once you have kids. So, uh, another life update, you actually have curtains behind you. So I think, I'm not sure if this is the first [00:04:30] time that we've recorded. Um, I believe most of the contractors and designers are now out of our house for the most part. Um, I, my new background with the pictures with the couch, uh, some people do think that it is, uh, virtual background and, uh, they're free to go, uh, steal it. I'll, I'll even move out of the way because Ben on our team, um, he's loved to place himself like he's sitting on my couch in my office with me. Um, and so that's just [00:05:00] the joy of having virtual backgrounds nowadays. You can pick wherever you are in the world. And so, um, but yeah, those are, those are the things that are coming along on the personal side.

Rachel Dillon: All right. So if anybody's listening to this episode and not watching on YouTube, um, make sure that you go watch on YouTube for this episode, not only to see our backgrounds live and in person, but also you will be demoing the tool we're about to talk about, uh, for the [00:05:30] end of the episode. So if you're driving, do not YouTube, but after, after you've listened, um, definitely go check it out on YouTube some other time when it's safe.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah, really excited about that. Um, and you know, we shared this tool at recharge with the firms that were in the room. Um, and I think we got good feedback on it. We obviously built this tool because it was a need at DB A and across team how to how to think through the updates and technologies AI [00:06:00] automations and how to use that across the team. Obviously, you can pay a consultant to come in. Uh, what we've hopefully created for you today is just an easy start to think about that across your team. What automations, what AI you should start with what the return on investment is. Uh, what tools specific to the accounting industry or tax industry? Um, and just, you know, go from there. So I, I personally used it a lot. Um, I'm testing things, [00:06:30] building things. Others on our team are doing that, but we're also trying to firm things up for consistent use across the team. So like, that's where, um, as we talk probably even throughout today or even on the other side of this, for those that are using this tool, and as we even show it in different scenarios, webinars, whatever. Um, I think it's a really great free tool and we chose to give it away just because it is more impactful, um, to be used alongside maybe other tools that you are [00:07:00] buying. And we don't want there to be a purchasing decision to, to, to be better and to improve in your firm.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. So I know for us, this is a question we often ask, uh, or a comment, we say there has to be a better way to do this. And it used to be that we would say that every once in a while. Now that's a common thing, like on a weekly basis, maybe on a daily basis, that people are using that same sentiment of, there has to be [00:07:30] a better way to do this. Um, we like to throw out. Yeah, AI or automate. And a lot of times I feel like people use those words synonymously and they don't mean the same thing. So there's that. Um, definitely automation is what executes AI thinks so. Ai is going to help us think through and plan out the. Automation is the actual process task work that's being done, [00:08:00] the execution that's happening over and over and over again, um, to help make that work faster or maybe, uh, off of somebody's plate lessening someone's workload. And so I think that's an important distinction. Um, especially as we have this conversation today.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. And then there's the whole layer of agents and co-work and all of that that are also, uh, repeatable automations, actually AI thinking throughout, um, working on your machine, if you will. And [00:08:30] this also tees up further creation of agents and co-working and artifacts and all that good stuff. So, uh, but this is the first step. And we know that, um, we actually spend a lot of time with technology companies. I'm fortunate to be on a few different councils. I'm just getting back from councils, both with Intuit and ADP. So very, um, interesting, um, cool, scary, you know, exciting, whatever word you want to use to see the technology that will be released in the very near future and [00:09:00] how we adapt to that. And so since we, you know, run a firm, we have to figure that out and how we can not only supplement our current team, but upskill cross skill. However, you want to say that for our team members so that they're using the best tools possible and that they're improving and that, you know, as a result, the business is more efficient and more effective. So this is solving a very real need. And in the market today, we see where just more tools are releasing. It's kind of [00:09:30] a head, you know, spinning, uh, pace as far as just the amount of new new tools, new idea generators that are out there. So what we did is we put this into, um, into a format that we could test, we could build upon.

Marcus Dillon: And looking at just our team. So those of you that may know a little bit about DBA, we have less than 30 team members working in pods, serving clients with an all inclusive model. Uh, [00:10:00] our teams of three serve clients with accounting, tax and advisory. So we hit on all three of those points. And, uh, whenever we're doing the variety of different service offerings within one team, you're moving in and out of different tools, different softwares all day long and things like automation, things like connections, things like open API and MCP servers and all that are very helpful because there's less clicks, there's more, you know, fluid [00:10:30] resources and movement throughout your workday. So, um, it's a very real need. Uh, we, we really believe in the team of three. Obviously, for those of you that have heard us speak on that, and we believe things like tools like the automations will help supplement and help make those team structures even more impactful from a client service perspective and just an overall effectiveness to achieve what we want to as a business. So yeah, [00:11:00] I'm really excited to demo this before we obviously, before we get into that, um, the scariest part in anything is the blinking cursor, um, which I know that AI, uh, different chat LMS have solved for that. Like you just start speaking, but whenever new tools are released or you hear about a new update, it can be scary just to say, hey, where do we start?

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, absolutely. So starting is definitely usually the bigger [00:11:30] problem than even not wanting to utilize something new in technology. And so it's not, not always that we don't want to move forward. We don't want to change. We don't want to continue to progress, but we just don't know where to start. And so one of our big initiatives for this year, for our team, for Dillon Business Advisors was automating like that was the initiative automation. So [00:12:00] across roles, across processes and service offerings. That was our goal this year is to not keep saying there has to be a better way, but actually to implement that consistently with best practices and policies across the team. And so the way that we started with that was using AI to help us figure out what to automate. But I think an important [00:12:30] step, even before you can say, okay, I'm jumping into an LLM and going to ask, what should I automate? Is how are we going to write the best prompt to get good answers, viable options for our team. And so before we get even too far, we have to give the credit where credit is due to Angel Sabino, our director of IT and automation. Is that his title?

Marcus Dillon: Director [00:13:00] of technology and AI. Carlos.

Rachel Dillon: It's almost it's almost I knew I messed it up. I didn't write it down. Um, and Amy McCarty, uh, our director of operations. And so that was definitely how do we help angel is very good at prompting, uh, not everyone on our team, including myself, but not all of us are professionals at prompting. And so that's really, we started basic from a word document that was shared [00:13:30] with some prompts, um, all the way to the automation idea generator that is now available to our team to collect it by DBA members. It was shared at Recharge in Mexico. Um, but then also going to be available to anyone who's listening and so happy to, um, kind of walk through what that helps with what you need to know to be able to use it, who, who can use it, all of those things. [00:14:00] But we will, uh, put the link to that in the show notes so that anybody who's listening can go try it out for themselves and share it with their team.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. And I would love to add on to what you mentioned on, um, generating prompts and, um, the, I, I heard it said that, um, prompt creation and being able to even do what we're about to walk through is such a temporary problem and something that will, when we look back [00:14:30] on, um, the change that occurred during our lifetime, especially when it comes to like AI and automation, um, generating prompts is something that we are only going to have to do for a very short time. And so this is a tool that we built, um, to be temporary. And it's kind of like when you think back to those, uh, IRC and PBP calculators that were useful for a window of time in your firm. Um, our hope is that this is useful in the moment. We will continue [00:15:00] to update it alongside other, uh, collective by DBA, you know, resources and tools, but this may actually have a shelf life. Um, and so we know that going into it, how we're using it as a team, and I'll let you share a little bit how we introduced it to the team. And then just like everything we do in DBA, it's an experiment for collective and for the accounting industry.

Marcus Dillon: But we knew that there were tools out there that we weren't using, and we knew there were probably tools that we had no idea that were even created [00:15:30] yet. And I've, I've equated it to like, you know, people used to build houses just with hammers and nails and old school like manual screwdrivers. Um, somewhere along the way, power tools, pneumatic tools, all these different things were introduced and a generation of builders had to move from manual hammer and nails, swinging it every day to pneumatic air tools to build a house and frame a house. And so I feel like whenever we look [00:16:00] back at the accounting shift that is happening in this age, um, it'll be very similar to people that used to build houses with, uh, with individual, you know, power, not non-power tools. So, um, but why don't you share how we introduced this to the team during tax season, no less, um, to say, hey, what are the different things that are frustrating you and we should solve for? Because more than likely if they're frustrating you, a tool has already been built [00:16:30] to solve for that.

Rachel Dillon: All right, so in true DBA fashion, we call. Um, we set initiatives for the year and priorities for the year that are very broad. And then per, let's say, role or specific people, different things. Then we set specific goals, um, that are more, uh, smart goals. So they're more specific and measurable accountability and time, all of those things. And so, um, our initiative being so broad of [00:17:00] just automate, um, really left a lot open. And so rather than the leadership team deciding, okay, this is the most important thing to automate. We really put, um, we really gave the team the opportunity to decide what's frustrating them, what would give them time back in their day, what is most important for them to automate? They are going to be most familiar with the tasks that are, um, [00:17:30] time consuming and repetitive, um, in nature and potentially that affect a lot of team members. Like a lot of team members are doing the same repetitive tasks over and over and over again throughout the year. And so what we did, we have a training time once a month, and it happens during our regular team meeting time. So we meet Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. central virtually. We're completely remote. And so a virtual team meeting. So the [00:18:00] fourth Tuesday is reserved for training. So one of those Tuesdays, we used it for this purpose to find out what should we automate.

Rachel Dillon: Um, but give the team the ability to be able to help us decide and come up with those ideas of what should we be automating? And so it started as a simple word document with a prompt that angel put together. And so we each had access to that word document. We [00:18:30] could fill in some blanks of specifics. So what is the frustration? We just type it out. Who is involved? What technologies or programs are involved? How often do we do it? How much time does it take each time we do it? So the automation idea generator is really looking at when we decide to automate something, is it going to be a high impact [00:19:00] or low impact to the firm? Is it going to save time? Is it going to save money? Is it going to save both? And so um, or is it not, is it not something that we need to spend time and resources on automating because it's going to be such a low impact across the team or client experience that it's not even worth automating that. Just keep, keep doing that and put the focus in all of the resources towards something that's going to make a much bigger impact. So that [00:19:30] is this tool so that you're not wasting time automating things that don't really need to be automated because they're not going to be that big of an impact.

Rachel Dillon: Um, and so I can, I can share what I typed in, um, because mine was, I'll say mine was a fail. Um, mine was not a viable option or a recommended option to automate. And, uh, a few of the reasons it didn't impact [00:20:00] enough people on the team. They not only three people on the team were involved. Um, and this thing that I wanted to automate it, it didn't cost really anything because it didn't, it doesn't take much time. And then also it doesn't occur very often. So it's not something that's happening every day or every hour, or maybe not even every week. Usually it happens at least once a week, but maybe not even every single week. And so for all of those reasons, the automation [00:20:30] idea generator said, this isn't this isn't a good use of your time and resources to focus on creating an automation for this. Continue to do this and work on another higher impact area at this time. So it's not that it couldn't be done, it could be done. And it, um, it just was giving us good advice. Why advice? Don't, don't waste all this time making this thing that doesn't have enough impact to [00:21:00] show for the time it would take to create it.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. And I would love, like you provided great context there. Um, because this is what you raised up was something that was in like in DBA in the firm. And since other firm leaders are listening to this, what exactly was, what were you trying to solve for? And what did it tell you that it wasn't worth enough time to build out?

Rachel Dillon: Absolutely. So when we get new prospects, um, once I have once I finish the discovery call with a prospective [00:21:30] client, we request prior year tax returns and access to their QuickBooks online file. Or potentially, if they're not on Qbo, then we're requesting, uh, like a backup or some type of document of their accounting system so that we can review and give back pricing and recommendations. And so what we do is we create a potential client folder for that person, and then we have them upload through. We use Kanopy. [00:22:00] So we have them upload the prior year returns. And then if they don't use Qbo backups or whatever documentation through Kanopy, uh, our tax administrator, Deidre saves that into that potential clients folder. She lets me know that it's there. And then I let you know that it's there. So I'm checking to make sure I have everything I need. I'll respond back to the client, answer any questions or ask questions, and then I'll turn it over to you. For final EIS and final pricing. And so what [00:22:30] I was asking it to do was anytime a new document is added to that potential client folder that you and I both get notified at the same time. And really, that's just to make sure the ball isn't dropped anywhere in that process. And we don't let something go for too many days because there's a lot of manual things that are happening. And so it could very easily, if somebody's out or busy that they just forget to send a message. And then, you know, we're not all in [00:23:00] the know of, we're waiting on this, trying to get pricing back out to a prospect.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. No, that's really good. Um, it's funny because, uh, my idea that I put into it during that exercise, um, it also kind of told me a similar thing. It didn't talk me into an automation. It said it could build me one, but it told me that there were other better options to do. And so very similar to yours, It said, hey, this pain point is only yours. And instead of you focusing [00:23:30] on solving your own pain points and building something that only you would use, why don't you go solve problems that will impact the lives of the other 26 people on the team? And so my problem that I raised up was, hey, I've got invoicing and billing in HubSpot. I've got invoicing and billing in canopy. I've also got some in Qbo. How can I get all of that into QuickBooks online at the end of the day? And so it. It reminded me, I knew that they were out there, but it said, [00:24:00] hey, why don't you go look at the official integrations between HubSpot to Qbo instead of rebuilding this your own and maintaining it and trying to own it for any breaks that could occur. Why don't you go actually do the, uh, the licensed one that's within product to connect those two? And then the same for canopy to Qbo and turn those on.

Marcus Dillon: There's been a variety of reasons why I've avoided that, because of duplication of clients and what data is brought over and all of that, and just sitting down to [00:24:30] really test that. Um, so, but in this example, I was reminded, hey, within two minutes, there's probably better options than having me having the tool, uh, create what that would be. And so I don't know if we clarified this either this tool that lives on our website, the automation, um, the automation idea generator. It is not an AI product. So it will give you what you can copy and paste into any tool [00:25:00] of your choice. And so I know that a lot of people are using Claude, uh, open AI, ChatGPT, uh, copilot, whatever that is. Uh, this is kind of independent from any one AI tool brand, whatever. Um, the reason why we felt it was important was because one, we walked through it, but then two, um, giving our knowledge of an accounting firm, owner and leader, we felt that we had some unusual or unique perspectives [00:25:30] to give whenever we're generating these ideas to feed the machine.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, you mentioned the time. So with this exercise, every single person on our team was able to do this exercise within a matter of minutes. So it didn't matter if that was a licensed accounting professional, an administrative professional, a contractor, everybody who was in that meeting was able to do it. And it didn't matter if they had ever [00:26:00] used an AI prompt or never used an AI prompt. And so what we were able to do was take that prompt that Angel had created. We had filled in some blanks, copy and paste that into copilot because that also we have a business license. So our whole team is able to use copilot securely. And then that is how it spit out. So that was iteration or version one of the automation idea generator. So it didn't require that anyone have any special skill, [00:26:30] experience or knowledge with AI or any kind of background on automation. Like they didn't have to know, is this going to work or is this not going to work? That's, that's the beauty that this really is the starting point. And then Angel built that into, what would you call it for us? It's a, it's a web page. Um, but he built it into this tool that now there's, the prompts are already there. It's more clicking and writing a [00:27:00] quick description of your frustration. And then you get your idea generated with all of those factors detailed out of yes, you should proceed with this or no, don't waste your time.

Marcus Dillon: Well, I think the other thing that it does, um, you know, as accountants, we love what what are the results? Um, you know, on investment, the ROI or return on investment. So, um, the results that come along with this actually show, hey, out of the 20 [00:27:30] different prompts that your team ran, if you run this as an exercise in your firm like we did, um, the ones that you should start on the, the first and the beginning are the ones that produce the highest ROI. And so like, that's what we did. We chose the ones that produced the, the highest ROI and that, you know, would solve pain points for a majority of the team. So, um, that's kind of how we started and that's the data that you get. So I, I think we're to the point. Do you want to go ahead and share, um, [00:28:00] should we go ahead and share what the tool looks like and walk through it a little bit?

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead and share your screen and let's just do a demo of creating an automation idea.

Marcus Dillon: Awesome. So here, Here we are. I made sure that all my other tabs were closed out. Because y'all don't want to know what's going through my mind on the on a daily basis with all my other stuff. So, um, but yeah, at collective.co/automation prompt, we'll share that, [00:28:30] uh, link in a variety of different places. That way you can play with it. And, um, you know, if there's improvements to be made, if you find anything that's worthy of, uh, feedback, please, please let us know. This is really just, uh, being put out there to help others improve. So the first question, which is pretty important, is which platform does your firm run on? Um, so we are a Microsoft shop. I know a lot of other professional service firms default to Microsoft, but if you're more in the creative space, maybe that Google [00:29:00] workspace, um, is something that does apply to you. Uh, you're probably running around with your gmail account loaded on to a MacBook Pro or an iPad instead of Microsoft office account loaded onto a Dell laptop. Um, but still, like, that's the first question. That's pretty important. Uh, we also gave the option to say both or hybrid. Um, you'll see, you know, that it'll give you a couple different prompts of why. And so then the second question is, you know, [00:29:30] as accounting leaders, uh, we know that the software that you use matters, especially when it comes to these things.

Marcus Dillon: So, uh, practice management, which all accountants love their practice management tool. We've listed out so many of the options that exist there, uh, given our knowledge of the industry. So, uh, the first one, it's probably easy canopy. That's the one that we use, but we have so many friends that use so many different ones. And if, if your software is not listed, there's that spot there at the bottom where you can drop that in. So we'll [00:30:00] just say, hey, practice management, canopy tax software, we're an ultra tax, um, accounting and bookkeeping. You've got the variety of different options. Uh, we'll go ahead and say that we are on QuickBooks online. Uh, we'll go ahead and say we're on double as well. Um, just because we do use double for our workflow and, uh, all the fun that comes along with it. Bot keeper that's kind of hasn't aged well out there. Um, but yeah, we'll keep it out there just for, uh, for giggles. So, [00:30:30] uh, payroll, we'll say that this is an ADP client and then document e-signature. Um, we actually all of our stuff flows through Kanopy. So on this one, I would assume we just kind of leave that blank. Um, but I'll, what do you think, Mark DocuSign or Adobe? Adobe sign.

Rachel Dillon: Probably. Adobe sign. Yeah.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. It seems like a because for sure we're not on right signature safe send or e file cabinet. Um so and then any other software [00:31:00] not listed, we're not going to go through the other 30 logins that we have, um, you know, using on a daily basis. We're just gonna keep moving forward where you store files. Um, so we are on SharePoint. Um and one drive. So this is pretty important. Um, if you access SharePoint files through OneDrive sync feature, which we do. So it's, we're, we're feeding both locally and virtually through OneDrive through, um, through our save local folder. So we're going to [00:31:30] say that if you click the third box on premise server, please, please call us an angel will talk you off the ledge of having a server in the closet. Um, because we care that much about you, but other options that exist out there are Google Drive all the way through, uh, hosted desktops and different services. And then still see there, there is the, the option to just describe what your, your client file storage does look like. All right. And then the part that [00:32:00] is, is totally open, um, maybe not as scary as a blink, as a, as a blinking cursor on a very white piece of paper.

Marcus Dillon: Um, but it's the, What is the task? Why is it painful and what usually goes wrong? And so we even gave an example here of every tax season, we manually chase clients for document for missing documents over email, someone tracks who responded in a spreadsheet. We follow up multiple times and things still slip through the cracks. It takes hours each week and we and we still [00:32:30] miss deadlines. So, uh, that wasn't a, um, a story written, uh, just out of thin air. I think, uh, we resonate with that over our career. I'm sure many other firm owners can resonate. Like how do you keep track of the open items? Who does it? Is it multiple people on team? Is it one person on the team? And how can you keep clients accountable? Um, so that you can finish up their work? Right? And, um, it seems easier than it should be, but something that we listed out there as an example. [00:33:00] So that's an example, Rachel. For today's purposes for the demo, what do we want to say? Um, is a good use case for this tool.

Rachel Dillon: I know one that was also used within our team, our client service managers who are in charge of bookkeeping, payroll and sales tax. They send an email with, I believe the payroll report, um, or they send something to the client, um, related to payroll [00:33:30] every two weeks when payroll is run. And so really what they're doing is drafting a message, adding a file and sending that. Um, and that was something that multiple people on the team are doing with multiple clients taking not a lot of time, but because it happens so frequently with so many people, um, that we were wanting this to happen automatically because the wording [00:34:00] wasn't changing and the files are stored and named, um, in a specific place. And so This was just something that they're like, it's kind of tedious to do. And it feels like with the advances in technology right now, we shouldn't have to do this one by one.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. So if I heard you right, I'm going to say that every payroll run, we send an email to the client with a link to their canopy folder. So we, we link to that securely. It's not just a unsecured [00:34:30] PDF with people's payroll data floating around in email.

Rachel Dillon: As I was saying that, I'm like, we don't send payroll information just straight over email, like in a PDF.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. So every payroll run, we send an email to the client with a link to their secure canopy folder that contains a, let's just say a PDF of the payroll run so they can have a copy so they can have a copy for their files. Uh, [00:35:00] was there any action needed by the client or just, hey, here it is. Here's what here's here it is.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. I don't think that there's any call to action for that, uh, within that responsibility.

Marcus Dillon: No call to action needed by the client. Just repetitive. Uh, repetitive in nature. And takes time across multiple clients. Why [00:35:30] did you let me do this? My spelling is awful. All right.

Rachel Dillon: I can't do two things at one time. So I can either talk or I can work, but I can't do both at the same time.

Marcus Dillon: Okay. And we're going to say that, um, you know, this task happens weekly because we have, um, you know, multiple multiple clients on different payroll runs and everybody's on the first and the 15th, some are on biweekly and you just never know. And we'll say [00:36:00] that how many hours per week does this consume across your team? Um, what would you think? Like 3 to 5 or 5 to 10 on that?

Rachel Dillon: How many hours per week does this consume across across the whole team. So multiple people doing it, let's say 5 to 10 minutes per time. So a few hours like that would add up over, you know, six CSM.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah, six Csms probably an average of 30 clients per CSM, give or [00:36:30] take. So let's just say 3 to 5 hours. I mean, I think that's reasonable. And it's and then we'll also, we'll also give the, the, uh, idea generator a little bit of info about our firm. And it's really only used to estimate time savings. So our firm size, we're in that 16 to 50 staff range. Uh, we already said there's six csms involved in this and the average billing rate per CSM. You know, if we were to bill by the hour or anything [00:37:00] like that, would be $150, uh, an hour. So right here it's already calculated that estimated impact. So six staff at four hours a week times 50 weeks is 1200 hours per year on this task. And then at $150 an hour, that's $180,000 per year in staff time. Automating 50% could recover 600 hours worth $90,000 in capacity. So all of that to say like, hey, it's already showing us like, this could be a good use of our time. Um, you know, if it was something that I was building [00:37:30] for me, um, you know, and it was only one person involved and maybe my hourly charge rate because it's an admin task is zero. Um, I, you know, kind of the, the story looks a lot different on that. So, so I think we've, we've done all five steps. Obviously, this has taken a little bit longer because we walked through it. Um, but literally, you can see how this could be done in a matter of minutes. So are we ready to hit the magic button, the build my automation prompt and see what it does. Okay.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, it's a bit yeah. [00:38:00]

Marcus Dillon: We never know how this is going to be so pretty quick. Um, you know, and that wasn't sped up. This is not a video that was prerecorded or anything. Uh, it talks about the idea discovery for a CPA firm and it gives you your role, your goal. All of this has been done. Um, the task we want to explore every payroll. We, we send an email to the client that's just copy and paste time consumed, all that good stuff. And then it gives your ROI context the same from the previous. And then it gives us some additional questions. Please [00:38:30] answer all of the following in plain everyday language. Is this worth automating? Honest? Yes or no? What kind of automation is this? Top three ideas. Using only our tools for each idea what it what it does, and then risks gotchas. What does success look like if we're not ready to automate yet? Are there deeper integration options? And so all of this is just the prompt, right. And so we're going to copy this to a, a clipboard. Um, let [00:39:00] me see.

Rachel Dillon: I think that was an early like an early learning for me that a prompt is not automate this process and then describe the process that the prompt is very intentional and thoughtful and talks about. It gives, um, a lot of context for all aspects. And that is how you actually get a result back that's useful to your firm, [00:39:30] to your team.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. So now what we're going to do, um, I'm going to pull this over. Let me see if it shares. Okay. Here is, uh, we do pay for Claude. Uh, we have a DBA has a team account, so I have copy and pasted that I'm going to just hit pasted and then hit submit. Now, we have never done this before. Everybody's on this adventure for us.

Rachel Dillon: We love we love to do this. Of not trying. [00:40:00] Just go live and try it live.

Marcus Dillon: So yeah.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, that's always perfect.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. So as you can see, uh, what Claude is doing is it's telling us, hey, is this worth automating? Yes. Strongly. Yes. Um, so Claude has a very, uh, high opinion on this one. Uh, what kind of automation is this? It's trigger and notify automation. So some of you may be familiar with that who have already played with automation, but assuming you know nothing, uh, this is also just an education in automations in AI. Uh, so it's like a one on one. [00:40:30] And it's, it's how we've seen it is, it's not, it's not threatening by any means. It's easy for somebody within your team to do this in a controlled environment. Obviously, our audit, our automation idea generator, uh, if you saw this at the very bottom, um, it's powered by us. Uh, it was, it was created by DBA by collective. Uh, nothing entered here is stored or transmitted. So like we do not Keep any of this data. Um, you know that [00:41:00] that is not something we're interested in doing housing, like all your questions. Uh, and that's why you can't, like, you can't log back in and get your prompt back. Um, because it, it closes it, it's not smart. And that's why, uh, we mentioned that this may be a temporary solution, uh, just to help your team start feeling better and feeling more comfortable with automations and AI. So getting back to our, our friend Claude over here. Uh, so the top three ideas using your tools.

Marcus Dillon: Uh, so idea number one is a power automate [00:41:30] file arrives, email sends flow power automate is built into Microsoft. That's why it asks that we, we asked that question, right? Like what tools, what, what system are you on? Uh, you could also build a copilot agent that drafts the batch emails for review, uh, tools used on each one of these that shows which tools are used. So like, if you feel like power automate is barely something you're hearing and learning about today, you may not choose option one. Like if you have no no experience with it. [00:42:00] But even that, like you can ask your tool of choice to teach you power automate. Um, and if you use copilot and are in a enterprise version of Microsoft and copilot is turned on and really powerful, that may be your best bet. And that's what is raised up here as, as option two, where it's Microsoft Copilot plus agents, plus outlook plus SharePoint. And so, uh, because I, you know, as a firm owner, if I didn't have, uh, angel on our team, [00:42:30] I would probably gravitate to, to option number two because I feel much more comfortable using copilot and then it's agent capability, uh, versus learning power automate. Um, and so of the three ideas, obviously number two raises up as the easiest one for me. Um, and you can see here we, we are saving anywhere from 15,000 to $3,000 a year. If this, this if this is successful, the one above it was a little bit more on [00:43:00] the high end with $31,000 per year, just because we could apply it across multiple different scenarios and just roll it out a little bit wider range compared to like the copilot and the copilot agent options.

Marcus Dillon: Option number or section four. You know, we asked it within our prompt. If you go back to our prompt, we asked it to give us the risks and gotchas. So it's doing that, um, obviously what to look for. Canopy access, uh, is the linchpin [00:43:30] here. Um, email deliverability. What if it falls silently problem. Um, and then also staff anxiety which the staff anxiety. This is funny like this, this just generated right in a, in a matter of seconds, uh, some staff worry automation means their job is being eliminated. Uh, frame this as freeing you up for the work that actually requires your brain because that's true. And I think definitely after coming back from a couple of the councils, um, as a firm leader, [00:44:00] you have to start talking to your staff like AI and automations aren't necessarily coming for the same role that you have on the team. But how we're thinking about it at DBA is if you're a team member, not open to or embracing daily, weekly use of AI within your role, you are probably not a great long term fit at DBA just because like the technology shifts are moving so fast.

Marcus Dillon: If you are just prone to [00:44:30] sticking your head in the sand and working that client file the same way we onboarded that client ten years ago, the world has moved on. And I think even where where we are moving on in the future, there is a place on our team. As long as you're willing to use the power tool that we put in your hands. Um, so I, I think that's funny like that, that staff anxiety. Um, disclosure is put there to, to remind you as a leader, hey, you're still dealing with humans. Humans have feelings. [00:45:00] So be careful on how you roll this out. All right. And then, uh, going through those additional sections, what is this? What does success look like? You've actually, um, you know, painted the picture of what success looks like. So thinking back to like our previous conversation in the four P's, I think this is right in line. If you're, if you're trying to help people navigate change well and you're painting the picture, right? Like what does success look like? How fast are we getting there? All that good stuff. This is it. And I think that's really helpful to have. Um, [00:45:30] we should probably drop this into ChatGPT or open AI and see if it gives us a very similar, um, result, but we may not have enough time today to do that. Um, and so, you know, it just walks you through the, if you're not ready to automate yet.

Marcus Dillon: And then if you do have somebody, uh, whether you have that person in-house or externally you're contracting with someone who can help you write different automations, different APIs, the deeper integration options that may exist. So, um, yeah, [00:46:00] I think the final part is just this. Yeah, this honest recommendation of start with low tech in section six, right? Like start with idea 1 or 3. Um, it chose 1 or 3. It didn't choose two. So maybe, maybe listen to this much smarter person, uh, Claude, uh, on this podcast. And then, uh, you can definitely like from here. This is just the beginning of this conversation with Claude. And so you can continue to ask it questions. All, all collective [00:46:30] did was give you like the starting point, right? So you can continue to fine tune this as it relates to your firm. Uh, you can maybe even say, hey, build me an agent or build me a co-work or build me an artifact, you know, if you want to go down those paths, but hopefully we've given you the tools to at least start, uh, have your team start and play with the different things that are going on in their life. Because this, as you said, super thorough. The fact that it's now in your tool of choice, it's there, you can build upon it. And [00:47:00] then you can always go back to the, the collected by DBA idea generator to, to start your next prompt.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah. If we think back even just a year ago, a year and a half ago, you would likely pay a consulting or a contractor to evaluate, well, what can we automate? Or you'd bring them just one idea for them to tell you. Here's one way to automate this. And here are the [00:47:30] things. And if you want to pay some more thousands of dollars, we'll do it for you. Um, and so now this is a free tool, um, from collected by DBA. And also it happens in minutes. Now this isn't implemented in minutes, but it gives you that whole hourly consultation. Um, which could have been more than one hour in a matter of minutes. And anyone on the team can do it. So it may be things in leadership, blind spots that [00:48:00] team members are having frustrations with daily. Um, they now have access to do this. So I think that that's super helpful.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. And I, I agree fully, like you think back the not so recent past, uh, people were paying for consultants, people, if you go out to LinkedIn, I don't know if anyone still has it in their title, but like prompt engineering was a very real thing, right? And as we mentioned earlier, like prompt engineering may not be a thing in the future because you've [00:48:30] got tools now, like this idea generator that we just released that replace the humans that had to think through like, what's the best prompt to use? Um, so replacing just that framework and that consulting time with something like this tool, um, just gets you started that much faster. And my encouragement, you know, what we've seen with the leaders that we work with are they're very open to technology. They are probably, you know, we're in those circles because we like to talk shop and we [00:49:00] like, you know, the new feel and the hope that a new technology would bring. But your team's not the same as you. We we have different risk tolerances as leaders, as owners who started businesses. Your team is just trying to get through their day. And so I think that's something that a tool like this can kind of meet your team where they're at, regardless of how frequent they're using AI products.

Marcus Dillon: And I was talking to a leader, um, at one of the recent councils I was on and [00:49:30] they said we, we turned on a ChatGPT team subscription for our whole team. And we were expecting great things and no one ever used it. And, and something like this is what's missing, uh, team exercise to kind of go through it and you can gamify it, you can put incentives behind it, you can do whatever you want to continue to move the needle, but your team really needs to be pushing this forward. Because the thing that I got out of the, the experiment and the exercise that we did was [00:50:00] there are pain points and frustrations at the team level and at specific roles that I either forgot about or I had no idea they even existed. And so whenever we think about like, what is this person really spend their whole day on doing? It's, it's something that's usually a little bit frustrating to them. And that's why, hey, if we can solve for it just through something like this idea generation tool and get you started that much sooner, get your team equipped to do that. That's why we're [00:50:30] releasing it this, and that's why we're giving it away to anybody that wants it.

Rachel Dillon: Yeah, absolutely. So in, in a high level summary of kind of what we shared, the AI is going to help the team design better processes. The automation is going to actually help run them, and the automation idea generator is just to help the team get started. So make sure you use it. It's free. It's out there. It was [00:51:00] super helpful to our team and we're continuing to use it and implement those new automations. And then we can confidently check that off as achieved. That initiative was completed in 2026. So we are super excited about that.

Marcus Dillon: Yeah. And, um, you know, this tool is small, but it's hopefully going to open your team up to something that's, that's bigger, um, and help your whole firm and your whole business be more successful when it comes to embracing [00:51:30] new technologies like AI and like automation.

Rachel Dillon: All right, well, thanks for sharing your screen and demoing live with no practice. Uh, I'll say, and so if you're wondering, what would this be like to use at first or to use it with the team first? It would be just like you experienced today with Marcus doing it. And so yeah, um, we are thankful for, uh, your listen and just if you have any feedback, if you, we'd love to hear if you've [00:52:00] used this, uh, whether it told you yes, automate or no, don't automate, we'd love to hear about it. So you can always email me at Rachel at, um, and share your feedback and how it went.

Marcus Dillon: All right. Thanks so much.

Rachel Dillon: Thanks for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed the conversation and want to learn more, be sure to visit collective dot CPA. You can schedule a meeting directly with me, Rachel, by clicking on the Contact Us page. Be [00:52:30] sure to subscribe, like, and share so you don't miss any future episodes. We look forward to connecting with you soon.