Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, Ellie.

Speaker 2: 0:01

Yes, Andrew.

Speaker 1: 0:03

What is a dodgy accountant's favourite book? Fifty Shades of Grey, yes, that is a good one. I think I finally got a joke. Not just Ellie, but also our special guest Amy and Jack today Also found hilarious. Oh, thank you, you know what? And that's the end of the podcast. I think we're good.

Speaker 2: 0:29

I think we're done. I know let's sign off now. That was the best work I've seen from you in a while, so congratulations.

Speaker 1: 0:34

All right. Yes, that was a good joke. I reckon everyone laughed so that means it's the best joke ever, but it is because we're talking a bit more accounting and counting. Today it's end of financial year is coming up. Obviously, if you're listening to this, it either is just about, is actually, or is just past, end of financial year. Give us a big vibe, everybody.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Yeah, made it through another one.

Speaker 1: 0:56

And before we get started, as we always need to, we're going to go to a theme song. So, david, please press that big, fat play button for me. Wow, end of financial year. My crew.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Can you believe we are there again? How are we feeling?

Speaker 3: 1:28

I kind of can't believe that we're here already. Where is the last 12 months gone? It's just flown. Do we say that?

Speaker 1: 1:33

every year, though I know.

Speaker 3: 1:34

Is it because we're getting older and it goes faster. No no, yes, no, no, oh, jack Harsh.

Speaker 1: 1:41

The youngest of the yes.

Speaker 4: 1:43

I'm noticing it Every year for me is a big deal.

Speaker 2: 1:46

I'm noticing it. I think it's your lifestyle, Jack, as you've just come from ZeroCon.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Oh, I have. Yes, in the UK I've had such a big year I mean massive. It's been so crazy I've lost my hair over it.

Speaker 3: 1:59

Literally.

Speaker 4: 2:01

Wow, the announcement's happening.

Speaker 1: 2:03

And for those of you not seeing this, I literally sat in a barber's chair in Sydney today With my not usual barber and you know what shave it off. So he shaved me head.

Speaker 2: 2:12

I don't know whether you're having an existential crisis or whether this was a planned event. Andrew, you do look mighty fine, thank you. You're not allowed to have an existential crisis every month.

Speaker 4: 2:23

So this is just you know.

Speaker 1: 2:24

No, it's a trailing version. If you're listening and you do see me out and I'm not wearing a hat you're more than welcome to come up and just give it a quick little rub.

Speaker 2: 2:30

for good luck, oh my gosh, you just let people do that.

Speaker 1: 2:33

They're going to On my noggin On the top of the top, especially if they've had.

Speaker 2: 2:39

It makes it all like comparative.

Speaker 1: 2:41

Do you know what I?

Speaker 2: 2:42

mean. It actually highlights the beard wonderfulness, the amazingness, the fullness of the beard. That's good, yeah. That's good, yeah, I know.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Well, we're not here just to talk about my beard or now, my bald head. We are here to talk about end of financial year. Now, as it is the accountant's nightmare slash dream, I think.

Speaker 3: 3:01

End of financial year, it's this combination of like hecticness and craziness, but also then a combination of utter relief as soon as the day ticks over to the first of July. But I don't understand why. Why is there relief when it ticks over to the first of July?

Speaker 2: 3:14

because it's because it automatically then just starts to go quiet it just is what it is.

Speaker 1: 3:18

You've done everything we can and it is what it is. There's no more pressure.

Speaker 3: 3:21

I don't that it does go quiet, like I think traditionally firms used to be quite quiet in your stereotypical January and July.

Speaker 2: 3:28

You are still quiet. I think in the first one or two weeks of July there's still, if you've got a bookkeeping, arm there's bookkeeping tasks like single-touch payroll finalisations and all the interview payroll stuff. But even the most organised clients you won't see until, I would say, mid-july even for small tax returns these days because you have to wait for the pre-fill to come through.

Speaker 2: 3:48

So those first two weeks in July are truly quiet and I have to say, for the first time in ever I have had the best end of financial year lead up we were doing trust distributions and tax planning and FBT in April, may, we are done.

Speaker 3: 4:04

How are you Huge Amazing, we are done. Go you Huge Amazing, we are on process, right, yeah, wow.

Speaker 2: 4:08

That's unheard of.

Speaker 1: 4:11

How many tax planning stuff do you guys get up to this year? Do you run like a million two? We pretty much just covered the whole client base.

Speaker 3: 4:18

Yeah, pretty much covered the whole client base and I had meetings booked like slammed during May, june.

Speaker 2: 4:26

But you can't do anything these days anyway, because most of it's super, is it not? And then you know super contributions. If you're doing it now, it's pretty late so and it's been so it's more tax.

Speaker 3: 4:35

Sure, it's a, it's a bit of tax planning, but I think it's also that, uh, and you'll catch up with your client you know how you're going, what's going on setting the scene for what's happened and also setting the scene for and this is what to expect next year, and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 4:47

It's definitely a big reaffirmation of the strategy that you've employed. You know we structured you this way and this is the result of what it looks like, and but also I find it's it's a really good time to like what's planned for next year. So do we need to know anything about whether we want to realize or unrealize certain things right now? Um, as well as the, the biggest thing is like it gives them a rough enough understanding of what their tax bill is going to look like in a year and the number of new clients we pick up who consistently still say oh, my accountant just lodges my bass the day it's due, or I they like.

Speaker 1: 5:20

they took ages to get my tax turned down. They lodged it a week before it was due. Now it might have been the client's fault, so if you're an accountant now they're getting a bit of come on in and fire me, I'll get it. It might not be you, but there's still so many that don't have that foresight, and that's why tax planning for us is partly that, but also partly it's just its relationship and its management of the future.

Speaker 4: 5:38

So it was definitely one of those services I remember doing with a client where you kind of like I felt like I'm like okay, cool.

Speaker 1: 5:46

They're seeing what I do. They're like wow you can tell me.

Speaker 4: 5:49

Yeah, I can tell you exactly. Basically, you know subject to what's going to happen over the next couple of weeks, I can basically tell you exactly what your picture's going to look like. This is what you can do. This is how you can manipulate it. Not manipulate it in. Minimize it that's probably the word to use.

Speaker 2: 6:03

Just edit that out. No way, that's staying here, my friend.

Speaker 1: 6:07

Jack is no longer a practicing tax accountant. Are you maintaining your registration there, Jack?

Speaker 4: 6:13

Yes, I do pay money every year. I look forward to the letter in the mail.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Do we all just cringe when we have to do that and say what are we getting anyway?

Speaker 4: 6:22

Yeah, my head's in the sand a little bit. I've moved on from it now that and say what are we getting? Anyway, yeah, my head's in the sand a little bit.

Speaker 2: 6:26

I've got the email because you've got to keep up with cpd as well yeah, yeah, but uh, they're pretty.

Speaker 4: 6:30

I think they're quite flexible. I reached out when I kind of moved out into tech and was like what do I have to do now? And I think for them they're a little bit like look, if you're not practicing, then you've got to maintain a professional level here. But you probably don't have to do as much on the technical tax stuff. You can do more of what's relevant for your job.

Speaker 1: 6:47

But, jack, you're going to conferences all the time now, so most of them are CP You're probably doing four times as much CP as a normal accountant would.

Speaker 4: 6:54

As far as you need to be aware, Ali, I'm in every session.

Speaker 3: 6:59

You're totally in every session. Okay, yeah, I'm not. You need a life-size cone, if you just put it on a seat in the back. No, no, no, Jack was here, yeah, but isn't that why you pay for the recordings?

Speaker 2: 7:10

I heard somebody the other day say that they sent their Otter AI, their Fireflies or whatever transcription tool to the actual webinars and it transcribed it and then they just looked they got a summary after. I thought that was really clever.

Speaker 3: 7:26

I mean, I don't hate that. Wasn't that on our webinar that we did, Ali? Didn't somebody say that on our webinar? That's so cool.

Speaker 2: 7:29

I love that I love that. It's good, it's good, I know it's the way that it should be.

Speaker 3: 7:31

I think the end of financial. Maybe for accountants it's not as busy in the first week or two, but I that's when a lot of more traditional accountants feel the desire to go live with their new tech stack that they've just implemented, or been spending a couple of months on.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Is that a smart thing?

Speaker 3: 7:49

No, that is a horrible thing to do. Sorry, I'm just like that was a really strong like no, look, I mean it's not a smart thing to do, in my opinion, because it doesn't matter. These days it literally doesn't matter, like all you need to do is pick a date and draw a line in the sand and go right. Well, as of this date, this is when we stopped using it. But also there's still going to be a crossover period, regardless when you transition from one piece of software to a new piece of software, when I'm talking tax and things like that, because you're going to use legacy systems for a period of time. So the 1st of July, having a cutover, I think that's just. You know I get why? Because that's that conditioning that you know all accountants have been used to that that's the start of the new year.

Speaker 2: 8:30

I think there's a level of.

Speaker 3: 8:31

OCD in there. It is a massive level of OCD that is not required in what I do for a job basically.

Speaker 1: 8:38

You know what, ali? Do you know what? I've just realised what we forgot to properly introduce Jack and Amy. So for those people who've only ever listened to you and I. You're probably like who the fuck are these other people on this podcast? So, amy, would you like to introduce our guests, who are not really guests, because they're kind of permanent, but not.

Speaker 2: 9:00

I feel like they're the kids, right?

Speaker 1: 9:02

No, we don't use that language anymore. It's demeaning. We have AJ.

Speaker 2: 9:06

Holdsworth from Clarity Street. Amy give us a little snapshot of what Clarity Street does.

Speaker 3: 9:13

We help accounting practices to either transition from, I guess, server-based applications across to cloud and for those that already have those sort of cloud apps, we help you optimise them. So we're talking changing all of your operational practice management software um to optimize it so it's actually working cohesively, functionally, like it's just, you know, smooth. Everything's talking to each other, all the processes and procedures are actually aligned and it's not just a tech. We do do processes, procedures um training, handhold, the whole shebang. We've got a little training platform.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Did you just say you do do?

Speaker 3: 9:48

I do. You do, do, I do do.

Speaker 2: 9:50

And that's why you are on our tech episode, because you add so much value and flavour there. We also have Ajak or Jack Teal from Mayday.

Speaker 4: 10:01

Yeah, I mean, well, I'm on the tech side, obviously, so I work at Mayday. Yeah, I mean, well, I'm on the tech side, obviously, so I work at Mayday. We're an accounting automation platform that works with multi-entity businesses on Xero I guess you know the larger end of the Xero market. Once they've got multiple Xero organizations, there's a bunch of challenges managing intercompany transactions, loans, all that kind of fun stuff. So, yeah, that's kind of where we sit and yeah, I like to talk with Amy on a regular basis about what's going on on the accounting tech landscape and what's changing and maybe give a few kind of behind-the-scenes kind of perspectives.

Speaker 2: 10:34

And also full-time job in attending webinars and events.

Speaker 4: 10:38

Of course, of course.

Speaker 1: 10:39

So, listen in to the tech episodes, guys. If you haven't, I feel like you're getting better at explaining what you do now. Jack, Obviously you've been in that role for a little while now, so every time it's.

Speaker 3: 10:47

you know, he's just been at zero.

Speaker 4: 10:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, he's had to refine his pitch down.

Speaker 3: 10:51

You know his elevator pitch into 10 seconds effectively. So you know.

Speaker 4: 10:56

Well, there was the videos doing the rounds on LinkedIn. The pitch slap stuff at Accountex made me really think like okay, what's my seven-second pitch?

Speaker 2: 11:05

Short, sharp, shiny my friend. But yeah, absolutely, I think you start to listen to your customers more and you're like oh, that's what they think we do.

Speaker 1: 11:11

That's probably a better way of saying it. So yes, we have our friends who co-host the All Aussie Accounting Adventures. Tech Edition.

Speaker 2: 11:31

So if you don't listen to that, you should listen to that. Uh, and the two of them, what's your favorite? What's your favorite one, ellie? Well, I actually really liked the ones where you're talking about going from like a small to a mid-tier, or like one meal to three meals. So I like they're really they've got lots of great insights about at this level. This is what you should be looking at at this level. This is what you should be looking at At this level, this is what you should be doing, and so I think there's so much value in that.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Me too. End of financial year. Vibe. Right, it's end of financial year right now. We're about to hit it. As of today, it is the 19th of June, so we have like 11 days left before we hit the hour. Countdown is on. Ellie, you said you're under control.

Speaker 2: 12:03

Things are looking good, I'm so under control.

Speaker 1: 12:05

For me it's a bit weird this time of year because I'm now running an accounting firm but also I'm running a retail store. So I'm sitting here going, oh shit, like we do a consistent stock take, but we're also looking at like we want to run our stock down over this next month, so like I'm having to think so dramatically different. Normally in an accounting firm it's a combination of you know the tax planning bits and pieces, but we also try to use this time to start hard planning for next year, because we try to run a 12-month calendar for our clients.

Speaker 2: 12:30

You do all your ignition quotes and stuff right now.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Yeah, we get ignition quotes. We kind of put our workflow planning in place because we try to have like as best as we can, nine slash 12 months of visibility in advance, and we're doing that now too, by the way.

Speaker 2: 12:41

Thanks for all that, you both get gold stars.

Speaker 3: 12:43

That's what every accounting practice should be doing right now. It's not easy.

Speaker 1: 12:47

But that is also one of the reasons why you will change software at a point in time, because if you set it all up on one thing, changing it halfway through is a nightmare. But, of note, I'm now having to think about and find something different, because I'm like all right, we've got all this stock that we want to get rid of it before the 30th of june, if we possibly can.

Speaker 2: 13:02

So what a really great overarching framework of you're sitting on the accountant side and the client side so you, who does your tax planning, do you give yourself tax tax planning advice?

Speaker 1: 13:16

sorry, uh, I'd like to say that we run a exceptionally good business model but we have we have intentionally invested in growth this year, so the tax planning is not really all that relevant Fair enough fair enough.

Speaker 2: 13:27

But I think it's those reframing moments where we do look at it from another perspective that actually helps us become better advisors and better at tax planning.

Speaker 1: 13:34

It does.

Speaker 2: 13:35

Yeah, so what would be your number one tip as a client around tax planning? What are you wanting?

Speaker 1: 13:44

Oh, so I'm pretend Andrew's the client.

Speaker 2: 13:46

Yeah, pretend, andrew's the client.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Oh, okay, so the stuff that I'm really starting to pay attention to, having run up my selfies, definitely looking at a bit of like what our you know liquid assets looks like right. So our cash, our stock, our debt it's that kind of stuff and what I can do to actually turn it into actual cash. Because it's all well and good to say like I've got this stock that I could sell, but I still need to sell it. I've got these debtors that are going to pay, but I still need them to pay, and so, uh, you know conversations around that kind of stuff. Now it's not necessarily a tax planning thing, but I think understand the impact of that.

Speaker 1: 14:22

So often people will go and have an end of financial year sale and they'll sell stuff out dirt cheap to turn it into cash, but what they're doing is they're crushing their profit. So it's being really mindful of. If you're going to go through a sale and you're going to do that, make sure what you're selling and potentially discounting is stuff that you don't ordinarily easily sell anyway. So if you're already selling it consistently, there's no point discounting that to get rid of it. But, for example, for us, we've got a bunch of stock that we've had in our shop that we ordered by mistake.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Oops, andrew in the early days went yes, we need that, we'll get that Ordered. That Turns out we didn't need it, so we're now going. We need to get rid of that. Let's just turn it some cash. Really looking at, if you're leading into end of financial year, you're trying to clear assets, what tax impact do you have on that, as well as what profitability impact you have? Because if it's something you always sell, you're just going to have to buy more of it next month anyway and then you're just losing margin in full on it.

Speaker 2: 15:14

So it's not worth it. And so what I'm hearing from that from my perspective as an accountant, is the tax planning can turn into an advisory conversation. So if you've done well or not done well, tax planning can turn into an advisory conversation. So if you've done well or not done well, and so you can move that into the advisory space and make it really clear that that's what you're doing with the client, along with the tax planning, so that then they're actually aware of what advisory is and you might actually be able to sell more advisory services going forward.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 15:37

Because you've got them in on the minimised tax conversation, because they always want to have that conversation.

Speaker 1: 15:46

But then you've actually helped them kind of with their business and into advisory and the challenge is always there as well. Like, like I said, in our position we've been in a bit of growth mode, so we've been investing in a whole bunch of stuff we put in putting on, you know team, and we've been investing in brand and a whole bunch of stuff, which means probably a profits going to be little to none. To slash negative, which means theoretically what you normally say I need to tell how much tax you're gonna pay isn't massively important to us, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be having a conversation around what it looks like next year and how the impact of what happened this year. So I think that's also an important one. I think a lot of accountants discredit and go, oh, they didn't make any profit this year. So what's the point in having a tax planning chat? Well, it's because if you're talking just about tax, yes, it's not worth it.

Speaker 2: 16:23

But it's more than that. It's way more than that, and you do need to focus on that overarching goal, because if a client needs to get funding or purchase an asset, they're obviously going to need to have the point. There is not tax minimization, and so we shouldn't always just go in with tax minimization in mind. We need to always obviously think a bigger picture and looking at the ultimate goal. But from the tech side, guys, what do you reckon we should be looking at from a tech point of view?

Speaker 4: 16:48

I'm always interested in the time of year where people want to like because there's these quiet periods where, no matter what you try, no one's going to listen to you or want to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Is that a well-known fact in the tech circle?

Speaker 4: 16:59

Absolutely Like.

Speaker 2: 17:01

There's absolutely periods where so, so when would you not make contact with an accountant?

Speaker 4: 17:05

tell me 15th of May. Well, around 15th of May is pretty much like good luck, pretty much two weeks leading up to it Like the first two weeks of May.

Speaker 3: 17:12

No, not happening yeah.

Speaker 4: 17:14

So you're right. So that's really like a really tough time to get in a call with anybody.

Speaker 2: 17:18

So it's all right if a tech supplier calls an accountant and we are rude to them at that point in time. No, no, we don't Well.

Speaker 4: 17:25

I think you can. Just no one needs to be rude, Ali.

Speaker 2: 17:27

We just don't take the calls. Plenty of people just don't say anything.

Speaker 4: 17:30

Other people say not right now. Whatever I mean, I think from a tech perspective, we often give out amazing offers if we're trying to, you know, because sales teams have targets to hit. So if you know that they are trying to hit a target in a period where it's going to be brutal for them to do it, they're probably going to give you some pretty good deals. So hold on, there's a bit of sneaky there.

Speaker 1: 17:53

So what you're saying inadvertently is that if you're thinking of using Mayday, we should reach out to them on the 28th of June and be like what can you do for me? Yeah, very nice so strategically find the right tool, Because I feel like some tech I mean, from my understanding to a lot of tech companies they shouldn't be doing this discounting on pricing, but I feel like it's a thing, Do you?

Speaker 3: 18:12

get that, Amy, I do. I know one very prominent one Ignition is actually doing quite a hefty sale at the moment just so you know. They're doing a six-monther month.

Speaker 1: 18:27

So if anybody's keen on looking at ignition, yeah, I've heard it and they also.

Speaker 2: 18:32

At this time, this time of year, they also do a lot of content webinars like on particular topics to really help, like I know, ignition just put out their pricing benchmarking and, oh my gosh, that was really great report. I've used that and that's gonna help me with pricing as I go, oh my gosh, that was really great report.

Speaker 2: 18:44

I've used that and that's going to help me with pricing as I go through my ignition quotes and putting back onto fixed pricing for all of my clients because I know where I see. I thought that was a really valuable tool and so, using all of those tools that are being put out in market absolute gold. And so you know, sit on the webinars, read the reports super helpful.

Speaker 4: 19:01

Oh, there's a ton of insight like that. I think the sales only focus is, you know, well and truly a bit old school, Like these days. You have to lead with great content, education. You have to add a lot of value as a software company. So you know there's legitimate effort, like a lot of effort, going in. We have a whole result, a whole person who's just in charge of writing a newsletter every week, building content, you know, talking to apps, finding out what's new, Like that's a whole lot of time and effort that's going in being invested in that. So like you don't have to do it.

Speaker 2: 19:34

And we rip the rewards of that, and I say this analogy a lot. You know, when you're out in a small firm to potentially mid-tier, that's like going to the buffet and being fed. You know you're getting a five-star meal from, from data and content and thought leadership that you just don't have time to go out and do for yourself.

Speaker 2: 19:51

So it's a really good thing, you know, when you, if you are starting to slow down and heading into new year, that's a great time to go out there and look at what reports are available, what webinars are available. Start to build your education.

Speaker 3: 20:02

That continuous learning, being curious, like all of those things, is super, yeah, and I think there's also a few other things that you can do as well leading into the financial year, which is looking at your workflow planning for the following nine months. That's really helped, like get your lodgement get your lodgement program in place, a good old-fashioned work schedule and you know from a tech's perspective like there is tech out there that can help you with that.

Speaker 3: 20:24

Automations like xpm can help you with custom fields which link into fyi if you're using fyi and some automations with that to help automate that process, like there's heaps of cool stuff that you can do, but it also sets you up for, you know, possibly considering other things that you might be wanting to roll out, like are you putting your clients onto um, you know, annual engagements? Are you moving to upfront pricing? Are you moving to upfront payment, which is another one?

Speaker 2: 20:52

I know it's a big one, but last year and I think this is what absolutely helped us we moved all of our jobs onto fyi. We assigned budgets and team members and track notes and it has absolutely and we followed that the whole way through, and you can do that through xpm as well.

Speaker 3: 21:08

Xpm, fyi do the same thing, but you should be doing that like budgets time.

Speaker 1: 21:11

All of the above, I agree wholeheartedly do you know what we should be doing, what we're going to pause and we're going to go and have a listen to our sponsors, because we're going to keep talking for like another 15, 20 minutes and we're going to forget to do it. So big, deep breath, grab a glass of whiskey, water, whatever it is you choose, and we'll be back in a moment after you hear from our amazing sponsors.

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Speaker 2: 26:45

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Speaker 1: 27:49

This is where we breathe out.

Speaker 2: 27:50

I'm glad I remembered that I was out of my breath for a very long time.

Speaker 1: 27:53

Yeah, if you're a listener and you listen to this podcast regularly, you will recognise the episodes where we forget to cut to either sponsors.

Speaker 2: 28:03

We never forget anything, andrew, don't you?

Speaker 1: 28:06

No, no, forget. Like we just get so passionate in our conversations so either we forget to say let's go to our sponsors or it's been like 34 minutes in and we go to sponsors and then there's 30 seconds of content afterwards. So I'm hoping we found the right spot there, I'm sure we did, and aren't our sponsors?

Speaker 2: 28:21

amazing, they're so good.

Speaker 1: 28:24

Very grateful for our sponsors Now we were just talking about planning workflow. We were talking about that kind of stuff. Change, that kind of happens this time. I think this time of year is definitely a time of year where a lot of review on performance comes.

Speaker 1: 28:38

As accountants, we look at end of finance years. So you're looking at things like write-ons and write-offs and productivity and bits and pieces and you might be contemplating, you know, do do I go and hire that new person? Do I look at doing offshore? Do I look at using that? So it's an interesting time and I find in that kind of july like it's like it is definitely quieter for us.

Speaker 1: 28:56

Now we strategically don't do tax until late july, august anyway, even if people want us to because we don't do much individual work. But, um, it's a great time to sit there and go what change do I want to implement? And then how do I give myself a few weeks to be able to do that? So I think it's good and particularly, like I said, if it's going, we're going to hire our first offshore outsource person. If it's, we're going to implement a piece of technology. If it's, we're going to change the way we do our pricing, whatever that looks like, it's a great time to focus in on it, and we do also find within our business that it's not just like the administration team that does it or the leader that does it. We try to collectively come together to do it at pace so that our entire team appreciate the process that we go through to actually get that up to scratch.

Speaker 2: 29:43

Do you know? The other thing that you can do and I'm a big advocate for this is take a holiday.

Speaker 4: 29:49

No, that is something that every second accountant does do from my experience is you try and reach someone from the 1st to the 14th of July and they are on leave. They are on leave.

Speaker 1: 30:00

You know what blows my mind? There's a lawyer that we do a little bit of work with. Great guy, awesome. I won't reference name or firm, just in case he's listening or someone's listening, but he's always on holiday for the last three weeks of June. Oh, and I'm like and we've had years before- we had a client who did that as well. I need this stuff done it has to be done by this date and it's like out of office.

Speaker 2: 30:30

And they're in like overseas somewhere, non-contactable, because they, when they go away, they go away like financial planners, lawyers, bankers.

Speaker 3: 30:33

You need to be with us on this journey around. No, no, no, no. You know what, though I disagree with that. Why can't you all be way more organized so that you don't need to the need them? Do you fuck like me? And the podcast is? Three are organized, but sometimes clients come out of the blue.

Speaker 4: 30:42

They're very demanding and they can. They'll. Basically, they rule the roost sometimes and we'll give, like me, this year, right, I would like to think that we are organised.

Speaker 1: 30:47

Do you know what?

Speaker 2: 30:47

Because clients do. They're very demanding and they can. They'll. Basically they rule the roost sometimes and will give you the rules and look, you know we can try as best we can to organise and manage, but there is just that blue sky stuff or that immediate stuff, like I had. Even this week I've had two clients buying hotels commercial residential properties, restructuringuring, and they're like, oh it's all going to be done by 30 june.

Speaker 2: 31:12

It's like, oh my goodness, I couldn't have planned for any of that. Yeah, correct, yeah, and for some reason, they want it done by 30 june too like, yeah, it's like this deadline, it's like you know before you go away for christmas.

Speaker 1: 31:18

It's like you've got to spend the budget, so you've got the space for the next year. We've had a few of them, right? Oh, can you send us things? We've got to spend the budget to get it in this year and whatnot.

Speaker 3: 31:25

Surely there's a car that they need to buy. Surely right, let's move on from.

Speaker 1: 31:28

Amy's backhand to the entire industry that supports her ability to bake cakes.

Speaker 3: 31:32

Oh come on Parties.

Speaker 1: 31:36

Let's talk about parties Parties I love a good party.

Speaker 2: 31:40

Oh, Andrew, I think your parties beat us. I don't even need to say anything. What do you guys got planned?

Speaker 1: 31:45

Oh look our end of no. What we've transitioned so our team parties, where it's just us is a lot more subdued than when we do like our no tattoo artists.

Speaker 1: 31:54

No, no. So our annual party, which is when we bring clients and community and team and other people together, that's where we go a bit nuts. I'm not going to say on this podcast, because I've got something crazy planned this year and if we can pull it off it's going to be off the chain. So when we stop recording I'm going to tell the three of you, but you can't tell a word, but I need to find you. We take it very chill. We've learned over the years that the bigger a team we get, the harder it is to do something creative and crazy, and that there's too diverse of a team where you might have when you're smaller, everyone might like it, but as soon as you get bigger, there might be three or four or five people who really don't like the thing that you're trying to do. That you think is great.

Speaker 1: 32:32

So, our approach is let's have a really good feed, let's gather it around. We do this thing called the Golden Globes every year, illuminate being a light bulb, and so it's like a cheeky thing. It's not a oh, this guy, this guy's the most billable or she was like the most responsive to emails. It's like what's something fucked up and weird that happened during the year that we can have a giggle about in a respectful way.

Speaker 2: 32:56

Do you know what that reminds me? Just going back into my many, many years ago, we used to have awards like that at some fairly big firms, but they were like who's got the best legs? Yep.

Speaker 3: 33:06

Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, it was pretty offensive stuff, but I can say one year I did win that one, so I was okay, oh yeah, nice. You didn't get it for the best guns, no, you didn't get the best arms.

Speaker 2: 33:17

The gun show, I did get the guns.

Speaker 3: 33:22

Ellie does have the best legs and so I was like, oh, okay, I guess I'll take it we, um, we do a friday funny pretty much um most weeks right, and it's based on funny shit that we've said throughout the week and one of our team members basically puts it together and puts it, associates it with a photo of us, so we might do the best friday funny. And I'm talking like we say some pretty funny stuff and inadvertently, but he just kind of captures. It just has this ability to capture what we say when we're saying it, so we're gonna do that again ours was inspired um the very first year of business that I was in.

Speaker 1: 33:56

My business partner at the time, jason pater, um our christmas party, went and did something we had. We had, um, I think, lunch or dinner at his home, um, so it was like, I think, seven or eight of us around kind of thing. We gathered together and we had dinner and there was like the what's the crackers that you crack open?

Speaker 3: 34:13

Oh, the Chinese crackers, yeah, yeah. Like the Chinese crackers kind of thing, and then she cracked it open 14 cookies, 14 cookies. Yes, there you go.

Speaker 1: 34:21

And inside of them were custom writ phrases that individuals had said throughout the year. That was inside it. And it was like it would even like. So one of them was for example, my team Jordan, who she's back working with us. She's amazing. She told a lawyer accidentally on the phone and she was hanging out Okay, bye, Love you. And so there was a cracker. When it was opened, it said okay, bye.

Speaker 1: 34:44

Love you, jordan, and so that was where it started and then I took it from there and so normally every year we get a local artist who does like glass kind of art and jewellery and she'll make up these kind of crazy custom awards and so people have them on the shelves now and, like I think one year I got an award called the Red Bull Rehab Award, because I used to drink a lot of Red Bull and then I stopped and I had a full 12 months of it and it's great. And then so we had our end of financial year party that night and I was like you know what it's been 12 months, Stuff it, I'm cracking it. And I cracked a Red Bull and as I'm at it everyone's like no, don't Andrew, I'm, it's fine. And then an hour and a half later I got the Red Bull Rehab Award. So that's probably my most memorable award that I've ever received.

Speaker 3: 35:32

We're doing an offsite for our end of financial year.

Speaker 1: 35:35

I'm invited right. I know I've asked you this three or four times. Three or four times.

Speaker 3: 35:39

Only because you live really close by to where we're going. But yeah, we're actually going to have a bit of a chill, relax, bit of a strategy day, catch up, team bonding, that kind of thing. So we're actually doing a couple of days, which is kind of cool. We're not just doing one event. We're doing a couple of things.

Speaker 2: 35:52

I am doing the very traditional accounting thing of ending early. I love it 4.30.

Speaker 4: 36:01

4.30, knock on wood If you work so hard for 12 months.

Speaker 1: 36:03

you're going to have three hours off, but I'll see you on Monday.

Speaker 3: 36:07

No, it's the afternoon Is this on the 28th.

Speaker 2: 36:08

We're going to go to Is this on the Friday, the 28th.

Speaker 3: 36:10

Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, cool.

Speaker 2: 36:12

And so we're going to go to what is called the Hijinks Hotel. It sounds so exciting, but it's a bit of bowling and adventure rooms.

Speaker 1: 36:20

You. The important thing is it's a group of people gathering together.

Speaker 2: 36:24

We love each other and then we're going out for a very nice meal on Runnersley.

Speaker 1: 36:30

I don't think I was invited to that one though you were not, maybe you should. If you're listening to this and it's not yet end of financial year, or you've got a party coming up and you'd like me to come and hang out.

Speaker 4: 36:41

I will come and hang out, I will be there he absolutely will.

Speaker 1: 36:43

I will be there, he absolutely will. You're welcome to rub my bald head for good luck. I can bring good jokes. Invite me please.

Speaker 2: 36:52

I'm kind of desperate. He's actually serious. He desperately wants to go. He loves a pun.

Speaker 1: 36:59

Jack, you are the only May Day representative in Australia. Do you just light a candle on the 30th of June?

Speaker 4: 37:06

We actually have one more Mayday representative now. Melbourne-based engineer Dom, not that he would listen to this, but, dom, welcome.

Speaker 1: 37:13

You'll have to send him Bloody hell. Shit, Dom, You're supporting the accounting industry. Listen.

Speaker 4: 37:17

We don't have any end of financial year dinners planned, but we did have targets we had to hit this quarter, which we have already hit. So we're going over to the UK me and Dom in September for our own event stacked, so you're just gonna it's like the zero con for in-house finance leaders. That's what we're calling it.

Speaker 3: 37:40

I had a great idea.

Speaker 1: 37:42

Amy's going to let me come to her end of financial party because she's in Melbourne. I'm in Melbourne, jack. You and Ellie are in Adelaide together, like, surely, surely Ellie could get you along to her end of finance.

Speaker 2: 37:54

Oh, surely? Yeah, it's okay, it's a group of six women, but you can come along, I'll fit right in, it's fine.

Speaker 4: 38:00

I mean, I've got plans to go for a beer Friday night. That's pretty much. That's good enough, right.

Speaker 1: 38:04

We might see each other. He doesn't have plans, Ellie.

Speaker 2: 38:05

He doesn't have plans, All right all right, I'll invite him along because I think he was a bit excited when I said bowling. Talking about events, what events are coming up? What have we been to? What have we been doing?

Speaker 1: 38:22

Okay, it has been a 12 months.

Speaker 3: 38:23

There's been heaps. There was Zerocon last year in.

Speaker 1: 38:27

Sydney, obviously like the Australia Zerocon. And Jack, you were just in London for Zerocon.

Speaker 2: 38:30

I was in London for Zerocon.

Speaker 3: 38:32

And I'm just back from Nashville. Yes, summer Series. Obviously Love Summer Series, that was a great event.

Speaker 2: 38:40

Great MCs, by the way I heard.

Speaker 1: 38:42

ToaCon. There was ToaCon which was there in Goldie and Ellie and I were hanging around the pool with that one. That was good.

Speaker 3: 38:48

I was over in the UK for DAS, the digital accountancy show, and I also did Accountex. So, over in London for that.

Speaker 4: 38:56

I was at ABE earlier in the year. So London, uk, has some major events, don't they? They've had like four in the last four months, I think because they had Zerocon, daz, accountex and I think there was Festival or something.

Speaker 3: 39:07

There was one before that, a smaller-ish one, and they have big numbers, don't?

Speaker 2: 39:11

they.

Speaker 3: 39:11

Accountex is massive over there it's got like 70,000 accounting firms over there, and it's the country's the size of half of Victoria, pretty much.

Speaker 4: 39:20

But they do put their Zeroccome party on the end of day, one which really got to me a little bit, and they do that in Nashville too, didn't?

Speaker 3: 39:27

they used to do that in Australia. No, they do in the UK because everyone's in such close proximity.

Speaker 1: 39:33

They all go home on the end of day two. Whereas in Australia we're like man. I've got to hop on a plane for 47 hours to get home. I might as well have a party, yeah that's right.

Speaker 4: 39:41

So there's a few dusty people come in on day two, but other than that, Do you know what's coming up?

Speaker 3: 39:46

We're attending tomorrow? Actually, there's the Accounting Conference and Expo, ACE24.

Speaker 2: 39:50

Yeah, we're exhibiting there as well, that's nice, and coming up is the BGL Roadshow in August.

Speaker 4: 39:55

Yes, so I'll be keynoting there. Zero Roadshow in September.

Speaker 2: 39:59

Did you have a roadshow?

Speaker 4: 40:00

Did I was in Dubai.

Speaker 1: 40:01

Oh yeah, I was in Dubai because I don't know about the Flintstones, but Abu Dhabi do.

Speaker 3: 40:09

Here's the joke. It's still funny. You told me this before and I'm like it's still funny, it's good.

Speaker 1: 40:14

And I told my kids I couldn't bring anything home and they're like why is that? I said there's nothing Dubai there. But I was in Dubai for Accounting Refigured, which was the first ever of its kind, and that was pretty cool. It was very eye-opening in just similarities everywhere, so that was really cool.

Speaker 2: 40:30

Yeah, cool, amazing. So make sure, if there are some shows coming up your way, to get along, build the community, connect with everyone, get engaged Definitely.

Speaker 1: 40:39

Yep, yep, yep, yep. All right, so we are 11 days from end of financial year. We're going to do one last round whip from the table here. What I want you to share with me I'm literally making this up off the top of my head as we go through what I want you to share with me is the one thing you predict in the next financial year that will happen within our industry, the accounting industry. That can be technology, that can be business, that can be service, that can be regulation, that can be people, that can be anything. And I'm going to start with Ali and I'm going to go last. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 41:14

Yeah, look, I'm going to go on my choo-choo train of AI. I think we'll start to see some agents or bots being put in place. I've seen some very interesting work where some AI is being used to pull information from zero and put it into working papers and preparation.

Speaker 1: 41:36

Oh, yes, I saw that as well.

Speaker 2: 41:37

Yeah, insane stuff, and so I think there'll be a lot more. I think AI will be prolific on the usability, how we use it, so I think that'll definitely be in our industry in the next six to twelve.

Speaker 4: 41:52

I hope or predict, but also mainly hope that there's some more in-person stuff happening in Australia in the next 12 months. Feels like the last, although we just listed off a whole bunch of stuff. For whatever reason, it feels like there's been a little less. This I mean with Xerocon missing from Australia this year, I think, um, that's probably the main reason why. But yes, I predict that next year we'll feel a little bit more connected yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2: 42:18

What about you, amy?

Speaker 3: 42:20

um, I hope and also predict, maybe, that there will be a big shift in the larger end of town tech stack for practice management platforms in terms of adoption. So I feel like there's two big players that are, you know, making it where they've been in the works for us a couple of years.

Speaker 3: 42:43

So, yeah, they're ready to jump because they're all kind of getting jack of the platforms that they're on that don't feel like they are developing at the pace that they need to, and there's two platforms that are actually now finally ready for multi-entity, you know, larger end of the spectrum of the industry FYI and Cloud Connect and I'm going to be really interested to see what market share they look to take basically over the next 12 months.

Speaker 2: 43:08

That's my little thought process. What about you, Andrew?

Speaker 1: 43:14

I am uncertain on Jack's, one that you shared. I was almost going to suggest that I would. I didn't want to be negative in my prediction but, I, feel that we're going to.

Speaker 2: 43:26

I feel that there's going to be a bit more of a hmm, on that which is a bit of a rise-up challenge or a different type of a thing.

Speaker 1: 43:33

Just accounting community stuff.

Speaker 4: 43:35

Yeah, I did have a hope. It was more a hope. It was a hope. Yeah, it's more a hope.

Speaker 3: 43:41

It doesn't sound good. I would love that somebody could solve this potential challenge.

Speaker 1: 43:45

I guess this is what I'm saying is this is the challenge. I feel it's another 12 months of the community going hold on a second. We need to step up here, but let me be a bit more positive, then. Other than that, I am predicting that we will see a number of interesting people within the industry, people you don't know, people you might know, who are becoming way more intentional with the way they collaborate together and I will think I am predicting that we will see and we already talked about this in our business structure um kind of the future stuff.

Speaker 1: 44:19

I think we're going to see some more um m&a at the smaller end of the scale. I think we're going to see some more people step out to do some interesting stuff. So I'm looking at the next 12 months and saying I think we're going to get a bit more noise there and a bit more excitement there too.

Speaker 3: 44:31

Oh, I love it. Yeah, I like that, go on.

Speaker 2: 44:34

What a great way to round this ep up. It's been so good having you, jack and Amy and Andrew. You've been amazing as always, so thanks for having us yeah absolutely happy 30 june everybody.

Speaker 1: 44:47

Hopefully uh, hopefully the last financial year was exactly what you hoped and hopefully the next financial year can be something you dream for as well. Cheers, y'all. See ya wasn't that a fun adventure, my friends. Thank you so much, so incredibly much, for hanging out with us today. Ali, you've been amazing. Andrew, you've been all right. How good is it to be able to have adventures together it so is, and you know what.

Speaker 2: 45:20

Keep following us. We are all over the socials at accounting adventures. Check us out on the website. Give us a bit of a like. You know how much we love that stuff.

Speaker 1: 45:30

The best thing about the adventure is the people that we do it with, so thank you so much for listening, thank you so much for hanging out with us, and please bring all the ideas, keep them coming. We can't wait to share more cool adventures with you. We love you guys.