Name: Harnessing Tools for a More Efficient Practice
Uploaded: 2025-09-30T17:32:16.357Z
Duration: 1 h 12 s
Description: Harnessing Tools for a More Efficient Practice

Transcript for "Harnessing Tools for a More Efficient Practice": Hello, and thank you for joining me for this session called harnessing tools for a more efficient practice. My name is Ross Olsen. I'm glad you can join me here today. I've been in some other webinars, so it may have seen you before. You I guess you may have seen me before. I can't see, all of you, but, glad that you're here. I do know that we have a lot of first time individuals to some of our webinars. So, we'll go through here and talk about what we'll be discussing, some housekeeping pieces, but quick little, info about me and who I am behind the scenes. Basically, this is one of these sessions where I've tried to condense, some of the lessons, some of the pieces, the information, the insights I've learned from working with firms that are like that aren't yours necessarily, but are like yours, that are similar to you. And that's always something that, I mentioned is that, you know, I've never found two tax accounting advisory, you name it, firms that are exactly the same, and that works well for me because I like learning new things. This session today will be broken up into basically four sections. We're going to start with applications and that tech stack conversation and really, getting into what is the most important, how do you start kind of making changes or assessing where changes need to be made before moving into how do we determine now that we know a change is needed or we realize, something can be adjusted, how do we find the right application, or how do we go about that particular process? We talk about a little bit of the change management element of of when to implement, when to move forward, when to make these steps. And then what are those next steps? What what should we do? Or if you're considering if your firm has the need to make a change or a shift into tools, utilities, what should those next steps be? So that's what we'll talk about for about an hour during the session today. Like I said before, we jump directly into the content though, though, let's do some housekeeping, especially for those of you that are, not as familiar with the platform, or some of you that may be familiar, but maybe it's been a little bit since you've attended one of these sessions. I don't think that there's going to be anything here that's going to really cause many issues as far as jumping around and doing screen sharing. But my recommendation is still always, if you have any audio hiccups, if something doesn't seem like it's advancing, try to refresh your screen first. You can see kind of our best practices there and our recommendations. And always like to mention here too, at the end of our sessions, we'll have a survey that'll pop up. Please take the time to complete that survey so that we can use that feedback to get better, to make things better as we continue to present these types of sessions. There will be polling questions throughout the session today. I'll give you plenty of time to answer those. You'll see it appear on your screen. It'll also appear in a tab between chat and docs that will only pop up when the poll is live. So you can, again, answer it directly on the screen in front of you or go to that tab between chat and docs. If you're not seeing this polling question, if you're not able to answer it, refresh your browser. That goes back to the original advice that I gave you. Refresh your browser, and that should get things moving right along. And you'll wanna answer that polling question because it is the or a polling question because that is a requirement for the one CPE credit this session is eligible for. You can see the requirements listed on the screen for that credit. If you meet those requirements, you'll get an email within about two business days with that information. If you don't see it, we always recommend checking your junk or your spam. And if you still don't see it, send us an email at [email protected]. There's not much tax advice here, if any at all, but I this disclaimer is more of a a catchall. And the one thing I think to take away from this is that things can change very quickly in our industry, so make sure that you're, keeping up with all the happenings and changes and recommendations and best practices that are being put out there and put forth in the industry. So here's a little bit of a test question. It's really our first polling question, and it is, what's your primary reason for attending this webinar today? Again, no wrong answers, but take about one minute here to answer that question. As you're utilizing this platform, I mentioned earlier, you'll find this polling tab now popping up, between some other tabs that you have. One of those tabs, the chat, you can reach out to those individuals in the audience, your peers watching this session today. You can also use the q and a tab if you wanna ask questions of myself or my team here behind the scenes. And, the handouts tab will give you the presentation, deck, and any other handouts that are relevant for any session that you're in when you're in these webinars. But for this session, of course, you'll find the presentation deck if you'd like to follow along as we go through the content today. Take about fifteen or so more seconds to answer that question. I don't see that we have any well, even a few early questions, I think they've been answered. But, yeah, glad that you are all here with me today to talk about applications and just really talk about how to go through and make sense to really build that efficiency when you are considering or exploring those different applications available to you. And there are a few out there. There's a wide variety to pick from. Okay. Let's wrap this polling question up in three, two, and one. Okay. We're starting here with unstack the stack. Unstack the tech stack. You know, it's become kind of a I don't want to necessarily say buzzword, but you hear, but what's your tech stack? What's your tech stack need to be? How does your tech stack need to look like? And I think that what I found is it gets a little bit a little bit overwhelming for a lot of firms. On average, firms are using eight different applications, just for their core operations. So, there may be some additional applications even on top of that, but for their core applications, using a and for a lot of firms that this they frankly say this is it's too many, or feel like maybe there's a better way to go about this. And why why is that? Well, again, a lot of times we're seeing, some common complaints or some concerns, not necessarily complaints, but some concerns around what is the price, what's the additional cost for these. They're not necessarily talking to each other. That's causing issues with just us using these applications. It's becoming more time consuming than time saving. And then trying to get someone up and running when using all these applications becomes a major hurdle, for two reasons. One, there's always that headwind of just finding skilled individuals right now that are, able to do and and do this type of work, but then having them also more specialized in some of these applications and how they work is a is is one additional prerequisite for staffing or having training that's gonna get them up and running as quickly as possible. And that's really where it turns in. You see these concerns that firms have around applications, these common problems or, heart heart heartburn, whatever you wanna describe it as, it results in, quite frankly, negative feelings. Overwhelmed, is a is a phrase that I hear a lot in talking to firms. And it's not always that listen. It's not necessarily because it's like a rocket science or it's something terribly difficult to manage, but they're all different in such a way that you've got you have to learn multiple different ways to interact with, the software, with the tool, with the utility that you're using. So the complexity isn't necessarily the complexity isn't necessarily complicated, but it becomes more inaccessible just because of the variety of software applications that you're using on a day to day basis. It also means, as I mentioned, for firms hiring and trying to have individuals come on and assist as staff, even if it's seasonal staff, it just makes that process of hiring that much more difficult, which, as I mentioned, is twofold, having it be difficult just because hiring experienced professionals is not necessarily the easiest task right now in our industry. And then when you do have individuals having to train them now and put them through these, these trials to get up and running in your tech stack in the list of applications you're using is oftentimes lacking. And what that leads to then is firms have this increased resilience. Well, they do have an increased resiliency, but it's through a reliance on that shared information that they're having, that they're communicating maybe verbally. You end up finding that one person in the office that is that go to. And, people kind of turn away, and they don't wanna think what happens what happens if that person, wins the lottery, and they're not here, and they're not able to help you find that answer anymore. Is it that significant of a, you know, a bridge in your process that would basically cause things to collapse because no one else has that knowledge or that detailed knowledge needed for that application or that particular process. And that is something that on top of applications and utilities you're using just being complex and diverse to use and having to know all the different ways you're using them, having not complete understanding causes a lot of anxiety for everyone from the firm owner to everyone down the the chain of command when it comes to how to do the day in, day out workflows. Now that's all starting with kind of a negative spin on using applications, but what we're seeing is that firms are adopting more applications for a reason. And so sometimes it's, let's just grab all the the newest, the shiniest, the the sharpest things, the most interesting things because we feel it's gonna be there. But, again, it's in it's in effort to the right reasons that I've seen firms really excel and be able to grow or progress more quickly towards their goals, which is embracing automation and artificial intelligence that helps spur automation as well. Basically, being able to do some of those things that, maybe not necessarily low value in the sense of what it's providing for your firm and revenue, but maybe those tasks that are a bit more tedious, repetitive, that don't need as much detail or that can essentially be reviewed. And that's really the only human element that you would need or that the automation piece could cover that, those extra steps for you. And what we've seen, in particular, in areas of, payroll, accounts payable, receivable data entry, especially, are the need and really the acceleration of firms using automation to make those practices more, expedient efficient, for them as they move forward. It does beg the question, though, is adding more to your tech stack a solution, or is it just grabbing something that's the newest, shiny thing off the shelf and hoping that adding that to your list of growing applications will help gain efficiency? And, of course, we know. It's not as simple as that. It's not I'm not trying to trick you into saying yes or no to that question. But where I have pointed firms and where I've seen the most success is being able to look, if you can imagine a Venn diagram that has three traits on it that I've called the golden trio, just to help kind of create it. Because that middle gap, that overlap where all three of these qualities intersect is really where you're wanting to find the benefit to any application that you're using or evaluating applications that maybe aren't doing the best job of meeting all three of these qualities. The good news is that when firms actually go through the process of evaluating, software and tools and utilities and workflows, what they find is that, yes, automation does have a real tangible impact on accuracy, efficiency, and quality of client service. So it's not a, a pipe dream. It's not something that firms hope to get, but they're not seeing. This is something that is being seen. They're we're finding that. But the solutions that you're exploring or the solutions that you're adding, you're trying to find that overlap. And not the overlap necessarily in one solution working with another. I think arguably, that does work towards efficiency. But those solutions that find that efficiency but also continue or improve accuracy and also create an experience or provide something that is of higher quality to your clients as well. And so while the session title here, we're talking about efficiency, is really the name of the game when it comes to this session, I think I've stuck in a few here to say, also, accuracy and what you're delivering for your clients is just as important. And finding that application or that tech stack that maximizes that middle ground, that golden overlap area between accuracy, efficiency, and quality of client service is really what we're working towards. And so if we take our tech tech the the tech stack, your tech stack, which is, you know, unique to you potentially, we often can say, ah, we want to just take this out and change it and adjust it. And that is the one area that I have seen firms falter a little bit, stumble over there. I mean, it's in it's in effort to something that's beneficial to them, but they're not considering the entire system. What is that system? It can be as as simple as what's the task you're trying to do, but I would also argue that the best analysis is gonna be the end to end process. Now that may be everything that you do. It may be what an engagement looks like. We'll get into that a little bit more when we talk about how to pick the right tool or how to, you know, assessing the right tool for the job, basically. But what I often see is firms trying to address that one area without considering what the impact will be on other things. So sometimes those are actual externalities or just pieces that you're not considering. And, yeah, the best intentions, right, sometimes don't have the best results. What firms are doing as well, which I have start I've I've really kind of been adopting this as a mindset too is having to find that balance between personalized applications that work for your firm and maybe more inclusive platform suite, that type of, solution that incorporates multiple different elements of your workflow into one application or one platform. But now, again, there's not I don't think there's one tech stack. There's not one I wish I wish I could give you a prescription and say this is gonna work for everyone the same way. It just isn't the case. But what firms find is we can take this maybe a little bit precariously stacked list of applications, and we can say, we just need to adjust this one at the top. Hey. Maybe easy to do. Maybe there's not as many dependencies on the system. We take someone from the middle. Oh, now it's gonna be a little bit harder. Now I've seen people get real, you know, real tricky with their, gameplay. They can knock that piece out and have everything just kind of stack perfect into place, but it becomes a little bit more of a skilled process and one that has a lot of risks involved in it in moving, adjusting, or tweaking something that is, impacting significant parts of your workflow, of your tech stack. And then we get to the base, the foundation of how you work, how you get your work done, that becomes very dangerous to shift out and change without having some way to make sure that we're not, collapsing the entire stack. And what firms have done and done when you're considering this is saying, well, what will make this easier, what will make this a little bit more of a sturdier tower, to use my visual analogy here, is saying, let's take some of those applications and consolidate them into a platform. And we have this perception that this this is good. We've got now we've this in this case, in the visual I have, we have a good strong base, a solid foundation now to build off of, but we still need some specialized tools. And some firms say that's still too much. There's too many interconnected pieces, too much to learn. We wanna have really more of a more complete platform. This is probably what would be the the better scenario to be in, but you're still most firms still typically have a few applications that are really just specific to what they're providing. Maybe the clients they have, maybe the work that they're doing, maybe their own personal preference. But most firms, this is kind of their ideal state. We have a large number of our applications together, but there are a few maybe standalone pieces that integrate. We still wanna be able to talk to and have these these applications talk back and forth integrate. Some would consider maybe the best solution would be a complete platform. There's integration is built in. There is no external connections. There's no additional software you need to learn. It's all part of a platform inclusive. I don't know if that's necessarily possible. I think it's kind of the dream for some firms, but I also know that there's other firms say there's no way. We need some of those specialized utilities, some of those specialized applications. And so I don't wanna push this as a yeah. You gotta be here. You gotta have an all in one solution. I don't think that there are enough viable options out there to meet the varied firms that I've interacted with. And so having something that consolidates as many applications as possible while still being able to let you use some of those applications utilities that are necessary for your firm to run efficiently is where we really want to be at. But the idea here then in this entire approach to unstacking this tech stack is being able to realize we have to look at everything holistically, and we have to understand that if we're going to make changes throughout, we need to be able to appreciate how that's gonna impact the entire workflow beginning to end. So our next polling question that I have for you is one that goes back, ties into what I mentioned to say when we've talked to firms, we find that average number of applications are around eight. What about you? Are you less than that? That's about right. Maybe more? Or you just I don't know. Maybe you've never thought about how many applications you're using. That's fine too. But take about a minute to answer this question. And I'll take a look at some of the questions you've asked of me. Remember, if you'd like to ask questions to my team behind the scenes, you can do so via q and a. You can also chat to everyone else here, which I encourage you to do that. I'll talk more about that in just a moment too. It's a good opportunity to ask questions from people here to share your insights, and we'll move on here in about five seconds. Again, if you're not seeing the polling question, I recommend refreshing your browser. I know some folks have issues with polling questions. They even need to change their browser. We do recommend Chrome or Safari, but sometimes, you know, other browsers will work. And sometimes if you're a little bit behind on updates in an older version or you've got a lot of extensions or add ons in your browser, that can impact the experience here. So keep that in mind as well. If you're not seeing a polling question or slides are a little bit delayed, you're having audio issues, try something different. My goodness. Maybe that should be the idea behind all of our app with our conversation around tech stacks too is that, you know, if things aren't working well, try something different. Don't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. That's a little bonus insight. That's not part of the slides of the presentation. So let's move on here in three, two, and one. Alright. We need to find the right tools for the job. So it's easy to say, hey. When you need to make a change to your tech stack, consider everything. Right? Don't just change one thing. You'll topple the tower. It's not easy to just make one change. But, really, what does that mean? How do we go about then finding the right tools, the right applications for your firm, for your workflows? And so this is more conceptual. Let's talk through what we mean or how we can go about tackling that question of how to find the right tool. And then, hopefully, by the end of this, section, we'll have at least a a good playbook, some advice on how to go about, finding these tools and utilities. Because we know there's a lot of options out there. There's a lot of variety out there, that tax and accounting advisory firms can pick from. And so being able to, start this, we can call it an exploration. We can call it discovery. We can call it just understanding what's out there. What is what is available to you to use? It's not easy to get started. So let's go ahead and get started with this section that will help you hopefully break down that process. First and foremost, a lot of times when we talk applications, especially, I would say, when I I hear this kind of, you know, trade shows or conversations, we have a tendency to break applications down by what they do. What's the the core subject, right, they provide for? You can see here's eight different applications. Yeah. This may be these may be the eight core solutions that firms are solving for, and some firms do have eight separate apps that do all eight of these tasks from tax prep to that client collaboration, advisory, scheduling, practice management. All of those elements can, add up to be your complete tech stack. Some of you, some firms, and I'd say many do. Some of these are connected. They have more than one of these are shared in one single application, but these are the different categories we tend to speak about applications in. And while this is there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying don't do that. How dare we do that? I think it also helps to frame the conversation, especially when you're trying to find the application that will work best for you, the utility, the software that will work best for you, your tool. The right tool for the job is to think about it not necessarily from what's the core function or service it's providing unless and more of how is this going to work when it comes to the engagement? Whatever that engagement is, the tax, accounting, bookkeeping advisory, all inclusive of everything, how is that application actually filling or meeting that need? And the reason why this is you may say, well, it just seems like it's more of those same categories. The reason this is important is it helps split your mindset into two different paths. One for what are you doing as a sole proprietor, as a team, as a firm? What are you doing to provide this service at this step of the engagement? And then what are what and how are your clients interacting with you as well? I think when we think of it as an engagement instead of as a direct process, it helps bring your client to the forefront. Because remember, as we talked about that Venn diagram, that golden trio that I called out, client experience is one of the elements that should be considered. And I don't have to convince you why that's important, but this helps, I think, really frame finding the application in that perspective. Yes. It is something you're going to have to use, manage, understand day in and day out, but your clients are also going to have touch points with that. And this helps understand too that applications aren't, you know, static. They do have different touch points. Certain applications are involved in multiple levels, multiple steps in the engagement, and it helps to really clearly define where these roles are at. This will help as you start to really break down and understand how your firm flows is to think of it from this point of view instead of sticking it sticking it to just the what is the core function of the software performing? What is it trying to do? That's my advice when it comes to just beginning this process. Another element that gets brought up a lot, I get asked often about this is, you know, hey. Cloud, that's what we want to do. We wanna be in the cloud. The cloud's the best thing. It's gonna fix all of our problems. The cloud is is something that let's say that cloud. Cloud software is something that can be beneficial. It is something that I think is more widely beneficial. So it's and while I said earlier, and I stand by it, it's hard to give a a blanket recommendation just because every firm is different. Cloud software tends to be more agreeable or fits more broadly with a wider number of firms. And so for that reason, it tends to be easy for people like me to just recommend it. Why just use cloud software? Instead of focusing on a concept that, you know, we're wanting to be kind of a magic fix for all of our workflow, focus on outcomes. And when we think of the cloud, a lot of those pieces tie back to we wanna make sure that we're doing what we need to do as far as security and compliances around data, maintaining and securing that data for clients. We wanna have accessibility. I wanna be able to work from home or the airport or the office. I wanna have integrations. Cloud tends to enable that more often. It's easier maybe to hire staff, to work with staff. Again, staff can also have more accessible workflows to access information and do their job, not necessarily just from the office. And that sometimes also leads to more capabilities to hire, not just because maybe individuals prefer to have an environment that's more flexible to work in, but also it expands your geographic area to hire, which many firms are remote talent, remote staff to assist in a day to day. I have all those benefits, but I think cloud conversation is the same as any application conversation of understanding, is this right for me? And it comes down to what I've already said. Does it help? Does it lift these three areas to help promote across the board what your firm is doing? So the cloud as a delivery method, is often an enhancer. It supplements what an application can do, but it's not the sole cause impacting what is raising these three qualities. What is it what is impacting that golden trio? Again, I do often find that cloud solutions, more often than other solutions, hit that bull's eye. They find that golden, in the middle of that Venn diagram. But I'll say it, frankly, I wish it was. Cloud solutions are not the magic fix. They're not gonna fix a broken workflow just by default, but they do offer that flexibility. And not just flexibility in being able to help adjust those workflows that may not be working so well, but the cloud does offer more ability to pull those pieces out without having the, tower topple down. So it does give more, flexibility. If you if we continue on with that analogy of that tower, the cloud kind of acts as that platform itself. So it's not just a flat surface that your tech stack is on. Everything's kind of, you know, hanging out in the cloud. It's floating, and it makes it easier to take a block out, to take a piece of your tech stack out and adjust things without having the entire process collapse on you. Again, a very basic analogy, but I do I will say that I think that is why some firms feel like this is just gonna be the fix all solution. And for some firms, it is, but it's not going to be something that you can't address, like I've already mentioned, your entire workflow, the holistic process that your firm is doing, and it's not going to be a fix for a broken workflow just by itself. We wish we could just throw the cloud at everything and it'd be fixed. It'd make my job easier, but that's just not the case. In fact, let's just start we're gonna start the session over. I think I think I've got it. We what what's how do you harness tools? How do you make how do you choose these applications? We're gonna start with, I think, the very basics here. We're gonna go back to something that maybe not many tax and accounting professionals really I'd argue they do deal with on a daily basis, but they may not consider it. And we're going way back to fundamentals of psychology and fluid dynamics. These two individuals, Abraham Maslow and and Daniel Bernoulli, these two individuals, I think, are gonna get us to where we need to be in this conversation of looking at the choices we make and how to make decisions. Now you probably I think most people heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. You can see an example on your screen. And I think it does help to remind us to say that what we choose, our motivations are kind of based on those various levels. We wanna have security. We wanna feel connected to our team members, our clients, that recognition piece and that fulfillment. Not just fulfillment professionally, but also helping, clients achieve that fulfillment, their goals, which is why the industry's been so heavy and so forward thinking and advisory and helping, you know, individuals meet the or meet their goals because that's really what we're all working towards. We're moving up that hierarchy. Bernoulli, you know, he has the Bernoulli principle. I just I can't think of an example where this applies. I'm sorry. It's, He's here. I mean, when we fly in an airplane, it creates that lift. But the real reason why I showed you this, this these may be the principles of the theories that these two individuals are best known for. But where I want us to come back away from psychology and fluid dynamics is a little bit more, I would say, fundamental in choice, but really speaks to what firms are going through when they're trying to find the right tool for the job. So, again, Maslow's hierarchy, sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. It probably does have some impact on how we make choice. But I think this quote, and I think most people have heard this quote, is I don't wanna tell on any firm. I don't wanna say this is you, but this tends to be what a lot of firms approach things with. It's it's tempting if the only tool you have is a hammer to treat everything as if it were a nail. Every work from every problem, every hurdle approach the same way using the same tool and application utility that you're most comfortable with. It may not be that that's the only tool that you have. Again, eight's the average, so it's not the only tool you have. But sometimes we have those tools we're most comfortable with. Right? And this, this is also called the golden hammer, which is why we have that visually here. So that golden hammer, for some of some firms, you know, Excel spreadsheets. That's the golden hammer. Everything goes back to a spreadsheet. Outlook, email platforms, scheduling platforms, everything is done through email. Everything is managed at the day to day. It becomes kind of the all in one communication, practice management, scheduling. It's just one application for a lot, and it may not be necessary that's the original intention for that application. Maybe for me, you say, hey, Ross, your golden hammer is slides or PowerPoint. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. But it does become something that we have to be aware of when we're approaching finding the right applications is being able to identify that, oh, I guess we we're doing it that way, but it's probably not the best way to do it. I'm I'm only really doing it that way because that's what I understand best. And I have a feeling and this is oftentimes where this begins. I have a feeling that there's a better way to do this. That's where you may be having or running across that golden hammer problem of basically applying a similar fix to everything that you're working with. And Bernoulli, sorry, not the fluid dynamics principle that I know everyone was excited about, but this is this idea, again, more of an economic theory of that expected utility. And this is where it becomes a really personal choice for the firm, for the decision maker, for all the stakeholders at the firm, anyone that's engaging with these utilities, including your clients as well. And this idea, well, he put it this way. He said the the determination of value of an item must not be based on the price, but rather on the utility it yields. Utility being that keyword there. What's the benefit to you? There is no doubt that if you that a gain of, 1,000 ducats, gold coins, thousand dollars, whatever you wanna use there, is more significant to the popper than to a rich man, though both gain the same amount. Right? It's saying that a an application in this case, he says it's a good, but I will take his his analysis and put it in my own words. An application may be extremely beneficial for one firm because of what it provides them, but not another. And so when deciding what is the right tool for the job, you have to be able to determine which or how is this impacting my utility, the benefit to me. What am I getting out of it? And it's not always about money. It's not always about time. It's not always about preference. It's not always about opportunity cost of other things you could be doing. It's everything, all of those together. So it's a dynamic question of understanding how is this going to impact. Now you don't have to put on your thinking cap and grab your, you know, pencil and do all these there's no calculations to be done. But what I'm what I'm hoping to stress here is the fact that you need to approach applications, not necessarily from an idea of this works for everyone. I know it's gonna work for me, but from a place of, I wanna know better how this application will work for me, how this is gonna benefit me before we move ahead, or this application that I'm currently using is not providing me the benefit, the utility that I hoped, that I perceived, or that it once did because things do change over time. So then how do you explore the right solutions? Here's my checklist. Here's how I recommend when you're when firms are wanting to I you know, we wanna add this new piece. We wanna look into this, that, or the other. First, understand if you're solving for a core process or if you're solving for a workflow or a step. Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with either of those, but you should be able to identify and not confuse one for the other. Is it something we're wanting to adjust the entire workflow, or do we just need to swap out a key component of a process that we're doing? Regardless of which it is, I still encourage the entire list view. Make sure you understand what all is it what all will be impacted. So even if you are looking at your the type of software, the core function, we still need to know how that impacts the workflow, how it impacts internally, external client facing as well. And in that same regard, identify too if it's something you just made work. Workarounds become permanent process. Workarounds can be those golden hammers. Is it something that, yeah, it works, but we know we can get more out of it today, be able to identify those? That often can be done as well by just aligning with those that are impacted. This is yourself, maybe, if you're sole proprietor, just you, your team, and sometimes even your clients. Again, understanding their preference was key to understanding how you can best provide value to them. And then consult with your peers. This I just said, this is a great opportunity. You've got the option to ask questions, to talk, to get advice, to get directions on where to go. Individuals in your community, in your professional groups, trade shows, anywhere can at worst be a signpost to point you in the next direction as you're exploring solutions and understanding how it benefits them. And then you can decide, will it benefit or provide the same utility to my firm as well as talking to vendors. Hey. I like, people like me. And I would say, not every company, not every salesperson vendor is gonna be the same, but work with someone that's going to listen and understand your firm and not just blanket provider. I love it. Again, I said it'd make my job easier if I could just say, I know this will work for the every firm a 100% of the time. Work with individuals that listen to you, that understand your specific needs and your workflow, and they can tie the value directly to what your firm is doing instead of just providing a generic or a blanket recommendation on how to proceed. And then when it all comes to the end, as you're making that final decision and you're really narrowing it down, making sure that you're assessing that utility beginning to end, how's it benefiting you, and always aiming for that center point, that golden intersection of that golden trio of, efficiency, of accuracy, and of that client experience so that you're lifting everything up. You're not sacrificing one for the other necessarily, and you're finding something. Generally, what I found is that if that's the case, you're getting utility. You're getting a benefit from that application, and that's always what you should be looking for. My next polling question for you is, what's your golden hammer? Most of us have one. What is that thing that you go back to the utility, the application, the thing that you're using? Maybe too much. Maybe it's not a bad thing, but what do you feel like is your golden hammer? If you maybe it's something else, let us know in chat. What's that one thing you maybe use a little bit too much? Again, too much makes it sound like it's a bad thing. What's what is your go to? What is your you have a problem. I'm always gonna go here first. I'm gonna try to apply it here. Let us know and take about thirty more seconds to answer that question. And we're gonna turn next into the conversation of, applying these utilities. So, again, high level conceptually where I I wish I could go real deep into specifics for each and every one of you. That's why, again, recommend talking to individuals that can help assess your specific firm. But a high level approach to say, what is the best way forward when it comes to when's the best time to add an application, to adjust, to make changes. Go ahead and take about five more seconds to answer this polling question, and we're gonna wrap things up and move right along. Okay. Here we go. Rain or shine. Rain or shine. So the question then is, when is the best time to implement a change? Now do it right now. Don't think about it. Just do it now. Of course not. Of course not. Again, it'd make my job easier if it was just, yes, move as quickly as humanly possible, make the change right now without thinking about it. But that's not fair to you. It's not the best approach that you wanna take either because we don't. It's not a human thing to do. We like to make sure that we understand that we're doing this. And even if you hadn't put it into a concept of utility and benefit directly in that way in the past, we still act that way, which is why I went back to the basics. Yes. I know of, the hierarchy, but even just the basic concept of utility and the fact that we approach problems in a very familiar way to us. When is the best time to implement a change? I think that I always go back I always go back to this. We had, an individual here at Intuit too, our our old CEO, Brad Smith. He'd always kind of make this this claim. Of course, he borrowed it himself from JFK. But, you know, the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. Right? If when things are going well, but we realize something is not working well, that is the time to make the change. That is where we want to be at. We wanna be able to weather the storm, realize something needs to be fixed, repaired, adjusted, and whatever, and make that change once we have the ability, the bandwidth, the means to do so, not when it's pouring outside. If I could add one additional piece to this little, nugget of wisdom, though, it would be this. It's that the second best time to repair the roof is when it's starting to get a little bit cloudy and someone says, oh, is it supposed to rain? That does happen. You've identified it, and I think this is where a lot of firms fall into the trap of, yeah, it it is you know, it's the best time to repair things, to get things right when we're just not so busy. And now we're gonna be busy, and so and we can't we can't fix it now because it's gonna rain. But, again, it's not raining yet. Now is the time. Now is the opportunity to fix that. The sun may not be shining. It may not be that ideal perfect weather out there, but it's still a time to act before thing before you get wet. Right? To keep the analogy moving before you get wet. So that's what I really stress to firms. It's not saying you need to move for the sake of moving, but you know that there's something not working as well, that you don't have the full efficiencies, that you're not taking advantage of. Even something on the table. Any of these working for you? Any of these analogies? All of these things are deeply felt by firms, but there's also that paralysis that can happen. With that being said, I understand that we live in a very seasonal world. Our industry is more seasonal than most. And so being able to work around deadlines and tax seasons, it is something to be considered. And it is something that I also mentioned to firms that if you we keep delaying this, we're always gonna be on a new deadline. We're always gonna be in season. We keep pushing things off and moving things forward. It's always gonna come up with rain. We're always going to have that moment that says, well, now I can't move forward because x y z. So building a plan, we're going to change. We have these dates in mind. We have these milestones to achieve that takes into account when you'll be least impacted. I don't think there will ever be a situation, where there just will be no impact if you're making a change to your applications, your utility. There's going to be some impact. But when when is it going to be the least? When is it going to be the best time to move forward and have that be a strategy throughout? Understand the lift. Hey. This is Bernoulli. I knew he I knew I'd find a way to type Bernoulli into this. But what is the lift? What's that impact going to have on your workflow? And I think this is something where you may not know the answer right off the bat, but this is something you should be able to understand and articulate before you make those adjustments, before you make those changes in your process and your tech stack as you're moving forward. And remember, that's not just yourself and your staff and your team, but also your clients. How will that impact them? It may not be tax season, but we client calls and needs something urgently that you weren't expecting. The unexpected does happen. So when you're making these adjustments and shifts, what is the new temporary process, the contingency, the workaround for right now, whatever you wanna call it, while we're getting this process implemented, and how do you need to allocate, reallocate resources to make sure that you're not putting yourself in a more vulnerable state than you need to be when you're making these changes. The final element that I always, encourage firms to be aware of is what's the cost of implementation. I can't sit here and tell you, go look at your higher utility and, you know, consider opportunity cost and all these different pieces by not telling you also to understand there are implicit and explicit hard and soft costs when it comes to change, to doing things. Yes. Different utility software packages, bundles, whatever, they can cost money that does have a price, does have an explicit cost. But also all of these things and understanding what needs to be done, how you're gonna adjust, all of those have a cost as well. And so understand what that cost is. Most of the time, that's directly related to time, but there can be other costs associated as well, when it comes to implementing this. On that same point, though, not to be completely on the side of adult change, there's gonna be a cost involved. If you've identified the need, the inefficiency, there is a cost to not moving. And it's the cost of doing things you've always done them or whatever the risks were, whatever the inefficiencies were you've identified, those costs do add up as well. And so as you're making decision around, is this gonna provide me the best utility? When we think implementation and moving ahead and adding it in, we definitely have to consider that cost, but it always, always should be weighed against. Does the total utility, the total cost of this change of this process exceed the cost of continuing the way we are? And what I have found in almost all there's always that one exception to the rule. But in almost all cases, if you're feeling strong enough to be looking and exploring for something you've identified, There's some element of your workflow that's not quite working well. There's some application not quite doing what you want it to do. In most of those cases, that is enough to tell me that it's too expensive. The cost is too high to continue that way. You may incur it. There may be a fear or you may not completely understand what the cost is of continuing on the way it is. But in almost all cases, if you can feel that inefficiency, the cost is there to support the need to move to something different, to make a change, to adopt a different process, whatever that may be. So then what are the next steps that I recommend as we move in? I've given you some of those. I've shared this the process. But we can say, first and foremost, understand your workflow and the tools being utilized throughout. It's very, very tricky to make a good informed decision if you don't really understand everything that's being used, where those interactions exist today, all of those contingencies and, sometimes redundancies that are put into place to make sure that you understand that. Otherwise, you're not gonna have the foundation you need to make an informed decision, choice, and understand the utility it'll bring to your firm. Map and evaluate your workflow for value problems. This sometimes you bottlenecks, things aren't working quite right, we're inefficient, things aren't accurate, that client experience is not where it needs to be. Right? That's the exact opposite of that, that bull's eye, that golden, overlapping part of our Venn diagram where you really wanna aim for, you wanna target. And find the right tools through evaluating the value it's going to bring to your firm. On its face, that sounds very simple and straightforward like, yeah. Cool. That's that's pretty basic. But in wrapped up in that evaluate value, that goes back to previously when I said, you know, understand what you're solving for, make sure you align with those that are impacted, consult with your peers, with vendors, then you can assess that utility and making sure that you're, again, with the second one, hitting that golden mark in the middle of accuracy, efficiency, and that client experience. And then also make sure you don't leave out implementation in your consideration, but also in your process because it will both surprise you in a bad way. If you've not considered that, you really haven't, given the full consideration to value. And then secondly, it can also cause you to abandon ship, decide to stay where you're at when really the process of changing or adapting something new is going to be less costly over time. But if you consider that from the beginning, it's not a surprise. You're not as likely to say, yeah. Never mind the heck. I did not even gonna do the math. I'm out of here. So make sure that you are planning for that implementation and that you are using that in the entire process and not forgetting that it is something you can't just say, I picked that, and it's automatically applied. You're doing your due diligence in that regard as well. Wonderful. Let's take a look here. I think that's about all that I have for our, basic process again, our high level pieces of looking at your tech stack, determining what applications are right for you, what to do as you move ahead, and how you consider the implementation of those different, processes and and steps. Again, I would say that for most of us, start with step one. Understand your tech stack, map your flows out. That's where you really want to begin next, and then work through the next stages as needed. With that being said, I mentioned, you know, hey. You talk to vendors. Talk to the people that, are essentially offering these different solutions, these different products to you. And so this polling question is in that regard because I listen. I have plenty of people reach out to me all the time, but this is also a way for us to help, get you in contact with myself, my team. If you're at that stage in the process where you'd like to learn a little bit more about something that Intuit has to offer or just walk through and have a a truly a consultant work with you to understand where are these different inefficiencies happen happening, what could what solutions does Intuit offer, you can answer yes at this polling question. If not, no problem. We won't hold it against you. And in fact, other sessions we have other sessions that may help move us down that process so you can get to the stage where you're ready to really explore things more in-depth. Because, again, I do think you have to understand your software, your solutions, your tech stack, and your workflow before we can have really productive conversations. And with that, we're wrapped up. A few more resources for you. Again, ways to actually connect with peers outside of the session we're in today. We have our community available to you where you can go and post and ask questions. Also our knowledge base where you can learn more about the solutions that we do have, the how tos, the troubleshooting, and other sessions like this one if you'd like to do more education pieces. And I also highly recommend our tax pro center. That's where we'll have your peers, other tax and accounting advisory professionals. They're sharing their thoughts, their thought leadership with how they're running their business, which all should be considered when it comes to evaluating how you are addressing, improving, and evaluating. Maybe not in that order, your workflows and your tech stacks. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Hope it was beneficial again from a high level. We didn't get into too many specifics, but I think if you skip through some of the basics, even if it's something you feel now to have a more concrete backing of what to expect or what to do as you move ahead. My hope is that it helps you in making those decisions and truly accurately evaluating where you stand when it comes to the workflows and software that your firm is using. So thank you. Again, appreciate your time here today. And until, it may be sooner than we than we know. But until next time, bye for now.